7 Easy Meal Prep Hacks For The Busy Family

Time is one of the biggest obstacles to eating a good, healthy meal at home. You have to plan, shop, and prepare the dishes, but finding the time to do that can be difficult with a packed schedule. And you can only eat out for so long before you start to have budgeting issues.

What’s the alternative?

Hack your way to a meal prep. It’s an effective way to get ahead of your meals for the week. It’s also a practical way to enjoy healthy food while managing your budget.

Follow these seven easy meal prep hacks to cook smart and eat better.

1. Shop with a list.

Before heading out to your neighbourhood grocery, check your pantry. What do you have in stock? Try to list your items according to how you might find them in the grocery store. For example, if the dairy section is the first section in the store, have your eggs, milk, and butter at the top of the list. This way, you’ll shop strategically and stick to your list.

A good shortcut to meal planning is to buy ready-to-eat meals, which you can incorporate in other dishes. You can also pick up some frozen items that would be easy to add to your dishes, like frozen vegetables.

When buying pre-cooked meals, be mindful of the ingredients. Too many additives, like artificial sweeteners or partially hydrogenated oils may not be healthy for your or your family’s diet.

2. Take on meal planning a couple of days at a time.

Although most meal planning will cover a week’s worth of meals, you don’t have to do it that way. You might not want to keep eating last week’s stew or curry. If this is the case for your family, try meal planning for two to three days, at most.

A mini-meal plan will be more doable for your busy schedule and keep lunches and dinners more interesting.

A good way to do it would be to use your big weekend meals to prep for the next couple of days. For example, if you’re grilling chicken or lamb for that big meal, add a few extra pieces of meat. You could use them for two day’s worth of packed lunches for the kids and dinners. With cooked protein already in the fridge, making sandwiches or pasta will be swift.

3. Prep for quick, easy-to-make meals.

Another shortcut to meal planning and prepping is to focus on quick, easy-to-make dishes. What can you make in 30 minutes or less?

Some ideas include pan-seared salmon with a side of veggies, pasta with kalamata olives and sundried tomatoes, chicken and veggies stir fry, stovetop mac and cheese, and cobb salad with rotisserie chicken, among other dishes.

4. Cook in batches for a super busy week.

If your family has a particular dish they love, you can make it in a big batch. This way, you only need to reheat the dish and have it for the week.

Typically, soups, stews, and curries are perfect for batch cooking. You can spiced lamb meatball stew, five-bean chili, a Swiss army stew (or whatever meat and veggies are leftover in the fridge), sausage ragu, or beef curry.

Freeze what can be frozen (if your sauce is cream- or egg-based, do not freeze because the cream will separate and curdle), label the dishes, and reheat when ready to eat.

5. Stock up on flavour bombs.

Great cooking takes time because you need those minutes and hours to build flavour. This especially for stews and soups. But you can hack your way to hours of cooking by using flavour bombs.

Flavour bombs are ingredients that add a rich, deep umami taste to dishes. Instead of the usual seasonings, try incorporating the following flavour bombs:

• Cured meats (e.g., salami, prosciutto, ham)
• Cured fish (e.g., smoked salmon, anchovies, sardines)
• Aged cheeses
• Fish sauce or fish paste
• Miso (red for savoury, white for sweet)
• Capers
• Olives
• Dried mushrooms
• Smoked paprika
• Garlic-infused oils

If you’ve signed up for a loyalty program in a UAE grocery store, some of these ingredients may come at a discount. You can stock up on any one item while managing your budget.

6. Prep breakfast the night before.

If most of your days have to follow the ‘get up and go’ routine, you’ll need to prepare meals the night before. Breakfast is especially important because it’ll give you the energy you need for a busy day.

Some healthy breakfast ideas to make the night before are overnight oats (which you can top off with frozen fruits and some nuts), chia seed pudding, or veggie egg cups, if you prefer a savoury starter in the morning.

7. Keep it fun with themes for some meals.

Cooking can be fun (as opposed to being a chore) even when you’re planning the meals. To add an element of excitement, why not do a theme for some of your meals?

The easiest would be Taco Tuesdays or Mexican Night. You can also do Breakfast for Dinner, Meatless Mondays, or Build Your Own Pizza Night.

You can buy ready-made ingredients for some of these themes, like a frozen pizza dough or mixed veggies. To decide which themes you’re going to do, list the family’s favourites.

Enjoy healthy, delicious meals at home while managing your budget. All it takes is a bit of planning and a few hacks to help you make fast and easy dishes.