Healthy Meal Prep When You Don’t Like to Cook

March is National Nutrition Month. If there is a better time to talk nutrition, you tell me. 

Some healthy eating strategies you hear a lot: meal prep! Healthy meal delivery service! 

But what if you don’t like to cook…like…at all?

Is there no hope for you?

Listen lady, there’s always hope!

Read on for a step-by-step approach to healthy meal prep and eating strategies (even if the kitchen isn’t your jam).

If you KNOW that it’s time to up your healthy eating game but REALLY don’t like spending time in the kitchen, I’ll help you make it work.

(p.s. you might have to spend a weeeeee little bit of time in the room with the oven and counter tops and microwave, but I promise, not a lot).

Step 1: Build Awareness

Knowledge, is power. But too much knowledge (aka the word throw up the internet sometimes throws at you), can be overwhelming. Having a good grasp of nutrition basics will help you navigate the grocery store AND separate the facts from the fiction when a new diet trend hits the mainstream.

If you have a pretty good understanding of food groups and nutrients, feel free to skip this section. If you sometimes wonder where black beans land on the nutrient spectrum, or you looking for a refresher, scan through the next few paragraphs.

Carbohydrates

Carbs are one of the three macronutrients found in food that provide your body with the main thing it needs to function: energy. There are two types of carbohydrates: simple and complex. Simple carbohydrates are made up of one or two “sugar units” and are easily digested and absorbed into your bloodstream to be used as energy. Complex carbs are, obviously, more complex. They’re made up of hundreds or thousands of “sugar units” which make them harder to digest which in turn, means they are absorbed slowly and provide more energy over the long term. 

The benefits of carbs:

• Carbs are your body’s main source of energy. 
• Complex carbs (see Fiber bonus note below) are crucial for digestive health
• Complex carbohydrates can help prevent certain diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases and type II diabetes

When it comes to making healthier decisions, focus on eating fewer simple carbs (that spike your blood sugar), and more complex carbs.

Examples of Simple Carbs:
Soda
Fruit juice
Candy
Sugary cereal
High fructose corn syrup
*notice that all of these sources are processed foods

Examples of Complex Carbs:
Potatoes
Beans
Whole grains
Starchy vegetables
Lentils

Bonus Note on Fiber

Most of the benefits listed above come from the fact that complex carbs have fiber, both soluble and insoluble. Fiber is not digested, and moves through your body slowly soaking up liquid (aka keeping you feeling full, longer), and moving waste through your digestive track. (Fiber deserves a round of applause).

Proteins

You are made of protein – your brain, your bones, your muscles, your organs, your nails…and proteins are made up of amino acids, some of which you can produce yourself (go team you!), and 9 of which are essential (and must come from your diet). Proteins main job: build, maintain and rebuild everything you are made of (see above: brain, bones, muscle…)

Complete proteins contain all 9 of those essential amino acids. In general, complete proteins come from animal sources, although there are a few plant protein sources that are the exception. Incomplete proteins contain only some of those essential proteins (or not enough to be of any significance), and must be combined to get all 9 essentials. 

The (other) benefits of protein:

• Protein keeps you full (it takes even longer to digest protein than it does to digest complex carbs)
• It is the building block of new, stronger muscle
• It contributes to a healthy metabolism 

Examples of complete proteins:
Eggs
Poultry
Fish
Meat
Tofu
Quinoa

Examples of incomplete proteins:
Beans
Legumes
Nuts
Seeds
Grains

*There are some combinations of incomplete proteins that will give your body the essential amino acids it needs in one meal:

• Nuts/seeds + whole grains (i.e. peanut butter on whole grain toast)
• Whole grains + beans (i.e. black beans and brown rice)

Fats

Every cell in your body contains fatty acids – and you want them to, or else you wouldn’t exist. Some vitamin and minerals require fat to be absorbed, fats play a role in managing inflammation and fats actually absorb into the blood stream at a slower rate than protein does, so it’s a great source of long-term energy. There are a few types of dietary fat, only one of which is worth steering clear of. 

You know unsaturated fats (poly- and mono-) as “healthy fats”. These fats come from plant and fish sources: nuts and seeds, olives (and olive oil), avocados, flaxseed, salmon and mackerel (to name just a few sources). These fats actually improve your blood cholesterol levels, which in turn protects you from certain diseases like type II diabetes. 

One type of polyunsaturated fat in particular, omega-3 fatty acids, is especially beneficial to your heart and body and especially out of proportion in the modern diet. That’s why omega-3 supplements are so popular-to help level out the proportion of omega-3s in your body.

Saturated fats get a bad rap but the truth is, as long as your source is high-quality, saturated fat is beneficial for your body. You need saturated fat and should aim to include high-quality sources in your diet from eggs, grass-fed butter, coconut oil and grass-fed red meat.

