With increasingly busy lifestyles, it’s easy to see why so many Brits are choosing the convenience of takeouts instead of taking their own lunch to work. On average, British workers spend around £1,840 per annum on their lunch during the working week.
Meal prep and bringing your own lunch work is one of the easiest ways to save some of your hard-earned cash – By preparing and bringing your own lunch to work each day, you could save around £1,200 per annum. Want to save money, eat healthily and avoid the takeout lines? Then work lunch prep is exactly what you need!
What is meal prep?
Meal preparation or ‘meal prep’ is a term often used by personal trainers and gym fanatics to describe the process of planning and preparing meals ahead of time. Meal prepping and taking your own lunch to work could save you a substantial amount of time and money across the working week.
Meal prep involves cooking larger quantities of food at once and dividing them into separate meals. These meals are usually sealed in containers and stored in a fridge before they are used. This concept works well for work lunches as it saves you both time and money.
Where do you start?
Although meal prep might sound quite daunting at first, it’s actually quite easy! Here’s a simple formula to follow for lunchtime meal prep.
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Create a meal plan
The first step to lunchtime meal prep is to create a meal plan for the week. Planning what you are going to eat for the week doesn’t need to be difficult, there’s no need for complex dishes. Save those for dinner time!
If you are stuck on ideas, then a great tip is to have leftover food from your dinner. It’s as simple as putting it in a sealed container and taking it to work the next day.
After you’ve decided what your lunchtime meals are going to be, you should then prepare a shopping list of all the things you’re going to need.
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Go shopping
It goes without saying: Shop your kitchen first – use what you have before going shopping. Be sure to look out for deals before you go out shopping. Typically, people choose to do one big shop on a Sunday morning as this leaves the afternoon/evening to prepare the week’s lunch. However, you should do whatever works best for your schedule.
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Hit the kitchen
Now that you’ve got all the ingredients, it’s time to start cooking up a storm!
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Refrigerate
Once all the cooking is done. Place all your meals for the week in separate reusable containers and store them in the fridge, ready to be enjoyed. There’s nothing better than waking up in the morning and not having to worry about preparing your lunch before you leave for work.
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