- In today's video, I'm going to share
how to make your lunch meal prep a little easier.
It all starts with having
a variety of basic ingredients on hand
so you can mix and match and combine your pantry staples
with a variety of proteins, fruits, and veggies.
But first, the containers.
I have a couple of videos that I'll link below
that will be very helpful with your lunch prep.
One is all about meal prep containers,
another one is my top pick for school lunches,
and the other is a thermos comparison video.
So if you're tired of making a sandwich every day,
this video is totally for you.
Before I get started, though,
I want to answer a couple of questions I get often
about avocados and how to prevent them from browning,
packing berries ahead of time,
and when exactly to toss a salad with salad dressing.
I have quite a few videos
where I meal prep a salad for the week,
and I show a diced avocado being placed
inside the meal prep container.
Yes, that avocado will brown.
Browning is a natural oxidation process,
and not that the avocado is going bad
in your lunch container, necessarily.
If you don't like brown avocados,
I suggest that you prep your entire salad
and save the avocado slicing
for the morning or right before you eat it.
Another ingredient I often get asked about,
because I use it in a lot of lunches and in my photos,
are strawberries.
When I pack lunch the night before,
I wash them, slice them,
and place them in the lunch container.
They're still good and not mushy the next day.
However, if you want to pack a few days' worth of lunches,
I suggest that you save the strawberry slicing
for the night before.
Now, blueberries, you can pack blueberries
in the lunch box two to three days ahead,
and they'll hold their texture perfectly.
When it comes to salad dressings,
I recommend packing the dressing
in a small lidded container,
and then right before you enjoy your lunch,
drizzling the salad dressing right over the top.
Salad dressings will wilt your greens,
so of course that's why we don't toss it.
With pasta salads, however,
you definitely want to toss it with the dressing.
The flavors will absorb with the pasta,
and it tastes so much better the next day.
The idea here is for you to meal prep
most of the main meal ahead of time,
and then, if you have a few items
to sort out in the morning,
like the berries or the avocado,
it's just a matter of a minute or two, and not 15,
to make an entire lunch.
Does this make sense? All right then.
So let me tell you about
one of my top time-saving ingredients: cooked pasta.
It's super easy to repurpose
leftover cooked pasta into another meal
by simply mixing it with kid favorite ingredients
like pizza toppings.
All you have to do is mix it,
transfer into a lunch container, and you're done.
The best thing about cooked pasta
is that you can send it room temperature
or hot inside a thermos.
The possibilities are endless.
Now, I get that, for some people,
thinking of how to repurpose ingredients into another meal
can be a little bit of a challenge.
If you can relate to that,
make sure to check the link below this video
to download a free sample weekly meal plan.
I'll include five dinner recipes,
five lunch recipes, meal prep sheets,
so you know what to prep and when,
and a done-for-you shopping list.
Each week I create new real food family-friendly meal plans
for my members that help combine ingredients,
repurpose leftovers, and save lots of time.
Most importantly, they help add a variety of foods
and eliminate the "what should I make" dilemma.
So the link to that download is right below this video.
Another favorite ingredient is cooked chicken.
Whether it's cooked chicken to use to top a salad,
or shredded into an Asian chicken salad wrap,
shredded rotisserie chicken or leftover grilled chicken
is an easy ingredient to repurpose
into something completely different,
like our chicken caprese salad.
Speaking of repurposing ingredients, tortillas.
Tortillas can be used to make wraps, rolled into pinwheels,
handheld tacos like this ham and cheese taco,
and even tortilla pizzas.
Whether you have street taco sized tortillas,
taco sized tortillas, or burrito sized tortillas,
they are one ingredient
that can make lots of delicious lunches.
The best part is that nowadays,
you can find regular and gluten free tortillas
at every grocery store,
making them an awesome option for everyone.
Now, of course you can try it...
(thermos clatters)
(beep) Of course,
you can also try the meal prep hack
of selecting one ingredient
and creating a few different meals.
I have a series of videos that share
five lunch ideas with turkey, five with hummus,
five with hard boiled eggs and egg salad, you get the idea.
Make sure to check the links right below this video
for the lunch ideas and the sample meal plan.
And leave a comment, sharing what you struggle with most
when it comes to meal prep.
And if you're into this type
of helpful, family-friendly videos,
hit that red Subscribe button.
A new recipe video comes out every single week.
See you next time.
(bright music)