For many people, a healthy lifestyle combined with a healthy diet has become inevitable. However, often there is a lack of time and motivation to maintain it. Especially with meal prep, you often save time and still eat healthy food. As a great side effect, you also save money. In today's blog post, we have 5 helpful tips and various recipe ideas for meal prep.
Discover the healthy Verival breakfast
What does meal prep actually mean?
Meal prep is on everyone's lips and has really become a big trend. But what exactly is meal prep?
Let's start with the simplest: meal prep comes from the English “meal preparation” and means nothing more than “food preparation”. And the name says it all. When people talk about meal prep, they usually mean preparing food for the next day.
Professional meal preppers sometimes prepare food for an entire week. Beginners start by preparing food for one day and maybe even “just” for lunch. Every beginning is difficult, so don't let it throw you off track.
You could either prepare whole meals and freeze them or just prepare individual components to make preparation easier. However you prefer to proceed, we know that the work will pay off.
Meal prep as a fitness trend
Meal prep became popular in the US, like many trends. However, it was not used by office workers, but by fitness enthusiasts. This allows you to control exactly which nutrients and foods you consume.
Even though meal prepping started out as a fitness trend, you don't have to be a fitness nerd to benefit from it! Meal prepping can help you make healthier meals, too. This way, you can make sure that you don't consume too much fat, sugar, or other unhealthy additives.
As a little inspiration, here's a recipe idea for a healthy snack for in between:
5 tips for the perfect meal prep
Now we have talked a lot about meal prep, explained where it comes from and why it is good. But how do you properly start preparing food now? We have summarized the 5 simplest and best tips for you here.
1. Time is the most important component of meal prep
Something obvious but nevertheless indispensable: time! Especially if you are “preparing” a whole week's meals, you should allow yourself enough time to do so. But don't just factor in the time for cooking – packing, cooling, shopping – all these things also take time.
It's best to pick a fixed day in the week when you set aside a few hours for meal prep. That way, you'll turn it into a routine that you hopefully enjoy and that, in the best case, is also a bit relaxing.
2. Plan, plan, plan
Think very carefully about what meals you want to eat during the week. That's because planning is the key to successful meal prep. Without the necessary planning, you'll likely end up in a big mess when it comes to shopping, cooking, and storage.
A weekly plan with the dishes you want to prepare in advance can help you with this very easily. With the weekly plan, every step becomes easier. Take a moment at home and try to plan your week ahead – you will see that you can see which ingredients you have at home and what you may still need to buy.
3. Proper storage is very important for meal prep
The special thing about meal prep is that you can sometimes prepare food for the whole week in advance. However, this means you also need to think about how to store your dishes. With the right storage, the ingredients will keep for longer and will stay fresh and tasty even longer.
For example, it's best to freeze some of the food if you're making a large portion. This works best with soups, curries and casseroles. And if you freeze things, you don't have to eat the same dishes all week, so you can add more variety to your diet.
To be on the safe side and to ensure that all your dishes retain their flavor, you should also always store all the ingredients separately in different glass containers. You can then put them in the fridge and put them all together in a box on the day you eat them. This way, you can be sure that everything will still taste delicious.
4. Slow and stress-free – an important meal prep tip
As with many things in life, if you aim too high too quickly, you'll quickly hit the ground! This also applies to meal prep. Our tip is to start slowly and without stress. It's not a good idea to try to prepare a whole week's worth of meals at once when you're doing your first meal prep.
That's why we recommend that you start out easy. Meal prep is not a race. Instead of cooking for the whole week at once, try it for a day. Then slowly build up. With three days, you're already doing really well and will quickly get into a routine.
5. Simple dishes are the meal prep winners
Meal prep is not about cooking highly complicated dishes. It's much more about raising awareness! Awareness of the ingredients you are cooking with, awareness of healthy eating.
Make sure you have enough staple foods on hand. Rice, quinoa, couscous and whole grain pasta are known to last forever and are suitable for almost any dish. Whether for lunch or dinner, these ingredients look perfect on any plate. A delicious quinoa vegetable stir-fry is quick to make, lasts forever, is perfect to take with you and is simply delicious.
