Why You Should NEVER Meal Prep As A Student! (Kinda)

Meal prepping is overrated. In this video, I'm doing an exploration of how to meal prep in a better way for your student needs.

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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:54 Goals of Prepping
1:30 Plan
1:55 Groceries
2:52 All-purpose staples
5:00 Prepping the basics
8:37 Sponsored segment
9:50 Building our meals

[hengyang]

One thing you should note is that a college student (especially as a freshman/underclassman) usually doesn't have much fridge/freezer space. I had 3 roommates my sophomore year and I had the largest freezer space, which could barely hold 3 bags of frozen veggies.

[clippychan]

one of my biggest tips is to pre-cut, portion, and freeze half of your fresh veggies, fruit, or even bread! I always found that towards the end of the week/ early into the next week my fresh food would get kind of funky. I'm also incredibly forgetful so a lot of it would get shoved to the back of my fridge and go bad. Freezing whatever veggies/ fruit I wasn't using that day in pre-portioned bags made me more likely to use it later in the week and made it not as much of a big deal if I forgot about it. This also works with pre-cooked meat but heating it up can turn it dry, I personally don't mind bc of the convenience but everyone is different.

[muffinberg]

this video is very nice. I have seen similar videos on prepping some "building blocks" for the prep of later meals. But this video had a ton more of those. I'll try to incorporate these in my prepping.

[Smudgemom]

I went through a phase of chopping/prepping all my veggies, cooked grains & beans…placing them all in small pint jars & stored them in one large box in the refrigerator. Pull the box out & do a quick stir-fry of pre-chopped mushrooms, carrots, cabbage, greens, onions, rice & chickpeas. I ate so healthy but the prepping just caught my lazy butt. Need to get back into that…like the building blocks thought. It’s a lot like my jar system. Much of that stuff can be done at the same time. Thanks for the inspiration

[sajisama]

My main problem with meal prep, is how fast I get bored of the same food. Plus the box you open the day after, is obviously more tasty than the one you open on day 5-7, if its chicken you can't even keep it for that long, and rice definitely needs rehidration after a few days.

[Nick-djbx]

This is such a helpful and well explained video. I'm really lazy with cooking all the time because I always have a lot to do for university, and this'll be a lifesaver!

[LuisCaneSec]

You could replace student with any busy lifestyle. This is just generally good cooking practice. As much as I like to cook, I get lazy and having these building blocks for quick meals is great.

[murphyleigh]

i spend about 2 hours late at night cooking my meals for the next day, and i use a lot of these tricks to make sure i have a lot of variety, because my adhd demands it. you have a really soothing voice, so i like to cook my food while you tell us about cooking yours! tonight i made a cajun mashed potato bowl with honey garlic chicken for tomorrow’s breakfast, and since that’s a heavy meal, i made a light lunch of roasted maitake mushrooms and tomatoes with sides of peas and gluten free ciabatta rolls & irish butter, and i’m broiling some other chicken as well for a noodle dinner tomorrow night!

[kimthegrey]

I'm a student aswell, but have my own space. This allowed me to build a pantry with the essentials like you mentioned eventhough I have a very small kitchen. My go to back up meal is dahl, because I always have lentils, canned tomatos, spices, rice and eggs. Allowes me to procastinate on groceries. Because I live on my own I usually cook for two and freeze one meal that I'll eat somewhere in the next two weeks. Saves money and time. But I don't tend to prepare anything beforehand each week or something, because that is just too much work for me

[imyabota]

The thing I dont like about all this meal prepping is the amount of utensils you need. Cleaning is just as important as groceries and cooking and using all these many containers is just a pain in the arse. Especially if you dont have a dish washer. I think its just a thing to always keep in mind. And also how much storage you need bcs I live in a flat with multiple people and I cant just take the whole fridge space for me.

[sWEEc]

What works for me (and a lot of other people) is having little bags of precut vegetables in my freezer. I bought a bunch of different greens, cut them and put them in zip-lock bags. Now I just take up one bag and put it straight into the pan. It makes so many different meals.
It contains, onions, garlic, a bit of ginger, carrots, cabbage, bell peppers, mushrooms, corgettes, brocccoli and aubergines.

I also recommend cutting up meat into 100-150g portions and freeze them in individual zip-lock bags. I defrost them in the microwave if I'm short on time. I have to use zip-lock bags because I share a freezer with my roomie and there is not enough space for tubberware containers.

[ursjehh]

As a student in engineering with a very busy schedule while also trying to meet certain fitness goals (bulking at the moment), I still think meal prepping your lunches is optimal (I prep 2 different dishes, twice a week). However, for dinners I think pairing your strategy with a slowcooker is very good. With everything prepped beforehand, in the morning you can just chuck everything into a slow cooker, set it to cook for 8 hours, and then come home to a still hot meal with plenty of room for day to day variety. Breakfast is never an issue as there’s so many things you can make in 5 minutes and in my case I also make my weight gainer shake/smoothie and get a quick 1000 cal in to help meet my calorie goals, which I drink sometime between breakfast and lunch. I’ve been hitting my goal of 3500 pretty easily this way but I’m sure this could be adjusted for just about any caloric intake.

[orcinusolive]

Btw interesting side fact, since you haven't mentioned it: putting boiled eggs into cold water is mainly done to stop the cooking process very quickly. So if you like your eggs a bit softer and a bit liquid...y, you should totally do that.

[priyasampat]

I’m not even exaggerating—this video is one of the most friking helpful videos I’ve ever seen. I never thought about meal prepping in this manner. I only had to start cooking for myself recently and with no help, I’ve been all over the place and eating a lot of take out. This is perfect, and I 100% prefer this method as opposed to just making the same meal all week. Thanks for making this video, it was well explained, especially with all the examples, and very useful for my life

[estherhannes]

Having rice noodles (or wheat noodles) prepared or a simple vinaigrette is also a great idea, couscous is very quickly done as well (just add hot water). I like to have olives at hand and tomato sauce for Italian dishes and dried wakame and pre cooked shiitake mushrooms for Japanese food (quick ramen or salads)

[childofivy]

My favorite cook book is the America's Test Kitchen meal prep book. It gives you a run down on what to have in your pantry, and weekly lists for each meal plan.

[ciarasomething]

My tip is to make 3 - 4 portions 1 for then. One for left overs then freeze the other 1 to 2. Over time you build up alot of meals

[JRCSalter]

One of the things I do to prep is to freeze a lot of food. Yes, this does require a large freezer (mine's about the same size as my fridge), but when it's just you on your own, it makes things so much easier. Not everything can be frozen, but most one pot meals can be, as well as oven baked dishes such as lasagne or pies. I individually portion them into foil takeaway containers and so I can just take it out the freezer and put it in the oven. I dislike using the disposable containers though, and so am on the lookout for individual oven proof dishes with lids; most of the ones I find though are just a bit too large for my needs.

[Darellos]

I used to do this back at college too!
Got tired of eating the same food, so started just to prep stuff to mix it up together later and do different dishes.
I actually got the idea because someone told me that some restaurants do that to get things fast.

[lukehp]

this video is so much better than the usual “MEAL PREP THAT MAKES YOUR MUSCLES GROW EVEN WHILE YOU’RE ON THE SHITTER” i just need some meal prep as a regular student who eats regular stuff not aimed at muscles or anything in particular, just food