{"id":18794,"date":"2018-05-24T12:18:18","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T16:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatsgood.vitaminshoppe.com\/?p=18794"},"modified":"2018-09-20T12:39:31","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T16:39:31","slug":"meal-prep-basics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/meal-prep-basics\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s For Dinner? Self-Love"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Like most people these days, I live a fast and busy life\u2014which makes it challenging to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet. For a while I&#8217;d heard that meal prepping could help solve this modern-day conundrum, but it wasn&#8217;t until I actually put the practice to the test every Sunday that I realized just how much meal-prepping could change my life for the better.<\/p>\n<p>Taking the time to nurture myself by creating a menu, shopping for ingredients, and preparing foods turned out to be a radical form of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/18\/online-wellness-communities\/\">self-care:<\/a> I now find that the more conscious I am of my dietary choices, the more in-touch I feel with my body and the happier I am.<\/p>\n<p>While it may be a bit challenging to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/2017\/01\/06\/meal-prep-tips\/\">start a meal-prep routine<\/a>, it\u2019s totally worth it. Once you make the effort, you\u2019ll see that each meal yields infinite possibilities. Plus, you save loads of money.<\/p>\n<p>Making your meals in one long stretch is also a creative way to practice mindfulness. Slowing down and meditating on the texture of my food (say, a strawberry\u2019s coating of tiny seeds and ripples) suddenly gives me a sense that everything is linked\u2014 the earth, the gardens, the people that grow our foods, my health. I crave that meaning, that awareness, and that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/18\/emotional-eating\/\">connection to my food.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Looking to join the ranks of many joyful meal preppers but don\u2019t know where to start? Here are some of my no-frills methods\u2014hopefully they will inspire you to give it a shot!<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Logistics<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Learning to make a variety of meals that will last a full week (and working to stretch the capacity of each dollar) takes a good amount of planning and patience. The biggest challenge for me? Staying organized. With meal prepping, it\u2019s essential to always have <em>all<\/em>&nbsp;your ingredients on hand. Going to the grocery store for a forgotten item wastes precious time and distracts from the process. My solution: I use my phone to make a shopping list that I update continuously. It includes both pantry staples I\u2019m running low on, as well as foods I need for the week ahead.<\/p>\n<p>Since I usually cook several dishes for the week ahead, I use my phone to set separate alarms for each item\u2014 this helps the process go smoothly. I time out how long each item will take to be ready, and then cook the dishes that take the longest first.<\/p>\n<p>So, what do my meals look like? I tend to prefer a simple <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/08\/rosemary-long-life\/\">Mediterranean-inspired diet,<\/a> with lots of grains, greens, lean <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/search?search=protein\">proteins<\/a> (like fish and chicken), legumes, and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/search?search=olive%20oil\">olive oil.<\/a><\/p>\n<!-- Shortcode [rr-products] does not match the conditions -->\n<h2><strong>Breakfast <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>I&nbsp;find that mornings are the most challenging time of the day to eat healthy, given I&#8217;m always rushing around. Especially Monday mornings. Meal prep is a life saver or anyone who tends to get caught unintentionally skipping <ahref www.vitaminshoppe.com blog number-one-breakfast-mistake>breakfast.&nbsp;<\/ahref><\/p>\n<p>While many meal-preppers praise fresh <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/search?search=granola\">granolas<\/a>&nbsp;and all&nbsp;kinds of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/search?search=chia\">chia puddings<\/a> carefully placed into Pinterest-perfect, photo-ready Mason jars, I\u2019m not in this for the social media stardom.<\/p>\n<p><noscript><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"18844\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/meal-prep-basics\/screen-shot-2018-05-28-at-2-38-07-pm\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM.png?fit=1414%2C1056&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1414,1056\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Screen Shot 2018-05-28 at 2.38.07 PM\" data-image-description data-image-caption data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM.png?fit=300%2C224&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM.png?fit=740%2C553&amp;ssl=1\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-18844\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM.png?resize=740%2C553&#038;ssl=1\" alt width=\"740\" height=\"553\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM.png?resize=1024%2C765&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM.png?resize=300%2C224&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM.png?resize=768%2C574&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM.png?resize=272%2C203&amp;ssl=1 272w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM.png?resize=740%2C553&amp;ssl=1 740w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM.png?w=1414&amp;ssl=1 1414w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px\"><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"18844\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/meal-prep-basics\/screen-shot-2018-05-28-at-2-38-07-pm\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM.png?fit=1414%2C1056&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1414,1056\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Screen Shot 2018-05-28 at 2.38.07 PM\" data-image-description data-image-caption data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM.png?fit=300%2C224&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM.png?fit=740%2C553&amp;ssl=1\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-18844 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%20740%20553%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" alt width=\"740\" height=\"553\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%20740%20553%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E 740w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM.png?resize=1024%2C765&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM.png?resize=300%2C224&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM.png?resize=768%2C574&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM.png?resize=272%2C203&amp;ssl=1 272w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM.png?resize=740%2C553&amp;ssl=1 740w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM.png?w=1414&amp;ssl=1 1414w\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-28-at-2.38.07-PM-1024x765.png\"><\/p>\n<p>I keep breakfast nice and simple, with lots of fresh fruit, like fresh pineapple, guava, and blueberries or&nbsp;strawberries. I chop up and portion out these tropical fruits (one cup of fruit per breakfast) and then stash them in round, glass Tupperware <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/search?search=Mason%20jars,\">containers.