I grew up on leftovers. My mom would cook for an army with all kinds of meals over the weekends. She would package them all up and we knew we could go into the fridge to find what we wanted. Eating leftovers ain’t nothing for me.
For me, meal prepping is a lot like secondhand shopping. Similar to how I grew up getting clothes from my sister and cousins, I kind of grew up eating “left overs” from my Mom’s cookin aka meal preps.
After fashion, food is probably the biggest thing going on my life. I need it to survive for goodness sakes!
Food is such a big part of everyone’s life. There are holidays like Thanksgiving, circled around it. It’s also a real concern for the planet the way society often waste food. Each year, 72 billion pounds of food goes to waste at the same time there are 37 million Americans who struggle with hunger.
We are all looking for different systems to make life easier and save us money. Meal prepping does that and I’m elated to share with you all the trifecta ability of meal prep and how it’s made three areas of my life MUCH better.
Money
Let’s imagine that every workday I spend on average, $10 per meal. That would come to $2,500 a year on just LUNCH at work. This does not include eating out with others, family, travel eating out, etc.
$10 x 5 (workdays) = $50
$50 x 50 (weeks in a year–minus 2 weeks for vacation) = $2500
By not eating lunch out at work I have saved $2,500 a year. I am proud to say I have only eaten out twice at my job of over 8 months! I’m on track to save my average of about $2,500 this year.
With the money I save, I invest it into areas of my life I prioritize like being debt free and investing in sustainable products.
Marriage
A source of tension in the early stages of my marriage was where is the food coming from, who’s making it, and who’s cleaning the dishes. We tried different methods but the only thing that worked for us was meal prepping.
My husband and I typically prepare our meals for the week on Sundays. We usually make 3 different kinds of meals for variety. We make enough food for lunch and dinner although we sometimes only make enough for three days. The goal is to make enough for the work week (5 days).
Gone are the days of complaining that there’s no food in the fridge. We make food that we like and we rarely have to worry about food during the weekday. It helps us only eat out on weekends.
Planet
Meal preps are game changers that’s helped our home cut our food waste down. Every day in the United States, a person throws away about a pound of food. It may not seem like a lot but over time can grow substantially like how from 2007 to 2014, U.S. consumers threw away nearly 150,000 tons of food per day.
It’s time to find creative ways to cut food waste.
Meal prepping has been a big part of the solution to our family waste.
For instance, bringing my meal prep to work everyday or eating it at home helps me to:
- Cut back on lunch with plastic packaging
- Be more intentional with what I eat
- Be better with portion control of my food
As everyone works hard to make it on the other side of COVID-19 better than when we started, many of us are looking for ways to be healthier and more financially secure. Meal prepping has helped me with my goals and to love on the planet at the same time. It’s a step you can take to start the journey of being a more conscious human on this planet.
Plus I know “Rona Corona” has knocked some people off of their new years resolutions but preparing your food ahead of time could knock out three new year resolutions in one! Plus it’s one intentional and productive thing you can do during this time but if you’re looking for more things to do during quarantine, I can help with that!
Do you think meal prepping is something you would try? What’s your favorite meal to cook ?