how-to-meal-prep-for-the-week.mp3

If you’re looking to make healthier food choices and save money in the process then meal prepping might be for you.

I’ve been prepping my meals for well over a decade and have learnt a thing or two along the way.

So I wanted to show how I prep for the week and share some insights that should help others get started.

For lunch and dinners, you’ll need a good number of large food containers. I’ve been using these for 6+ years and they’re still in great condition.

For breakfast and snacks, you’ll need to have some small food containers. Again, I’ve been using these containers for 6+ years and they show very little wear.

When starting, it’s perfectly fine to use what you already have – if you have plastic containers, use those.

First things first, you need a plan. And by plan, I mean a meal plan.

Now your meal plan is going to depend on how many people you’re cooking for:

Whichever the case, use this to decide how many meals you’re going to cook and how many servings.

Here’s an example of what I’d look to cook for the week:

For breakfast, my go-to is overnight oats or granola.

With enough food containers you can easily meal prep the dry ingredients for overnight oats for the entire week (that’s what I do).

I often do some variations of these two recipes:

You can create a simple base of oats, chia seeds, flax seeds and cinnamon and top with whatever you fancy when it comes to eating.

If you’re anything like me, this one’s not to be forgotten. You need to consider the things you’re going to eat around your meals – snacks!

For me, this will include some unhealthier options like; chocolate, crisps, crackers etc. but largely consist of healthier options like:

Every day I have a mixture of different nuts, usually consisting of cashews, almonds, walnuts, pistachios and Brazil nuts – it’s a great way to increase the number of "plants" in your diet which has so many health benefits.

Don’t feel like you have to plan everything you’re going to eat for the week, allow some flexibility to eat something you’re craving.

With your meals to hand, add all the ingredients, you need to a list.

This could be a paper list, a note-taking app or a dedicated shopping list app.

I prefer using an app, so I can remove the items I’ve added to my basket as I go through the shop.

A shopping list is a surefire way to save money and avoid unhealthier foods as you’re more likely to stick to the things on your list.

Once you’ve created your shopping list, check your cupboards, fridge etc. for ingredients you might already have.

This will stop you from buying excess food that’ll either get thrown away or fill up your cupboards to be forgotten about.

This one doesn’t need much explaining, go to the shop and buy what you need.

My approach is; to go to my main supermarket (Aldi) to do the bulk of my shopping.

If there’s anything that I can’t get from Aldi, I’ll then head on over to Morrisons to get any remaining bits.

Don’t go shopping when you’re hungry, this will help prevent you from impulse buying food because you’re hungry.

The idea of tidying your kitchen just as you are about to mess it up sounds a little counterintuitive – but don’t skip this step (especially if you have a small kitchen like me).

All of this will make the cooking process far less stressful.

When it comes to cooking, there’s one rule I have and that’s to avoid multi-tasking.

By having everything ready, it means I’m not running around trying to do 10 things at once, whilst my onions are burning because I haven’t chopped up the carrots yet (maybe you’ve been there).

I’ll go through this process for up to two recipes on a Sunday – opting for more time-consuming recipes now and saving easier, quicker meals for later in the week.

You can also prepare parts of a meal, such as chopping up veggies or preparing a filling/sauce that can be used later in the week.

The hard work is over, but don’t stop here.

Now it’s time for the easy bit, prepare breakfast and snacks.

This way I’ve fully prepared for at least 2 days into the week.

If you’re new to meal prepping, don’t feel pressure to do everything all at once, instead try preparing your breakfasts or snacks for the week and build from there.

Are you looking to eat healthier, and save money and time? Then meal prepping might be for you. Learn how to meal-prep in 7 easy steps.

How to meal prep for the week an easy guide for beginners

Earlier this year I came across a post on social media from someone I follow.

She said, she’d been eating mostly vegetarian meals and ate her way into a B12 deficiency.

Which got me wondering, might I be deficient in B12, or anything else for that matter?

I didn’t know the specifics of her B12 deficiency, but I felt fine… I think.

I take a daily multivitamin and omega3 supplement and ate a fairly diverse range of plants in my diet. But how could I know?

This wasn’t just about a B12 deficiency.

My dad and grandad both had heart problems and had to have heart bypass surgery.

At the age of 6, I was told I had a heart murmur (which I’ve since been told has gone away).

