Meal Prep: Friend or Foe?

There's a shit-ton of buzz on the internet about meal prep and food prepping for the upcoming week. I've seen so many pictures, blogs and articles, how-to's and success stories. I'm here to say- it's totally bogus. For me, that is, and here's why:

The culture in which I grew up, reveres recipes and takes pride in handing down any and all food-related traditions. There was this unspoken understanding when my mom, cousin, aunt or grandmother showed me how to make something delicious and the respect for that interaction, with them and food, was immediate.

This meal prep craze, coupled with pictures of people's refrigerators packed with neat little containers drives this Italian insane; containers marked "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday..." filled with already cooked meats, rice, veggies and ready-to-go salads makes me want to recycle my impromptu lunch. It has me wondering: where is the romance?

Don't get me wrong, I plan. Every week and here's how I do it:

Thursday evening I get out my Vegetarian Times magazines, cookbooks and mentally rolodexed recipes and go through them with my husband and we choose what strikes our fancy for the week. Once we've decided what we want for dinners and lunches, I review the ingredients for the recipes chosen and make a grocery list of what we need and write the recipe title on the list as well to remember why I need said ingredients. Friday mornings are my grocery chore days. I enjoy shopping when no one else is swarming the store and I am alone. I can get very creative and resourceful during this time. I wander the aisles, deep in dinner thought, and take some time to enjoy the experience. If you haven't done this, I highly recommend it.

Once home and all the groceries are put away, I go to our "white/chore-board/calendar" in the kitchen and put the dinner recipe title with the most veggies at the beginning of the week so the veggies get used first and have no chance of spoiling. For example, on Monday I'll make "Veggie Seitan Stirfry with Fresh Ginger", then fill in the rest of the week according to what is least likely to spoil.

Sundays, we do prep but we do it a bit differently. We don't use the labeled conatainers housing ready-to-wilt-any-day-now salads. We leave our veggies and salad-stuffs whole and in the *gasp* crisper, unattended and homeless! We make 2 loaves of our own vegan bread and place one in the fridge and the other in the freezer. We make one batch of seitan and place those chunks, uncooked (!) in a container swimming in my homemade veggie broth. My husband makes his own granola and depending on what staples are needed (homemade vegan Worcestershire sauce, veggie broth...etc) we make those as well. If homemade pizza is on the menu, for instance, I'll make my vegan pizza dough and place them in plastic bags in the freezer. I take them out the day before I plan to use them.

You may be thinking: "Uhhh, Bucky- that's meal-prepping!" Yes, it is. Yet, my Wednesday night meal is not cooked on Sunday and in a container waiting to be warmed. Here's where my meal prep differs. I cook Wednesday's dinner on Wednesday! If there's enough leftover, I'll have Wednesday's dinner as lunch on Thursday.

I want that relationship and romance with my food. I love and appreciate the healthy fuel I feed my body so much, I want the daily experience of chopping my fresh fruits and veggies, frying or baking my seitan, rolling out my pizza dough and getting flour all over my apron (yes, my apron) and making my own salad dressing. I want that, so I make time for it. It means that much to me, so it's that simple. A no-brainer.

Like I said, we do plan and if you're serious about fitness and eating healthy, then planning is necessary. An unplanned week leads to meals by chance and nothing good comes from that. However, one does not need to follow the masses and house each meal, for each day in order to be successful.

To each his own, whatever works for ya. This Italian loves getting her hands and apron dirty. Buon Appetito.

#mealprep #fitness #healthyeating