Less food waste

Meal prep saves time, effort and waste.

If you only eat small portions and don’t like spending time in the kitchen if you can avoid it, you can turn this to your advantage. Simply pick a time to cook a larger amount and store individual portions in the fridge or freezer. This works particularly well with soups, sauces and dishes like ratatouille, for example. Once a common practice known as pre-cooking, it now carries the trendier name “meal prep”. This new old trend offers a host of advantages, allowing you to use produce while it’s still fresh from the market and store it until you want to eat it.

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Home-made is healthier and tastier.

Shopping consciously and choosing seasonal produce means you can cook with fresh produce. It also means avoiding processed ready meals. One advantage of meal prep is the certainty of knowing you have delicious, home-made meals waiting for you for the next few days, or even the entire week. But that’s not all: home-made food can often be healthier and tastier, too. Cooking for yourself means you are in control of all the ingredients, that end up on your plate, or in your resealable containers and lunch boxes.

Meal preppers are aware of what they eat.

Cook once and enjoy it for several days. Meal prepping is an ideal solution, especially when you arrive home exhausted after a day at work and would otherwise mindlessly choose pasta with ready-made sauce or a frozen pizza. This is one way meal prepping can help to eat more healthy. After all, if you’re more aware of your food and portion size, you’ll notice sooner when you’re full.

Meal prep prevents food waste.

So, meal prep helps you to save time and eat more healthily. More than that, though, it allows you to do your bit to fight food waste. If you cook two or three portions in advance, there usually won’t be any half-used ingredients left over. Instead, you might even be able to freeze a little stockpile for those hectic, stressful days.

Meal prep saves money and packaging.

Meal prep is also more cost-effective. If you buy lunch from a café or get it delivered, you’ll end up paying much more. And, if you order a takeaway or opt for convenience food, you’ll also have to contend with far more packaging. The example of meal prep shows that, by taking even small steps, you can live more sustainably and prevent waste from leftover food and packaging.

Become a meal prepper in 8 easy steps.

Stuffed peppers, pepper salad and a stir-fry – the more the ingredients on your weekly meal plan overlap, the better. You can enjoy more variety on your plate as a result. We’ve put together 8 simple steps to help you become a meal prepper.

Make space

Create the storage space you need.

Space is an important factor when it comes to meal prepping. If you’re sharing a small fridge and a tiny freezer compartment with your flatmate and only have a tiny food shelf, you might face some difficulties. Cooking ahead for the entire week? Out of the question! Consider how and where you can store your prepped meals before you make them. For example, a cellar could be a good solution.

Basics

Make sure you have the basic meal prep equipment.

Good preparation includes having a good stock of food in tins, resealable containers or glass jars. We recommend keeping a stock of rice, pasta, millet, porridge oats, cous cous, bulgur, onions, garlic, nuts, quality oils, a range of spices, mustard and soy sauce.

Planning

Organise your week and find recipes.

Something else worth mentioning when it comes to preparation: consider what you want to eat that week before you storm the supermarket. Flick through your cookbooks or browse the internet; check out the Braun recipe library to find some inspiration. Ideally, you should plan your week so that you can make full use of any leftovers. For example, you might plan two rice-based dishes so you only have to cook rice once. Checking your calendar might help, too. Have you agreed to go out for dinner at all this week?

Shopping

Choosing food more carefully.

Another upside to meal prep is, that if you take the time to focus on planning, shopping and meal prepping, you’ll automatically give your food the attention it deserves. Instead of just picking up the first thing you see, you can focus more on carefully selecting food that’s fresh, organic and local. This way, you’ll only buy what you really need and end up reducing or even eliminating food waste. Plus, shopping like this is far more pleasant than rushing through the aisles at the end of the day.

Cooking

Schedule a fixed cooking session each week.

So, how long does it take to cook meals for several days? Don’t worry, it shouldn’t take more than 2-3 hours per week. It’s best to give your meal prep session a fixed slot in your weekly schedule. This makes it easier to get into a routine that you might even enjoy or find relaxing. Only having to wash up once will save you a heap of time, too. Ideally, you should cook dishes with shared preparation steps. For example, if you need potatoes for different meals, you could cook them all together in a big pot. This will also save energy. If you want to use tomatoes in several dishes, simply distribute them across your various lunch boxes or containers.

Ingredients

Varied meals: Hugely beneficial.

Vegetables in season. Ideal options include: carrots (e.g. as crudités), pumpkins (cooked with oil and spices), courgette (roasted), tomatoes (cherry tomatoes to snack on), aubergines (roasted), broccoli (steamed), peppers (raw or roasted) and avocados.

