Prepped Food is Fast Food: The Meal Prep Concept That Will Change Your Life.
I’m sure you have heard a lot about the idea of completing meal prep. There are tons of pins on Pinterest that will give you ideas for meal prep ideas for lunch, high protein meal prep ideas, and even meal prep for busy moms. It can be a little overwhelming and even make you not interested in the idea. But let me paint a picture for you.
It’s a Tuesday night after a long day with the kids. Your husband walks in from a long day of work and asks, “Hey babe. What’s for dinner?”. There are clothes all over the place after your valiant attempt to catch up on laundry. There are snack bags on the floor from your attempt to tide the kids over while you even try to think about what’s for dinner. And that question is ringing in your ear adding to your already full list of things you needed to accomplish today. *insert face of dread and exhaustion*
I’m sure as you read this you know what comes next right? Either a very processed and not nutritious meal or a very costly trip through the drive-thru. This is where I found myself in 2022. After giving birth to twin boys as a first time mom in 2021 and becoming a stay at home mom after 5 years working in the social work field, I was not yet aware of the importance of preparing for the chaos that being a boy mom can sometimes brings. Not only was I dealing with Postpartum Depression, I was also feeling discontent with this major transition that I took.
And then this concept entered my life!
In this post, I want to tell you about:
how “Prepped Food is Fast Food” will change your life,
3 ways that you can choose from to prep food in your home, and
the first steps that you should take to get started with a meal prep routine
So, let’s get started! I can’t wait for you to learn how to meal prep and how important it will be to save you time and effort!
Why the Concept “Prepped Food is Fast Food” will change your life
So let’s go back to my example. So your husband comes home and he asks “what’s for dinner”. This is the first time you have even thought about making dinner all day. But you remember that there is a lasagna in the freezer. It’s frozen solid but you know that if you put it in the oven now you could be ready to eat dinner by 7 and you have sides already prepped for dinner. Not only do you not have to go pull out another frozen pizza, your family is getting a highly nutritious meal and it will not cost you a dollar more than you have already spent on groceries.
Again, this is where I found myself. I was asking my husband at least 3-5 times a week to stop at the grocery store to get a pizza or to go through the drive thru and get dinner because being a mom to twin boys was really taking all of my time. At the time, they were just starting solid foods and I really was only responsible for feeding my husband.
After looking at our finances (and our waistline) and trying to decide how we could make a change, we realized a poor habit that was costing us money and our health. We ran to fast food whenever we hit a last minute need. If dinner was running late, I was tired from managing the kids all day, or we just had a decadent craving, we would quickly forget our financial goals and our health in order to meet our needs. I totally get it! Sometimes we have to deal with things during the day. Or when we just had an emotional day, we want things to comfort us, but imagine if you had those things already in your home. Imagine if your “fast food” was a nutritious meal that you could just pop into the oven in the evening or the crock pot early in the morning that was pre-seasoned, pre-measured, or put together entirely!
I am not a fortune teller, but I can assure you if you implement the concept that “Prepped Food is Fast Food” into your life, you will spend less money and have more time during your week to spend time with your family or with yourself. The kitchen will be clean earlier, you’ll relax before putting the kids to bed, and you won’t spend your nights having to react to the chaos of the day .
Oh and for those late night cravings, we even found ourself pre-portioning and freezing homemade cookies to eat whenever we want. No more microwave cookies in a cup or baking all the cookies and having to eat them all quickly. You can get all the luxuries that fast food and drive-thru places give with less cost per serving and none of those horrible ingredients.
Thinking of jumping right into meal prep? I love the meal prep containers from Sam’s club but here are some other options for you if you don’t have a membership.
Amazon Basics 20-Piece Glass Food Storage Containers
AILTEC Glass Food Storage Containers with Lids, [18 Piece] Meal Prep Containers for Food Storage
S Salient 24 Pieces Glass Food Storage Container Set, Oven Safe, With Lids, Gray
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3 Ways That You Can Choose From to Prep Food in Your Home
Meal prepping truly only works if you keep yourself in a routine. You can spend all day doing meal prep but eventually that food will run out and you will find yourself in need, and if not filled, falling back into your old habits. One of the most important steps of maintaining a meal prep routine is determining what works best for you! I have found that there are 3 key ways that you can choose from based on what works best for your time and the way that you like to “interact” with your food.
