Maybe you’re one of those people that can eat the same thing every day and it never bothers you. That’s great. For the rest of us, though, eating the same meal prep five days a week has made for a loathsome lunch. But there might be something that can help.
Instead of storing your prepped food as complete meals, keep each ingredient separate so that you’ve got more freedom to mix and match.
What does this look like in practice? Commonly, when people meal prep, they choose a single meal—like a burrito bowl with quinoa, chicken, corn, black beans, and salsa—and then divvy up the ingredients to create five meals. Each meal has its own storage container, and boom, a grab-and-go lunch. But what if you stored those ingredients separately and gave yourself a few different ingredient options?
In the case of the aforementioned burrito bowl, perhaps you keep the chicken and quinoa as your protein and base. Go ahead and cook enough of them for the whole week. But in addition to the corn, beans, and salsa, you also chop up some cucumbers and tomatoes and make (or buy) some hummus.
Store all of these non-base and protein ingredients separately. Then, throughout the week, you can craft both a burrito bowl and Greek hummus bowl. Viola! You’re no longer eating the same thing every single day.
On meal prep day, this means a bit of extra chopping and preparation, and when making your lunch the night before, it won’t be so grab-and-go. You’ll need to assemble it. However, if this method gets you to stick to those healthy lunches you had intentions for at the beginning of January, isn’t worth it? Plus, you’ll probably spend less money ordering takeout while your sad old meal prep sits in the fridge.
If you’re still committed to those health and fitness goals or want to save some cash by packing your lunch, this meal prep method might make things a bit easier.
