Planning & Prepping

I don't usually have a lot of non-recipe posts on the site but I wanted to share a new technique that I am trying to incorporate. I am sure that many people also read the Kitchn site and can across an article about a woman who preps an entire week of veggies in an afternoon and I have to admit I was intrigued. I always felt that cooking was something that I enjoyed doing each night and that advance prepping was more for people who had a bunch of children and a million activities. Last night, I cooked in the oven and since I was fresh from the grocery store with bags of fresh veggies I decided to give it a shot. While I prepped and cooked my fish and spinach I also made 2 lunches, 1 dinner mise en place and a healthy snack.

One of the biggest challenges to eating healthy is often time and planning. Its just so easy to grab something that isn't good for us - especially with so many tricky foods that market themselves as healthy. I wanted to try and set myself up for a good week and I needed to make sure that I had many different options ready so I didn't end up just "grabbing" something. One of the best and hardest parts of my work is that I often am traveling or eating out so there is a lot of temptation.

The dishes that I prepared were two servings of swiss chard and beans for lunches, roasted broccoli for snacking. I also prepped my dinner for tomorrow by dicing all of the peppers and onions needed for chili. This did save me a lot of time and helped me to prepare for the week as well as keep to my planned meals which helps in my new healthy outlook. I also put together a sandwich for his lunch and all the food for my day, an egg, berries and yogurt, a serving of the chard and beans, an apple and a clementine.

Do you ever meal prep in advance? Do you make a plan and stick to it or just make most meals as they come?