It’s happening to all of us, the amount of time each of us is allotted in a busy work week is the same, but the needs of our families and the ever-growing expectations of those we work for seem to be exponentially disproportionate to each other!

So, how can you eradicate this mundane chore which just adds more stress to the hamster wheel?

Enter – Meal prep for a week in advance; it’ll save you time and money, allow you the feeling of having a night off and best of all you can rope in those around you to bulk cook with you, allowing for a bit of relationship building whilst you are at it!

So how do you start? Firstly, gather your recipes, create a meal plan, shop, create a meal prep plan – do this so if any recipes require the same ingredients you chop and peel enough for all of them, get a great playlist going; a clean kitchen and begin to take the pressure out of your week ahead!  

For inspirational ideas on what to cook you can use Pinterest to collect recipes or check meal planning app’s like this amazing one: Plan to Eat. With this app, you can collect recipes, create meal plans and shopping lists all on your phone or computer. It’s pretty nifty!

Use the 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 method to build your meals. This means;

• One protein like chicken.
• One starchy food like rice or sweet potato
• One green vegetable (or a few); and
• Flavouring like marinade, sauce, herbs or spices.

Start with sautéing all of the onions and garlic, followed by cooking all of the protein, then add in your veggies (easier if you roast these or grate them into your bulk dishes), finish by flavouring. Store in easy zip lock bags which you have labeled.  

Some easy hacks:

• Wait for your food to cool before storing it
• Double up on the recipes you love and enjoy.
• Don’t try and do it all! Start small and prep just one or two meals in the beginning. Plan as much or as little as works for you.

Meal prepping isn’t for everyone, but it will get easier and less time consuming with practice! Keep it simple. Don’t try and do all meals and snacks for everyday in the week all in one go, besides getting old really fast it will just be overwhelming and will turn you off becoming the meal prepping guru we know you can be! And don’t forget to check your fridge for what you already have before going out and buying new ingredients.   If you are still not convinced then prep the ingredients vs making the whole meal, you can still save yourself a lot of time during the week simply by arming yourself with freshly washed and cut fruits and vegetables.

Below we’ve included some mouth-watering chicken dump meals to get you started; these don’t require cooking beforehand, rather dumping everything into one bag freezing until the day you are ready to cook. It’s a great introduction to meal prepping in advance and it’s easy!  Bake roast veggies on the side, and store in the fridge to spruce up the flavours and colour.   

Steps to making Chicken Dump Meals:

1. Get out all ingredients.
2. Label resealable freezer bag (you can use a permanent marker or print labels to stick on) with the name and cooking instructions.)
3.  Prop the bottom of the bags and fold over the top so that they will stay open.
4. Add chicken into each bag. You can use boneless, skinless thighs or breasts.
5. Once the chicken is in all of the bags, dump the ingredients for the recipe into the bag.
6. When all the ingredients are in each bag, remove the excess air, seal the bags, lay flat, and freeze.

Chicken Hurry

chicken
1/2 cup tomato sauce

1/4 cup water
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 Tbsp. dry onion soup mix

Cooking instructions:

Thaw.  Bake at 180° for an hour or in the crock pot on low for 4-6 hours. Add to freezer bags. Label.

Caribbean Chicken

chicken
230 grams of canned pineapple chunks with juice
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/3 cup orange juice
1/2 cup raisin

Cooking instructions:

Thaw.  Bake at 180° for an hour or in the crock pot on low for 4-6 hours.

Lemon and Garlic Chicken

chicken
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
4 Tbsp. of olive oil
2 Tbsp. fresh chopped parsley
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. pepper

Cooking instructions:

Thaw.  Bake at 180° for 45-55 minutes or in the slow-cooker on low for 4-6 hours.

Sticky Chicken

chicken
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 Tbsp. soya sauce

3 Tbsp. peanut butter
3 Tbsp.  tomato sauce

Cooking instructions:

Thaw.  Bake at 180° for 45-55 minutes.

Cantonese Chicken

chicken
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup melted honey
1/4 cup soya sauce
2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Cooking instructions:

Thaw.  Bake at 180° for one hour or in the crock pot on low for 4-6 hours.