Meal prepping is a very quick and efficient way to prepare the foods you want to eat for the week. Especially now that I am going to college and living on my own for the first time, meal prepping has allowed cooking to become much more convenient.
The first thing I do is make a list of all the foods I want to eat for the week and what days I want to eat them. This allows me to purchase the right groceries. For instance, if you plan to eat avocados during the week but don’t specify the day, you might buy avocados that are too ripe or not ripe enough. By meal prepping, you can buy only the groceries you need to save time and money. Additionally, planning out my meals for the week allows me to eat more diverse foods. I can plan ahead to try new dishes and buy the ingredients necessary for those dishes. I love watching cooking videos on YouTube to get ideas of what I can eat for the week.
I usually buy the groceries for the week on Saturday and prepare the meals on Sunday. This usually means cooking some ingredients and putting portions into containers. I have found this especially helpful for when I make smoothies. On Sunday, I put all the solid ingredients I need for each smoothie in a Ziploc bag. I usually drink smoothies in the morning before class, so it saves me time to be able to just pour the Ziploc bag into the blender instead of having to portion each ingredient in the morning. This allows me to sleep in more, which is something every college student needs.
I love meal prepping because it gives me more free time. During the weekdays, I don’t have to worry as much about cooking, and I can focus on doing homework and studying. This allows me to also spend more time hanging out with friends. I recommend that everyone meal prep, especially college students.