Meal prepping is one of the fastest growing food trends in 2019. It’s easy to see why. As families struggle to keep their food costs down, and health-conscious foodies look for easier ways to get the right sustenance, meal prep is proving to be the answer. No matter how frantic your weekly schedule, if you have an hour to spare, then taking the time to cook a week’s worth of meals can end up saving you both time and money. Do your meal prep right, and you’ll even end up eating more healthily. Do it wrong, and you start to lose out on the benefits. Here are the three most common meal prep mistakes, and what you can do to avoid them.
1. Getting Complicated
The trick to getting the most from your first attempts at meal prep is to start simple. You might be tempted to try and prep several meal types at once, but that’s just going to end up being stressful. Instead, focus on a set meal. If you rarely have time for a nutritious breakfast and you end up grabbing something unhealthy on the way to work, then focus on the first meal of the day. Meal prep doesn’t have to mean cooking full dinners. Even just prepping some muffins or smoothies will mean a good start to your day and a good first step to better meal prepping.
2. Shopping Mistakes
The biggest mistake that first-time meal preppers make is going shopping without a list. The key to better meal prep is organization, and that extends to your shopping trips. Have an ongoing list at all times, and always keep an eye out for new recipes to try. There are plenty of apps available to help you manage your shopping more easily, and these can have a dramatic impact on your shopping bill. Not only that but having precisely the right ingredients will simply make your meal prep sessions go a lot more smoothly and stress-free.
3. Time Management
It is going to take some dedicated time to get your meal prep done. Failing to schedule your hour or two hours of meal prep means that you can quickly get distracted mid-session, and that can be catastrophic. If you want to avoid the risk of spoiling your food and ruining your meal plans for the week, make sure that set aside the time you need to get your meal prep done right. Meal Prep Sunday is a useful trend because it allows just one hour to prepare a week's worth of food. Think about how much time you spend in the kitchen every day, and what you could be doing with that time instead.
Meal prepping is a great way to help you avoid those unhealthy, processed foods that you’ve been relying on. Remember, you don’t have to do your meal prep alone. Encourage friends and family to get involved. It could become a weekly event in your household, and the fact that it’s saving you money is just a bonus. No matter how you move forward with your meal prepping, remember these common mistakes and find the best ways to avoid them. Eating more healthily will then become easier than ever, and your weekly shopping costs might surprise you.
