MEAL PREP TIPS

WITH SHOPPING LIST & PRINTABLE MEAL PREP CALENDER

e-book

Home Treats UK All rights reserved. info@hometreatsuk.com Title: MEAL PREP MADE EASY

Dear Valued Customer, Thank you for your recent purchase! We pride ourselves in delivering superior products at the best price. We are dedicated to provide you with high quality food containers to make your healthy life style easier and more attainable. Our eBook is bursting with nutritious meal prep information on every page. The bonus shopping list and meal prep calendar will help you plan what is needed for each meal throughout the week. We are building a supportive meal prep community online and would like you to join us. We would really love for you to share your meal prep experiences with us by sending real meal prep stories, recipes, and pictures to: info@hometreatsuk.com (Please include your name and contact details). We will reward the best customer meal prep picture with a £15 Amazon voucher and a 25% discount coupon on future orders with us. If you have any problems with your product, please contact us at info@hometreatsuk.com. Looking forward to your pictures and wishing you a great meal prepping experience. Thank you, Home Treats UK

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Meal Prepping 101

Contents

3 Introduction

4 Healthy Lifestyle

5 Attaining Health Goals

8 Where to Start

9 Meal Prep Tips

11 Conclusion

12 Blank Meal Prep Calendar

13 Blank Shopping List

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An Introduction to Meal Prep

Preparing meals ahead of time enables individuals to integrate nutritious diets into busy lifestyles while saving time and money, and improving health. Meal preparation, or meal prep, is an intervention that can be used to improve quality of life and increase health goals. Whether experienced with meal prep or not, this guide will serve as a review of why meal prep can benefit anyone!

The premise of meal prep is making the most of the limited time and resources while preparing food in advance. Instead of making food right before consumption, meal prep can be completed once or multiple times a week, as frequent as an individual desires. While meal prepping, one can plan out each meal and even snacks for the days ahead. It is recommended to refrigerate food to use over the following three days and to freeze food intended to use later in the week.

Meal prep makes it easy to incorporate all of the food groups into the diet, and allows consumption of a variety of foods throughout the days and weeks. Incorporating a balance of different nutrients is important and planning meals ahead of time can greatly help with this! Various recipes can be used and leftovers from one recipe can be included in the next. Planning recipes ahead of time and adding food items needed to a weekly shopping list allow ingredients to readily available and food waste to be minimal.

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Healthy Lifestyle with Meal Prep

There are an enormous amount of health benefits to meal prep. This page will review some of the major improvements meal prep can have to an individual’s lifestyle. Although meal prep may seem like a lengthy process to spend time during a set day in the week, it actually saves a lot of energy and stress throughout the week having every meal prepared ahead of time.

Ø Prepping meals ahead of time can dirty a kitchen as little as once or twice a week, which leads to less cleaning! Storing meals in microwavable and dishwasher safe containers allows an easy warm up and quick clean up.

Ø Nutritious foods such as fruits and vegetables are less likely to be overlooked and not consumed because they are planned out in advance and added to shopping lists and recipes.

Ø Planning meal and snack ideas ahead of time can help plan the exact

nutrients consumed and can prevent excessive calorie, sugar, salt, and fat intake. Meal prep can ensure a consistent awareness of nutrients being consumed during each day. There will be no guessing if certain foods fit into a specific diet, calculating these items ahead of time can be a huge benefit to meal prep.

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Attaining Goals with Meal Prep

Meal prep is a perfect system for any health goal. Whether it is to gain or lose weight; incorporate more fruits and vegetables or simply have a better balance of nutrients during the day, meal prep can be the intervention to attain these goals. To begin, write out what your goal is. Discussing this with a healthcare professional will ensure this goal will benefit your individualized health care needs. Planning out meals, snacks, and shopping lists around these goals will help to visualize what is needed at meal times. Below are some individualized goals meal prep can help with.

Weight Loss/Weight Maintenance Pre-portioning meals and snacks is the perfect way to practice portion control and can help hinder weight gain. Portion control can be one of the most difficult aspects in weight control. When second helpings are encouraged or easily accessible, it is easy to overeat calories. By portioning out serving sizes of each food group and using healthy recipes, weight loss is more attainable. When meals and snacks and prepared, the urge to eat more is lessened because the portion is already measured. Meal prep can help beat cravings as well. When on a restricted diet, it is easy to graze throughout the day when hungry. However, with balanced food with meal prep, it is exactly known what we will be consumed for that meal and day, which can eliminate the urge to eat mindlessly throughout the day.

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Weight Gain Meal prep can also serve to help with individuals who desire weight gain as well. By incorporating nutrient-dense, high calorie foods consistently throughout the day, gaining muscle can be easier and better tolerated than just one or two big meals a day. When planned out carefully, meal prep can help these individuals by making it easier to have food available consistently throughout the day. Portioning three highly nutritious homemade meals along with three high calorie and protein snacks a day can help gain weight in a healthy, nutritious way.

Eat More Fruits and Veggies The goal of adding more fruits and veggies to meals and snacks is a great goal to have. Fruits and vegetables are naturally high in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, water, and fiber. Because they are low in fat, sodium, and cholesterol, adding fruits and vegetables into a diet can have many benefits. Incorporating a variety of these naturally healthy foods into a day may reduce the risk of certain

nutrition-related health concerns. Filling up on low-calorie fruits and veggies between and with meals can also help to lower total caloric intake if replacing with a higher-calorie food. The fiber in fruits

and vegetables helps keep a full stomach, and aids in digestion.

