Meal preparation: 6 tips when working full-time ‣ Talenteeds

Finding time to eat well can be very difficult these days. Everything is important enough to require your maximum effort and attention: make time to exercise daily; spend more time your friends and family; get the highest grade in school; move to the highest ranked position at work

A 1 hour investment of meal prep will offer a return of several hours saved in the kitchen throughout the week. When time in the kitchen feels less burdensome, it means you’ll be more likely to make meals at home more often. And when you make meals at home more often, you’ll start to realize just how much money you’re saving!… And that can start to feel real good. Rewarding experiences are what keeps us going back to them.

1. Onions: Store up to 5 days.

Batch peel and quarter the onions, and instead of chopping them yourself, put them in a food processor and pulse them until they are coarsely chopped.

Then using just a little bit of oil in a non-stick pan, cook them on high heat until they soften. When they start to stick to the bottom, instead of adding more oil, just add about a quarter cup of water (75mL) and stir. This bring up the browning which helps to caramelize the onions better, and prevents them from burning. Plus it’s way healthier than using more oil. Then repeat this as needed until all the onions are caramelized, about 10 minutes.

Place the onions in an air-tight container, let it cool, and put it in the fridge.

2. Garlic: Store up to 2 weeks.

Advance cut and peel the garlic. This can seem time consuming too, but it’s super mindless so you can do it while you’re talking on the phone, or just give it to your kids or partner to do while they watch TV. Personally I just love spacing out while doing it; it’s like meditating for those 5 minutes.
Once peeled, put it in an airtight container and put it in the fridge.

3. Grains and legumes

Always soak your grains and lentils beforehand, even if just for a couple hours, but preferably up to 8 hours or overnight. I always meal prep on Sundays, so I’ve gotten in the habit of soaking them Saturday night. Read this PUL article that explains the many, many benefits of soaking before cooking – one of which is that it quickens cooking time!
It’s also helpful if you can rinse the beans or lentils at some while it’s soaking, in order to wash away those compounds that can make us gassy… you know what I mean.
If you’ve got less time: lentils cook way faster than beans, and quinoa faster than brown rice.

4. Hummus

Using either canned beans or the chickpeas you just cooked, make a batch to store in the fridge.
Here’s a recipe you can use… and another one.

It’s healthier than the store bought kind, and way cheaper too.

5. Veggies

You’re more likely to eat more if it’s readily on hand. Use anything you like here: carrots, bell peppers, broccoli… you know what to do it. It’s just about doing it.

6. Frozen bananas

Peel super ripe bananas. I like to quarter them so I know that every 4 pieces = 1 banana.
Then arrange it on a single layer and put it in the freezer. Putting a parchment paper on top of the plate also helps when trying to remove it later so the bananas don’t stick to the plate. Once frozen, transfer it to a bag or container – in this way they don’t stuck together and are easy to grab and use.