Meal Prep with Green Shop!

What is meal prepping?

Meal prepping can be described as preparing foods in a variety of methods. It’s a time saving method of organising your foods in order to achieve fast and easy breakfast, lunch or dinner. What’s great about meal prepping is that there are multiple ways you can go about it.

You can prepare:

• Batch cooking ahead meals: where you cook meals in big batches and store it in the freezer or fridge and take it when you’re ready to eat. Using this method, you can create multiple meals and portion them equally. Examples of foods that you can cook in large amounts might include pots of pasta, salad or soup.
• Meals for one: If you are living alone, you can prepare and portion your food into containers that can last up to 3 days. You would then repeat this to last the entire week. The advantage is that your foods will stay fresh and not be in the fridge or freezer for a couple of days.
• Prep the ingredients: Some people enjoy preparing parts of their recipes for example their marinade or spices, chopping up garlic, onion and veggies in advance to make the cooking easier and more efficient!

Why do we encourage meal prepping? What are the benefits?

Meal prepping is not for everyone, but the reason why we love it is because of the most obvious answer - the time and money you can save. When cooking ahead on the weekends, it can help you plan healthier meals too which is beneficial not only for you but the entire family! The advantage of shopping, planning and meal prepping on the weekend is that you have the time to choose healthier options! So to summarise, the three main benefits are: you will certainly save money, eat healthier meals and also reduce stress.

What are the disadvantages?

Of course meal prepping is time consuming, but can be therapeutic for others. You also might not enjoy eating the same dish every day or for a few days in a row. To avoid this, you can always use different sauces, spices or dressings to flavour meals differently.

Start with getting High Quality Food Storage Containers!

Now before anything, you want to make sure you stock up on reusable, eco-friendly air-tight, leak proof, safe food storage containers, glass jars or zip lock bags to help keep your foods fresher for longer! Whether it’s a home cooked meal or sliced fruits and vegetables, prioritise top quality food storage! At Green Shop we have fantastic food storage Ideas from 100% Leaf proof and Air-tight reusable food containers, to glass jars, silicone bento boxes and smart food bags! Shop Food Storage Ideas HERE!

Green Shop's 5 Recommended List of Food Storage Ideas:

1. Pickling Glass Jars x 12 (S,M,L) - valued at $20 -


2. Reusable Silicone Food Bags + Smart Bags - 25 pack - Sale $59.95


3. Kuvings Pack & Stack Lunch Box 3pk - $19


4. Reusable Silicone Bento Box – 2 Hole - 11.95

5. Premium Food Storage Containers – 6 pack - Sale $39

Once you have your meal-prepping gear, start curating your own list of food meal ideas. Green Shop’s meal ideas: Feel free to save this!

Breakfast:

• Overnight oats with fruits and berries, chia seeds and plant based milk.
• Egg and veggie muffins.
• Yogurt and berries and muesli.

Snacks:

• Slices of fruit.
• Home made banana bread.
• Nuts, seeds, dates, almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, chia, flax.
• Whole fruits: apples, bananas, oranges, clementines, plums, peaches, pears.

Lunch or Dinner Options

• Lean protein like chicken or tofu with stir fry vegetables.
• Tuna Salad with quinoa.
• Salmon or any fish with Quinoa or Cous Cous Salad.
• Chicken with veggies and quinoa.
• Lasagna with salad
• Veggie Soup.
• Lentil Soup.
• Stir Fry vegetables with Tofu.
• Stir fry Noodles.
• Pasta.
• Veggie Sandwich.
• Fried Rice.

How long will meal prepped food last?
Prepared foods can remain refrigerated for 2–5 days.

If you've reached the end of this post, thank you for reading! We hope you've learnt more about Meal Prepping and get inspired to cook and prepare your meals in advance!

Enjoy and Happy Meal Prepping! 
- Green Shop Online