24
Jul
The limitation for social movement, self-isolation and recommendations to stay at home, mean that our grocery shopping habits must change. Here is how meal prepping can surprisingly help us at this time.
On a regular day, we’d shop for our weekly groceries in our favorite supermarket, and we know the correct amounts of carbs, vegetables, meat, dairy, eggs and everything that we need for the next week.
However, now that we must practice physical distancing and limit our movement in public spaces, we encounter a few problems.
We start shopping in larger amounts because this reduces the number of trips to the supermarket. We buy online in large amounts to get a good price and reduce delivery costs. As we buy more food at once, we find that the same cooking patterns cannot apply now.
Some ingredients go bad, and we also lose our motivation to cook and buy prepared meals instead. People at home complain that they are bored of the menu. Is there a way to solve this problem?
The answer: Do a meal prep!
How to meal prep saves time and money
The basic idea behind meal prepping is that we cook in a large batch on a given day so that we don’t have to cook with the same amount of time in the future. Sometimes, we only need to reheat the food as it has been cooked completely.
Meal prepping also saves money because
1) No food gets wasted as the shelf life is extended with cooking
2) All food is readily available to eat on days we don’t feel like cooking
3) We cut time and money on trips to the supermarket.
Did you know? If you order with a minimum expense of Rp 150,000 from our product catalog, we can deliver your order right to your doorstep with free shipping?
The basic principles of meal prep you need to know
While there are hundreds of menus available to copy online, you can also learn about these basic principles of meal prepping so that you can design your own menu that the family loves.
1. Pick a versatile ingredient
For example, if you’re planning to prepare chicken-based dishes, don’t just buy a fillet or separate parts. Buy a whole chicken and learn to cut up the carcass. From a whole chicken, you can get not only the cuts that you want but also leftovers for broth.
Check out our frozen poultry and frozen fish category here.
2. Learn about traditional vegetable preservation methods
Pickling and salting is the oldest technique in the book for vegetables. Even if you don’t like pickles or salted vegetables, you can still make use of a little lemon juice and brine to preserve carrot, cucumber and corn cuts. It’s also very useful to stock up some frozen vegetables – they last long, and are pretty versatile.
Check out our frozen vegetable category here.
3. Steam is your best friend
Whether you are working on your proteins or vegetables, cooking with steam proves to be a really great way. Steam cooks thoroughly and saves energy. You don’t lose the nutrients from vegetables unlike boiling. You may find that the water used to steam poultry and fish collects oil from the flesh. Save this oil and place cooked bones in it to make a quick soup!
4. Experiment with different sauces and condiments
Steamed poultry and fish are like empty canvases. Get creative by adding soy sauce, mirin, Korean pastes, kimchi gochugaru, sauerkraut, tartare sauce, cheese and more! Utilize the power of the oven by steaming at less time (so that meats can last at least one week in the refrigerator), and then applying the toppings before completely cooking the food in the oven.
Check out our collection of spice, sauce, and condiments here.
Stay at home, shop with us, and save time and money with meal prep.
Puri Pangan Utama is a Bali food distributor that specializes in frozen food and imported Asian products. We wish you a safe and healthy time while self-isolating at home.