Meal Prep in 5 steps

Dear CleanFoodies,

Meal Prep! We love it! Recently we wrote an article about Meal Prepping, which you can read here. We were asked how you can best start with Meal Prepping. So, we have made a step-by-step plan for you.

Step 1: Collect recipes and ideas

First, it is useful to collect recipes and ideas for yourself. If you already have many (healthy) recipe ideas, you can skip this step.

When you find recipes that you like, it is useful to save them and divide them into the following four categories: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. You can store these folders digitally and analog, such as on your phone or in a folder in the kitchen. The moment you search for recipes for dinner, you can take out the matching folder.

You can take the time to look for tasty and healthy recipes, but you don't have to. You can also save a recipe quickly and in between if you happen to come across one.

What you can pay attention to is that a recipe is tasty, but also fits within a healthy lifestyle. For example, you can pay attention to the following with a recipe:

Is there a carbohydrate source or carbohydrate substitute in the meal? Think for example of whole grain rice or our Raw Rice.

What is the protein source of this recipe, is it sufficient or does something need to be added? Think for example of chicken or egg with some unsalted nuts.

Is there a fiber source in the meal? Fiber is very important for your gut health. You can eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains to get more fiber. With wholegrain products, you can think of wholegrain wraps, whole grain pasta, brown rice, etc.

In the products of CleanFoods we have added the fiber Glucomannan. Glucomannan comes from the Konjac root. An additional advantage of eating fiber is that you feel full longer. This will make you less likely to snack.

Are healthy fats used in this recipe? You can get fats by, for example, spreading butter/margarine on bread, baking in oil, or eating a small handful of nuts.

Step 2: Make the planning

For step 2, you can find recipes that you like this week. This applies to breakfast, lunch and dinner. You can also choose how many days you want to meal prep for. For example, you can choose to have everything ready during the 5 working days, so that you can take the time to cook on your days off or eat out unexpectedly.

Consider in advance if there are days when you want to eat less healthy. So you can resolve to eat less healthy for 1 day and eat healthier for 4 days. Then you can connect your recipes to this.

What you can take into account is that you can easily eat leftover dinner for lunch the next day. On the other hand, it is more difficult to eat lunch for dinner.

We will now draw up a weekly menu (for 6 days) step by step. For this, you need pen and 2 papers (may also be front and back).

Take your agenda and see for next week which days you eat at home or on the road and which days you are busy or not. Which days do you want to spend more time cooking than others? Also, consider which day you will prepare/cook the meal prep week.

You need a total of 5 recipes, 2 for breakfast, and 3 for lunch/dinner. The breakfast recipes are for 3 servings and the lunch/dinner recipes are for 4 servings. This gives you 6 servings of breakfast and 12 servings of lunch/dinner. See which 5 recipes you want to eat next week.

Write on sheet 1 Monday to Sunday and consider when you want to eat the recipes. You can take this into account that raw vegetables/salads will not last as long compared to a rice meal (which you can freeze). You can also take step 1 into account, which day are you at home or on the road?

You have a list of which recipes you will cook. Check-in your pantry, fridge, and freezer which ingredients you still have at home. Whatever you need, write on sheet 2, the shopping list.

You have now made a shopping list, so you are less tempted in the store to buy other things. Do not go to the supermarket hungry and try to stick to the list.

Step 3: Snacks

Consider how many (healthy) snacks you want to eat per day and how many you need in total. If you know how many and which snacks you need, you can also put them on the shopping list (sheet 2).

What are healthy snacks? You should already know that luckily you don't just have to live on lettuce and raw vegetables, but what else can I eat? There is so much!

Unfortunately, the companies know that you are looking for healthier options and they take advantage of this, they sell products as "responsible snacks" while these products are often full of calories, salt, sugar, and saturated fat. The advantage of these products is that they are ready-to-use and are therefore quickly "prepared" for on the go. But did you know that healthy food can be prepared very fast?!

We have listed several healthy snacks for you, here you can get inspiration for yourself. When you no longer know what snacks you can eat, you can grab this list. You can also find a lot of inspiration on the internet!

• Fruit; fresh fruit, fruit salad (without additives), frozen fruit (you can also make ice cream from this, for example by mashing banana with 2 tbsp water), dried fruit.
• Vegetables; portion (snack) vegetables (cucumber, cherry tomatoes, bell pepper, carrot, radishes, celery with possibly Almost SkinnyDip), tomatoes with cottage cheese, skewer with cherry tomato and a small ball of mozzarella and a leaf of basil, raw vegetable salad, fresh vegetable soup, olives
• Dairy; a bowl of low-fat (vegetable) yogurt/cottage cheese natural
• Nuts; a small hand of unsalted nuts, possibly mixed with dried fruit, small hand of seeds (such as pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds), date nutball (homemade by mixing dates, nuts and possibly cocoa)
• Legumes; roasted chickpeas with herbs, edamame beans (green soybeans)
• Cereal products; wholegrain crispbread topped with cottage cheese and vegetables, for example; banana pancakes (mashed banana with whole wheat flour or RawPancake Mix and (vegetable) milk), rice cake with cheese, cottage cheese and / or raw vegetables, popcorn homemade
• Drinks; chai latte, chai tea with warm semi-skimmed (vegetable) milk, latte macchiato with semi-skimmed (vegetable) milk, tea, coffee, water, (vegetable) milk

Step 4: Let's cook!

Now that the planning is clear and the groceries are done, we can start cooking. Allow the meals to cool well after cooking before putting them in the fridge or freezer.

Step 5: Enjoy delicious and simple

On the day itself, you can grab all meals together in an instant. Even when you have a busy day or are on the road, you have all your meals easily at hand. Below we have outlined an example of Maria who has prepped all her meals on Sunday.

Maria has to work, so she eats her breakfast at home, but her snacks and lunch at work. As a result, she carries the following things in her bag:

Snack: a small handful of nuts, apple

Lunch: meal prep

Snack: a bowl of cottage cheese with fruit

When you follow these steps, it is not difficult to prep meal yourself, is it? Preparing a weekly menu does not take much time. You will also notice that you are getting faster and faster here. You can choose whether these recipes cost a lot of time and money. You can also choose convenience or not.

Do you want to read more about Meal Prep? Let us know!

Love Fleur