I began writing this post in 2017, well, 8 years later I came around to finish it. What startet with me reading some literature back then turned into being bombarded by online influencers as a must these days. So, my guess is, you have probably heard about meal prep – not once, not twice, maybe more like tousand times.
The lunch culture in Germany is different to what I used to know in Slovakia or Czech Republic (employes have various food ticket benefits which can be spent in restaurants on rather inexpensive lunch menus – including either soup, beverage or dessert plus main course). Situation here has been improving over time as more and more restaurants offer this kind of “lunch menu” but you need to be lucky to work nearby place you actually like to eat etc. However, it is still not widely spread. To the credit of my german colleagues, there are few traditional canteens but they have their unique taste – it has resemblance to school lunches – food and ambience as well.
If you are like me and you do not like cold and dry food for lunch – making sandwiches is out of questions. Here come my 3 steps:
EQUIPMENT
I have learnt in a hard way, that you NEED to invest in quality containers. There is nothing more annoying in this world than creamy sauce spread all over your bag. What is worse, I have not been able to completely wash it out from my bag. It is still very upsetting. Additionally, do yourself a favour, buy glas containers. Yes, they are more prone to breaking and little bit heavier to carry but they can be thoroughly cleaned without any aftertaste of your previous meal or dish soap. They also withstand higher temperatures if you reheat your food in microwave oven as fatty food heats above boiling temperature which will damage plastic! Also get yourself few stackable for easy storage. We recently bought new IKEA 365+ containers – love them. Only regret I have is, I should have bought them sooner. It feels so posh and grown up, love it 🙂
Also on days when I am outside of office, I use doublewall insulated stainless steel thermos. In this case, you will be packing your food in the morning – preheat the thermos for like 5 min with boiling water before puting your piping hot food in. It will be still super hot when eating for lunch!
PLAN
I did not start meal plans before we became a family of four (I have two toddlers!) but it might help even if you are single/ childfree pair. You do not have to write it down and stick to the fridge but it is what works for us. I usually have a “performance dialoge” with my husband on Sunday evening where we talk over important work appointments/pick-up and drop-off plans for kids/ food. Yes, we plan ahead main meals/dinners for the whole week ahead! The inspiration comes from all kind of sources. We have a collection of recipe books – fast recipes (meals under 30 mins), recipes for busy professionals. We always check the fridge for ingredients and on good days we even read through the flyers what kind of meat/fish/products will be discounted in our nearby supermarkets upcoming week. We also try to eat seasonal produce and consider weather as well. We do not fancy duck with red cabbage on hot summer days and not many would like caeser salad on cold november evening. So, taking 10 min a week to put together this weekly quick plan, inlc. meals, eliminates a lot of stress for us. Because noone will be cooking elaborate meals if you do not have time for it and also it makes it easier to create a shopping list. Also plan ahead for your snacks/ desserts – because you will be wanting something to munch on between your meals.
LEARN HOW TO COOK ELABORATELY AND EFFECTIVELY
I have been actively cooking for some time (about 8-10 years) before we have tried food ingredients delivery service (FYI: HelloFresh – not sponsored). It was post partum present we have been gifted by family and we have actually stuck with it for half year after the first package. It was great help and I have learnt that they are two ways of cooking. One, you just go with it. Whatever you start with, jsut go with flow. Second would be a cooking skill which needs to be learnt, you cook systematically like professional chef. Each dish has a particular critical path method to be cooked optimising the time spent in kitchen. It sounds very scientific, yet basically different produce/meats etc. need different time to be prepared. So you start with the one which needs the most etc. It is not a coincidence that even elaborate meals from these kits only took me like 35-45 min to get ready (protein, side dish and veggies). So you can cook fancy elaborate dishes fast! I have never realised it before, even if you are not new to cooking, these kits which comes with instructions can teach you important skills. You do not have run and subscribe to it to learn but try to be more intentional next time when cooking something.
So, even the most complex dish only takes 35-45min so if you intend to cook something which has longer processing time then you can definitely squeeze 2-4 meals within this 2-3 hours prepping time. You jut have to be smart with order of steps. Also try to incorporating snacks preparation into the process – if you are already working with carrots for your stew, why not to clean and slice two more carrots at once, so you can put them in the fridge to snack on later. The last bit of my advice, if you prep something time consuming and it could be frozen (hummus, paesto, soup or sauce like bolognese/curry etc.) always make double portions and freeze it for later.
Bon Appetite and have fun cooking!
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