Everything You Need to Know about Meal Prep

After so many of you said YES PLEASE to a meal-prep guide, I thought I would post it ASAP! Thanks to the invention of refrigerators and freezers, we can meal-prep in advance and save a lot of daily time spent in the kitchen!

If you’ve never done this before, I’d say take it very easy. It can be overwhelming to cook in advance. And honestly, I only manage to do this for about 2 sundays every month. And I’m thankful for whatever I can manage.

My meal-prep guide focuses on desi main-courses and will hopefully work for anyone who, like me, follows a Pakistani / South-Asian diet. Admittedly, it can be improved to be healthier and more wholesome, so may be we’ll save that for an update some day? For now, I tried to cover as many details as I could.

WHY MEAL PLAN

One of the biggest barriers to healthy eating in a family is lack of time, especially when no one person is able to dedicate themselves to this task on a daily basis. It’s easy to get take-out or eat microwaveable meals, but we all know it’s not always economical or healthy. Meal planning helps reduce the stress associated with preparing meals and shopping for food, allows for relaxed family mealtimes, and helps avoid food waste.

PLANNING THE MEALS

Every Friday, I decide what main-courses we want to eat the following week. The menu can be based on items I already have in my fridge, freezer and pantry, as well as seasonal items or items on sale at local grocery stores. We do get take-out / eat-out at least once a week too so I try to keep that in mind and plan accordingly.

MENU

Overall, I aim for a balance in meals like this:

1. One rice dish such as Pulao, Biryani, Matar Aaloo Pulao
2. One meat curry/salan such as Karahi, Nihari or Qorma, with naan
3. One vegetable curry/salan such as Baingan, Bhindi, or Zucchini, with roti/pita
4. One dish of Legumes & Pulses such as lentils, chickpeas, or beans, with roti/ rice
5. One dish that kids like such as Pasta, Noodles, Pizza, sandwiches etc
6. One Marinated dish such as Chicken Roast, Kababs or Salmon, with veggies
7. Salads / Smoothie for side or as light lunches on extra busy days

Here is a sample menu I would make for a week:

GROCERY SHOPPING

Once the menu is decided, it’s easy to make our grocery list. Generally speaking, Saturday is grocery day but if groceries can be done on Friday evening, it’s even better. Now with a bigger family and with work-from-home, we also find ourselves going to the grocery store mid-week to stock up on bread, naans, fruits etc.

PREPARATION

I try to prepare 5-6 dishes over the weekend. We also try to finish any leftovers we have on Friday night and over the weekend. However, weekends tend to vary a lot. There is a lot of eating out or grabbing food to go if we’re out and about. Occasionally, someone hosts us or we host a family so that also changes the way we eat.

Typically, Sunday & Wednesday are prep days. Wednesday is a good mid-week point. It also used to be my work-from-home day (even pre-covid), and it definitely helped with preparing some fresh food.

When to Cook

Based on the previous menu, here are the dishes I would fully cook on Sunday and keep in the FRIDGE to eat on Monday & Tuesday:

1. Pulao
2. Bhindi

Here are the dishes I would half-prep on Sunday and FREEZE to complete and eat on Wednesday & Thursday:

1. Kababs
2. Daal

Here are the dishes I also fully cook on Sunday and FREEZE to be defrosted and eaten for the rest of the week:

1. Qeema for Naan pizzas
2. Chicken Karahi

Examples of how Half-Prep works

For items like Chicken Roast or Kababs, marinate and freeze the meat in advance. On Wednesday, defrost, then simply bake or BBQ in summertime.

For Daal, cook it in advance and freeze it. On Wednesday, defrost, and add tarka/bhagaar.

THAT’S A LOT OF COOKING ON SUNDAY!

Yes it is! But here is how I don’t cook so many dishes in one day – there are some dishes that I cook in bigger batches and freeze so they can be used at least another 2 times in the future. Things like kababs, koftay, daal, marinated chicken, meat curries, soups and marinades freeze really well. There are other tricks too like using ready-made fried onions or preparing and freezing the Salan base (tomatoes & onion masala) in advance so that making curries is faster. And lastly, I find that having an Instant Pot & an Air Fryer makes meal prep super quick and easy. I can make things like roasted chicken and veggies, rice, pasta, daal, haleem, kababs and fries in minutes!

TAKE IT EASY!

Lastly, I want to say – take it easy! If you’ve never done this before, maybe just start with cooking 2 dishes on Sunday and having a rough game-plan in mind for the rest of the week. Then slowly add to your advanced dishes and frozen meals. Overtime, you will build up a stock in the freezer and have a system that works for you. And hey – it may not look like mine at all?

I hope that this was helpful! Don’t forget to share it with your family and friends!

Do you meal prep? What are your best tips? Share with me in the comments below so we can all learn something new!

Also, I’ll be sharing my weekly meal plans as part of my email newsletters. You can subscribe here so you don’t miss them :)

Toodles!

Bonus: Ramadan Meal Prep Guide