Prepare Individualized Meals for Dinners and Lunch - I’m sure you have seen this method plenty of times on all social media platforms. People will cook their proteins, sides, and chop their fruits and vegetables and have them already sorted and portioned in the refrigerator. This is best for people who are very busy and who feel comfortable eating meals on repeat during the week. The benefit of it is that you never have to guess dinner or anything like that. Now for moms who have small children who will be eating dinner “with the family” it may not be the best option. I have found that families with this set up tend to want to eat together and share many of the same meals and this method is mostly for individual servings and for just one person. But I could imagine that with families with maybe older kids or for lunches moms could thrive with this method.
Prepare Ingredients or Major Items - I have seen so many types of ways to meal prep, but for me, putting each dinner in a container with everything already cooked was just not appetizing to me. Sure, it was quick and already predetermined for dinner, but it took the joy and the love out of food for me. So, I chose to prep in ways that would prepare my meals to the point right before cooking. This looks like having frozen marinated meat in the freezer (i.e. lemon garlic chicken thighs or frozen pre-portioned and seasoned hamburger patties from bulk meal), having pre-chopped vegetables (i.e. chopping sweet potatoes and putting them in air tight container), or having pre-cleaned and portioned fruits that you can just grab and go (i.e. cleaning grapes or strawberries and place them in the appropriate air tight containers). I have found that when you do this you can just grab things and are more likely to use them or eat them as opposed to just having a pack of chicken in the freezer that you would then have to thaw and season and then cook. This is a great option for people who love to cook and enjoy the process but need quicker and more streamlined ways of getting food on the stove and in the oven. Of course, you don’t always have to rely on these ingredients and major proteins on days when you have more time, but it’s great to have them when you need them!
Prepare Full Meals (i.e. Lasagnas or Crock Pot Meals) - In the example that I listed earlier, complete meals can be a game changer in managing dinnertime during the busy days of your life. They are quick, require little to no additional work on your end to complete at meal times, and they will be warm and fresh providing you with great comforting meals. Whether you are choosing to make whole meals (i.e. lasagnas, casseroles, etc) or meals for the crock pot they will both be great in a pinch. Now, the crock pot meals (most commonly stored in ziplock bags in the freezer) will be best for days that you are in a place to plan for the day. You would take those ZipLock bags out of the freezer the night before and then place them in your CrockPot the next morning to cook low and slow until you are ready to eat. I would recommend that you have both options available for this to be a highly efficient option. If you choose to only do one, I would choose to use the fully prepared casseroles. If you need some examples, here are some websites that I found to be easy to navigate and have a wide variety of options.
Taste of Home - 141 Easy Freezer Meal Recipes
31 Crockpot Freezer Meals for Back To School
15 Actually Easy Freezer Meals (Seriously!)
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Taking the First Steps to Meal Prep Routine
So if you’re wondering how to get started implementing this concept into your life and your decision making around food, look no further. Here are 3 easy steps to get you started on the journey to ditching the culture of running to “fast food” in desperation and playing a more active role in your food during busy times.
Identify the busy cycles in your life. - Now that you know about why “Prepped Food is Fast Food” is so important to remember, it’s time to apply the knowledge. Everyone’s lives are formatted completely different and have different ebbs and flows. It is important to be able to know yourself enough to know your family’s cycles and habits that lead to unfavorable choices with your food. If you have children who attend public school and may be participating in many sports or church events, you may find that you will need prep food more on certain days than others. Or you may be a person who just needs these for emergencies. Even still, find out which days are more hectic and what are more relaxed. You’ll need this information to complete the process of your meal prep routine.
Identify what are meals your family already loves! - Now that you know your family’s habits and cycles, now it’s time to identify their preferences - and yours too! I would encourage you to find some of your favorite family meals and find out how to prep them in one of the ways that I listed above. A great tip I heard from Becky from Acre Homestead was to go down the freezer aisle of your local grocery store. Anything on the freezer aisle is something that you can meal prep yourself! I have found that it is a great way to get inspired in what you want to meal prep yourself!
Decide on your meal prep method and your meal prep day! - Finally, decide on what days you will meal prep and what method you will like to choose. Again, if you have more free time and are in a place in your life where you can be involved more on daily with your food, you may find that you just want to prep ingredients. But if you are a mom who has a lot of responsibilities and would like to remove them, meal prepping whole meals or proteins may be a better option for you to do more of the work on the front in so that your future you can take on less because of the current you. When I was working a full time job in mental health, I used to always say “Future LaBrea will thank Current LaBrea for my hard work today”. At the time it was about front-loading cases or documentation but now I find it is just as helpful in my Stay At Home mom journey.
And that’s all there is to it! I hope to hear more about all of your meal prepping journey.
Please comment down below any tips that you may have for moms who may be struggling with feeling in control of their food management in the home.
Thanks for reading!
<3