With only 30 min of no-cook ingredient prep every weekend, you will be able to save time and stress during the workweek. You will be able to whip up simple meals for the family in 15 minutes using fresh and wholesome ingredients. Today, I’m showing you how to prepare and store 20 ingredients and several simple meal ideas for the family. You can choose a subset of 5-10 ingredients of those 20 for your weekly ingredient prep.
As working parents, one of the most time-consuming daily activities is to prepare homemade meals for the family daily. The task of deciding what to cook adds a lot to a parent’s mental load. Some parents tackle this problem by meal prepping during the weekend for a couple of hours. While meal prep is an amazing cooking strategy, sometimes it is hard to find 2 hours of time on the weekend. That’s why ingredient prep can be a lifesaver. With ingredient prep, you will be able to prepare a delicious, healthy, and freshly cooked meal each day in 15 min by spending 30 min once a week in simple food-prepping activities. Those include things such as washing, cutting, and assembling ingredients.
Today, I am showing you how to meal prep ingredients and store them in your favorite meal prep containers for later use throughout the week. If you want to know more, continue reading.
1) What is ingredient prep and how is it different from meal prep?
Meal prep and Ingredient Prep are two food prep techniques loved by busy people. They allow them to save time preparing full meals during the week. Meal prep is a well-known practice where you cook and assemble complete meals in advance to consume each day of the workweek. It is so popular that the web is full of meal prep plans and meal prep ideas. My favourite meal prep YouTube channel is Downshiftology which provides a lot of inspiration for healthy meal prep recipes. In essence, there are two types of meal prep.
One type of meal prep is batch cooking. This requires cooking one or two entire meals in large batches and portioning them out for each day of the week. Another type of meal prep requires prepping individual ingredients to then assemble several different meals during the week. This second meal prep technique is a great way to add more variety to your diet. Both these types of meal prep require cooking ingredients and a few hours of preparation. On the other hand, ingredients prep focuses on preparing individual raw components of the meal ahead of time. The cooking happens only at the time of the meal. Ingredient prep involves washing, cutting, assembling, and properly storing ingredients ahead of time. It requires about 30 min of prep time once a week.
2) Why should you prep ingredients ahead of time?
Preparing ingredients ahead of time offers numerous benefits. Firstly, it saves you precious time during busy weekdays. Instead of spending time chopping vegetables or peeling garlic, you can simply grab prepped ingredients and get cooking right away. Additionally, ingredient prep allows you to make healthier choices. When you have prepped ingredients readily available, you’re more likely to opt for a nutritious home-cooked meal rather than resorting to unhealthy options. Lastly, it can significantly reduce the mental stress associated with meal planning. You will know to have a variety of healthy ingredients readily available in the fridge at any time.
3) Which ingredients can you prepare ahead of time?
The beauty of ingredient prep lies in its versatility. Many ingredients can be prepped ahead of time. With a few precautions, you can keep ingredients fresh and ready to use throughout the week. The main ingredients to prepare are vegetables and fruits. Another great option is to assemble dry ingredients for pancakes, waffles, or cakes so that you only need to combine them with wet ingredients in the morning. Another option is to create a smoothie pack. Here you pre-assemble the ingredients of a smoothie and put them in jars or bags, the possibilities are endless. You can find a free downloadable PDF Ingredient Prep Guide, where you can find ideas for your Ingredient Prep and five easy weekday meals from scratch.
4) How long do the prepped ingredients last?
To master the ingredient prep technique, there are three principles to follow:
1) Know the best storage technique to preserve each ingredient for the longest time possible. For example, the best way to store your carrots and celery sticks is in jars filled with water, and to store your parsley and cilantro is in a jar partially filled with water and tented with plastic bags. Leafy greens will last over a week in vacuum containers, and your peeled garlic can last several days in airtight containers. The downloadable PDF Ingredient Prep Guide shows you how to store your produce such that will last at least as much as possible in the fridge
2) Use airtight containers to store ingredients or vacuum containers to maximize the fridge life of the most delicate ingredients such as leafy greens.
3) Eat early in the week the ingredients that get spoiled faster like fresh fish and berries and leave the ingredients that last longer for later in the week
4) Use fast cooking techniques for a quick 15-minute meal. An easy tip to prepare quick and healthy meals is to avoid boiling and roasting and rely on stir-frying or steaming. Roasting requires cooking times over 20 min, so it is better suited for weekend meals and boiling. As far as boiling, it not only takes time but also a lot of nutrients get lost in the water, so steaming can be preferable over boiling because it is faster and retains most of the nutrients. A preferred method is to stir fry on a hot skillet or pan as it is quick, relatively low-fat as it uses moderate olive oil, and is nutrient-dense as it allows the ingredients to retain most of their nutrients.
5) Five Steps to Ingredient Prep
To implement the perfect ingredient prep, the first step is to prepare a grocery list and go to the grocery store. One easy way to prepare a shopping list is to create a master grocery list with the key items you will buy every week at every time of the year, such as white rice, whole grains, chicken breast, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, tomato sauce, salad greens, baby spinach. Items can be added to the master grocery list depending on the availability of seasonal produce or how creative you want to be that week cooking meals. Still, the idea is to not spend too much energy every week thinking about what to buy.
Once you have bought your groceries, the second step is to start washing and cutting the produce. Some people prefer to combine groceries and prepping in one single prep day, while others prefer to do the actual prepping the next day, both work and it is just a matter of preference. The equipment needed for ingredient prep includes 1 clean cutting board (or two), a bowl for food waste, 2-3 clean knives, a produce brush for cleaning, and many glass or plastic containers of your choice. Some favorite containers include airtight glass containers, vacuum containers, and mason jars.
Now that the produce is ready, the third step is to choose the correct storing technique for each ingredient. The downloadable PDF Ingredient Prep Guide includes a cheat sheet to best store 20 ingredients. If you want to know about the best storage for other ingredients, the book “Fridge Love” by Kristen Hong does amazing work of listing all the different ingredients and estimating the life of each one based on how it was prepped and stored. The fourth step for ingredient prep occurs 2-3 days after you have prepped your ingredients and may require changing the water of the carrots and celery sticks, accounting for any leftovers, and making sure there are enough ingredients for the rest of the week, if not you can do a light prep.
Steps to Ingredient Prep
- Day 1 – Prepare a grocery list and go to the grocery store
- Day 2 – Prepare your equipment and wash and cut your ingredients
- Day 3 – Store ingredients according to the best storage technique
- Day 4 – Half-week check to refresh your ingredients or add a bit more prepping
- Weekday meal – Use your prepped ingredients for cooking meals
5) Simple Meal Ideas for the family
There are many different ways to utilize your prepped ingredients to whip up a variety of meals. Some of the most popular meals include salads, grain bowls, and stir-fries. You will find that with prepped ingredients ready, making a meal won’t take much time. If you want some inspiration, you can access some Italian-inspired meals for the entire week in this downloadable PDF Ingredient Prep Guide. Each meal will take 15 min or less to whip up and include pasta dishes, fish- and meat-based meals, as well as vegetarian meals.
I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post. Ingredient prep is a simple and versatile technique to improve efficiency when preparing meals and give you peace of mind that your fridge has all that is needed and healthy food is readily available at any time. If you have downloaded the guide, or have tried ingredient prep and you have found it useful, please let me know. If you have found way to improve ingredient prep, please share it with the community and tag #ParentingandWorking. Happy Prepping!
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