So, here at CollegeCandy I know I’ve talked enough about how scary being an adult and graduating and all that jazz is. This past year has been a little overwhelming for me. Learning how to be an adult and everything is jus’ a littttle cray sometimes, but I’ve come to realize that that is how it’s supposed to be!
After starting a job with my dreammmm company last week while still freelancing for my old job, I realized being an adult and actually making some paper is a little overwhelming. Everyone wants everything from you right away, even when you got two hours of sleep because Netflix was just too good, or you want to drink about five beers before you open your email, they don’t care. All last week I really fell off the wagon with the stress of balancing the two. I really thought all weekend about how I can help myself stay on track and be less stressed during the week. After a lot of Pinning and Tumbling I saw enough GIFs to figure it out: I had to try meal prep.
I was a little skeptical (1) because I’m a weird 23 year old and I looooove cooking everyday and (2) whatever crazy disciplined girls on Tumblr eating the exact same baked chicken breast and broccoli every day and succeeding, props to you, but I would get sooooo food depressed, I need some variety!
I decided to take an ambitious approach and cook about 3-4 main dishes to rotate between lunch and dinner. Admittedly I did cook the same thing for bfast everyday, but I love eggs so that’s OK! I’ve been doing this for about 3 days now, and I LOVE IT! I have so much time to do other things when I get home, like actually doing my work, haha, ew.
Another reason why I love it is it makes it harder for me to cheat. I’m kind offfff guilty of sneaking nibbles while I’m cooking. I’ll cut off an extra piece of cheese, eat a little tortilla with guac, and things like that while I’m cooking. If I’m not around the food while I’m cooking and I have it portioned out already there’s not much room for cheating.
To give you guys a little more perspective and preparedness, here are 5 Tips and Tricks For Mastering Meal Prep:
1.) Don’t be afraid to get exotic! I love cooking new types of food. Like I said above I’d hate to eat the same boring stuff every day. Just because there is a unique blend of flavors in something doesn’t mean it isn’t healthy, it is just more time consuming on your prep day! I didn’t venture out into the flavor world as much as I would have liked to this week. Next week I’m trying an Asian noodle dish and some margherita chicken!
2.) Cheap baggies and Tupperware are your best friends! I went to the dollar store and stocked up on packs of small and medium sized containers. I also bought wayyy too many baggies to put things like nuts and hard boiled eggs in. So far it is working really well. I really recommend buying enough to be able to pack up everything for your week. It feels so nice to just need to wash 2-3 containers a day.
3.) Don’t plan too much. Even though this is a little ironic because this whole post is about planning, there is a possibility you could plan too much. I did make about 3-4 different main dishes and I have maybe 3-4 sides that I can mix and match too. At first I had all three meals picked out for all the days. Then I thought about it and said, why would I tell myself what I’m going to eat on Thursday on Sunday night? I made all my meals and mixed and matched sides in containers and told myself I could pick what I want to eat when the time comes, I just have to eat one of those meals. It seems to be working out so far.
4.) Be ready to sacrifice like, about 1/5 of your weekend prepping. I’m not guna lie, Sunday morning was a little brutal. I did split up my shopping and cooking. I did shopping on Saturday and did the actual prep Sunday. All together it took about 4-5 hours. I think this was kind of because I was a little adventurous with the amount of main dishes I chose to make. Looking back on it depending on what you guys make you can definitely split this up into two days. I could have done some on Saturday to give myself a breather. Also, you don’t have to do the whole week at once. Maybe you have a crazy schedge Monday through Wednesday, why not only do 3 days of prep!?
5.) The freezer is your friend. I didn’t put everything in the freezer but I did choose to put some things in. I made breakfast sandwiches complete with eggs, veggies, and cheese. I thought these would do better in the freezer all made up than in the fridge ready to get soggy. Getting them defrosted and toasty has become a challenge but I’m about to master it! I’m also going to try doing freezer crockpot meals all lined up in there to grab too. The basic idea is you take out a gallon-sized bag full of your ingredients and dump them in the crockpot before work or school and when you’re home it’s done! You can do all the chopping and measuring on the weekend for a bunch of meals and it’s all good! These last a long time in the freezer too so you can make a ton at once! This is a go-to in the winter months I’d say! But in the summer it’ll save you from turning on the oven too!
Have any of you tried meal prep before? What worked, what didn’t? I need all the help I can get! Tell me below!
[Lead image via farbled/Shutterstock]
