Meal Prepping For An Easier Week Ahead...

Disclaimer:  I haven't been paid to promote any products or a certain store in this post, I just wanted to share what we've been doing this past couple of weeks and how awesome we think it is 💖

Hi Honeys
Do you remember I mentioned that I was curious about something I kept seeing mentioned online called "meal prepping"?

In the past I've always made Hubby's lunch the night before of course and popped it into the fridge for him and when making a casserole or lasagne (or anything else) I've sometimes made an additional large lasagne or whatever I'm cooking to freeze for later in the week.  It makes efficient use of not only my time but if the oven is going to be burning away anyway, it's just as easy to make double and save on the eye watering fuel bills.

The form of meal prepping I keep seeing mentioned though is different honeys.  I decided to be brave and try out meal prepping (in the way it's being shown online) to see what all the fuss was about and I have to tell you I'm completely sold on the idea! I just love it!

We're into the summer months honeys, as I write this I've just pegged out lots of laundry in the gorgeous sunshine outside, and summer months in our house means salads.  Lots (really lots) of lovely crispy, green salads topped with heaps of health boosting fresh tomatoes 😋

Something wonderful has happened to our lovely salads though honeys.  Well, it's all sort of happened by accident.  Sort of....  Why not grab a cuppa, and maybe a cookie, and I'll explain....

Welcome back dear ones, do you have your cuppa?  Me too ☕

Well, for quite some time now, like many others I'm sure, I've been thinking about how we could try to live a more sustainable life.  We don't eat take away food, we haven't in such a long time that I literally can't remember when, but I do make sure Hubby takes his lunch to work with him every day.

Until recently, his lunch has been taken to work each day in a square, plastic clip seal container. These containers are very popular because of the clip seal lids which prevent anything leaking and they're a good size, large enough to pack a lunch into and yet small enough not to be too bulky to pop into a work bag.

I wanted rid of the plastic though honeys.  An obvious and perfect exchange of course would be to swap the plastic for glass containers.  That raised other questions though.  Would they be safe to carry around? Would they be far heavier to carry to and from work?  Could I find replacement containers that ticked all the boxes Hubby's current plastic containers did but were, well, not plastic?

The last straw was when I read online about the dangers of chemicals from the plastic "leeching" into food when microwaved!  Hubby uses the microwave at work to heat his lunch! The plastic had to go.

Finding The Perfect Glass Lunch Containers...    

Fast forward then to my doing what I generally do of an evening, sitting on the sofa, hugging our furbaby Jade and happily clicking through pages online, usually while Hubby is napping in his armchair bless him 💕

He works very long days and is always sleepy after work.  This particular evening I happened to be on the website of (other than our home which I absolutely adore) my other happy place 😍  Ikea of course 😊

I had actually been originally looking at the kitchenware pages for new pots and pans.  Ours are getting really old now and, keeping with our growing interest in living a healthier life, I'd been reading about the dangers of non stick interiors but I'm getting off track honeys, sorry 😊

Well, while looking through the kitchenware pages my eye was caught by what looked like exact replicas of the containers Hubby used for his lunches and I thought briefly "Oh look, Ikea sell those plastic tubs too..."  The image on the page looked, well sort of glossier... shinier?  Not at all plastic-y?

Interest peaked, I clicked on the link and what did I find?

Yes, the containers were almost identical to Hubby's present ones in size (400 ml) but not only were they less expensive, they had the same fabulous clip and seal lids and.... they were made of glass!

I actually let out a little squeal honeys! Jade looked at me funny and then settled back down to sleep again, clearly not as excited about this wonderful glassware find as her Mum was, bless her 😍

I excitedly added two of these little glass containers to my basket, thinking it was simply too good to be true (especially since they now deliver small items, a joy since our store is too far away to travel to) and I could always order more if they turned out to be as great a find as I hoped.  Two glass containers added to my basket I wondered what else made up the collection these dishes came from.

The collection is called Ikea 365+ and is made up of lots of different types of things, such as textiles etc but also including these kitchen storage containers, both in glass and plastic varieties (so if you do order any honeys, check you're getting the glass ones and not the plastic because they do sell the plastic type too) with various differently styled lids.  There are the BPA safe plastic lids (the clip seal ones) lovely bamboo lids and pretty pastel coloured silicone lids.  I'll try to add a link for you at the end of this post honeys.

Looking through this collection I spotted a similar, although larger (1 litre capacity) container, also made of glass.  It looked very like the one we already had in the kitchen, which I make apple crumbles and such in, but that glass dish had cost £6 whereas this similar one was priced at £3!  Into the basket it went.

As you can see, they are indeed made of glass...     

I was surprised though, considering how little they cost compared to their plastic counterparts, by how high in quality they are.  They are all made of a heavy glass, they're freezer safe and oven safe too and, perfect for transporting Hubby's lunches yaaay!

As I mentioned they also come supplied with those clip seal lids...

The lids are available separately (priced at around £1 I think) so it would be easy to replace them if they wear out over time.  The lids also have a very clever sort of multiple part "gasket" (the blue rubber piece which forms the seal) which I've now found (having tried two weeks running) keeps our lovely, crispy, much loved salad fresh in the fridge all week long!

