Meal Prepping Made Simple: Great Foods that Will Last All Week

Improving your diet is one of the best things you can do for your overall health. However, it’s not as easy as it may seem. The last thing you probably want to do when you come home after a long, stressful day at work is cook a big meal. You may find yourself reaching for foods that are low in nutrients and heavily processed. That’s why a lot of people have turned to meal prepping.

Adopting this type of system will allow you to cook just once a week and fill your fridge with healthy meals that you can heat up and eat on a moment’s notice. This could save you a lot of time, but it could also result in a fridge full of rotting, smelling foods long before the week is over. To avoid this, you’ll need to know how long certain foods last and which should be eaten as soon as possible.

What is Meal Prepping?

Meal prepping can be adapted to suit any lifestyle or family configuration. Basically, it means preparing your meals ahead of time so that it only takes a few minutes to heat them up at the end of those long busy workdays. But even this definition is open to a lot of variation. You may prefer to prepare and cook several meals over the weekend and freeze them so they’re ready for reheating during the week. Or you could simply cut up everything you’ll need for your meals and store them in individual portions in the fridge so all you have to do is throw the contents into the frying pan. Meal prepping could also mean cooking a big batch of soup and serving it up smaller portions throughout the week. Whatever method you choose, you’ll need to make sure you choose foods that are healthy and safe to eat for as long as possible. This is especially important if you’re suffering from Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome (AFS) since you’ll need to eat a specific diet to help your body heal and recover.

What is AFS?

The NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) stress response system helps your body manage and mitigate the damaging effects of stress by activating various systems and organs throughout your body. The NEM stress response is essential because, although stress is often an everyday experience, for many people stress can be extremely damaging to the body. Prolonged periods of stress can cause your NEM system to break down leading to Adrenal Fatigue, characterized by a wide range of symptoms including physical, mental, and emotional issues.

As a key part of the NEM stress response, your adrenal glands secrete hormones that are essential for several functions in the body. However, if you experience chronic stress, your adrenals can become overworked and will struggle to keep up with the ever increasing hormonal demands. This can cause dysregulation of the various systems and circuits of your body, which can result in baffling and worsening symptoms of AFS. People with AFS often experience a range of strange symptoms including fatigue, heart palpitations, digestive problems, anxiety, brain fog, food sensitivities, depression, and interrupted sleep patterns.

Adrenal Fatigue is not yet universally accepted in conventional medicine. As a result, if you suffer from these symptoms, you may struggle to find the understanding and help you need. In the early stages of AFS, medical tests usually come back normal, which often results in sufferers being told that they’re healthy and just need more rest. This could majorly threaten the health of an individual, as AFS can worsen and eventually cause a complete breakdown of your system if the source of the stress and associated symptoms are not properly addressed.

The Key to AFS Recovery

Successful AFS recovery involves two absolutely vital components. The first is to remove the cause of the original damage—which means decreasing or removing the root causes of stress so your body can start to heal and recover. For most people, this means making healthier lifestyle choices such as taking up some gentle exercise, eliminating environmental toxins, addressing toxic or unhealthy relationships and adopting stress relieving practices, such as yoga or meditation.

The second critical step to AFS recovery requires giving your body what it needs to correctly function and heal. Adopting a healthy diet that supplies your body with all the nutrients it needs and avoiding the foods that cause further inflammation and damage are vitally important. To heal your AFS, you’ll need to focus on a diet that is rich in fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, and healthy grains and eliminate processed, unbalanced, and chemically created or altered foods. This will not only give your body the nutrients it needs to function properly, but will also directly address some of the symptoms of AFS such as fluctuating blood sugar levels, weight gain, and food sensitivities. In turn, this may decrease your AFS symptoms and lower your overall stress levels, thereby allowing your body to heal and recover.

How to Prep Vegetables

If you have AFS, vegetables should be one of the most important parts of your diet and should make up about 30 to 40 percent of what you eat. For safe and tasty prepped vegetables, make sure you adhere to the following guidelines:

• Carrots should be cut and prepared for cooking or eating ahead of time. Peel and chop them as preferred and store them in an airtight container wrapped in a damp paper towel. As long as you keep the towel damp, the carrots shouldn’t dry out and you can use them as needed.
• Cut cauliflower into florets and store them in a large plastic bag in the fridge, ready for use. You can also pulverize the florets and store them in single serving size plastic bags to make cauliflower rice throughout the week.
• Kale is best cooked fresh, but you can cut down on prep time by removing the leaves from the stem and washing them. Allow the leaves to air dry before storing them in a paper towel to soak up any excess moisture.
• Oven baked sweet potatoes wrapped in foil on your meal prep day. If you store them in the fridge, they can make a great snack all week long and will last up to 10 days.
• Butternut squash can be kept cooked or uncooked for 4 to 5 days in the fridge. If storing raw, cube the squash and store in an airtight container. You can also toss the squash in oil and roast at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes to reduce cooking time later in the week.
• Onion can be a little tricky to prep and store. If you’re planning to eat it raw, it’s best to cut it just before you consume it. But if the onion is for a cooked dish, you can cut it ahead of time and store it in an airtight glass container.
  Garlic will go bad quickly if it’s prepared ahead of time so make sure you store it in an airtight container and eat it within a few days. Never try to add olive oil to chopped garlic, as this could make you sick.
• To prep ginger, grate it ahead of time and store it in the freezer to keep it fresh.

