The Twenty Minute Day

Are meal prep and leftovers the same thing?

I have a family member that cringes at leftovers. They can’t get past the fact that textures change, meat isn’t as rare or some other excuse that comes to mind for them at the time.

I have gotten pretty good at estimating portion sizes per meal but really, why shouldn’t I be able to serve leftovers without feeling guilty.

I also enjoy watching meal prep video’s but know that ultimately that isn’t my thing (but that is more because leftovers or not, I am not into eating the same thing for days on end).

Here is the time block solution I have come up with. I have opted to combine the chopping, slicing and dicing characteristics of meal prep with the real time element of cooking.

Rather then spend hours on one day waiting for meals to cook, I can spend a bit of time on meal prep and pullout what I need ready to mix together before it goes into the oven on the day of.

What do I mean here: If I know that I will go through a few onions during the week, I can chop them all up at once. Put them into containers and dump the required containers into one meal the day of.

Same goes for peppers, tomato’s, celery, carrots or any other foods that will be required across multiple meals.

This way the meals are fresh on the day I cook them, but I was able to cut down on how long it took me in the moment to get them each ready. In many ways it makes me feel almost like I’m on one of those cooking shows where they have all the ingredients pre-cut and in their pretty little pre-measured individual dishes laid out in front of them.

I have saved time overall by prepping for more than one meal at a time, but I am not forgoing that fresh appeal. Win Win.

While it might not save a large amount of time overall, it does reduce the time the night of which for me makes it worth it.

Sunday
Any 20 Minute Time Block – Chop Vegetables for Week

Any Week Day
5:40 Pull pre-but vegetables out of Oven. Mix with protein. Cook normally.

Any Week Night
5:40 Pull out pre-chopped vegetables, mix with protein and cook
Saves estimated 20 minutes of prep and clean up time

Does this beat leftovers – in my books it’s a Win Win

Does this beat leftovers – In my books – any day!