Have you been considering the idea of starting to meal prep? Perhaps you’re looking to save some time each week with ready made meals or prepped ingredients. Don’t be fooled. Prepping for your week will still take up a chunk of your time on Sunday’s but there are a lot of short cuts you can take to make things easier on yourself.
My first recommendation is to find 3-5 different blogs that feature meal prep in their posts AND cater to your dietary restrictions. See my Top 5 fave blogs for meal prep post from a few weeks back for some inspo! Now that you have your recipes settled, ensure you create a grocery list. There’s plenty of apps for this that might be beneficial to you but I simply make a note in my phone with headers for each store I plan to visit and all the items that I’ll find at each one listed below. Stick to your list! That in itself will save you time (and money).
Now, you’ve done your shopping, you have your ingredients and it’s time to cook. Here’s a list of some of my must have tools for meal prep. Each of these tools can be found on Amazon or many at your local dollar store. Remember, we’re in the business of saving money as well as time so splurge only when directed.
The Kitchen Timer: A kitchen timer is legitimately essential for me. I use 3 at any given time especially when I’m cooking various grains or using the stove top as well as the oven. Try this one from Amazon if you prefer digital or take a look at the kind I use here.
The Immersion Blender: This tool is basically an extension of my right arm. From salad dressings to sauces, smoothies and soups this tool allows for you to blend whatever you need right in the vessel you’ve cooked or combined ingredients in! Check this one out!
Spiralizer: Low carb diets continue to be popular ever since the hit of the Aitkens diet back in the day. Even trendier still are noodles made out of vegetables(?)! All jokes aside not only are zucchini noodles delicious and filling, they keep really well for meal prep. You can get a spiralizer attachment for your stand mixer or food processor but if you’re just looking for something small and simple you can easily stash away here’s the one I use. I love it for when I’m cooking out of client’s homes because it’s so portable but it also didn’t break the bank either!
Glass containers: I’m sure I don’t need to spend any time here discussing the benefits of buying glass over plastic containers so we’ll skip right over that and get to the point. When you use high quality glass containers, there’s a double hit of convenience. For one, you don’t have to transfer your food from a plastic one into a vessel for reheating (please don’t reheat your food in plastic!) but the glass containers just last longer. Oven and dishwasher safe, as long as you’re not banging them around you’re less likely to have to replace them as often as the plastic ones. Here’s what I use for clients but any glass containers will do as long as the lids are secure!
Citrus Juicer: I can’t tell you how many lemons and limes I go through in a week. It doesn’t seem like a necessity until you’re prepping 5 different salad recipes. Trust me your hands will thank you, plus you have no risk of having lemon seeds sneak through your fingers. Take a look at the one I just ordered here.
You’re all set to meal prep so let’s see what you whip up! Tag @katesustomkitchen and share your plans for the week and how you used my must have tools!
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