And so if my goal is to live a long and healthy life, catching anything that could seriously be affecting my long-term health, would be a sensible thing to do.

And so I did some searching online and came across Thriva – the finger prick blood test that can be completed at home.

So with further ado, here’s my Thriva review.

Going into this I didn’t know what to expect.

Thriva has a bunch of different home blood test kits to choose from – which at first glance might seem quite overwhelming.

But they also have a quick 3-minute online quiz, which will ask you a bunch of different questions about yourself and based on your answers will suggest what things you should get tested on.

You can of course remove certain things from your package if you don’t feel the need to test for it and equally add ones you think should be included.

This is the route I went down, my package was put together with a focus on long-term health – exactly what I was looking for.

Personalised Thriva health package with recommendations and results

It took a few days for my package to arrive, but whilst I was waiting, I received plenty of helpful emails on how things are progressing, what to expect and what I should do when it arrives.

It was just the right amount of information, not too much that it was annoying and not too little that I wondered what am I meant to do when this turned up.

The package itself was so well put together and organised. Everything was clearly labelled and separated into its relevant section.

If like me, it’d be your first time doing an at-home kit, I’d recommend reading the instructions ahead of time, as you’ll likely have to make some preparations before you collect your blood sample, I had to:

Once you’ve figured out a day and time that you’re going to collect your blood sample.

Make sure to get everything you need and organise it somewhere you can access easily.

With that out of the way, make sure to read the instructions a good few times – because once you start it does feel like you’re on a countdown to get enough blood into the vial(s).

Instructions on how to collect your Thriva blood sample

Once I had posted my box into the mailbox, I received an email from Thriva when they had received it and also with the expectation that my results would be ready within 48 hours.

Here’s an exact timeline, from me, placing my order to getting my results:

When I did get my results, my expectations were definitely exceeded. I expected to get a list of everything tested and whether I was deficient or not.

There’s a message from the doctor who checks your blood sample who’s looked at both your results and the details you’ve added to your profile and helps to pick up on points that might matter to you.

There is little or no active inflammation occurring in the body. Studies have shown in an otherwise healthy individual this is associated with a reduced risk of heart disease and stroke. That’s great news!

You get an overview of everything tested and how well you performed.

Once you click through to your results, there is a detailed breakdown with your personalised insights:

Vitamin D health results with insights and doctor’s feedback

Once you’ve been through all of your results at the end of it you are presented with a section on ways you can improve your health.

Personalised recommendations on how to improve your health

Although these high-level recommendations are useful, they aren’t easily measurable, which is where the Thriva health plan comes in (free of charge).

The health plan gives you actionable tasks you can complete weekly to work towards improving your health.

It can seem overwhelming the number of activities you’re tasked with, but you can remove some if it feels like too much.

Health plan activities to improve your health

It’s been roughly 2 months since I did my first Thriva test, so how am I getting on with my health plan?

I started off strong, ticking things off my list but within the first week, I was taken out by the Norovirus.

Since then I’ve been ticking off the low-hanging fruit activities like taking my daily supplements and doing my daily walks.

But there are 2 activities I think I’d benefit most from:

It’s worth remembering, that just because you’ve strayed from the path, it doesn’t mean you can’t get back on track.

So these are the 2 areas I’m going to focus on until I do my next Thriva blood test.

A lot of this really comes to habit change, in which case it’s worth grabbing a copy of Atomic Habits – and for myself to give it another read.

If you want to learn more about building habits and sticking to them, I’d recommend grabbing yourself a copy of Atomic Habits. James talks about habit stacking, the compound effects of habits and much more.

Find out what’s happening inside your body and discover the best evidence-based ways to improve your health — based on your lifestyle

Is a plant-based diet affecting my health? I did a Thriva blood test to find out

I can see the appeal of recipe kits like Grubby, if you live a busy life it can be hard to find time to plan, go out and buy all the ingredients you need for tasty, nutritious meals every week.

I really enjoy cooking (if you couldn’t guess), but even I don’t always have time to cook new, tasty, healthy meals every week (running my own freelance business and being a dad of 2), so I thought I’d give Grubby a try and share my thoughts.

This was honestly the thing that drew me in, you can tell that Grubby seriously cares about the impact they have on the planet, they:

On top of all of this, Grubby even donate a free meal to children living in poverty in Uganda for each box sold – having donated more than 12,000 meals already.