Carbohydrates provide energy. Tasty sources include: potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, pasta (ideally wholegrain), millet, quinoa, cous cous and bulgur.

Protein is an important part of any meal and helps to keep you full. Find it in meat, fish, tofu, pulses, quark, yoghurt and cooked eggs.

Dips/sauces to give your meal prep ingredients that extra hit of flavour. We recommend tomato sauce or ketchup, sour cream with herbs, pesto, hummus and guacamole.

Containers & boxes

Practical ways to store your meal prep.

After cooking, you need to portion the individual dishes up into different resealable containers, boxes and glass jars. If at all possible, use microwave-safe containers so you don’t need to decant the food for reheating. If you can stack the containers and store them conveniently in your fridge and freezer drawers, you’ll be onto a winner. There are also plenty of ways to transport your food safely, from old glass jars to ultra-practical lunchboxes with individual sections to Thermos flasks to keep your soup warm.

Dressings & sauces

Layer your ingredients well so that nothing gets squishy.

Ideally, you should keep salad dressings in a separate container or a little jar. This stops the dressing drenching the salad leaves by lunchtime. Dips and other sauces also taste best when added to the rest of the dish just before serving. Alternatively, you could put dressings and sauces at the bottom of the container so that they don’t leach through everything and make it squishy. Fresh fruit, salad leaves and vegetables belong at the top.

Meal preppen: zin hebben om thuis te komen

Het is heel makkelijk om grote hoeveelheden soep en stoofschotels te bereiden. Ze zijn bovendien ideaal om in te vriezen, dus je hoeft niet de hele week hetzelfde te eten. Door verschillende ingrediënten en toppings zoals croutons, pitten en zaden of crème fraîche toe te voegen, kun je in een handomdraai een hele andere soep of salade creëren. Je merkt hoe handig het is als je de volgende avond thuiskomt en er al een gezonde, zelfgemaakte maaltijd kant en klaar op je staat te wachten. Dat geldt ook voor je lunchpauzes op het werk.

Recepttips

Ben je op zoek naar smakelijke maaltijden die je vooruit kunt koken? Bekijk deze drie handige recepten uit onze online recepten.

Romige champignon-pastaschotel met babyspinazie en kruiden

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Recept

Patate douce biryani avec mélange d'épices masala et sa raita au concombre

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Recipe

Boulettes d'agneau aux épices, salade grecque et vinaigrette au yaourt à la menthe

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Recept

Wist je dit?

Is meal preppen niet gewoon een trendy naam voor een ouderwets gebruik? Onze ouders en grootouders planden en kookten maaltijden vroeger immers al vooruit. Het nieuwe aan deze trend op het gebied van voedsel, die uit Amerika is komen overwaaien, is de holistische benadering van voeding en duurzaamheid met betrekking tot voedsel. Meal preppen is echter in de fitness scene ontstaan. Het idee erachter was dat je precies kunt bijhouden wat je eet en in welke hoeveelheden.

Avoid food waste by following our recipes

Onze recepten en de Braun MQ-serie maken het allemaal een stuk eenvoudiger.

Wil jij ook een meal prepper worden? Of misschien heb je al eens geëxperimenteerd met meal preppen en ben je op zoek naar de juiste recepten? Wat dacht je dan van een rode-linzensoep? Dit en nog veel meer ideeën kun je vinden in bij de online recepten van Braun. Om meal preppen nog leuker te maken en al het schillen, roeren en mixen in een handomdraai gedaan te hebben, bekijk de MQ-serie van Braun. Ontdek meer.

Did you know…

…how to make limp lettuce fresh again?

Don't throw away that limp lettuce just yet! Did you know you can bring it back to life by soaking it in cold water with lemon juice? This simple trick is a real hit for anyone who loves fresh, crisp greens.

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…why you shouldn't put hot food straight into the fridge?

Keep calm and stay cool. Your leftover food should always be allowed to cool to room temperature before placing it in the refrigerator. This way, you can make sure to maintain a secure temperature in your fridge as well as save energy. Have you been aware of that?

…how to deep clean wooden utensils?

If you ever wondered how to properly clean your wooden cutlery, we have a great #kitchenhack for you: soak them into a 1:1 solution of white vinegar and water overnight. This won't damage the wood itself, but removes any annoying stains they might have had. Sounds good? Try it out.

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Een goed design is bruikbaar en gemaakt om lang mee te gaan. Meal preppen wordt makkelijker met het Braun MultiQuick Systeem en onze tips, waardoor je gezonder en uitgebalanceerder eet en een betere relatie met voedsel ontwikkelt.

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