Tips and tricks for making the most of your kitchen time

In a recent post I shared how becoming a parent has totally shifted my perspective on meal prep. I used to be so sceptical, but now I swear by it! Having said that, I think there are some essentials to bear in mind if you want it to be a sustainable habit, and for you to keep enjoying your meals! Read on for my suggestions on what has worked for me.

Keep your batches (relatively) small

This suggestions sounds counter-intuitive, but my main issue with meal prep in the past has been boredom. If you do huge batches you could be stuck eating the same thing over and over again. So I limit my batches to two or three meals worth at a time, and do two or three recipes in each prep session. I then rotate which recipes I choose each week. That way I still have a variety to pick from, and can find something to suit the mood I’m in that day.

Cook a variety of dishes

Related to the above, try to choose recipes from different cuisines. It’s tempting to, for instance, cook one big batch and use it as a base for different things. But if each meal is just a slightly altered version of the last, boredom will soon set it. So go with as much variety as you can manage – pasta dishes, Mexican, Indian, Thai – whatever it is that will keep your tastebuds interested and stop you leaving things in the freezer.

You don’t need to prep the entire meal

Ok so what I mean by this is that you can and probably should do all the ‘main’ cooking. Don’t leave a dish half-made. But if it comes with a side, like rice or a salad, or if it goes with pasta, then cook that fresh, when you eat it. I have yet to find a convincing way to prepare salads in advance, and a nice fresh salad goes a long way to pepping up a meal. You’ll also save storage space by only only freezing/fridging what you really need to. Rice and pasta can both be cooked in around twelve minutes (don’t whatever you do use packets of prepared shop-bought rice, you don’t need to and they’re terrible value!), and a simple salad can be a ten-minute job. While your main is reheating, you can throw these fresh elements together, and you’ll still have all the advantages of meal prep and of having made something on the day.

Only cook what you love

This is kind of obvious, but if you don’t really enjoy a meal, don’t curse yourself with a freezer full of it. It can be temping to do a really ‘healthy’ meal, or try a new recipe, only to find you don’t like it that much. But you’ve now got so much of it that you’re stuck eating it anyway. Or worse, you reach for UberEats instead. So if you’re going to try something new you’re not sure about, give it a try as a single batch first. Be honest with yourself about what you and your family love eating, and lean into that as your meal prep staples.

Label what you cook

I’ve made the mistake in the past of thinking it would be easy to see what each box contained, only to mix chilli and bolognese. Not ideal! Freezing does make things harder to identify, and it’s also important to know how old things are. So I now label everything meticulously. The easiest method I’ve found is a roll of masking tape and a Sharpie. The tape withstands freezing but comes off easily when you want it to, without leaving any sticky residue. Just because I’m very easy to please and enjoy colour, I also have Sharpies in lots of different colours to make things look a bit more cheerful. Just make sure you choose fine point ones for ease of use on the narrow tape.

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Those are my best tips for how to embrace the meal prep life. I hope they give you some inspiration and motivation to try meal prepping, and start reaping the benefits of all that saved time!