Not everyone has the luxury of arriving home to a freshly cooked, healthy meal after a hard day’s work in the office and the gym but there are some tactics you can employ with which to boost the healthy nutrients in your diet to avoid the temptation of yet another pizza delivery.
If you don’t think about what you are going to eat well in advance of actually preparing it, the odds of you actually opting for something healthy plummet drastically. A microwave dinner or a takeaway are considerably easier options than a fillet of salmon with steamed veg and brown rice but with a little foresight, it’s easier than you might think to boost your nutrition — and all it takes is a little preparation.
Here’s how to get going:
Map out a week’s worth of meals
Pick a day (Sunday is best for most on a regular schedule) and map out the week ahead. How many evenings do you expect to eat at home? Plan accordingly and figure out if you will require lunches mapped out in advance too.
Figure out when you have time
As previously mentioned, Sunday is a good day for most to not just figure out the week ahead but to take the necessary steps to prepare meals in advance. You can roast a tray of chicken breast, or beef or lamb (medium rare works best for the latter two as it will be more appetising once you reheat in the microwave), as well as a tray of roast veg. If you are planning for five days, place one chicken breast and some roasted veg in a sealable food bag and put it in the fridge, and the rest in individual bags in the freezer. When you eat one, take another from the freezer and place in the fridge. Rinse and repeat.
Be aware of which foods work best after reheating
Drier foods can lose some of their lustre in the fridge, but sauce-heavy options like curries, chilli, soups and stews actually taste better over time and should be saved for later in the week if possible.
Don’t poison yourself!
One bout of food poisoning could be enough to put anyone off a meal prep strategy, so make sure to place any cooked food into the fridge within two hours of its cooking and eat within two days. Also, remember never to reheat frozen food more than once.
Blanch your veg
The more you prep your meals, the more you will become aware of what it is that works for you. One simple trick used by many is to blanch your vegetables. How do you do this? When you’re cooking your vegetables, take them from the oven when they’re approximately halfway done and put it straight into ice-cold water. This technique ‘refreshes’ the veg, trapping all of the nutrients in them. Reheat them when necessary by putting in the microwave or in some hot water.
