Let's Get Meal Prepping - and Planning

Fab tips to take the overwhelm out of meal prepping by Marnie Nitschke, Accredited Practicing Dietitian at Fork That Nutrition & Cockatoo Grove Ambassador.

Let’s face it – life can be pretty fast and hectic  – and when it comes to cooking, we all have different skills, tastes and varying levels of enthusiasm for hanging out in the kitchen.

If you’re not traditionally the organised and structured type, you may find the idea of meal planning and prepping a bit hard to embrace.  

It doesn’t have to be a military exercise or involve spreadsheets and rosters!  Meal planning and prepping can be as simple or as intensive as you like.

Even putting aside 30 minutes a week to look at recipes, write a shopping list and plan a few lunch boxes – that’s meal planning!  

 

Making a double batch of spaghetti sauce and chopping up some veggies for tomorrow’s stir fry – that’s meal prepping.  

It also means:

• Less of the draining, frustrating supermarket trips
• Lower food bills (because you’re only buying what you need, and cutting down on wasted food that goes out of date or ferments in the crisper)
• Less sighing and peering into the fridge, trying to decide what to cook every night
• More variety and less highly processed and take away foods in your diet = a healthier, happier you

Here’s 3 simple steps you can use, to get meal planning and prepping.

1. Brainstorm meals, recipes & snack ideas

Write yourself a list of meals, recipes and snack ideas. 

You’ll obviously need to think about who you’re meal planning for.  Do you have any dietary requirements to cater for?  If you’re starting a new diet or way of eating, it may be helpful to consult a dietitian, and source food lists and recipes for inspiration.  

Think about what dietary gaps you can see in your current style of eating, that you’d like to improve. More vegetables? More whole grains? More fish? Look for recipes online or pull out your favourite cookbooks.

Make sure to crowdsource this step with other family or household members – firstly because you shouldn’t have to do it alone – that’s exhausting!  But also because you’re less likely to be dealing with conflict (hello fickle kids), and food refusal at meal times, if everyone has had some input into the meal planning stage.

Just planning for you? You could start with what’s in season - seasonal produce is cheaper, and often tastier and nutritionally superior.  Maybe set yourself a gentle challenge to try one new recipe each week?  Also think about the time frame you’re planning for, and how much space you have in your freezer and fridge.

Finally, remember that when you’re first starting out with meal planning, you don’t need to be devising set menus for every day of the week.  

Maybe you could start with 3 planned dinners and lunches, one ready-to-go breakfast like overnight oats, and a batch of fruit muffins for snacks?

2. Write a list and get shopping.

Okay we all know how this step goes.  It might be a list on the fridge or the notes on your phone.  Or it might be a reoccurring online order for click-and-collect or home delivery (a life-saver for time-poor).  Start with your usual shopping list of basics, and modify as you go, to match the meals and snacks you’re planning.  

Here’s some suggestions to start you off:

• A good Greek yoghurt, and a range of delicious cheeses like feta, tasty, parmesan, Manchego and bocconcini
• Eggs are a great, versatile fridge staple
• Chicken thighs or breasts, or a whole chicken
• Minced beef or pork for meatballs, bolegnese, pasta bakes, rissoles
• Firm tofu, pre-made falafel or marinated tofu
• Your favourite nuts, seeds and dried fruit
• Fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables
• Tinned staples like tuna, salmon, tomatoes, coconut milk, legumes, tomatoes
• Sourdough or grainy breads, flour for baking
• Oats and other high fibre breakfast cereals
• Pasta, rice, rice/buckwheat noodles, buckwheat, quinoa, pre-cooked brown rice pods or pouches
• Healthy, ready to eat snacks: muesli bars (aim for <15g sugar / 100g), grainy crackers, dark chocolate, Greek yoghurt, hummus or pesto
• Sauces (soy, oyster, fish sauce, mirin, sriracha and  are a few of my faves), stocks, herbs, spices
• Quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil – make sure you have light or ‘mellow’ version as well as an intense ‘peppery’ version, to suit a range of dishes

3. Now let’s prep

This step will save you so much energy and brain space in the longer term, but you will need to square away some time for the actual prepping.  Try to schedule a few sessions each week for basic meal prep and batch cooking.  

Prepping might mean precooking an entire meal and freezing meal sized portions for lunches.  Or it could just be pre-chopping salad or stir fry veggies, or making the meatballs for tomorrow night’s dinner.  Enlist help from everyone (you can call it a bonding experience if you like).  

Here are some ideas:

12 SNACKY THINGS TO PREP:

• Make up your own trail mix with your favourite nuts, seeds and dried fruit
• Whiz up a batch of pesto or hummus
• Roasted chick peas with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and spices
• Popcorn or spiced roasted almond
• Slice up vegetable sticks and portion with cheese or dips for lunch boxes
• Chop fruit for fruit salad or portion and freeze for smoothies
• Hard boil eggs
• Make mini frittatas in muffin wrappers
• Bake muffins and add LSA / chia / veggies
• Home-made bliss balls or oat cookies
• Overnight oats
• Chia pudding

12 THINGS TO MEAL PREP:

• Make up a batch of delicious salad dressing like yoghurt, tahini and lemon, or zingy avocado with chili and lime
• Wash salad leaves / slice coleslaw ingredients and pre-build salads
• Roast a tray of veggies for hearty salads
• Make a potato salad with lots of fresh herbs and lemony Greek yoghurt dressing
• Marinate some meat, fish or chicken overnight, for barbequing the next da
• Make up schnitzels or fish cakes and fry in Extra Virgin Olive Oil, then slice and portion for sandwiches, salads, rice paper rolls or sushi the next day
• Make a quiche or frittata
• Pre-cook rice noodles, wash herbs, chop veggies and make a dressing for tomorrow’s Vietnamese rice noodle salad
• Batch cook a large portion of stew, pasta sauce, risotto or soup then portion into meal sized microwave proof container
• Veggie and legume-rich soups like pasta e fagioli or minestrone
• Pre-make veggie patties for veggie burger
• Always cook extra rice, to use for veggie-rich fried rice the next night

And there you have it – our Dummies Guide to Meal Planning and Prepping – where the only constraints are your time, imagination and physical fridge/freezer space.  

Remember – getting organised with your meals doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You’ve got this!