Lynda Rhodes - Meal Prep: The Complete Meal Prep Cookbook For Beginners: Your Essential Guide To Losing Weight And Saving Time

Meal Prep

The complete meal prep cookbook for beginners: your essential guide to losing weight and saving time delicious, simple, and healthy meals to prep and go!

Meal preppers, welcome! This book is all about meal prepping, from tips and tricks, benefits and secrets, all the way to recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If you have a goal to lose weight and trim down, youve started at the right place as meal prepping can really help you to reach your goals. Theres something about being organized and dedicated which makes you really want to stick to your goals and eat the foods you know will deliver you to your healthiest weight yet.

These recipes are not diet recipes; they are healthy, nutritious, filling, and tasty recipes. I dont believe you need to cut out food groups or deprive yourself in order to lose weight. In fact, eating properly, eating enough, and eating foods that satisfy you will result in weight loss you can maintain and sustain. So, if youre looking for a particular diet or eating style, then this might not be the book for you! But I hope it is, as I know youll love these recipes as much as I do.

Oh, I should add a bit about me! I am not a nutritionist or dietitian. But I am someone who has successfully lost weight through sensible and healthy eating, and of course, meal prepping! I want to pass on my recipes and my knowledge of meal prepping so you too can experience the same success and health benefits.

Please consult your doctor or nutritionist for advice and guidance if you are looking to lose large amounts of weight, or if you have health issues which might be affected due to a change in diet. This book is a friendly and supportive guideline to help you lose weight in a healthy way, without extreme changes or deprivation.

Now, lets get into the ins and outs of meal prepping!

Meal prepping is the art of preparing your meals the night (or a few nights) before eating. It usually involves preparing a few portions of each meal, packing them away in airtight containers, and storing in the fridge. Many people prep their meals these days, because it saves time, encourages healthy eating, and controls portions. Sometimes, the meal is completely prepared and cooked in its entirety before being stacked away in the fridge or freezer until it is needed. Whereas sometimes, meals are only partially prepared so they can be cooked right before eating. For example, you can prep lasagna by cooking the sauces and layering it all up before covering and storing in the fridge, raw. You would then place the lasagna into a preheated oven before eating the next night. Whatever prepping method you choose, its a great way to manage your time and your diet!

There are countless reasons to get into the joys of meal prepping, but here are some of the top reasons:

Saves time

By setting aside a chunk of time to get all or most of your meals for the week prepped, you are saving yourself hours of frazzled and rushed cooking throughout the coming days. You can wake up in the morning, grab your prepped breakfast from the fridge, throw your prepped lunch into your bag (ready to eat as soon as youre ready!), and come home to a ready-made dinner you only need to heat in the oven or microwave. Not only do you save cooking time, you also save thinking time. I dont know about you, but thinking about what to have for breakfast, lunch and dinner always takes up far more of my time than it should!

Saves money

When you decide what to eat for lunch and dinner as you go through the week, you end up heading to the supermarket every couple of days, which increases your chance of spending money on things you dont really need. But when you make a plan of what you will eat for each meal for the entire week, you can do one shop where you buy only what you need for those particular meals. You will end up with far less unnecessary items, and more money in your wallet!

Keeps you healthy with portion control and planning

Meal prepping is all about packing away single servings of food for each meal. Therefore, you only make enough for a certain number of portions, with no leftovers. Im sure you can sympathize with me when I say that leftovers are my absolute downfall! When I dont prep my meals, I end up eating far larger portions than I need, because its right there in front of me! When you go to eat your breakfast, lunch and dinner, all you have to eat is the single portion you have made, nothing more.

Of course, this does mean you need to prepare sensible portion sizes in the first place, which I have aimed to provide in these recipes. You can adjust the ingredient quantities to suit your personal portion-size preference for your BMI, calorie requirements and activity levels.

Helps you to reach your goals

Quite simply, prepping your meals helps you to remain in control of your eating habits in order to reach your weight loss and health-related goals. You can assess the calories and macros for each recipe and make sure they fit with your weight loss eating plan, so you know that each meal you enjoy is going to help you get to where you want to be.

Gives you some you time!

This works two ways! One: the actual meal-prepping process gives you some time for yourself to quietly potter away and enjoy being in the kitchen, with busy hands and lots of creating to do. Two: you will have so much more time to yourself (and for your loved ones) throughout the week when you would usually be rushing around trying to prepare meals from scratch.

Get a scrap book to keep your favorite recipes and ideas

Trying to think of things to have for each meal can be tiresome and draining, so its great to have a compilation of your favorite dishes, and some new ones to try too! When you come across a dish you really love and you would like it to be a regular in your rotation, print or write it out and stick it in your homemade recipe book! Hopefully youll find some new favorites in this book to add to your repertoire.

If you like to freestyle some of your meals and forgo the use of a recipe, make sure you write down the ingredients you used and a rough rundown of the method, so you can recreate it another time! Youll end up with your very own, self-curated recipe book.

Get your partner or family in on the meal-prep fun

If youre prepping for a partner or for your family as well as for yourself, dont take on all the work! Get your family or loved one involved, and treat it as a chance for some quality time for talking and laughing as you prep. If you have kids, give them an easy job so they can practice their food-prep skills while making them feel useful and appreciated in the kitchen with Mom or Dad. This will help to establish meal-prep time as a fun and relaxing thing to do, which means youll be far more likely to keep the routine up!

Make a dedicated meal-prep box to keep in the pantry

In my pantry, you will find a large box filled with containers, measuring cups and spoons, and a range of regularly-used ingredients. I keep oats, nuts, seeds, canned goods such as beans and corn, olive oil, salt, pepper, herbs, spices, and more. When I embark on each meal-prep session I place this box on the counter and it has all of the essentials I need to create many meals. All I need to do is get my fresh produce, meat and dairy from the fridge and Im good to go. This makes life quicker and easier as it means you dont need to rummage around in cupboards, shelves, and drawers to find utensils, containers, and ingredients.

Choose a meal-prep day and make sure its a relaxing experience

If you plan your meal prepping days right, you will begin to really look forward to each meal prep session. It shouldnt be a stressful, rushed, or cumbersome activity, so choose a day when youve got a large chunk of time all to yourself. I find that Sunday afternoons and evenings are the best, as there are rarely social or work activities on Sunday (and there should never be!). I start at 2pm and just meander through the process for as long as it takes and I find it really does relax me. I usually put a podcast or movie on my computer and watch or listen as I quietly work its a great time to binge watch a great show! The great thing about Sunday is that you wake up on Monday morning with all of your meals planned and prepped. Choose a day and time that works best for you and do whatever you can to make the experience enjoyable. You could even invite a friend or two around to chatter away with you as you prep (perhaps a nice glass of wine while youre at it?).