Save Money Meal prep saves money. Having meals already prepared in the refrigerator or freezer discourages the automatic reaction of buying pre-made or ready to order meals from store that sometimes occurs as a reaction when hungry. Planning out what is needed before grocery shopping will eliminate waste

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and keep you on track with spending. A good way to stick with a budget is to have a set amount of money that can be spent each week on food. Buying in bulk and using homemade meals and snacks throughout the week can decrease spending significantly. Having meals prepared is important especially for those times hunger controls thoughts and buying food is the only thought. When there are always homemade meals available, it allows cash to be spent as little as one time a week on food, which will potentially save a lot of unnecessary spending throughout the week!

Save Time Having meal prep during the week can be as simple as popping container into the microwave and heating it up until thoroughly cooked. Storing meals ahead of time can allow constant access to on-the-go meals you can take anywhere! Investing time in the beginning or middle of the week can ensure time saved throughout the week. Prepping food for a few days in advance takes time but

coincidently saves time for other tasks to focus on.

Eat More Home-Cooked Meals Each of the goals above have benefits that lead back to the fact that more home-cooked meals are being consumed with meal prep. This is an important concept, because eating an increased amount of home-cooked meals has so many benefits. When meal prep occurs, it makes it easier for home-cooked meals to be easily accessible to the consumer. This allows a decrease in unnecessary spending of food, and allows to consumer to choose the exact ingredients that he or she wants in a meal. Creativity can be enhanced when trying new recipes, and the lifestyle of this individual can improve.

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Where to Start

Plan Out Days Meal prep can be done anytime during the week. Planning out the days for food shopping and cooking can help make time in any busy lifestyle. Some people will shop and prepare meals on the same day, others will shop and cook on different days. Use our printable calendar and shopping list to plan out when the best time is. Set meal prep day at a time with little distraction. Sunday’s are usually a good start for most people, but any free day during the week is good!

Invest in Good Storage Containers Good storage containers are required for meal prepping. There are many different types of food containers on the market but make sure to look for the important aspects of the containers when shopping. Ideally, the containers should be safe to use in the microwave, fridge, freezer, and dishwasher.

Purchase Appliances Having the right tools to cook is important as well. Invest is a good baking and stovetop pan. Purchase measuring equipment such as measuring cups and spoons. A kitchen scale can also be a helpful tool to accurately measuring what is going into each meal. It is important to measure ingredients and food groups accurately to ensure the proper amount of nutrients are consumed.

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Meal Prep Tips

Use these tips stay successful during your meal prep journey!

Keep Food Safe Keeping food safe is the most important aspect to keep in mind while preparing food. Food shopping should not be done too far in advance to prevent food from spoiling. Plan your food shopping to be either a day or two before or day of food preparation, this short period of time will increased chances of food staying fresh. Once the food is purchased and taken it home, it is important to avoid leaving food out for a long period of time to prevent bacterial growth. Note that raw meat and seafood should not be kept longer than two days in the refrigerator before cooking. When meal prepping, always wash hands and clean surfaces to prevent food poisoning. Keep in mind that raw meats, poultry, fish, and eggs, should not be cross-contaminated with any other raw food such as vegetables if not cooked through. Be careful about contaminating surfaces with raw meats, poultry and eggs and if any surface is contaminated with the raw meat, clean carefully as soon as possible. Water alone will not kill these germs- an anti-bacterial soap or sanitizer is needed. It is recommended to keep a separate cutting board for produce and meats. It is recommended to keep prepped food in the fridge for no longer than three to four days. If meal prep is to be used longer than this, food should be stored in the freezer.

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Meat/Poultry/Seafood/Eggs Raw meats, poultry, seafood, and eggs should be cooked thoroughly in order to kill the bacteria. It is important to cook various meats at the recommended temperature to ensure food safety, using a cooking thermometer is the most accurate method. With warming up food that has been prepped, although everything was once cooked through, it is important to heat thoroughly again in the microwave. Heating leftovers to high temperatures with decrease the risk for getting ill from poorly reheated foods. Grilling meats all at once can be used for various meals but cooked together. For example, grilled chicken can be separated into 3 different dishes using different spices but cooked all at once.

Produce

Depending on the type, fresh fruits and vegetables can spoil easily, so it is important to store at the appropriate temperature to ensure extended life. Produce can be prepped shortly after purchase to decrease time spent later in the week. After food shopping, vegetables can be cut and peeled and store in a container in the refrigerator until needed. For example, carrots can be washed, peeled, sliced and stored in an airtight container in the fridge to

snack on throughout the week.

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Conclusion

To conclude, meal prep can aid individuals in reaching their health goals in many different ways. We encourage you to try preparing meals at home to help save time, resources and money! Meal prep can benefit overall health in a nutritious way. We hope this guide can provide valuable information to support the lifestyle of meal prepping! Check out our blank worksheets below to begin today. Our calendar can be used to fill out meals that will be consumed each day during the week. Our shopping list can be made while going through each recipe and ingredients needed.

Enjoy!

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