Deciding what to eat three times a day, for seven days a week can be an extremely stressful task for people that have other important things going on in their lives. It is all so time consuming and takes an extreme amount of effort.
Now, there comes a concept called meal prepping that involves little to no effort about thinking what you’re going to eat over the week because it is all ready to go and prepared in your fridge.
This article will go through the benefits of meal prepping and offer different ways for how you can get started today to make your mornings, afternoons and nights less stressful.
Making your food all at once to have throughout the week will save you the headache of having to think about what you’re going to eat everyday and allows for you to have more time to focus more on your studies or other important things going on in your life.
When it comes to meal prepping, It is important to keep a log of easy ingredients for each meal of the day to make it easier for you to create meals you enjoy. Breakfast ideas can include making overnight chia pudding with oats, chia seeds and your milk of choice. Lunch might be Mini sandwiches with fruit and pre-cut vegetables. Dinner could be Chicken with roasted potatoes and broccoli. Meal prepping isn’t about eating the same boring meal everyday but finding groceries you love and creating a meal that’s healthy, less time consuming and easy on your pockets.
If you know you love rice or potatoes, you could make a large batch at the start of the week to pair with different proteins or vegetables like salmon and broccoli.
Meal prepping is also more cost efficient than going grocery shopping or eating out at restaurants every day because not only are you saving time, you save money on meals per serving because you can buy your ingredients in bulk.
As college students, I know you are living life on a budget and implementing the practice of meal prepping into your daily routine will not only provide you with a healthy, sustainable habit you will have for the future but also allows for more money to be put black into your pocket to increase your savings.
Making sure you store your meal prepped food properly is essential is making sure it stays fresh, keeps its nutrients and doesn’t spoil over the week. Air tight containers are a great way to make sure your food maintains its freshness and stays as delicious as possible. When you portion your food into each container its important to take an extra step to label and date each portion to keep track of when you made it and what is in each container.
Overall, practicing the art of meal prepping is a great way to introduce more healthy foods into your diet while also saving money and directing your focus to everything but what you’re going to eat every day.