222_Ready Made Meals: A Fresh Convenient Approach to Meal Prep

Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast

Episode 222

Ready Made Meals: A Fresh, Convenient Approach to Meal Prep

In today’s world most people want everything fast and convenient. That includes the food we eat and especially how we prepare it. Such a desire for convenience is exactly what gave rise to prepackaged and microwave foods. Unfortunately, most of these foods are highly processed and not exactly healthy.

However there are multiple healthy homemade alternatives for all of the convenience foods we so frequently consume. With a little practice, you can always have healthy meals with very little prep time which is great when you are having a busy day. Welcome to the world of ready made meals.

So join me for E222 Ready Made Meals; A Fresh Convenient Approach to Meal Prep.

Welcome back everyone to the Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast. This is your host Patrick and this is W222, Ready Made Meals: A Fresh Convenient Approach to Meal Prep.

First I want to say that the focus of this episode is an extremely easy approach to meal prep. However, it is all too often overlooked because we are so busy we don’t want our routine to be interrupted. But before we get to that, let’s take a couple of minutes to talk about the good news story of the week.

Good News Story of the Week.

Personally I love a good story where we are all taught a valuable lesson by some of the less fortunate people in the world. This story comes out of Rio de Janeiro.

The slums in Rio that well out of reach of the more affluent tourist areas. These areas are informal settlements that are completely neglected by the government. These slums are a place of narrow alleys and corridors, exposed brick, metal and concrete with row after row of corrugated metal roofs. Areas such as this become heat islands because more often than not there is not a tree in sight.

One man found a way to solve that problem. A man named Cassiano started teaching, gardening and planting green roof tops all over one of Rio’s largest slums. These roof top gardens not only reduce the heat island effect but also slow rain water run off, keeps indoor areas cooler and helps keep the outside air more moist.

Due to the informality of these projects it is difficult for the government to get involved. But with spontaneous community led planning and good old fashioned self reliance some of the lowest income earners in the world can be insulted from some of the worst affects of climate change.

So just maybe we can learn something from the little guy and take advantage of the many benefits of a roof top garden.

So, that said, let’s move on to this weeks episode.

As you well know one of my favorite topics is self sufficiency especially when that comes to food. I purchase a lot of dry goods in bulk. I do a lot of home canning, freezing, and dehydrating. We also produce a significant amount of our own food on the homestead. Fortunately for me, this is all second nature because these are techniques and skills I learned from being on the farm.

But one of the downsides to our present society and culture is that we are always busy and short on time. It seems that every time I share with someone how I cook on the weekends, for example, making large batches of homemade food and freezing it, or making homemade bread, I alway get the same response. “I don’t have time.”

Of course when someone says that, the first thing I question is how much time per day do they spend on their phones. How much time do they spend surfing the internet or on social media. But I also think they are just another victim to this cultural idea that “time is money.” But in some ways, maybe this is not their fault.

This idea that “time is money” is deeply ingrained particularly in industrialized economies most notably in Western cultures. This concept is directly reflected in how people are paid by the hour, lawyers charge by the minute, and advertising is sold by the second. This monetization of time makes people constantly feel as if they are pressed for time as they try to balance work, leisure, and personal life. Consequently, the excuse I hear most frequently is “I don’t have time.” By the way, the global average daily screen time is 6 hours and 40 minutes.

My point is that we are always so busy that we have become addicted to convenience because it is the only way we can manage our lives.  We want everything right now if not yesterday. That is why we grab a pizza on the way home, go to the drive through, or keep prepackaged and microwavable foods at home. We never consider that such habits are detrimental to our health and there are many healthier alternatives for ready made meals.

I often joke that my list of things I no longer purchase at the supermarket keeps getting longer and longer. What that means is that I continue to find creative ways to make some homemade version of something I previously purchased as a commercial product. I say this only to emphasize that it is quite possible to create homemade versions of ready made meals.