The fat that you should stay clear of: trans fats. Most trans fats are found in processed foods, which have gone through processing to make them shelf stable. When they go through processing, fats that were once probably fine for you are partially hydrogenated, which turn them into an “eat less of me” food. Saturated fats have been linked to increased LDL cholesterol (“bad” cholesterol), decreased HDL (“good” cholesterol), and cardiovascular disease. You’ll need to look for these on ingredient lists for foods like margarine, commercial baked goods, fried foods and baking mixes.

Why all of the above is important: Balance

Why do you need to know about carbs, proteins and fats? Because the key to the healthiest eating is balance. Eating a balanced diet ensures that you get the fuel you need to survive, and the vitamins and minerals you need to thrive. A balanced diet keeps you satiated, energized, focused and happy (no more mood fluctuations at 3pm every workday).

Step 2: Make a plan so that you can take action.

Everything you do in life could benefit from a plan: your day, your finances, your school program, your vacation, and yes, your diet. 

That does NOT mean that you have to plan out a week’s worth of meals every Sunday.

It does mean finding the “weak spots” before they become gaping holes, and putting some time and effort into your own healthy eating strategy.

Where in your day could you make a healthy change?

Spend the next 2-3 days keeping a detailed food journal. Track what you are, when you ate it, how much of it you ate. This will give you a really good idea of your current habits and routine. Here are some of the useful bits of information you’ll find in your food journal:

• Snack patterns. Are you a 3pm snacker during the work week? Is it because you didn’t eat lunch, didn’t eat a balanced lunch, or are you just bored at that point in your day?
• Do you eat something sweet every single evening? Again, are you still hungry because you didn’t eat dinner, dinner wasn’t satisfying or is it stress or simply habit?
• Where do the calories sneak in that you don’t even think about? If you’re truly tracking every morsel that you eat, you might find that there are hidden handfuls or nuts, or pretzels, or M&Ms that sneak into your everyday routine without your thinking too hard about it.

Highlight one or two of the areas that stand out to you as red flag areas. Where could you cut out ONE snack? Could you drink more water? When could you get up and go for a walk instead of mindlessly snacking from the vending machine?

When could you spend a bit of time in the general vicinity of the kitchen?

The other piece of the plan-it-out puzzle is finding time to build healthier habits (as opposed to cutting down on unhealthy habits found in your food journal). 

Open up your weekly calendar or planner. Don’t have one? May I recommend the Planner that has changed my life: Passion Planner.

Sketch out your week. You know when you work, when you have appointments, when you have to pick up the kids, when you have a workout class. 

Now, pencil in some time that you can reserve specifically  to focus on healthy eating and healthy meal prep. An hour or two a couple of days a week will do.

Which leads me to…

Step 3: Healthy meal prep for the anti-cook.

So, you don’t like to cook. You don’t really like to grocery shop but you gotta eat so…

Don’t worry. You don’t have to spend hours in the kitchen in order to eat healthier. 

Meal prep straight from the grocery store aisles

Healthy meal prep doesn’t have to mean hours of dicing and chopping and sauteing and portioning. Here are a few grocery store buys to make meal “prep” easy for the non-cooker:

• Pre-shredded salad and slaw mixes. Delicate greens might last just a few days in the fridge but slaw mixes are a bit heartier and will last the week. You can find everything from classic shredded cabbage to broccoli slaw in the produce section.
• Pre-cut or sliced veggies. You can find everything from carrots to Brussel sprouts to sliced mushrooms to riced cauliflower o the produce shelves. You might pay a couple extra bucks for them but if you hate doing it yourself, this is a nutrition-godsend. 
• Frozen produce is another option for ready to go produce. Stock up on peas, mixed vegetables, riced cauliflower, edamame, spinach and fruit in the frozen food section. Go organic when possible. *Frozen fruit isn’t just for smoothies. Try making Greek yogurt parfaits with frozen fruit and leaving them in the fridge until breakfast. The fruit will thaw just enough that the juice comes out and there’s no need to mix in added sugar!
• Boxed broth and soup. Again, go organic when possible and always choose low-sodium, but this is as easy as it gets for meal prep!
• Rotisserie chicken. It really, truly doesn’t get easier to up the protein level in your diet without having to do anything other than open a container.
• Pre-packaged options:
  • Dips like hummus, guacamole and salsa come in pre-portioned sizes.
  • Tuna: if dumping a can of tuna into a bowl and throwing in some spices and mayo doesn’t work, there are pre-portioned pouches of tuna on the grocery store shelves now.
• Grain pouches: from quinoa to brown rice to lentils, you’ll find a variety of quick-cook grain options. Throw in some beans and pre-diced veggies and you’ve got yourself a meal.

When it comes to healthy meal prep, you absolutely do NOT have to be an all-star chef. You don’t even have to qualify for Worst Cooks in America. You DO need to navigate the grocery store well, and know a thing or to about nutrients!

Let me know what you get stuck on in the comments!