So, now for the sake of a little extra prep time on a Sunday, which Hubby is always happy to help with, we have a fridge full of yummy salad to last all week long and Hubby can just grab a container from the fridge every morning and I'm happy in the knowledge he has a healthy lunch that isn't leaking plastic toxins into his food.

We have always tried to be careful to buy plastic containers that state they are BPA etc free but since Hubby does take foods like lasagne with him at times, which he microwaves at work, I'd rather he did that in a glass dish than a plastic one.

So, since it's summer time (and salad time for us) every morning Hubby can just reach into the fridge and grab his fresh salad container.  In addition to this he might also take a soft roll, a wholewheat wrap or a ciabatta roll with him. 

While in the fridge he'll also choose a little protein by way of some canned tuna (mixed with diced onion and mayonnaise) or spicy chicken, or boiled eggs or maybe a little deli meat or he might take a little of what we've had for dinner the night before if it's one of his favourites :) All of this prepared beforehand and waiting to be chosen from the fridge.  I'm so loving meal prepping honeys.

Healthier Snacks Too...

In addition to meal prepping salads for the weeks lunches, I've also been using those little preserve jar sets from Poundland, do you remember them honeys?  It's £1 for a set of three, with adorable chalk labels.

I haven't used the chalk labels (the jars are washed each day of course and the labels would be washed off in no time) but the little jars themselves have been marvellous!  We bought another three sets, so four sets in all, giving us a total of twelve jars.  I know that seems a lot but in this way on a Sunday I can make up ten little jars, one each day for Hubby and one for me too, these last all week.

You don't have to buy little glass jars though honeys, we all bring them home all the time in our grocery shop.  Why not just keep your eyes open for the small jars in your fridge or cabinets and when they're empty just wash them out, leave to soak in warm soapy water to help remove the labels and you'll have perfect little snack jars.

To each of our little jars we add fruit such as blueberries or strawberries to the bottom.  I use frozen fruit and keep one drawer of our freezer stocked so we can switch types of fruit to avoid getting bored.  The fruit will be topped with creamy, natural yogurt. The jars are then sealed and popped into the fridge.  I also make up small containers of a healthy snack such as nuts too.

I've found, not only for Hubby at work but it also applies equally to me at home too, that if we have healthy snacks available all ready to eat without having to prepare anything then it will mean we're both less likely to head to a vending machine or make unhealthy choices when hit by the hunger bug at home.

The tiny containers in the photo above, containing dry roasted peanuts, were just little tubs I'd kept because they seemed small enough to be useful, possibly for craft supplies.  As it turns out they are small enough to contain enough for a snack to ward off hunger pangs but not enough to snack too much.  Hubby can leave his tiny tub on his desk at work and snack when he needs to and no more vending machine trips 😊  They are BPA free plastic but we'll replace them when we can with a healthier container.  Even the small jars are too large for the purpose but I'm sure in time we'll find something appropriate.

The Results Of This Healthier Living Experiment So Far...

It's only been a couple of weeks of us doing this honeys and Hubby's having to wear a belt with his jeans because he's losing weight and I'm losing weight again too!  Just a wee bit of extra planning and a tiny bit of extra effort can really lead to making healthier choices through the day. It can also save such a lot of time throughout the week that can easily be used on happier pursuits like making a huge fuss and extra hugs for our furbaby Jade and spending time together of course.

Have you tried meal prepping honeys?  Am I just really late to the party again?  I'm really, really loving it so far.  I'm loving the convenience of it, always having healthy options to hand, and I'm loving that we're, in our own tiny way, doing something to help the environment by using less plastic.

I just placed an order yesterday for a few more of these glass dishes so I have enough to rotate them, using some in the freezer and fridge as and when needed and of course for Hubby's lunches too.  I said in the disclaimer which started this post that I'm not being paid or sponsored to write it or to recommend any products and I'm absolutely not.  I just wanted to share our little discovery and to that end I'll leave you some links as promised.

The range that these glass containers with lids come from is called Ikea 365+ and you can see them here on Ikea UK and here for our American cousins and also here if you are a Canadian cousin.  I would love to link for everyone, I had hoped there might be a single European link for instance, but each Country seems to have it's own page.  If you go to Ikea.com though honeys and scroll down the page, choose your Country from the list and click on it, then type "Ikea 365+ food containers" into the search bar, the product page will appear.  I hope that helps.

So, what do you think?  Are you a fan of meal prepping?  Do you have any hints and tips for me?  Are you trying to move away from using too much plastic?   Another problem area in our kitchen is drinking straws, but that's a whole other post honeys.

I hope whatever you're doing today, you're seeing this gorgeous sunshine and enjoying your day.  We have a bank holiday this week in the UK so Hubby is at home on Monday.  We're hoping to tackle another organising project in our home but whatever we end up doing it will be lovely to have Hubby home for an extra day.

Till next time dear ones, smile lots and hug even more and have the best weekend ever, hugs always xx