<\/a><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Dinner &amp; Lunch<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>I use a crockpot to make the bulk of my lunches and dinners. I always start my crockpot dish before everything else, as they take the most time to cook. My favorite recipes are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seriouseats.com\/recipes\/2012\/01\/30-minute-tuscan-white-bean-soup-recipe.html\">white bean soup<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foodnetwork.com\/recipes\/giada-de-laurentiis\/beef-and-butternut-squash-stew-recipe-1950764\">butternut squash stew<\/a>, a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myrecipes.com\/recipe\/white-bean-turkey-chili\">white bean turkey chili<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.allrecipes.com\/recipe\/15425\/cincinnati-style-chili\/\">\u201cCincinnati Style\u201d chili<\/a>. I dream of having two, or even three, crockpots going at all times.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Base Ingredients<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>After I get the crockpot going, I prepare\u2014on the stove top\u2014whole grains<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/search?search=quinoa\">,<\/a> which act as a base for other meals and can also be added to salads. Using grains in my dishes helps me save money and diversify my diet, since grains (and beans and legumes) are pennies per portion.<\/p>\n<p>Polenta, rice, and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/search?search=steel-cut%20oats\">steel-cut oats<\/a> are all cost-effective and delicious, and quinoa is a staple in most of my meals, as are French Green lentils, which I spoon upon salads. I usually portion out a half cup of grains for each of my meals, and store them in glass Tupperware containers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/09\/instant-pot-recipes\/\">The Instant Pot Is A Meal Prep Master\u2014And These 6 Recipes Prove It<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Salads<br>\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>I love and live off of salads. To save time, I buy bags of julienned carrots and triple-washed boxed greens. Pro-tip: Arugula, kale, and spinach keep the best.<\/p>\n<p>On Sundays, I portion out five days\u2019 worth of salads, starting with five separate handfuls of greens. Then I prep and portion out the toppings (about one quarter to one half cup per topping). Once assembled, each salad is a ready-to-go meal, sans dressing and toppings. (Keep the dressing and toppings in small glass Tupperware containers or baggies.)<\/p>\n<p>I want each salad I enjoy to be slightly different, so I shop in the bulk section to purchase&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/search?search=nuts,\">nuts,<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/search?search=seeds,\">seeds,<\/a> and other healthy toppings like&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/search?search=dried%20fruits.\">dried fruits.<\/a> I love coupling candied pecans, crumbled walnuts, halved hazelnuts, or shaved almonds with crumbled goat cheese, dried cranberries or cherries (or fresh blueberries or strawberries, when in-season), and thinly-sliced red onions.<\/p>\n<p>For protein and an energy boost, I also top my salads with chopped roasted chicken (about three ounces). Or, I add a can of sardines for a dose of heart-healthy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/search?search=omega%203\">omega-3s.<\/a> Sometimes I add freshly-cooked and seasoned chickpeas, fresh from the crockpot).<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Veggies and Peppers<br>\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Root vegetables\u2014like carrots, fennel, beets, and potatoes\u2014take the longest to cook. Each week I roast a huge tray of beets and a bunch of vegetables (which I later eat chopped on a salad or on a bed of rice or quinoa).<\/p>\n<p>Faster-cooking peppers, zucchini, yellow and summer squashes, asparagus, onion, and garlic take less time, so I cook them later on during my Sunday meal prep session.<\/p>\n<p>Pro-tip: Heating everything in the oven at once saves time and energy, and keeps the kitchen cool in the hot summer months.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Diggin\u2019 What\u2019s Good? For more essential health facts, tips, and inspiration, joi<\/strong><\/em><em><strong>n our Facebook communities,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/EatingHealthyVitaminShoppe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eating Healthy<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/StayingFitVitaminShoppe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Staying Fit<\/a>, today!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like most people these days, I live a fast and busy life\u2014which makes it challenging to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet. For a while I&#8217;d heard that meal prepping could help solve this modern-day conundrum, but it wasn&#8217;t until I actually put the practice to the test every Sunday that I realized just how much<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/meal-prep-basics\/\">Read More <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">What\u2019s For Dinner? Self-Love<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":18796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,7,8,9],"tags":[62,96,1303,160,179,1302],"class_list":["post-18794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-nutrition","category-stories","category-the-latest","tag-cooking","tag-food","tag-grains","tag-meal-prep","tag-nutrition","tag-salads"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What\u2019s For Dinner? Self-Love | What\u2019s Good blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Like most people these days, I live a fast and busy life\u2014which makes it challenging to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet. For a while I&#039;d heard that meal ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/meal-prep-basics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What\u2019s For Dinner? Self-Love | What\u2019s Good blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Like most people these days, I live a fast and busy life\u2014which makes it challenging to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet. For a while I&#039;d heard that meal ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/meal-prep-basics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"What\u2019s Good blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/THEVITAMINSHOPPE\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-05-24T16:18:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-09-20T16:39:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Untitled-design-24.png?fit=740%2C307&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"740\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"307\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Julia Laxer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@VitaminShoppe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@VitaminShoppe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Julia Laxer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/meal-prep-basics\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/meal-prep-basics\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Julia Laxer\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vitaminshoppe.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f433be3219bbe1113ebdf679a6e54524\"},\"headline\":\"What\u2019s For Dinner? 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