I recently started a new full time job and let me tell you -- it is no joke. My hours, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., eat up almost my whole day and I'm learning I have to use every time management trick I have to make the most of my free time. One of the most helpful tricks I've learned is the glory that is meal prepping.
I'm sure you've heard of meal prepping on the internet: it's basically cooking and preparing your lunches for the week on one certain day, so you don't have to slap something together at night or spend your hard earned money on fast food. When I come home, cooking is just about the last thing I want to do so meal prepping is a god send for me.
But, like most food related things are, meal prepping for a person with PKU is a little trickier. You definitely have to get more creative, since the recipes on the internet are big on slow cooker chilis or batches of chicken. While I'm no expert on the subject, I have been meal prepping for solid month now and I want to share some Do's and Don'ts of meal prepping, PKU style.
DO roast every vegetable you can think of
99% of my lunch meals include a roasted vegetable for many different reasons: it's super easy to make (sprinkle the veggie with oil, salt and pepper, throw in the oven for a little while and boom! Delicious vegetation), it's great to eat at room temperature in case your work fridge or microwave is a little crowded, and it's honestly just delicious. I roast a lot of different things, but my favorites lately are potatoes, butternut squash, beets and asparagus. A lot of my lunches are just a medley of different roasted veggies and they are always something I look forward to.
DON'T just think "green salads"
I made this mistake when I started and I promise you, eating a green salad for lunch five days a week straight gets very boring very fast. Salads are awesome, but get creative! String bean salad, kale salads with roasted beets, cole slaw mix with lots of veggies included -- the possibilities are limitless and you always get a different, crunchy salad.
DO make your own salad dressing
I know, that might seem a bit extra, but here me out for a second -- our lunches really consist of veggies. That can get boring and bland very quickly, and I'm not really feeling bland lunches. If I make my own salad dressings to put on salads, I can make them as flavorful as I want. Fresh lemon, tart vinegar, salt and tons of pepper -- it's all my choice and I end up being much happier with my lunch this way. Plus, the internet has thousands of recipes and ratios to use when you're making your own dressings to use, so it's not difficult at all.
DON'T go shopping/cook more then once a week
This is more of a general hint, rather then PKU centric but it's one worth saying. With meal prepping, the focus is on saving time and money by doing all your work on one day, so there's no reason you should have to run out more then once, or cook anything for that matter. For example, my days off are Wednesday and Thursday, so I go shopping Wednesday for everything I need and I mean everything. Veggies, snacks, drinks, toiletries, ingredients for dinner -- if you get organized and make sure your list on your shopping day is complete, you don't have to go back to the store until your next shopping day and that's one thing you don't have to worry about in the craziness of your work week. I cook and portion out everything Thursday. So I cook a week's worth of lunches, put them into Ziploc containers and throw them in my fridge. Just grabbing one and running out the door in the morning is the most satisfying feeling.
DO season your food
This is my biggest tip for all the PKU meal preppers. As stated before, our food can be bland AF sometimes. Plus, when you cook something and let it sit for a few days, seasoning can sometimes diminish and not taste as flavorful as it was when it was cooking. I season everything I cook -- salt, pepper, herbs, red hot chili flakes. Whatever you like, you should throw on the food because it will help, believe me. My go-to for veggies is a garlic-herb blend that I sprinkle over with some salt and pepper.