Lentils and beans will keep for a long time, whether dry or canned, and are always handy! Also, make sure you have enough sources of protein in your dishes. Meat and fish don't keep very well, so buying them fresh is a must. However, eggs, yogurt, skyr, and tofu are also great sources of protein and can be stored for longer.
So you don't have to eat broccoli, rice and chicken every day, sauces and spices are always a good way to enhance your dishes. If you still like to eat this trendy dish, you can try a simple mustard sauce with it. This way you avoid the risk of the chicken, rice or even the broccoli being too dry.
Overnight oats and oats as the perfect meal-prep breakfast
Breakfast is the perfect meal for which you can easily prepare in advance. Many people find it stressful to get out of bed in the morning when their bed seems too comfortable. With overnight oats, you save time and still have the perfect start to the day.
Oats are known as the local superfood. With lots of nutrients, fiber and complex carbohydrates, oats are at the top of the list of the healthiest foods. Not only do they contain many healthy ingredients, but they are also perfect for preventing various diseases.
Why overnight oats?
Overnight oats are very easy to prepare – as the name suggests, you put them in the fridge with water or milk the night before. In the morning, they are ready for the perfect breakfast! Customize your toppings or, in the true meal prep spirit, just take everything with you to work. There's no better and healthier way to start the day!
But porridge is also a highlight of meal-prep breakfasts. You can eat porridge in a variety of ways, whether warm or cold, with or without toppings. Porridge is healthy and, thanks to its high fiber content, perfect for breakfast! It will keep you full for a long time and you won't have to rely on annoying snacks to get you through the day.
Oatmeal breakfast with yogurt and banana
A healthy oatmeal breakfast – easy to prepare and wonderfully versatile. What's more, oats provide you with all the nutrients you need for a good start to the day: long-chain carbohydrates for a lasting feeling of satiety, plant-based protein for extra power, and healthy fats and fiber that are good for your digestion. A balanced breakfast like oatmeal, porridge, or muesli is healthy and gives you the energy you need for a great day.
Preparation time 5 min.
Cook time 0 min.
Soaking time 1 hr
Total time 1 hr 5 min.
Course: Breakfast, Frühstück
Keyword: healthy breakfast, porridge, oats, overnight oats, porridge
Servings: 1 serving
Calories: 440.9 kcal
Accessories
- Bowl or (sealable) jar
- Spoon
- Knife
Ingredients
- 50 g oats (approx. 4 tbsp)
- 100 g yoghurt or plant-based alternative
- 1 banana
Toppings
- 1 handful of blueberries
- 1 tsp peanut butter
Preparation
- Put the oats (approx. 4 tbsp) and the yoghurt in a bowl or jar and mix well.
- Cut the banana into thin slices and mix in.
- Cover the oatmeal-yogurt mixture, place it in the refrigerator, and let it soak for at least an hour. Our tip: Simply mix it the night before and let it soak in the refrigerator overnight. This saves time!
- Take your breakfast out of the fridge and add a dollop of peanut butter and blueberries. Done!
Nutritional information
Serving: 304 g | Calories: 440.9 kcal | Carbohydrates: 63.5 g | Protein: 15.6 g | Fat: 12.5 g
Oatmeal breakfast with yogurt & banana
Accessories
-
Bowl or (locking) glass
-
Spoon
-
Knife
Ingredients
- 50 g oatmeal (approx. 4 tbsp)
- 100 g yogurt or plant-based alternative
- 1 banana
Toppings
- 1 handful of blueberries
- 1 tsp. peanut butter
Preparation
-
Combine the oatmeal (approximately 4 tablespoons) and yogurt in a bowl or glass and mix well.
-
Slice the banana thinly and mix it in.
-
Cover the oatmeal-yogurt mixture and place it in the refrigerator to swell for at least one hour. Our tip: Mix it in the evening and let it soak in the fridge overnight to save time!
-
Take your breakfast out of the fridge, add a splash of peanut butter and the blueberries. Done!
