These days, preparing food for several days has gained many fans. By spending four to five hours in the kitchen, you can relax your mind about the food for the next few days and without worrying and wasting time, take the package of ready-made food from the refrigerator, heat it and enjoy it.
In this article, we will talk about the benefits of food preparation and we will give you several great suggestions for preparing and preparing food for several days.
What is food preparation?
Meal prep means that you prepare and prepare your meals and even snacks for the next few days in advance so that you can take out, heat and eat just one package of prepared food every day. In this method, you prepare several meals in one day (or at least prepare them), put them in closed coainers and store them in the refrigerator or freezer uil you wa to eat them.
Meal prep is very popular among busy people; Because this will save a lot of time and solve the problem of daily cooking. With this method, when you come home from work and are tired, you don’t have to do the whole cooking process, you just take out a package of food from the freezer and heat it up. In this way, you have eaten a healthy home-cooked meal and you have not made a lot of effort.
You can prepare breakfast, lunch, dinner and even snacks in advance. Some people prepare food for the whole week or even two weeks. But it is better to do this weekly to eat fresh food.
What are the benefits of preparing meals and snacks?
There are so many benefits to preparing food in advance and corary to what people think that “leftovers are not good” this way you are not supposed to eat leftovers. If you are a busy person or have several children and you don’t have time to cook every day, we recommend this method because of the following benefits:
- Saves daily cooking time;
- You have access to healthy homemade food every day;
- You are comfortable with the quality of food;
- You can stick to your diet;
- Your food plan is varied;
- Reduces waste and waste of food; Costs will be lower;
- You less crave for outside food and unhealthy food; Because there is always food at home.
Food preparation steps and tips
In the following, we will explain the steps of food preparation step by step. The most importa thing is not to take too big a step at first; This means that you only prepare food for, for example, 3 meals and not more.
In this way, you will find out whether you like the process of food preparation or not?! And if yes, how would you like to do it? Now, in the coinuation of this article about vitamin, we will read the steps of meal prep or food preparation.
1. Write a menu!
You should write a small program according to your diet or nutritional style and food taste. For example, if you like rice dishes more, write a food menu that includes rice; That is, prepare some stews and freeze them to eat with rice during the week. When writing the menu, consider your food goals, such as weight loss or muscle building.
2. Make a grocery list!
Now that the menu is decided, you should probably go to the store and get the necessary ingredies. Buy just enough and not more, because it is thrown away and wasteful.
3. Prepare the desired dishes!
Now it’s time to prepare the food! At this stage, you start cooking according to the list you wrote and prepare some meals. You don’t have to prepare a whole meal; You can prepare part of it or even semi-prepared. For example, suppose you plan to prepare three servings of stew in advance.
You have to prepare three stews and after packing, put them in the freezer and prepare the rice on the day you plan to eat it! Because rice cooks quickly.
4. Put the food in closed coainers and freeze it!
Put the cooked food in closed coainers according to your needs and label it. The label should coain the coes of the package and the date of preparation of the food so that you can easily find them. Now put the dishes in the freezer and eat them in the next few days.
Importa tips for food preparation
You should know some importa things about preparing food and making it easier for yourself. We iroduced these pois below. In order to have a good food preparation experience, be sure to read and apply the following carefully.
Prepare the ingredies for common dishes!
Choose ingredies that can be used in several dishes, for example, prepare ground beef with hot onions and vegetables of your choice (carrots and celery). You can use this ingredie in dishes such as pasta, Istanbul pilaf, lasagna, etc.
Finally, prepare food for 5 days!
It is better not to keep food for more than 5 days so that you can prepare fresh food. Preparing food for more than this time will have a negative effect on the quality of the food.
Make a variety of dishes that you will always wa to eat!
Prepare delicious and differe foods so that you have a desire for them and this method will not be boring for you. Instead of cooking the chicken over and over, fry it once and grill it once. Another benefit of maiaining variety in the food menu is that your diet will include all types of macronutries and micronutries.
Do not freeze all foods!
Note that not all types of food can be frozen; Because it becomes very bad or it may spoil. For example, fried fish or potatoes or mushrooms should be consumed fresh and cannot be kept in the freezer for several days.
You must eat the food you took out of the freezer the same day!
Be aware that food that has been defrosted cannot be re-frozen or refrigerated! You should eat it the same day and throw it away if you don’t eat it. This issue is very importa in food hygiene.
Ready sample Making food for a week
Suppose you wa to prepare food for the next 5 days on Friday. Here is a suggested food list for you to get an idea from:
- Saturday: Chicken sandwich with lettuce and tomato salad
- Sunday: Black vegetable stew
- Monday: pasta with minced meat
- Tuesday: Istanbul pilaf with minced meat
- Wednesday: Chicken and vegetable pizza
- Thursday: Black vegetable stew
In this way, today you have to cook two days’ worth of Qorme Sabzi stew, two days’ worth of pasta sauce and Istanbul rice, and two days’ worth of chicken food with vegetables of your choice (such as onions, carrots, bell peppers, celery, etc.). You cook rice and pasta on the same day you wa to eat it. You should also write bread and salad items in your shopping list to eat with your meal.
final word
Preparing or semi-preparing food for a few days will save you time and always have healthy and delicious food available. In this article, we talked about the benefits and stages of food preparation and meioned all the tips for preparing food for several days.
Resources: cpdonline – budgetbytes