Furthermore, these meals combine the convenience of pre-prepared dishes with the control and satisfaction of having done this at home. What I want to explore in this episode is various strategies for producing homemade ready-made meals, discuss meal planning, batch cooking, various kitchen techniques, and storage tips that can turn your busy routine into a well-organized meal planning experience.

The Power of Meal Planning

Effective meal planning is truly the cornerstone of preparing ready-made meals. By dedicating a little bit of time on the weekends or at the start of the week to plan out a menu, you can eat a balanced and nutritious diet throughout the week. One tip for making this easier it to  decide on specific recipes that lend themselves well to batch cooking such as casseroles, soups, stews, and pasta dishes. The goal is to prepare meals in advance, divide things into appropriate portions then store them properly for later consumption. This not only minimizes your daily cooking time but also reduces the temptation to order takeout or go to the drive thru on your way home  whenever you are short on time.

Batch Cooking and Meal Prepping Techniques

Now batch cooking is something that I do on a regular basis. Making things in large batches is the foundation of ready made meals. What this involves is preparing large quantities of food in a single session. It’s best to set aside a few hours during the weekend to focus on creating a single dish or even multiple dishes simultaneously. For example, a vegetable soup, a pot of chili, a homemade burrito mix, or even a large batch of ready made salad to be consumed over several days. Each dish is then divided into individual portions, stored in airtight containers, or even frozen depending on the recipe. Batch cooking maximizes efficiency and minimizes your meal prep if you are having a busy week. At the same time it ensures you have nutritious well balanced meals.

Part of rationale behind batch cooking is to save time. There are a couple of ways to approach this. Typically if there is something that takes longer or is more complicated that is the project I start first. For example, homemade bread takes time to rise and then bake of course. Pasta sauce is better if it simmers for a couple of hours. If I want to make homemade pizza I will make the sauce one day, chop ingredients the next day, and make the dough just before cooking it.

But since I do a lot of cooking anyway I have a variety of stock pots that are large enough to accommodate large batches of food. Commonly I will incorporate the use of a slow cooker so I can set it and forget it. But most commonly I use a pressure cooker because it significantly reduces my cooking time for almost everything. For example, if you are making a batch of burrito mix, using the pressure cooker cooks beans in 60% less time. Pressure cookers also cook meat very quickly while keeping in tender. Both slow cookers and pressure cookers are ideal kitchen tools for creating some fantastic meals.   

Easy Ways to Make Ready Made Meals

The benefit here is that many traditional recipes can easily be adapted and turned into healthy ready made meals that are both easy and convenient. Just a few examples of this include the following:

•  Freezer-Friendly Casseroles: Casseroles such as lasagna, baked ziti, breakfast casseroles, and meatloaf can be prepared ahead of time and frozen for later use. You can assemble the ingredients, cover, and freeze until needed. When you're ready to eat, just thaw it and bake for a fresh made meal. Many times I find it easier and more convenient to cook the meal, divide it into individual portions and freeze them. It saves on freezer space and makes for microwave friendly meals.