One thing I was a little bit disappointed about was the plastic that some of the produce came in. This is what Grubby have to say on the matter:

From time to time, plastic is used in our boxes… the tricky truth is that in some instances, plastic still plays an important role in tackling food waste and keeping produce fresh. Don’t get us wrong, we’d much rather use eco-friendly alternatives, and we’re pushing ourselves to continuously research and test new materials.

So this is definitely something Grubby is aware of and is continuously looking into – for more information on the sustainability of their packaging make sure to check out their FAQs.

Each week you can choose up to 4 recipes (serves 2-3 people) or 2 recipes (serves 4-5 people) from a lineup of 10 (the recipes change every week).

If you’re someone who likes to plan ahead, you can even choose the meals for the following 4 weeks.

Your Grubby box will be delivered on either a Monday, Tuesday or Friday – depending on the day you select in the Grubby app when choosing your meals.

If your circumstances change you can skip weeks or change the delivery day.

Once your box arrives, you can expect to find fresh, pre-measured ingredients inside for all of your meals – with each recipe’s ingredients found in separate bags based on the recipe.

If you’re lucky, you might even get a freebie in your box – in my case, I got a free vegan hazelnut truffle chocolate bar from Rhythm. Safe to say it didn’t last long.

And if you like to listen to music whilst cooking, each recipe card has a QR code to a curated Spotify playlist so you can listen along whilst cooking.

Grubby freebie – vegan hazelnut truffle chocolate bar

Now that we’ve covered all of that greatness, how much will Grubby set you back?

Well, you have a few options to choose from.

If you’re choosing the regular box which serves 2-3 people per recipe, you can choose from:

Or if you’re choosing the family box which serves 4-5 people per recipe:

So now that you know what Grubby stand for and how it works, are the meals any good?

Butternut, pepper & pinto quesadillas, avocado salsa

This recipe required a bit of context switching – oven, frying pan, making the sauce and preparing the salsa.

But the recipe was structured in a way that meant I didn’t fall too far behind and everything was ready when it was meant to be.

It did take me a little bit longer to make, the recipe said 30 mins but it ended up taking me around 40 mins.

I knew when I was cooking it that it was going to taste good.

The balance of flavours between everything was spot on, you wouldn’t guess you’re eating so many different veggies in one go. If I got this in a restaurant I’d be really happy.

Roasted med veg risotto and toasted seeds

This recipe was pretty straightforward, it didn’t involve too much context switching.

I did find the order of steps could’ve been better (as the veggies from the oven were ready much sooner than my risotto in the pan).

Timings were pretty accurate, it took maybe 5 mins longer than stated.

Taste-wise, it was okay. Not the most flavoursome meal, but when you got a spoon with the toasted seeds, the flavour kicked in. I’d happily eat it again but I wouldn’t choose it over their other recipes.

This was the recipe I was most looking forward to. Following the recipe was pretty straightforward – it mostly consisted of chopping veggies and adding them to a pan.

Timings were again pretty accurate, it probably took me 25 mins to make – whereas the recipe said 20 mins.

It had a generous portion size (possibly could’ve served 3 people depending on how hungry you are). As for taste, it was great, the crunch that the peanuts added were an underrated addition – would definitely eat this meal again.

Honest answer, yes, but not all the time.

There are many positives to Grubby; the meals are tasty, I don’t need to plan what to cook, or buy the ingredients and with bigger box sizes it means I can cook enough food for my wife and me for 2 separate meals.

But the sticking point for me is – cost.

But as someone who enjoys cooking and will happily go out and buy the ingredients, the cost difference can be vastly different.

Personally, I feel like I could incorporate Grubby into my schedule when I get busy.

As someone who runs their own business, there are weeks where I just don’t have the time and/or brain capacity to plan out what to cook for the entire week – this is where Grubby would come in really handy for me.

But that’s just me personally, Grubby could be exactly what works for you. 

So if you’re in the market to try out one of these recipe kits, I’d definitely recommend giving Grubby a try.

Whether you’re new to plant-based eating or you’ve been plant-based for a while, Grubby is definitely worth a try – you’ll be making healthy food choices that have less impact on the planet.

Looking for something that doesn’t require so much effort? Check out my review for allplants – frozen vegan ready meals.

