What is the first meal that comes to mind when you think of a meal prep?
The answers will vary a lot, and the answers from people who already order great food from a meal prep service or prep food themselves will be quite different from the answers of people who have not quite taken the plunge yet.
There is an assumption that meal prepping can be time-consuming and difficult but there is no fundamental reason why this needs to be the case.
There are a lot of assumptions about meal prepping that are somewhat unhelpful, and one of the most frustrating ones is the implication that a meal prep needs to be prepared entirely from scratch.
Part of the problem with that idea is the definition; one man wanted to make a sandwich completely from scratch by growing and preparing all of the ingredients himself, in a process that cost over £1000 and took six months of dedicated work.
Most people who believe meal prepping has to be completely from scratch do not tend to own allotments, but the issue of cost and time are major barriers that stand in the way of people reaching their nutrition goals.
Meal prepping can be as complex and elaborate or as simple as you like. A meal of brown rice, broccoli and grilled chicken does not suddenly stop being a meal prep because the rice was from a microwave packet, the broccoli was frozen or from a tin, the salad was ready-mixed and the chicken was from a delicatessen packet.
There are ways to spice up meal preps and make them more interesting over the long term, which helps people to stick to their nutrition goals but also takes time, but there is no reason not to take every shortcut you feel you need to in order to make all the meals you need.
After all, meal prepping in itself is a shortcut; rather than going through the work every day to make the meals you need for your plan, meal prepping is about taking a block of time when you can and making meals for when you cannot.
It can be as simple as tripling an existing recipe and boxing away the leftovers or it can involve preparing proteins, grains and vegetables in ways that are nourishing, delicious and suitable for however you feel after any kind of day.
As well as this, cooking from scratch is not always necessarily healthier. Prepackaged meals that are carefully prepared and have clear nutritional targets are going to be healthier for you than a delicious home-cooked but extremely large and calorie-dense meal.
There is also the question of to what extent you need to prepare from scratch; obviously growing your own wheat to make bread is extreme, but can you use pre-packaged marinades, spice mixes and sauces in a meal prep? What about salad bags?
Ultimately, meal prepping is all about your individual needs, and it can be as intensive or as easy as you want it to be.