Foods for Meal Prep
Whether you are new to meal prep, the goal is to stock your pantry with prep ready ingredients. When you don’t have food that you want to avoid, you also eliminate the temptation of having that food. Resisting the urge to open a bag of chips when it is readily available on your pantry can be a very difficult task but when you actually don’t have that in your pantry and you need to drive to the store to get it every single time you will then have a choice of deciding how bad you really want it.
Making this changes all at once can be overwhelming but I promise you once you are done purging everything you actually don’t need will help you be to start fresh and be mentally prepared for the tasks ahead.
I will always advise to have a shopping list ready so that you are not distracted with everything on sale or anything that looks good at the moment. Shopping when you are hungry is also a very tempting way to keep on adding unnecessary items that is not on your meal prep list.
I am familiar with my local grocer so I know where everything is. I make a game of going in and out as fast as and making sure that I only have what I have listed. Sometimes I am in and out in 10 minutes!
Foods that go well with meal prep:
Cooked grains & pasta (rice, pasta, couscous, polenta)
Cooked beans
Cooked meat
Hearty fresh vegetables (think celery, carrots, peas, bell peppers, kale, cabbage, radishes, etc.)
Whole fruit (apples, oranges, stone fruit)
Cheese
Sauces and Dips (like salad dressings, hummus, salsa, sour cream, etc.)
Foods that don't usually meal prep well:
Softer fruits and vegetables (lettuce, berries, and cut fruit)
Crunchy items like fried food, crackers, or chips
Protein Rich Food Meat:
Chicken Breast
Minced meats such as (turkey, beef and chicken)
Fish such as salmon, hoki, barammundi
Seafood such as mussels, prawns, squid
Tuna (Fresh or canned)
Dairy/Meat Alternatives:
Tofu
Tempeh
Soy minced meats
Cottage cheese
Greek yogurt
Protein powders
Carbohydrates (grains):
Rice (brown, jasmine, black/wild rice)
Oats
Quinoa
Noodles (Egg, Singapore, hokkien)
Pasta (Wholemeal, white, egg pasta)
Wraps and Bread (tortilla, pita bread, Turkish Bread)
Lentils
Beans, Nuts and Seeds:
Beans (blackbeans, kidney beans,cannellini, chickpeas)
Seeds (Chia, flax, pumpkin, sesame, sunflower,almonds, walnuts)
Oils, Condiments and Seasonings:
Oils (olive oil avocado, coconut oil)
Vinegars (balsamic, red wine vinegar)
Soy sauce
Spices and Herbs (cayenne, cumin, turmeric, basil, rosemary, thyme)
Using Broths are also great alternative to making your food tastier and healthier. Adding in spices can also enrich your dish without adding too much ingredients.
I usually have a handful of nuts added to my salad to have that added fat and texture to the dish.
Having this staple ingredients would make it easy for you to build up your meal prep 😊