How to prepare meals for the week

Food Prepping Post #2

Food prepping is like sowing the seed  photo: courtesy of  Markus Spiske

Hello World!  Do you want to cook for yourself and/or for your family but don’t know where and how to start?  You may be too busy to cook but would like to cook for health reasons?  I hear you because I have been there before!  Finding the time and energy to cook is a real concern for many of us and I absolutely believe that the solution is in prepping: prepping as much as possible.  I have been doing a lot of thinking and researching in this topic, and in fact revealed my “secrets” in last week’s post: Five Secrets of Food Prepping every home cook should know about.  So please click on the link if this appeals to you! 😊

In today’s post I would like to expand on the first secret of food prepping:  advance planning.  When you plan a menu ahead of time, for the week, for example, it alleviates a lot of the pressure regarding cooking.  There is some kind of magic when things (thoughts) are written down.  When things are written down, somehow it empowers you to execute the plan.  What used to be a background noise in your head space, transforms into a mission to be accomplished, so to speak!  😊 

 I believe in setting goals because it has worked wonders for me.  We are accustomed to setting professional goals, yet culinary goals seem like a far-fetched notion for a lot of us.  Maybe that’s why we don’t cook as much as we would like to!   As mentioned in last week’s post, I write down the main protein ingredient for each day of the week in my calendar.  I may not follow through 100% of the time, but I aim to follow the plan.  It is like having a road map.  With a road map on hand, you may veer off the road at times, but you know how to get back on the road.  I think that’s the important point: to get back on the road and keep going.

The type of protein ingredient will depend on your personal dietary needs.  If you want to incorporate more vegetables, you might want to include tofu and/or beans as a main protein source for the meal.  If you want to limit red meat consumption, you can write down red meat only once per week, for example.  

For this week, I wrote down chicken for Monday, Beef for Tuesday, Pork for Wednesday, etc.  The amazing thing about writing down the main protein is that you always think about it regardless of whether you actually act on it or not, and eventually you move closer and closer to the target!  So, I would highly encourage you to join me on this journey of doing things that we desire deep down of us!!

Writing down a menu for the week is like sowing the seed.  The sooner you take action the sooner it will sprout and bloom!  It will take time and efforts, but it will be so rewarding in the end!

Now what would be the final goal of this writing down the menu exercise?  I would say until it becomes “automatic”, until it forms a second nature.  Then you can move on to setting another amazing goal! 😊

Learning to prep is like cultivating a perennial garden.  Once the perennial plant has taken root deeply, it comes back every spring and it wouldn’t require as much attention as before!  :)

  

Cooking is like cultivating a perennial garden.  photo: courtesy of Zane Lee 

 Hope you enjoy today's post.  Thanks for visiting my blog and please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below~~ 💗😊