Meal Prepping Proteins

Proteins are extremely important when you have AFS. Your diet should consist of around 20 to 30 percent lean protein to meet your nutritional needs and help you feel satiated for longer. When meal prepping different types of proteins, you need to know the following:

• Lentils are great for meal prepping. You can cook them and store them in their cooking water to prevent them from drying out and they’ll last a full week in the fridge. Most legumes can also be frozen. Just soak them in water and boil them until tender. After the legumes have cooled, you can place them in plastic bags and freeze.
• Eggs can be hard boiled or cooked into muffins or a frittata that will last up to a week in the fridge. Leave hard-boiled eggs in their shell to make them last longer and make sure you store them separately so they don’t absorb odors from other foods.
• Chicken thighs are great for meal prepping as they won’t dry out. Cooked chicken will only last around four days in the fridge, so make sure you freeze any extra that you won’t be able to eat in time.
• Ground meat lasts longer once it’s been cooked. Try to cook it as soon as possible. It will only last 4 days in the fridge, so if you make extra, place it in an airtight container and freeze. If you have severe histamine issues, be aware that the bacteria that causes the allergy-like symptoms of a histamine intolerance will build up on food if it’s cooked and left for a few days. Therefore, if you know you react to histamines, make sure you’re only eating fresh meats to avoid a bad reaction.

How to Prep Grains

It’s important to eat whole grains when you have AFS. Whole grains are good for your digestive system and contain lots of the nutrients your body needs.

• Brown rice should be cooked using the normal method before storing in an airtight container. You can store rice for 5 days using this method and it won’t go off. To reheat the rice, steam or stir-fry.
• Oatmeal can make a great breakfast all week long, particularly when it’s cold and wintery outside. Simmer 1 ½ cups of oats in 4 cups of water for 3 minutes. Then let it cool to room temperature before storing in single-serve containers.
• Quinoa should be brought to the boil in 2 cups of water with a pinch of salt and then simmered for 15 minutes. Allow the grain to cool for 5 minutes before storing it in an airtight container in the fridge.
• Bulgar should last around 3 to 5 days in the fridge if it’s stored in an airtight container and can be eaten hot or cold.
• Whole-wheat pasta should be left slightly undercooked when you prepare it so that it doesn’t go mushy when you reheat it. Store the undercooked pasta separately from the sauce. To complete the cooking process, briefly dip in boiling water and add your favorite sauce.

Meal Prepping Fruits

Fruit is a very small part of the AFS eating plan for a number of reasons, but mainly because it contains a lot of sugar and can cause fluctuating blood sugar levels. However, eating some fruit should still be part of a healthy AFS diet, which means you need to know which fruits are best for meal prepping. The following fruits prep very well:

• Apples keep well in the fridge for up to 4 weeks. If you want to store them chopped and ready to go in a salad, place them in a glass container filled with cold water to prevent browning.
• Banana will keep well if stored individually in the fridge. Wrap the stem in plastic to prevent browning.
• Grapes are best stored in a container lined with paper towel to soak up excess water. They will last up to 3 weeks this way.
• Berries can easily be prevented from spoiling. Soak the berries in 1 cup of vinegar mixed with 3 cups of water for 5 minutes. Dry the berries completely before storing in a container lined with paper towel. Crack the lid to allow any excess moisture to escape and the berries will stay fresh all week.

Meal Prepping for Healthy Roast Chicken and Vegetables

Ingredients A

• 2 medium organic chicken breasts, boneless, skinless and cut into ½-inch pieces
• 1 cup broccoli florets
• 1 medium chopped zucchini
• 1 cup of grape or plum tomatoes
• 1 small red onion chopped

Ingredients B

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper to taste
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes to taste

Ingredients C

• 2–4 cups of cooked rice

Method A

• Preheat the oven to 450 F.
• Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
• Place Ingredients A in a baking dish.

Method B

• Combine Ingredients B in a bowl and pour over Ingredients A.
• Bake for 15–20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.

Method C

• Divide the cooked ingredients into 4 servings.
• Serve over rice.
• Makes 4 servings.

Final Thoughts

If you struggle to eat healthy meals when you’re busy, meal prepping may be a great option for you. It’s an effective way to cut down on the amount of cooking you have to do after a long and tiring day at work. This is incredibly important if you suffer from a disorder like AFS. Your successful recovery will rely on giving your body all the essential nutrients it needs to heal from the damaging effects of stress. By learning how to cook once for the entire week and ensuring you have a variety of meals in your fridge simply waiting to be quickly thrown together, you can make your everyday life easier and little less stressful. This will be great for your AFS recovery as well as the overall quality of your everyday life.