Use Your Freezer To Make Meal Prep Even Easier

While meal prep can be a huge time saver during the week, the task can actually still take a ton of time if you do not make good use of your ingredients or create a meal prep plan. Another area of meal prep falter can be creating only a couple of dishes that can be tiring to eat after consuming them too many days in a row. However, putting your freezer to good use and rethinking how you prepare food and store it, can open up tons of more options for easy meals every day of the week. Though some people think of meal prep as one-dish meals like casseroles that can quickly be reheated straight from the freezer, you can create entirely new meals each night when you carefully choose your ingredients for the week.

As The Kitchn lays out in an example two week meal prepping plan with sample meals and recipes, choosing ingredients that can be cooked and then used in multiple dishes for different meals is key to really cutting down on the amount of time you spend cooking for the week ahead. Doing this also gives you variety for creating different spins on those ingredients for each meal. Using your ingredients wisely for multiple dishes will also help ensure you avoid wasting food while trimming down your grocery bill too. After prepping the ingredients and dishes, the freezer should be your next greatest tool for even easier meal prep.

With various ingredients and select dishes prepared, they will only continue to make your life easier on busy days if they are stored properly to stay fresh. That means rethinking how you store all of your meal prep in the freezer. According to Quill, one major consideration is the actual room you give the food within its freezer container. As food freezes, the moisture inside of it causes it to expand. So, to keep your container safe and your food as fresh as possible, it is important to give it room to expand inside the container.

Choosing the best container for your food is also important. Locking out as much air as possible is key to keep the food tasting as fresh as possible. However, you also need to select containers that are sturdy and thick enough to prevent other odors from creeping in. According to the New York Times, sealable plastic bags are also a great option because they can be neatly stacked to make the most of your freezer space.