•  Slow Cooker Meals: Slow cooker recipes are ideal for busy weeknights and the leftovers can be saved for additional meals. Chilis, soups and stews are work great using this method.
•  Burritos and Roll-Ups: Individual burritos or roll-ups can be prepared ahead of time, wrapped separately, and frozen. These are perfect for quick, personalized meals. This is a technique that I frequently use. Because we have plenty of freezer space we will make 40 to 50 burritos at time. We use a variety of cheese, sauces and mixes to keep things interesting. This works well for breakfast burritos as well as regular lunch and dinner meals.  
•  Pasta Dishes: Pasta dishes such as baked ziti or stuffed shells can also be made ahead and frozen. These are generally very freezer friendly items. More commonly what I do is make a nice pasta sauce ahead of time and freeze that. Then the only thing I have to do is cook the noodles.
•  Homemade pizza is also another one of my favorites. Quite often I will make a larger batch of pizza dough, use part of it for traditional pizza and then part as a breakfast pizza. Both of these freeze well.
•  Meatloaf: Mini meatloaves or individual meatloaf servings are very freezer friendly. This is another thing I make in large quantities, slice and freeze.
•  Salads and Dips: Salads and dips are another great option for ready made meals. Since it is all the chopping that takes up most of the prep time, we commonly make a large bowl of salad and eat small portions for days. For a little added flavor, homemade salad dressing recipes are easy to find online.
•  Mason Jar Meals: Mason jar meals, also known as meals in a jar,  are another popular way to prep lunches or dinners. These can provide an enormous amount of variety. I have found entire books written about mason jar meals including numerous recipes. Once these are prepped typically you pour the ingredients in a pot, add water and cook.
•  Muffins and Breads: These are also things that I make in advance. Chocolate chip banana bread, zucchini bread, carrot cake muffins, breakfast muffins are all freezer friendly. High protein versions of any of these recipes can even make for a good meal.
•  Healthy snacks: There are also a variety of healthy snacks you can make ahead of time. Power bars, protein bars, protein bites, homemade granola, trail mix are all items that keep well for long-term storage. Purchasing bulk bags of frozen fruit makes for a great snack. Put a handful in a container with a tight lid so it will slowly thaw throughout the day and you have a ready made snack. Homemade popcorn is another great.
•  Sandwich meat: Off all the processed foods that we eat, sandwich is one of the worst. I realize it is so convenient but it is also high in salt, preservatives and a long list of chemicals. You can completely avoid this by making your own sandwich meat. Cook a whole chicken, a roast, or BBQ some pork and freeze it in small portions. Thaw out a pack of it and you have ready made sandwich meat.
•  Summer sausage and pepperoni: Of all the sausage type meats you can make, pepperoni and summer sausage if my far the easiest. It is as easy as mixing up the meat, allowing it to cure, rolling it out and cooking it. Then slice it and freeze in small quantities. It makes a great high protein snack food at a fraction of the the supermarket price.
•  Prepared Meals from Stores: I would consider this my last choice simply because it is the least healthy. That said, I do keep a variety of things at home such as cans of chili, soup, canned spaghetti, Ramen noodles, canned tuna and chicken. Since I do some traveling for work I also keep a box of food supplies in my truck in case I work late and get stuck somewhere because of the weather. But, as I said before, the list of things I no longer purchase from the supermarket keeps getting longer and longer. So I keep these kinds of purchases to a minimum.

Proper Storage

Now if you are going to do this sort of meal prep just remember that proper storage is just as important as the meals you cook. Meals that are going to be consumed over a few days can be refrigerated. Otherwise portion them up and freeze them.

Keep in mind that it’s important to invest a little money in proper freezer containers. They are not that expensive and are typically very durable. I’ve been using the same ones for years.

Benefits Beyond Convenience

With so much of our food being highly processed these days, creating homemade meals is the best way to take control of your health and nutrition. It is truly the only way to be in control of what goes in your mouth. 

One of the primary benefits of cooking at home and making your own convenience foods is the ability to control the ingredients and portion sizes. This in turn leads to healthier eating habits and better nutrition. For instance, you can choose to use high-quality, nutrient-dense ingredients and avoid excess salt, unhealthy fats, and added sugars, which are often prevalent in restaurant meals and convenience foods.

Far too often we reach for some pre-made, commercially prepared convenience food and overlook the detrimental health affects of eating highly processed foods. If you have to have a master’s degree in organic chemistry to understand what’s in the food your eating maybe you ought to reconsider.

Since the average person has 6 hours and 40 minutes a day of screen time it’s hardly valid to say you don’t have the time to cook for yourself. Ready made meals will not only save you time and money, it is also a great way to be sustainable and do the planet and yourself a huge favor. 

Well folks that is all I have for this week. I hope you will join me again next week for more tips on living sustainably. Until then, this is your host Patrick signing off. Always remember to live sustainably because this is how we build a better future.