3 Reasons Your Meal Prepping Efforts Are Failing
Everyone knows – thanks to a plethora of articles and books on the subject – that meal planning should be the done thing these days. Cooking your own food on the day you consume is old hat, my friends. In 2017, you should be spending a couple of hours cooking each Sunday so you can have food at your fingertips for the rest of the week.
We’re busy people, leading busy lives, so it’s definitely a tempting idea. It’s especially useful if your family is on different schedules with various activities, playdates, and business meetings – everyone can just grab a pre-prepared meal at their leisure. Given it makes so much sense… why are so many people failing in their efforts?
There are a few hiccups that can make meal planning feel like the exact opposite of what it should be: an activity designed to lighten stress. If you love the idea but haven’t quite managed the execution yet, then one of these issues – and their solution – might just be what you’re missing.
PROBLEM: The Food Doesn’t Taste Good
You make it, you’re excited to try it, then you open the container later in the week and it’s… it’s a crushing disappointment. Food that is meant to be crispy has gone soggy; the wet items have become crusty… it’s incredibly unappetizing.
What You Need: Change your storage, for a start. There’s no need to persevere with pointless plastic when there are the likes of Thermo Boutique stainless steel thermal lunch boxes that can help fix all your storage woes. That’s just one example, too; in general, opting for thermal or ceramic storage will make a dramatic improvement to how food tastes. Also, ensure the food has a chance to cool to room temperature before you store it.
PROBLEM: You Fancy Something Else
You get to Wednesday. It’s been a long, hard day at work. Your kids have been acting out. You got rained on when you ran to the grocery store. You’re miserable. You sit down to your evening meal, which is all ready and prepared… and you suddenly really don’t want it. You want something else.
The only way to deal with a sudden change in taste with meal prepping is to acknowledge that it happens. It will happen, but try and make sure it doesn’t happen so often it becomes an excuse. If it’s been a legitimately bad day, then divert off your course for the evening – no harm done. But if you just don’t fancy what you’ve prepared on a regular basis, you have two options. You can be more stern with yourself – what’s done is done, after all – or you need to investigate the foods you’re choosing to prepare. If you find yourself always hankering after something different, then you might need to make some tweaks to your recipes to ensure you’re going to be spending the time preparing food you’ll ultimately want to eat.
PROBLEM: Food Doesn’t Last
Is it possible to prepare all your meals for the week ahead, so food prepared on Sunday will still be edible on Friday? No. That’s why, for the meals later in the week, you need to look for food that can be frozen and reheated on the later days. Expecting items to store for that long is a recipe for disaster.
