The Lazy Wife's Guide to Meal Prepping
As someone who lives by routine and order, you'd think I was all aboard the "meal-prep" train.
HAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
Nope.
I'm the laziest cook you've ever seen. Meal prepping was not on the top of my to do list at all.
When Ben was in the middle of first and second year, he had a lot of the summer off. He was the one at home cooking and cleaning and doing all of the things I would normally need to do while he's studying. It was a magical time.
One thing he did was meal prep. He would grocery shop on the weekend and then spend an hour or so filling containers with perfectly portioned veggies, proteins, carbs, etc.
I know what you're thinking: that's so basic.
Ya but GUESS WHAT. I love it now.
After some push back and a few "what do you mean you don't like eating leftovers for lunch every day???" I huffed and puffed and didn't listen when he was showing me how to do the simplest things. I was so used to sitting at the table with food already made, and now I had to do it??
I finally decided to give the old "meal-prep" a try. Ben is such a good role model. :)
Every Sunday since last September, I've been able to set aside time in my day to prep lunches (and sometimes even dinners) for the week. I'll put on my favorite music or podcast and just zone out while I prep.
We bought microwave and dishwasher safe containers on amazon for hella cheap. You can buy them here.
On Thursday or Friday of any given week, I spend about 30 minutes planning what we'll eat the next week...and I love it! It's really fun and exciting to find new recipes and meals that literally take minutes to make and are soooo healthy.
My meal prep excel sheet usually looks something like this, with room to put in random snacks:
I color code my proteins (red), carbs (yellow), veggies, (green), etc.
It looks complicated, but it's so simple and saves so much time and money.
After I finish my meal plan for the week I type out a grocery list on my phone. I save a lot of money doing this because I don't over-buy or purchase things I don't need, and food hardly goes bad!
I also like to have the same meal two nights in a row, so dinner Monday is usually big enough to have leftovers Tuesday, and so on.
Shopping somewhere like Trader Joe's used to cost me over $120 for Ben and I for a WEEK's worth of food...and I was still running back to the store mid-week to get something I forgot.
Now that I know what I'm cooking and what exactly to buy, I never go over $80 for the entire week, and that usually includes the weekends if we don't go out too much!
The best thing about this is now I know healthy recipes like that back of my hand, and I usually know what to buy in bulk. The best part? Meal prepping usually only takes me an hour, unless I prep the dinners as well. It saves us so much time to grab our lunches and go - especially with Ben's crazy schedules.
Also, here is a shameless plug for my favorite thing in the world: my instant pot. It makes crock pot meals in 30 mins or less! I honestly love that I just chuck stuff in it and leave it alone and voila! A whole meal!!! If you have one, I'll be linking some awesome instant pot recipes as well.
Here are some pretty meals I made this past week!
Here are some suuuuuuuuuper simple recipes that take little to no time at all. My favorite that I prepped last Fall for lunches all the time was the Fall Medley.
I suggest med school students and their spouses, and really anybody, try their hand at meal prepping. It seems annoying at first, but is honestly a life saver!!
Zucchini Brownies -honestly these are to DIE for. Ben loves them too. Not a meal (but a sweet treat)
If you'd like me to send you a copy of my excel sheet I use to plan meals, message me! I'll gladly send it to you.
Happy prepping!
-Tay
