Lesson 3.3: Meal Prep Tips and Tricks + Batch Cooking

Imagine this: a fridge full of ready-to-go, healthy meals that fit perfectly into your busy life. Sounds like a dream, right? Well, it’s entirely achievable! In this lesson, we’ll unlock the secrets of meal prepping and batch cooking, infused with the vibrant flavors of the Mediterranean. By the end, you’ll be a meal prep aficionado, ready to tackle your week with delicious, nutritious food at your fingertips.

Embracing the Mediterranean Approach to Meal Prep

Meal prepping and batch cooking are key components of maintaining a healthy diet. They involve preparing large quantities of food ahead of time, which can be stored and used throughout the week. This approach is particularly effective for the Mediterranean diet, as it emphasizes fresh and whole foods. More importantly, batch cooking is your culinary secret weapon is it embraces the motto of: cook once and eating healthily throughout the week.

When we do this, we get two main benefits:

Meal Prepping: Meal prepping helps reduce the stress of daily cooking, ensures you have healthy meals at hand, and can even help with portion control, ensure you get all the nutrients and health benefits of the Med Diet, and as an added bonus – reducing food waste.
Batch Cooking: Cooking larger quantities of a particular recipe and storing it for future meals ensures when hunger strikes, you’ve got healthy options (it’s those impulse snacks and foods that are the most tempting – and terrible for us). This is also particularly useful for staples like grains, legumes, and proteins.

Efficient Meal Prep Strategies & Planning

Here’s some Strategies to streamline your meal prep:

Plan Your Prep Sequence: Start with items that take the longest to cook. Get your grains on the stove, then move on to chopping vegetables or prepping proteins.
Multitask Like a Pro: Utilize all your kitchen equipment. While something’s in the oven, use your stovetop and countertop for other preparations.
Prep Components, Not Just Full Meals: This gives you the flexibility to whip up different meals. Grilled chicken can turn into a salad topping, a sandwich filler, or a main dish with a side of vegetables.
Choose Recipes Wisely: Select recipes that are both suitable for batch cooking and align with the Mediterranean diet. Think about dishes that can be easily stored and reheated, like stews, soups, or grain salads.
Ingredient Overlap: Choose recipes with overlapping ingredients to streamline your shopping list and minimize waste.
Prep Schedule: Decide on a day of the week to do most of your meal prep. This could be a weekend day when you have more time to cook.
Grains and Legumes: Cook a large batch of grains like quinoa or brown rice and legumes like lentils or chickpeas. Store them in portioned containers for easy use throughout the week.
Vegetables: Roast or grill a variety of vegetables in bulk. They can be added to salads, wraps, or served as sides.
Proteins: Bake or grill multiple servings of fish or chicken. These can be used in different meals like salads, sandwiches, or main courses.
Sauces and Dressings: Prepare dressings and sauces that can add flavor to any meal. A classic vinaigrette or a tahini-based dressing can transform simple ingredients.

Making The Most Of Batch Cooking

Choose Your Recipes Wisely: Opt for dishes that are diverse, nourishing, and freezer-friendly. A mix of soups, stews, grain-based salads, and roasted vegetables gives you a variety to look forward to.
Cook in Bulk: Prepare large quantities of base ingredients. Grains like farro, brown rice, or quinoa; legumes like lentils and chickpeas; and a variety of roasted or sautéed vegetables can be mixed and matched to create different meals.
Season as You Go: Modify flavors throughout the week. Using different herbs, spices, and dressings can transform a simple grain salad into a culinary journey from Italy to Greece in just a few days.