At one point or another, a lot of us have given meal prep a shot. After all, the thought of ready-to-eat meals and the chance to shred those few extra pounds is extremely enticing.
However, the fervor of the whole deal lasts only about a week, until you become bored and go back to stopping at your favorite fast-food joints for your daily nourishment.
Why is your meal-prepping journey so short-lived? Well, maybe because you have gone on autopilot: buying the same ingredients every week, making the same recipes, and thus, eating the same thing over and over and over again.
So how can you escape this mundane meal-prepping routine? Here are 8 tips that are bound to make your meal-prepping sessions fun!
1. Outsource Meal Prep to a Private Chef
If you just hate meal prepping and can’t be bothered to go through the rest of this article, you can always outsource it to Gathar’s new meal prep service. Private chefs are experienced professionals who can provide you with the best meal-prepping experience.
Having someone cook for you eliminates the tedious task of having to come up with recipes and cook them. Also, private chefs are able to tailor a meal-prepping plan that perfectly fits your budget and taste.
You may be worried that private chefs are too expensive, but actually, they are more affordable than you may think. Plus, you can spend your time on more important things — such as running your online business — while still eating like a king.
2. Use the Same Ingredients to Make Different Meals
Many of us don’t have the time to make grocery runs multiple times a week. The result: you end up making the same bland and boring meals using the ingredients in your pantry.
However, creative cooking doesn’t require an overload of different ingredients — it simply requires innovation! After all, humans have had the same ingredients since the beginning of time, yet we keep finding novel ways to consume them.
So, the next time you are stuck with the same set of ingredients, take it as a challenge! Steam everything that you used to fry, and grill everything you used to steam.
The bottom line: have fun with it! You can start with these 11 recipes you can make using the same 5 ingredients.
3. Seasoning Creatively Can Make All the Difference
Sometimes, even the idea of tasting the same meal more than once a week is displeasing. However, all your taste buds are asking for is more flavor — or perhaps a different kind of flavor.
After all, cooking is a game reliant on seasoning the same ingredients differently. You can make a salty recipe spicy, a spicy one more lemony, and a lemony one sweeter.
When it comes to being creative about seasoning, the sky is your limit! Also, as an alternative to high-sodium seasonings, don’t forget to use spices that are healthy for you such as cumin, ginger, cardamom, and turmeric.
4. Add Color to Feast Your Eyes
The satisfaction of opening your refrigerator to ready-to-eat meals can lessen over time if all your meals look the same.
You are repelled by broccoli even before tasting it because it looks a little too similar to the lettuce you had just yesterday.
Research indicates that color is an important sensory cue when it comes to food, as studies show that changing the color of a food changes its perceived taste.
Plus, according to food and nutrition expert Julie Garden-Robinson, a colorful palate is healthier. Different colored fruits and vegetables confer different advantages. Red is good for the brain, orange for the immune system, and green for your bones, teeth, and muscles!
5. Turn Meal-Prepping Into a Hangout With Friends
Nowadays, meal-prepping isn’t just a chore to undertake. It is a new trend everyone is dying to explore.
Young people, especially, regularly post Instagram-able pictures of the food they make, inspiring others to do the same.
Thus, an increasing number of people are meal prepping, so why do it alone? Instead, you can make it a chance for a get-together with friends. Instead of Sunday brunch, maybe try out Sunday meal planning!
6. Make Your Palate Versatile — Try New Recipes
Of course, some go-to recipes never bore you. But eventually, everyone needs new recipes that make meal prepping and eating anticipated experiences.
These don’t necessarily have to be complex or contain hard-to-pronounce ingredients: no one’s Gordon Ramsay here! A simple search on Pinterest or Instagram is all that is needed for you to find a new recipe to try out each week. Some of our favorites can be found in this list of 80 budget-friendly meal prep ideas and this collection of the top foods to try before you die.
7. Add Sauces to Give New Flavor to Old Recipes
Even an otherwise bland piece of chicken is enticing if paired with the perfect sauce. The good news is that most homemade sauces require nothing but a blender and a few ingredients. Plus, they can be kept in the refrigerator for a long time, making it easier for you to change up the flavors of your food depending on your mood.
To keep it healthy, set aside a little bit of time to prepare sauces at home instead of using store-bought high-calorie sauces. Here are some easy-to-make homemade sauces that are tried, tested, and loved.
8. Switch up Your Sides
The next time you’re on a grocery run for your weekly meal prep, stay away from your usual mix of fruits and vegetables, and discover new produce, even if it doesn’t look or sound the most appealing at first.
Instead of the usual potatoes, carrots, and celery, try going for sunchoke, Romanesco broccoli, or oca. You never know — you might just discover your new favorite side!
9. Change Your Protein
Health experts recommend lean meat as the source of protein in our diet to keep the calories low. But why does this automatically equate to chicken for most of us? Beans, fish, oysters, prawns, lobsters, and even certain cuts of beef qualify as lean meat. So why keep eating the same chicken when a sea of options await?