Get back some precious time with meal prep

Students are back in school, and a chill is in the air—and if you ask me, it’s time for soup and comfort foods!

Have you ever come home to a yummy roast in the crock pot? Your house smells amazing and dinner is ready in minutes! Thank goodness for meal prep.

Taking the time to prepare for a meal takes the guess work out of, “What am I going to make tonight for dinner?” when you’re on your way home from work.

Meal prep also allows other to help—older kids and spouses can put food in the oven, build a salad, and get dinner started. It also prevents the quick stop at Subway, Domino’s, or the grocery store where you grab extra food you don’t need because you’re hangry and ready to get home!

Meal prepping can be a simple as making a weekly menu to filling containers with meals to defrost and bake or throw into a crock pot or instant pot! Simple tasks like cooking meats, shredding chicken, cleaning or chopping veggies, and shredding cheese can all be done in advance so they are ready to use and can make meal time run smother.

Check out these simple meal prep steps to get started.

1. Make a menu, can include breakfast, lunch and snacks too. Think of fun themes, Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, Breakfast for Dinner, Leftover day, Stir Friday- etc, you get my funny themes.
2. Make a shopping list- check your fridge and freezer for food to use that you already have on hand. Go shopping or use shopping pick up services (Click List from Smiths or Wal-Mart.)
3. Plan for storage containers to organize food - zip lock bags, glass containers, jars, pans, etc.
4. Designate a day to prepare meals, or prep foods.
5. Start chopping, cleaning and cooking.

If you’re looking to save even more time, both Smith's Food and Drug (ClickList) and Walmart have grocery/shopping pick up, so all you have to do is create your list and they collect it for you—all you have to do is pay for it and schedule a pick up time.

And, if meal prep isn’t for you, using Blue Apron, HelloFresh, Home Chef are also fun ways to simplify meal time. They have fun meals sent to your front door.

Questions?
Sara Olsen works at CCH Wellness as a Health Coach in Gillette, Wyoming. Campbell County Health's Wellness works to reduce health risks and promote overall wellness among employee groups and individuals in Campbell County, Wyoming and beyond. To learn more about Wellness, please visit www.cchwyo.org/Wellness or call 307.688.8051.