Meal Prepping for Lunch: Salad in a Jar

Since lunch tends to be the most festive meal of the day, meal prepping for it can be a bit tricky. We have to prepare menu that is delicious so that it doesn’t taste boring and we don’t tempted to have lunch out. Moreover, lunch menu should have enough nutrition and healthy to fulfill half-day energy needs.

Salad in jar can be one of the best choices for lunch. It’s simple and easy to be made days in advance. It’s also delicious and mouthwatering. And no one will disagree that salad is nutritious and healthy as it has abundant green vegetables. Depending on the ingredients, salad in a jar can last 5-7 days in the refrigerator.

Here are several tips to make a perfect salad in a jar:

1. Place the dressing at the bottom of the jar. It will prevent the salad ingredients get soggy. 
2. Put grains, protein, or other big-chunky elements after. This protects your more delicate ingredients from getting wet 
3. On the third layer, add item like nuts, raisins, and cheese. These ingredients are the things you want to stay dry until just before you serve it. 
4. Any leafy greens go in last. After that, you can have your Mason jar sealed and store it in the refrigator.

Depending on the ingredients, salad in jar can last 5-7 days in the refrigerator. If you want to find more tips, you could read this link. They have a lot more specific tips of storing salad in a jar.

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Meal Prepping Recipes for Breakfast

Maybe you are tired of hearing about how breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But back up with science research, it really is.

Skipping breakfast might increase a woman's diabetes risk (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition). Women who ate breakfast an average of zero to six times per week were at a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than women who ate breakfast every day.

Skipping breakfast can be anticipated by meal prepping days advance. You can make baked oatmeal or ready to blend smoothies. It will diminish your breakfast cooking time so that you could focus on other stuff like dressing up or catching your work on time.

Here are several meal-prepping recipes for a healthy yet delicious breakfast.

1. Instant Oatmeal Jars
   To make instant oatmeal jars you will only need a glass canning jars and oatmeal. Pour ½ cup rolled oats at the bottom of the jars and top it with flavor you like e.g. berries, cacao nibs, shredded coconut, etc. You can also add some flavor like cinnamon or cacao powder. Topping and flavor combination is unlimited option, it’s up to your ideas and likes. Then, seal it tightly and store it to the meal time. When it comes to serving time, pour some hot water or almond milk, stir a while, then your express breakfast is ready! 
2. Frozen Smoothies
   A smoothie is one of the best breakfast menus. It’s fresh yet nutritious. To make it quick and simple, you can start a frozen smoothie pack. Prepare the fruit by cutting them into small chunks. Then, freeze them on the baking sheet for at least 4 hours. Before you fill your ziplock bag with the frozen fruit, label each bag and put the date you packaged the fruit. Don’t forgert to measure out the fruit according to the smoothie recipe. Then store it individually to the freezer. Now you will have a ready to blend smoothies’ right in the morning you’ll enjoy your breakfast. 
3. Mini quiches
   If you want your breakfast a bit savory, quiches may be a great choice. It’s simple, high protein, and delicious. Quiches also freeze great and can be reheating in minutes as hot breakfast bites.
   You may fill your quiches with any morsels such as sausage, bacon, mushroom, or either herbs. To find quiches recipes you can search it in Pinterest. There are abundant source and inspiration.

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2 Basic Tips of Storing Prepped Food

Two basic things of storing prepped food are fridge and container. You will about to concern the fridge temperature and the good quality containers. You will also have to calculate how may days it will be stored.

Refrigator
Refrigerator temperature should be 40F or below and freezer should be at least 0F or bellow. If you are going to freeze your meals, confirm that the containers are airtight. If not, the food may be vulnerable to freezer burn and taste like ice by the time you heat up and eat the meal.

You can store meat and dairy on the top shelf. And then, fruit and veggies are better place in the crisper. Meanwhile, door rack is better for eggs, condiments, and juices. It's the easiest section to take and positioned.

If you are preparing several hot meals, you should let the meals to cool down (nearly to room temperature) and then store them in the refrigerator or freezer within 1-2 hours of preparing. Others methods state that hot meals or any other cooked meals are better stored as soon as possible. Cooling down process makes the food in danger towards bacteria.

Containers
Good quality containers are the basic tools of storing prepped food. We need a leak-proof and air tight lids to maintain quality and nutrition. It will be the key to serve fresh food as they are prepped days before.

Glass containers are great to have in the fridge because you can see the fillings and they generally can be used in most microwaves. If you use a plastic container, it is BPA free, leak proof, and also dishwasher - microwave safe.

Sealed bag is also a good option to store food especially cooked meals. It's more flexible than plastic or glass containers that it can be placed in the almost full fridge.

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Meal Prepping

Do you usually find yourself having pizza for dinner reluctantly cooking on the pantry? Do you usually miss your lunch diet because you have no time to prepare your lunch-box? Do you always find yourself in a hurry to get out of the door in the morning and your breakfast consists of a takeaway sandwiches? These might be the signs that you should try meal prepping.

Meal prep issue’s rising as the healthy-eating habits becomes famous and getting lots of people attention. It considers decreasing chances of eating junk or convenience foods if we get busy or caught out without food. Meal prep also believes as a time saver in the kitchen and makes it easier for you to eat healthier the whole week.

What is meal prep?
Meal prep is making your weekly breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even snacks ahead of time. You can meal prepping for all of you 3-time-meal or just one of them. It may vary depending of everyone’s need. Vegan and people on special diets have long enjoyed meal prepping, since it can be hard to pick up dishes that conform to their strict needs on a whim. Student on college also love meal prep because it can save up some pennies.

What do we need for meal prep?
Good quality container is the most important tools on meal prepping. Containers may be made from plastics, like Tupperware and Ziploc Bag, or glass-made like Mason jar. This will be the savior of our food during the week. Containers should be better air-tight, BPA free, dishwasher and microwave safe. This kind of containers will keep our food nutrition and freshness. Invest a bit more money on good quality containers is better than disappointing on our meal prepping.

How to meal prep?
There are pile tips and guides of meal prepping on the internet, and it surely can be adjusted to fit your needs. Do not stress up with the methods, different things work for different people. Some of them are simply shop and prepping the night before the week starts. Some others even need the whole Sunday to completely understand and execute it.

Meal prep is supposed to make your life healthier or either easier. It should not be stressing, so have fun while you doing this.

Basically meal prep consists of three steps:

1. Planning
   Planning activities consist of checking the calendar and try to figure what do have going on this week. After that, you can take a look of your fridge and list the things you’ve already own. In case you need some more, make a grocery list and go shopping. You will also collect, list, and prioritize your favorite recipes. Try out some of the ones on the Pinterest.
2. Preparation
   In this section you will about to wash and cut fruits and vegetables. You will also bake your chicken or brown your meat. The last, don’t forget to cook rice and pasta.
3. Storage
   After all the food are cooked, then you will weigh and packing away. As mentioned before you will need good quality containers.

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