(upbeat music and whistling)
- Hey there, welcome back.
Lacey here with A Sweet Pea Chef
and today I want to talk to you about
the number question I get asked across all of my videos,
and that is, what meal prep containers do you use?
So today I'm going to be talking about
meal prep containers, why they're valuable,
how they help you maintain a healthy lifestyle,
all those dos and don'ts of them,
what I use, and how to assess whether or not
you should get some for yourself,
and how many and what kind.
Does that sound good?
Awesome, so let's get started.
When Dustin and I moved in together
we got hand-me-downs from our parents
of all these extra Tupperware containers they didn't use.
There were like different sizes.
There were different lids.
It was kind of a mess and all it did
was really turn into a drawer that just fell on you
when you tried to get anything out of it.
You could never find the right lid.
It was super frustrating.
So the big takeaway on all of this was that
these meal prep containers did not make
my life easier, did not keep food fresh,
they were not easy to use,
they did not make my life better because I had them.
All they were were just a nuisance
and they did not help meal prep at all.
Then once I really got into clean eating
and I started learning about all the different ways
you can improve your healthy lifestyle,
I learned about meal prep containers.
So we bought a few on Amazon and at that time
they were pretty much plastic meal prep containers
and they were awesome.
We could use them to take our food with us.
We could individually portion out our meals.
We could have stuff in their for the whole family.
We even got a special duffle bag
that held the meal prep containers
so that we could take them on the road with us.
It was pretty sweet, but over time
the plastic started to break.
It would wear down and it didn't hold the food as well.
The lids didn't fit on quite perfectly anymore.
They became difficult to clean,
and we realized that plastic wasn't probably
the best thing to be microwaving our food in all the time.
So we tried to look for more solutions.
At that time, glass meal prep containers, we learned,
were becoming this thing that everybody was doing
in meal prep and they were awesome.
They could still do all the same stuff
that your plastic meal prep containers could do,
but you also had something that was now glass,
so not plastic, so you didn't have to worry about
any potential things leaking into your food.
They were dishwasher safe, microwave safe,
oven safe, freezer safe, and just overall
easier to clean, easier to see your food, and more durable.
So I should mention here that plastic containers
are not necessarily the enemy here.
I know a lot of people worry about the chemicals
leaking into your food when you microwave it.
So while it always is a good idea to look
for something that is BPA free,
plastic containers are a good option.
They're very cost effective.
They're pretty durable, and you can take them with you
and you don't have to worry about them
being as heavy as the glass ones.
So there is a value to them.
I don't want to scare you off if that is
what you like and that works best for you.
If you're wanting to avoid plastic containers all together,
you have a couple options.
You have glass meal prep containers,
and steel meal prep containers.
Both of these types of containers are a little bit
better on the environment because there isn't
that plastic being used.
You also don't have to worry about any of those toxins
being leached into your food.
So steel meal prep containers are great
if you're looking for something that will hold something
cold like a salad or you could put a sandwich in there.
You could put wraps, you could store
smaller snacks like nutz or fruit.
But steel meal prep containers are not microwaveable
which is a no-go for me because I use the microwave
a lot with my meal prep.
If you don't use the microwave or if you transfer
everything out on to a plate and you're okay with that,
a steel meal prep container might be
the right thing for you.
They are lighter in weight than the glass
meal prep containers and they are a little bit more durable
because you don't have to worry about them cracking.
But my choice if you've seen any of my meal prep videos
is the glass meal prep container.
And that is because I can see through them,
which I really like because I like to at a glance
see what I'm about to have or what
I'm going to grab from the refrigerator.
They are extremely durable.
I have dropped them quite a few times.
You can crack them, but it's pretty difficult.
And just like the steel meal prep containers,
they are also eco-friendly so you don't have
that plastic being used.
I also find that glass meal prep containers
have the best air tight seals as well.
I haven't had that luck with a steel meal prep container.
The only downside of glass in my opinion,
besides the potential cracking,
is that it's the heaviest of all the options.
So if you're going to be carrying a lot of them,
it can get a little bit heavy.
So once you've decided on what type
of meal prep container to get,
the next question is what size should you be getting.
And that really is going to depend on
how you're going to use your meal prep containers.
Are you going to be pre-portioning
everything out into one serving?
Or are you going to be doing bulk meal prep
and having everything ready to just grab
as you need from the fridge all together
and then you put that amount back
into the fridge that you don't use.
You could also do a combination of meal prep containers
for this exact purpose.
Like I might have cooked quinoa or brown rice or beans
in one larger container and then I take from that
to create like a bowl as I need it.
And I might also use my meal prep containers
for an individual serving as well
where I have everything already set up for me.
There's no work involved.
All you got to do is microwave it.
So if you're definitely planning on
portioning out your food, which is a really big value
of meal prep containers, then getting a smaller one
that just fits the size that you need,
like the ones that I'm going to be sharing with you today,
these are perfect for individual meals.
That makes it easy to grab from the fridge,
add to the microwave, have it reheat quickly,
and then eat it and go.
And that is a huge value of individually portioned
meal prep containers.
I also recommend not going out and buying
a gazillion of the same exact meal prep container,
until you've tested some out.
You're going to want to test and see
what size works best for you,
how large your portions are,
and how much you actually want to store in bulk
versus how much you want to have individually
pre-portioned for your meals for that day.
Once you kind of get an assessment of that,
and you get kinda feeling what you do
and you don't like about the meal prep containers,
that's when you can add to your collection.
All the meal prep containers I have,
have been accumulated over time.
They were not purchased all at once.
It's taken a journey of learning about
what works for me and my family.
But once you figure out what sizes you need,
then the real question is going to be
to determine how many meal prep containers
you actually do need.
