So what does an art obsessed certified licensed counselor know about meal prep ideas and why should you care? About three years ago I started focusing on better nutrition for myself. I was probably at my heaviest, taking daily doses of blood pressure medication and cholesterol medication. Granted both of these conditions are genetic thanks to my mom and dad but also can be managed through diet, nutrition and exercise.

It was a year before COVID. And I really needed to do something about my body.

My friend Larissa has started the ketogenic diet and she was discussing with me all of the merits of this plan. I’ve never really been much of a diet follower. I wasn’t into fad diets. I’ve never done any of the Atkins diet or any of the other stuff. But I started doing some research and I looked into it. What got me however was her offer to help me with the meal prepping and day to day menu for the first three weeks. She basically offered to be my chek and my coach. I’m in!

So we jumped in and I logged into the diet doctor website and started finding recipes and meal plans and creating a system for myself.

Find a great groove with your meal prep ideas

I’ve gotten into a really good groove with how I meal prep. And here’s how it goes

Whatever grocery store that you prefer to shop at, check their online ordering capabilities. I actually have an individual shopping list for each of the recipes that I make that are saved in my account. So if I decide that this week I want to meal prep my Thai salmon, my cabbage crack, and my zucchini chicken fettuccine Alfredo, all I have to do is go to those three shopping lists, click “add everything” and boom my stuff is ready. 

If I just  meal prepping for one or two things for the week then I’ll typically do a curbside pick up and grab those things that I need and head home. But if I’m in serious meal prep mode and I’m about to make six or seven of my favorites and stock up then I like to pre-order everything and have it delivered on Sunday morning around 8 AM.

What do you need in order to make my meal prep ideas come to life? 

I love those reusable meal packaging containers. I usually order them on Amazon and get like a pack of 50 of them because if I drop them while frozen they break. It may seem like a lot but believe it or not is just the right amount for me.

Freezer space. Get yourself a freezer & stick it in the garage. It doesn’t have to be a full size one but at least get yourself a half size one so that you can put the meals that you’ve meal prep in there for a quick accessibility.

Pots pans spatula spoon mixers etc. I have a method to my meal prepping on Sundays. I know what I’m going to start with. I know what I’m going to add next. It’s all very well organized and part of that organization involves having the right pots and pans and other materials that I need to cook with. I have a giant scanpan wok.

This scan pan wok is what I use to cook a majority of my recipes. It’s important to have all the right tools and all the right sizes and things that you need readily available to make this process go faster. I use Scanpan because I used to work at two adorable gourmet kitchen stores and I learned about pans and quality and how they work etc.  I learned that each company has a “great pan”. 

I LOVE my Scanpan fry pan and large wok. Been using the same pans for 10 years!  I HATE the All Clad fry pan. I can never get the heating consistent, but their 6 qt stock pot is AMAZING!  Never buy a full set of pans from one company, buy each piece that works for you! 

My seven go to meal prepping foods

If money is no object I would buy all of my fruits and vegetables already cut and ready to be prepared. But I’m a little bit frugal and a little bit broke so I do all of my own cutting, slicing and dicing. I recommend doing those things in advance so everything is ready for when you assemble your meals.

So here are my seven go to meal prepping foods and the order in which I do them:

Turkey meatballs stuffed with shredded mozzarella. (I don’t have a recipe for that.  I just use 3 lbs ground turkey, a cup of almond flour, a small bag of shredded parmesan or mozzarella cheese, three eggs and some garlic and onion powder.  I mix it all up and put in an airfryer at 400 for 15 min.  

Zucchini chicken fettuccine Alfredo. Swap spiral cut zucchini or miracle noodles instead of regular noodles. 

Ground turkey stuffed tomatoes. I cook up onions and garlic. Add ground turkey to cook.   Then add mushrooms, spinach and a jar of pasta sauce. I hollow out beefsteak tomatoes and stuff them with the mixture, top with shredded cheese and bake in the oven at 350 for about 10 minutes.  

These three are from the Diet Doctor website.

• Keto thai fish with curry and coconut (I use salmon) 
• Keto fish casserole with mushrooms and french mustard. (I use cod with this one). And Chicken enchilada soup
• Cabbage crack. Diet doctor calls it Keto Asian Cabbage Stir Fry and I add ground turkey and spicy mayo before I serve it.   
  

I like to start with the turkey meatballs because I can make those suckers in the air fryer while the oven is heating up to make the two different fish dishes. Seriously people, I have this very well organized. The turkey meatballs are easy to make using 3 pounds of ground turkey meat that I get at the store and mix all my ingredients and pop them in the air fryer. While those are in the airfryer I prep my salmon and my cod (they can be cooked at the same time in the oven) which frees me up to then use the stove to get started on the cabbage crack. I don’t have a really big countertop but I clear it off and lay out all of my meal prepping containers so that as I’m cooking things I can put the food straight into the containers.

Note to self. I like to let the food cool down to room temperature before putting the lids on and putting them in the freezer. It helps keep the frozen icicles from growing onto the food and the lid while it’s in the freezer.