Save time with this meal prep hack

How I use this meal prep method to prepare delicious healthy meals in less than 30 minutes

Most of you reading this are students with very little time and energy to cook and more often than not, a tight budget that may limit your food options. One of the reasons I started Hungry Students was to make cooking nutritious and delicious meals accessible for us. I often like to achieve this is through meal prep. However, I don‘t mean the type of meal prep where you prepare one meal that you‘ll eat over several days. I like each meal to feel new whilst still maintaining simplicity. I usually prepare base ingredients that I use in different ways, a method I made good use of with this week‘s recipe.

Meal prepping can be made so much easier by just having the right ingredients in your kitchen. Here’s how I would recommend preparing your kitchen.

1. Stock up on basics

   Make sure you have non-perishables stocked in your kitchen closet. Having them there already gives you more options for what to cook. They last pretty long (hence non-perishable) so it‘s worthwhile to load up on these every few weeks. Get yourself a decent supply of rice, legumes (my faves are chickpeas & kidney beans), oatmeal, pasta and canned tomatoes. I usually go to DM to get these as I find they‘re pretty affordable there and I frequently find whole grain options, however Kaufland is a safe bet for finding them as well.

2. Have a go-to vegetable list

   Veggies are pretty standard and if you haven’t been eating them because eww they‘re gross, then you’re at the right place to learn how to cook your vegetables! I was vegan for four years (gasp!), and this experience gave me a lot of insight on how to cook veggies and legumes well. Here is an example of veggies I always buy, which can all be found in Aldi.

   • Red Peppers

   • Zucchini

   • Aubergine

   • Mushrooms

   • Kopfsalat

   • Onions (it‘s a root but you get it)

   That‘s it! Occasionally I add some carrots or a cucumber, perhaps some sweet potato (again root-vegetable) for some variation. It just makes grocery shopping really effortless to go in knowing exactly what you need. Plus these veggies are quite versatile so I always end up making something new and tasty with them.

   As an add on, I always have fresh fruit. An apple and or a banana can really go a long way.

3. Pick your main protein source for the week

   I must confess, my history with veganism does make me biased towards plant-based proteins. You‘ll always find a block of tofu in my fridge and a can of chickpeas in my closet. You can choose to add some fish to store in your freezer. I definitely always have at least a dozen eggs I‘ll cook or bake with. I promise you, I try to prioritize my protein intake with each recipe. It just has so many benefits! It keeps you satiated and less prone to cravings, it fuels your gains (shout-out to the gym rats). Here’s a list of ideas for my protein sources.

   • Pulses (chickpeas, kidney beans, lentils)

   • Tofu

   • The occasional hake, haddock or salmon (as a treat)

   • Magerquark (this is a new one for me and kinda life-changing)

Time to save time

We’ve got our grocery items, let‘s set ourselves up for a simple quick meal prep:

1. Chop your veggies and store them in the fridge

I chop up all my veggies for the week and put them into tubs or sealable bags in the fridge. I‘d do this during a study break for example. Each time I want to cook something new during the week, I don’t have to spend time chopping veggies. I pretty much only need to heat up the pan and toss them in. This really makes cooking during the week much easier.

2. Stop meal-prepping, start ingredient-prepping

Now the next tip really changed my perception of meal prep. I don‘t cook one meal I eat over several days. I prepare base ingredients that I can put together in multiple variations throughout the week. For example this week I thought I‘d heat up the oven and roast some veggies. I wrapped up my pre-chopped zucchini, pepper and carrots in Aluminium foil, seasoned them with olive oil, salt and spices and roasted them in the oven for about 25 minutes.

What resulted was my base meal of roasted veggies.

Here‘s where variety comes in.

Some ways you can alter a meal is by changing your starch and sauce.

For instance, I first ate the roasted veggies with quinoa and a quick Magerquark Lemon dressing (it’s literally just Magerquark, lemon juice, water, salt, et voilà).

The second time, I ate these veggies with a chickpea scramble, which is my favorite breakfast, and a touch of the leftover quinoa.

At some point during the week I through some onions, spices, canned tomatoes and kidney beans in a pot to make a 10-minute chili, and served that with my veggies, salad and chickpeas

You could add these ingredients to a wrap or a sandwich, you could make a super yummy pasta dish with them. The point is just to have the main component cooked and easy to adjust as the week progresses. Super easy, super tasty. Stay tuned for the full breakdown of this recipe.

Happy Studying, Happy Munching!

Thank you for sticking around for a rather long newsletter. I felt it useful to cover the basics before we can go on to the fun part. Let me know if these tips were helpful! - Adeline