If you are a busy person, who still likes to make their own meals but would like to perhaps reduce your time in the kitchen then this article is for you. Not only will be be covering some food prep ideas I will also be providing you with complete access to my simple meal formula infographics to help you with a basic flow process when making soups, salads, stews, smoothies, stir frys and breakfast skillets.
Each meal has three categories to help you change the meal to suit your general protein, fat and carb requirements. It’s essentially a hundred recipes in one document!
Whenever you are making significant changes to your diet or following a specific diet strategy, food preparation can be a deal breaker.
Not everyone has the luxury of someone preparing their food, thus setting aside time to ensure that you have the right food available to you when you need it is crucial.
I’m not suggesting that you need to live your life eating out of tupperware tubs, however a combination of batch cooking and prepping your food ahead of time will control a lot of the variables that often catch people out and lead to choices that are unsupportive of their goals.
Introducing the weekly or bi-weekly ritual
Imagine if every time you were hungry you were able to open your fridge or a cool bag and pull out a healthy nutritious meal.
Once or twice per week put aside a few hours to perform some significant food prep.
Those few hours can be spent prepping salad veg, preparing veg that can be quickly cooked, batch cooking various proteins and store these foods in containers either as ready made meals or meals that are only going to take a short time to put together.
We often batch cook soups/stews or other one-pot dishes that can be kept in the fridge or frozen and then taken out, heated on the hob and either eaten or added to a food flask for later in the day.
Daily food prep
If weekly food prep doesn’t seem to fit into your schedule then perhaps a daily food prep method would be more up your street.
This is the method I find many clients tend to utilise. The goal is to find a point in the day where you can prep the next 24hours of food.
For some people this may be right at the start of day, but I find for most people the evening time while making your evening meal is a good option.
While making your evening meal, aim to prep the next days food as well. One simple strategy is to cook double portion sizes of certain meals, for example I have many clients cook their evening meal and make enough to have for lunch the next day.
Simple snacks or additional meals can be made at the same time you are prepping your evening meal.
Keep it simple
You don’t have to eat a gourmet meal every time you eat. Food plays different roles and satisfying how food impacts the body is generally the most crucial of these roles.
I like to use simple meal methods to help me put together a quick and easy meal.
We have created some Simple Meal Formula’s to help you out with simple meals and allow you to be flexible with your food choices based upon what you have available to you.
Check out the downloadable infographics at the bottom of this article. You will see a tab at the top of each one with either BURN, BALANCE or BOOST.
BURN is lower carb with moderate proteins and a little higher in fats.
BALANCE is moderate across proteins, fats and carbs.
BOOST is higher in carbs, moderate in proteins and a little lower in fats.
This is to help guide you through a little macronutrient management as well.
Keeping it simple, here is your 4-step plan to making your nutrition work.
- Assess your diary for the coming week
- Make a basic menu
- Shop for the ingredients
- Set some time in your diary where you are going to batch cook your food.
You don’t need to live like this all the time, but mindfulness around what you are eating especially when you have specific health or body composition goals is crucial.
Simple Smoothies
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Simple Soups
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Simple Salads
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Simple Stir Frys
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Simple Stews
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Simple Skillets
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Contact Steve Grant Health
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Please note that depending on your specific circumstances and goals, Steve may recommend that you work with one of the specialist practitioners within his network of trusted professionals.
If you have been referred by a clinician, please complete the form and ensure that you state who has referred you or have your practitioner email Steve direct to make a referral that way.
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