To do that there's a few questions you want to consider.
How many of your meals per day are you looking
to have meal prepped for you?
Are you wanting to just take care of your dinners each day?
And have just the one meal each day?
Or do you want to add in lunches and dinners?
Or do you want to do all three and have
all of your meals prepped for you for the entire day?
How often are you planning on doing your meal prep?
Are you going to be cooking all everything at once
on like a Sunday before the weeks starts?
Or are you going to be meal prepping
kinda half of your meals two times a week?
So that means you only have to have
half of your meal prep containers available to you.
How often are you wanting to wash your meal prep containers?
Do you like doing the dishes?
Because if you do, then get as few
meal prep containers as possible.
The more meal prep containers you have,
the less often you have to clean them
because you're going to have some
that are already ready and have the food in them.
Sometimes I'm washing meal prep containers
in order to put a new meal into it.
So it really depends on how much you really want
to do the dishes and what works best for you
and your lifestyle.
And then how many people are you meal prepping for?
Is this just for you so you only need
to worry about yourself for these meal prep containers?
Or do you need to be also considering
adding in meal prepping for a spouse, or for your kids,
or for the family or someone else important to you?
Think about that because each person is going to require
their own set of meal prep containers.
In general, the more meals you're going to be doing per day,
the more meals per week, and the more people per meal,
the more meal prep containers you're going to need.
But that doesn't mean you have to go all out
and buy everything at once.
You can always just get a little bit
and see how well that goes.
For example, we meal prep two meals per day
for Dustin and me, lunches and dinners.
And then we do that for the entire week
and we cook it on one day.
So at that day we need 20 meal prep containers.
We need 10 for him, five for lunches, five for dinners.
And 10 for me, five for lunches and five for dinners.
And those are our individual meal prep portions
in glass containers.
I also use extra storage containers that are larger
for my kiddos because we store their stuff in bulk
because they like to grab little bits and pieces.
They don't like having it all prepped for them.
So based on my experiences with meal prep
and having four kiddos and running the blog
and just living life, here are what I recommend
as my top choices.
And there's four different types
of meal prep containers for different uses,
and these are what work for us.
So the first is glass meal prep containers.
So like you've seen in my videos I use these
for lunches, for breakfasts, for dinners.
I have them pre-portioned out for our meals.
I also use them as bulk items if I need to add
like some quinoa into a container and I don't have anything,
these are my general go to meal prep containers.
Like I said before, they are dishwasher safe,
microwave safe, freezer safe, oven safe.
They're pretty much awesome.
I absolutely love how I can close the top lid
on there and I hear it click and I know
that the seal is as tight as possible
so I have no air getting in or out,
which makes my food stay fresh as long as it possibly can.
These are absolutely amazing.
If you get no other type of meal prep container,
this would be the one I would recommend.
And don't worry, because I have all of the links
to get your own meal prep containers
down in my description below.
So after the video you can scroll on down
and choose whichever one works best for you.
Click on it and then you can get started
on your meal prep container ways.
I also love one quart mason jars,
because these are absolutely perfect
for meal prepping salads.
If you've ever watched one of my meal prep
salad videos, you know that it's really good
to meal prep a salad vertically because that way
you have all of your stuff stored nicely.
Your lettuce is on top and it doesn't get all soggy,
and you can still have your salad dressing in the bottom,
which is a big winner for meal prep salads.
So we use these for that, we also use them for soups.
I use them for infused waters.
I just love them, and I absolutely love these reusable
mason jar lids that I will also link to below.
These are super awesome because you can
just easily seal it up.
They're dishwasher safe.
If you've ever had to use old style mason jar tops
with the little lid and then you screw it on,
it gets dirty, it gets rusty.
These do not have that problem; they are life changing.
Speaking of mason jars, I also really like
16 ounce mason jars, also with using these lids.
I use these for chia puddings, make ahead smoothies.
I use them just to drink out of sometimes.
They're great for prepping overnight oats.
Pretty much anything that you need an individual portion
that isn't like a giant salad, you can use these for.
And they're really great, freezer safe.
They're just awesome jars and they're very very versatile.
I also really like these reusable silicone bags.
They are refrigerator safe; they're freezer safe.
I store tomato sauce in the freezer in them.
I also just could cut veggies and put them in the fridge.
I store cheese in them.
They basically have replaced plastic Ziploc bags
in our house because we can use them.
They are eco-friendly.
They do not cause any plastic build up in the environment
and they're really cool and very, very durable.
So they're very awesome and a really good addition
to have, to have kind of like a maneuverable
container for your fridge for meal prep.
So at this point, I hope your head isn't spinning
on all the different types of meal prep containers
that you now need to go run out and buy.
That's not my intention here.
The main goal here is to be eating the healthy food.
These meal prep containers are just something
to help you along the way.
You can kind of add in as you need to during your journey.
Don't go out and buy all of the things.
Don't freak out that you can't eat healthy
because you don't have meal prep containers.
This is just a way to make your meal prepping
and your healthy lifestyle easier
so that your food lasts longer in the fridge,
it's better for you, and it just makes things
easier to grab when you're hungry and keeps you healthy.
So definitely I hope I'm not overwhelming you on this.
So like I said, I have the links for all
of the meal prep containers I've discussed
in this video in the description below.
But if you have any more questions that I didn't cover
in this video let me know in the comments
and I'll be sure to answer you.
And also give this video a thumbs up
if you liked it and you want to see more videos like that.
That's one of the best ways of letting me know
that I need to make more videos just like this one.
Also, I hope you didn't miss my video
on my 30 top tips for weight loss,
which actually mentions meal prep containers in there,
so I know you're going to be interested in that as well.
So go check that video out,
and I will see you in the next video, bye bye.