Originally published on Relish Growth.
This post will share five meal-planning tips for work lunches.
I started a new job at the beginning of the year, and while it is remote, I’ve had to make some lifestyle changes. This included my meal plans, gym schedule and even grocery shopping. I now have to build my schedule around my job.
But perhaps, the most important thing I needed to sort out was deciding what to each for lunch every day. While it’s nice to sneak in a quick meal during work hours, I work from home. I realized that I prefer being organized. I like knowing that my lunch for the week is decided and sorted.
Meal prepping my work lunches and sometimes dinners ahead saves me time during the week and keeps me productive. Now, I have more time to allocate to the gym, blogs and other side hustles after work.
If you have been struggling with planning your work lunches and are unsure where to start, this post is for you.
Here Are The Most Useful Meal Planning Tips For Work Lunches & Dinners
Going through these tips step by step will put you in a better position to plan meals properly.
Research Meal Ideas
I like to choose comfort foods. I’m not a foodie, nor do I have the energy to experiment with meals. I stick to meals that can keep in the fridge or freezer for a few days, like rice or pasta meals. I do not demonize carbs, so you’ll always find me eating a balanced meal or closely related to a high-protein meal because I work out.
Also, it is easier to cook pasta meals in large quantities. As I said, I haven’t experimented yet, but rice and pasta meals have sustained me for the past two months. If you’re not lazy like me, go on Pinterest and browse ‘healthy work lunch ideas‘. I’m sure you’ll find enough inspiration.
Write out your chosen recipes.
After browsing, write out the recipes you have chosen wherever convenient. It’s so inconvenient having to go back and forth on Pinterest to follow a recipe. So, write out as many details as possible to help make meal prepping, cooking and storage a breeze.
If you want to take it a notch by planning out your meals, Canva has gorgeous meal-planning templates that you can choose from. The idea just jumped into my head because I’ve realized that the older I get, the fewer things I want to remember. So, I’ll also be customizing and printing out a meal planner for myself.
Create a grocery list based on my planned meals.
I recently realized that I spend too much money on food. It’s not too crazy because I hardly eat out except for travelling. But I could be spending less. I justify the spending by reminding myself that I don’t commute anymore, nor am I shopping for office wear, so I’m allowed to spend that extra on food that brings me joy.
But if you want to be serious about planning your meals and consistent with them, you must shop according to your recipes. This helps you stay grounded and reduces the need to buy food you won’t eventually use. Plus, it prevents waste if you’re fond of forgetting produce and letting it rot.
It will help reduce your grocery bill because you’re buying only what you’ll be eating for the week and a few extras.
Pick a day to batch cook.
My work rota is on a shift basis. This means that my work hours and days off are super flexible. I honestly don’t mind it because I travel a lot and tickets are cheaper on weekdays. Although I have periods where I work Monday to Friday, I mostly meal prep and batch cook according to my shift.
So, if my off days for this week are Thursday and Sunday, I batch cook on a Sunday before for meals for Monday to Wednesday. Then on Wednesday, I batch cook for Thursday and Friday. This way, my meals stay as fresh as possible. If I’m batch cooking for five days, I prefer to freeze the meals than refrigerate them to retain their freshness.
Store your meals in microwaveable airtight containers.
One of the essential meal planning tips that are easier to overlook is how you store your meals. After cooking, I prefer to portion my meals and store them in airtight microwaveable meal prep containers. So when I’m ready to eat, I pick one, heat it, and I’m good to go.
I’m not stressing about anything other than eating during my lunch break. I can also maximize my time because I’m not spending it all on preparing my meals. Make sure you have a set of five containers with lids prepared at all times, depending on how meals you prefer to batch cook all at once.
Finally,
Batch cooking my work lunches has been such a game-changer for me. I can’t emphasize how much time it saves me during the week. It’s so convenient that I’m also in the process of planning my dinners as well.
I don’t want to finish work, leave the gym and come home to make dinner. If I can batch cook all the meals I would eat for the week in one day, I’ll be able to free up so much time to focus on other things.
I hope you have found this post on meal planning tips for work lunches helpful.
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