*Photo Credit: Budget Bytes
Every year, juniors across Penn jump at the chance to escape the dreaded meal plan, only to be faced with a new question: What are you actually supposed to eat now? None of us have hours every day to spend cooking, but we still crave the simple gratification of a home-cooked meal and don’t want to constantly spend money eating out. If this sounds familiar, and you’ve been looking to get into cooking, look no further. I’ve curated the perfect tips and tricks to successfully meal prep—without dedicating your entire life to cooking.
Tip 1: Come Up With a Formula
A quick and easy way to make sure you’ll always have a complete meal is to create a simple blueprint to follow.. A good starting point is to craft each meal with a protein source, a starch, a vegetable and a sauce. After making a few variations of each category, you can mix and match to create different meals throughout the week. If you’re like me and don’t mind eating the same thing repeatedly, pick combinations and put them together as you prep.
Tip 2: Work Backwards on Your Grocery List
Sometimes, we all stare blankly at our fridge. It isn’t empty, but the things we bought don’t fit together in a cohesive meal. An easy way to prevent food waste, while saving time and money, is to work backwards on your grocery list. First, decide what you want to eat this week. Then, build a grocery list that includes everything you’ll need in the correct quantities. You’ll never stare blankly at your fridge again!
Tip 3: Get Creative, not Complicated
There are a lot of low-effort ways to spice up the meals you make without complicating your cooking process. Check out simple recipes from your favorite social media creators or try out one-pan or sheet pan recipes online to make your food more exciting! Buy ingredients that are versatile, so you get more out of each one. You can also meal prep sweet treats, just saying…
Tip 4: Practice Makes Perfect
The more often you meal prep, the faster and more productive you’ll become. Recipes and cooking techniques that once felt foreign will become second nature. You’ll realize that you can fit more trays in your oven to make it go faster, or that almost anything needing to be boiled can be made in a rice cooker. The more you meal prep, the more attuned you will become to your personal tastes. You’ll learn how to pick the perfect recipe, and modify the ones you already use now.
If you were desperately craving a plan, a way to resist the temptation of coming back onto the meal plan for convenience, if nothing else, try these meal prep tips. You’ll be a pro in no time!