When I think of cooking dinner, two memes come to mind.

Cooking dinner is one of life’s biggest responsibilities. I know this sounds over-dramatic, but as humans one of our core needs is food. We need to eat in order to survive. Therefore, the person who is responsible for making meals to feed themselves and others plays a very important role, especially if this person has a family to feed. Without a plan or some sort of routine with meals, the thought of making dinner every night will either overwhelm you or depress you.

This is where meal prepping can save your life and mental health.

In this post I will share some of my favourite tried and tested meal prepping hacks. These hacks will help busy mums save time for the more important things in life like watching Netflix. I’m kidding, the more important things in life like spending quality time with our families and loved ones.

Before we begin, let’s discuss what ‘meal prepping’ is.

Meal prepping is “the process of preparing meals, snacks, or ingredients ahead of time”.

There are 3 main reasons that people prefer meal prepping to making meals on the go.

1. Meal prepping saves time. Preparing meals in one day saves time throughout the week. You will spend less time everyday thinking over what to make for dinner, and will not have to worry about getting the ingredients for dinner and then putting the ingredients together to make a decent meal.
2. Meal prepping helps you make healthier choices. If you have meals prepared for the week ahead of time, you are less likely to make unhealthy choices. When you are tired after a long day of work or parenting, you might resort to an unhealthy takeaway, but if you have meals prepped, you will not need to turn to less healthy options. Also, with meal prepping you can ensure ahead of time that you have prepared well balanced meals with enough protein and vegetables.
3. Meal prepping saves money. With one trip to the supermarket, you can acquire all the ingredients you need for the week ahead, and you can ensure that you get value for money on your shop, rather than shopping every evening before dinner and buying the most convenient product, no matter the cost.

So let me share my first hack for meal prepping.

1. Get your hands on a chopper/dicer/processor sooner rather than later. If you want to save time in the kitchen, and you don’t have a gadget to help you process ingredients, then you have already lost time.

The gadgets I currently use to save time:

• Nutribullet Magic Bullet Kitchen Express. I have owned mine for a few years and it is extremely useful. I use it to process, slice and grate vegetables, especially onions. I also use it to make smoothies and cheesecakes. I purchased mine from Argos, but it is available on Amazon.
• Briefton Food Chopper. This was gifted to me by a subscriber and I love using it. I mainly use it to chop vegetables to add to curries and omelettes, I chop potatoes into chunks to make pakoras. The chopper has 3 attachment sizes so if, for example, I want to make an omelette I would use the smallest size. This item is also available on Amazon.

2. Meal prep on the same day as your grocery shop. We do a weekly grocery shop, and I ensure that I prepare any meals, snacks and ingredients for the week on the same day as our weekly shop. This method saves time, and if you do the same, you will have most of your ingredients readily available to use because the shopping will not have been put away yet.
3. Cut and portion meat for each meal. I plan and prepare meals for the week before doing the weekly shop, and then buy the appropriate portions of meat (or fish or veg) for each meal planned. For example, if I have planned to make chicken fajitas for one meal, I would buy whole chicken breasts, cut the chicken breasts into chunks and place them into a resealable freezer bag (ideally with a label for intended use, but I can be lazy with labelling most of the time). This way, on the day when you intend to make chicken fajitas, you can defrost the chicken breast chunks and add them directly to your cooking, instead of defrosting whole chicken breasts (which takes longer anyway) and then cutting the chicken. This makes meal prepping much easier and more efficient. Ideally, by the end of your meal prep, you should have seven portions of meat/fish/veg in freezer bags or containers to use throughout the week.
4. Use frozen vegetables and other premade ingredients. Don’t be shy to use ready frozen ingredients from the supermarket, for example, sliced or diced frozen onions and frozen garlic cubes. Supermarkets have a huge variety of frozen vegetables and fruit chopped and sliced into ready-to-use, convenient packaging, and there is no shame in taking a shortcut or two when you have other priorities in life and cannot dedicate more than a few hours to the kitchen. Nobody will judge you for using frozen ingredients, although they may judge me for sharing this with you.
5. Batch prepare base ingredients If you insist on using only fresh ingredients in your meals, why not chop or slice a batch of ingredients to freeze in portions? I have done this in the past with onions (get ready to shed many tears while cutting the onions), garlic and other vegetables like bell peppers and aubergines. It is immensely satisfying to chuck a frozen block of sliced onions into a pan and watch it sizzle back to life, without having to do any of the prep on the day.
6. One pot wonder A really easy meal prep hack is to make meals that can be made in one pot. Not only does this save time and hassle, it also saves on washing up. I love to make a pilau, which is a rice dish cooked in stock or broth with added meat or veg, at least once a week. I cook pilau in a large pan, and the best thing is that I can make extra to freeze in containers for the family to enjoy throughout the week. Some other one pot meals include soup, casserole and one-pot pasta.
7. Two-for-one Another meal prep hack that I love is to make an extra meal to freeze when you make dinner. You’re making dinner anyway, so why not double up the ingredients and make another? For example, if you’re making lasagne for dinner one night, add twice the ingredients to make two lasagnes, and one can be frozen for another day. This is such an easy and efficient way to meal prep, and you won’t feel burdened because you are not really increasing your workload.
8. Emergency meal One of the most difficult times to cook dinner is when there is an emergency or if, for example, your child is not feeling well. My children are very clingy when they are poorly, and when they were younger it would be near impossible to spend more than five minutes in the kitchen. It saves so much stress to have one decent family meal prepared and in the freezer for those difficult times in life. Of course it would be even better if family, friends or neighbours are able to help with meals, but not everyone is blessed with this kind of help. If you cannot have a meal prepared for emergencies, ensure that you have some readymade freezer options from the supermarket (like chicken nuggets, fish fingers and frozen chips).
9. Cut up fruit and veg to eat throughout the week This is such a simple hack to include in your meal prep routine, and it will help you stay healthy when you may want to reach for an unhealthy snack on a busy or tiring day. Cut up and slice fruit and veg like cucumber, carrots and lettuce, and refrigerate in pots and resealable bags to consume during the week. Fruit and vegetables expire within a few days, especially lettuce, so only cut up as much as you will use in order to reduce food waste.
10. Treat yourself This is the most enjoyable part of meal prep. Give yourself a little treat when you have completed your meal prep. For me, this is usually a coffee with something sweet. For you, it might be a takeaway (which kind of negates the whole point of meal prep).

All the best with meal prep, and I will leave you with the following quote:

“Hard work should be rewarded by good food” – Ken Follett