5 steps to easy meal prep!
Meal prep looks different to everyone. It does not need to be multiple containers of meals already cooked. Meal prep can be just having the food you want to eat for the week in the fridge so you don’t opt for takeaway. It can be just one meal that you make on a Sunday night for dinner in bulk so you have leftovers for the next couple of lunches.
Here are the top 6 things you need to have before you begin meal prepping!
The Right Mindset
Often we hear people say, ‘I don’t have time on the weekends’ or ‘I don’t know what to cook’. Let us give it to you straight. Most people have less time and less capacity to figure out what to cook mid week so spending that 1-2 hours on a weekend, will save you 5 hours plus a load of brain space during the week. You have to eat, so you might as well cook in bulk right? If Sundays are way too busy for you but you have capacity on Mondays, do it then. It’s about finding a way to make it work for you!
Meal planning and prep is a great way to save money too! Let that be your motivation!
Keep it functional for you and your family and what you enjoy eating. If you don’t have stacks of time throughout the week, start by prepping just one meal then build from there once you are in the swing of things.
2. Inspiration - use your fave recipes, the Pineapple recipe book, Pineapple Fitness Challenge meal plans, the recipes we post in the Ohana group this month plus the endless ideas on the internet.
When we surveyed our members, 80% said they need inspiration on what to cook over knowing how to eat healthy. Majority also said that the reason they don’t prep/plan is that they don’t know what to cook!
With that being the case, we’ll be sharing plenty of recipes (dinner was your most requested meal) in the Pineapple Ohana group this month! Once you find recipes you love, have a system for saving them so you can always easily go back to them. The notes section of your phone is great for this or create an album on your phone of pics you have saved.
The slow cooker is a game changer and the best time saver piece of equipment in the kitchen. But why do we only use them in the cooler months? Dig that bad boy out! Nothing beats some slow cooked protein with some crunchy greens in the warmer months or a slow cooked curry/stew in the winter. They can even cook while you sleep. What’s not to love?
One idea is to theme your nights! Some ideas:
Meatless Mondays - Pop a veggie curry or soup in the slow cooker on the Sunday before or before work on a Monday morning. Curries and soups are so easy in the slow cooker! We will be posting some recipes in the Ohana group this month!
Taco Tuesday - place a protein in the slow cooker for the day and then serve with wholegrain tortilla wraps or lettuce leaves + toppings. Use the left over protein in a salad for lunches the next day! If you cook enough, you may even get 2 days out of it!
Pizza night Fridays - we love making our own bases as it’s wayyy cheaper, wayyyy more delicious and you know what goes into them! Google a pizza dough recipe, get the kids involved with the kneading and then while is rises, chop up the toppings! Fun for the whole fam!
3. A Meal Plan - make a plan! Write it down in our Pineapple meal planner.
Now that you have a bit of inspo, write it into a planner! When planning your meals and creating your shopping list, first up, check your fridge and freezer and pantry to see what you can use up before buying more food.
Write in the theme nights and what the meal will be. If you’re going to get a meal delivery service to do some of the heavy lifting (see more on this in the next step), write where you’re going to have them and then work backwards from there.
Our biggest tip is to eat what you cooked for dinner for lunch the next day. Cook once, eat twice is the golden rule of meal prep.
When Shell is meal planning, she must have meal options for the whole family (no cooking different meals for everyone)! She often gets Bonnie (her 9YO daughter) to help choose the meals for the week, as this helps with compliance when eating! It has to be simple and easy. She has an idea on what 3 of the week night meals will be, buys the ingredients and then cooks as the week goes by. If any meals require more than 4 steps, she will either find a new recipe OR do a bit of the prep on the weekend or when she has time - could be cutting up the extra veggies, making the spice blend, whatever it is to make the week night cooking streamlined.
She has a rule with her family, they cannot truly say they dislike something until they have tried it 17 times! It works better than you think…! And remember it is a marathon not a sprint with kids, it is more about what she won’t let them have often (they eat all the things some of the time) rather than trying to get everything in to them in one meal. Golden Rule: Never make mealtimes a battlefield.
Shell wants to help her family have a great relationship with food and variety and that takes time, if the kids won’t eat at dinnertime, this is ok, but that is all they get. She knows kids will not starve (even if they go on strike for a few meals), just keep offering them them (simple) healthy options!
A NOTE ON KIDS LUNCHBOXES - keep it SIMPLE! Bonnie & Dot both have lots of fruit and veggie sticks cut up (simple to do); one thing they look forward to eating - a choc chip bickie or some little gems (or sometimes something more hideous) and something with protein for lunch - a sourdough ham & cheese sandwich, left of chicken patties… S U P E R S I M P L E .
4. Food - online delivery, fruit/veg box delivery, meal delivery service
Alrighty, we have a plan! Time to make a list of what you need and shop! There are plenty of ways to execute this step!
Brit prefers to get a vegie/fruit delivery service along with a couple of pre-made meals from a meal delivery service (She is currently using ChefGood) She also gets a Coles/Woolies order for any pantry items. Basically she hates going to the shops, can you tell ;) In all seriousness, online shopping means you will only buy what you need AND can conveniently check your fridge, freezer and pantry inventory while placing your order from the comfort of your own home.
Iz, Sloane and El prefer to do the Sunday morning markets at Broadmeadow Show ground!
Shell does a mixture of both!
Find what works for you; and your tribe if you have one, there is a simple solution out there!
5. Time - food doesn't prep itself, set time aside
Ah time, one thing we’d all love more of right! As we said earlier, meal prepping is a time saving activity.
Our top tips for time saving:
Have multiple things going at once to cut back on time e.g. rice in rice cooker, veggies in air fryer/oven, curry on stove top. “Having an air fryer has changed my life for quick meals! You can pre chop your veggies after you buy them and store them in the fridge then just chuck them in the air fryer for 10mins and it does the same job as the oven but in WAY LESS time!”
Always have frozen fruit in the freezer such as bananas and berries to make a quick smoothie for lunch or breakfast. Prepare overnight oats the night before so you can get up and take them to work to have for breakfast. Make a batch of baked oatmeal then cut into portions and put some in the fridge and some in the freezer.
If you get your meat from the butcher, get them to dice it or cut it into strips, whatever you need! They are more than happy to do it, and it is one less step to do when you get home. Then you can chuck it straight into the slow cooker or pan!
Just make one part of your meal. Whether it be the protein or the vegies, just get one part done! That will make it a no brainer to do other part of your dinner when you get home from work/training. Having to cook the whole meal = lot less appealing = Uber eats. Just slow cook the meat, or just roast the vegies, or just cut up the greens, or just roast the chicken! Take one small step!
It is not cheating to get a meal delivery service. You’re doing what makes your life easier to hit your goals for this part of your life. Even if it is for your lunches and then you have a home cooked meal for dinner with the fam.
Shell makes Dot a lunchbox even when they are staying home all day as this makes it super simple and less tempting to eat all the things when trying to prepare snacks all day! Also saves about 463894730 hours and dishes from being snack b*tch all day!
We hope these tips help! Let us know over in the Ohana Page if they do!