Grubby’s 100% plant-based recipe kit offer veggie-packed recipes that have less impact on the planet

Grubby, the plant-based recipe kit that doesn’t cost the earth

planthood-review.mp3

I love a good plant-based recipe kit, but finding the right one for you can be tricky.

You need to consider taste, how much work is involved, whether it’s healthy and most importantly how much does it cost?

The big selling point of Planthood compared to other recipe kits is time and effort.

They boast a mere 15 minutes to cook a meal – and I mean cook, not just warm something up in the microwave.

But how does Planthood make it possible to prepare a freshly cooked meal in just 15 minutes?

Simply, they do all the heavy lifting – by cooking sauces, preparing dressings and garnishes all from scratch so when it comes down to it, all you have to do is add it in while cooking.

I’ve tried my fair share of plant-based recipe kits and ready meals, and whilst Planthood isn’t perfect, they’ve found a happy middle ground – which I’ll cover in this review.

As always when picking out one of these recipe kits I like to know what they do to help the planet (besides selling plant-based meals).

And it’s good to see Planthood doing their part too, they:

This plant-based recipe kit doesn’t only taste good – they do good too.

If you’re after some more details, make sure to check out Planthood’s sustainability page.

We donate 1% of all our sales back to the planet and work closely with environmental charities to protect nature and boost biodiversity.

Each week you can choose between 3 to 5 meals (from a choice of around 7). You’re also able to select whether these meals serve 2 or 4 people.

Your Planthood meal kit will be delivered on either a Monday or Thursday – which you can choose on the website and you’re able to change this from week to week.

If your circumstances change you can skip a week or change the delivery day.

Once your recipe kit arrives, you’ll find individual bags with the ingredients of each meal pre-measured to get started.

This is an easy one to answer, simply put – yes.

It’s hard to believe the meal is going to turn out so well, I really had my doubts whilst cooking a couple of them – especially as you’re only dealing with like 6-7 ingredients for the meal.

But it shows how much of the heavy lifting is done by the sauces and garnishes that are freshly prepared for you.

Planthood don’t just understand flavour, they also manage to get that perfect blend of textures in a meal, which simply elevates it to another level.

Creamy kimchi macaroni with roasted broccoli & garlic panko breadcrumbs

Tahini miso ramen with crispy chilli tempeh, pak choi & brown rice noodles

Crispy mushroom shawarma with garlic tahini sauce, pickled radish & fresh mint in soft flatbread

Picture this, you’ve finished a long day of work in the office – having survived only, on your carefully prepared meals for the day, you shoot off to fetch the kids from nursery, drag them home, and give them something to eat at which point it’s your turn to throw a meal together.

By now, you’re so ready to eat, and eat you shall.

Of course, this is what happens to me, but funnily enough, I must be a terrible judge when it comes to portion size as on multiple occasions whilst cooking one of Planthood’s meals I thought to myself – what am I going to eat after this to fill me up.

But to my surprise each time, I sat down to eat the meal, it’s a far more generous size than I first expected.

So to answer the question, are Planthood’s meals filling – yes. At least they are for me.

Time to see if Planthood lives up to its claim – do meals really only take 15 minutes to prepare, and are they as easy as they say?

Each time I entered the kitchen to cook one of the meals it ended up taking me longer than 15 minutes to cook… by like a meagre 5 minutes.

20 minutes though, to cook a tasty meal is a massive win in my eyes.

And to say they were easy to prepare is an understatement – I fully expected to be running around frying one thing, boiling another and so on, but that just wasn’t the case.

So up until now, everything sounds pretty great. But I’d argue this is the point where it falls down (just a teeny weeny bit).

There are a lot of different ingredients that go into making the delicious sauces and garnishes – but these largely all seem to be A-OK.

But to make recipes quick and easy something has to give. And that thing is a smaller variety of plants per meal.

What I mean by this, is that your meal might have 1-2 key vegetables in it and if more were to be added this would impact the simplicity of putting a meal together and how long it takes.

So that’s it – all things considered, these meals are still really good for you! Especially if the other meals throughout your day have various plants in them.

Planthood recipe instructions and nutrition

I’d say Planthood is on the pricier side (compared to some other recipe kits, but only slightly).

You’re ultimately paying for that convenience of being able to quickly and effortlessly throw a meal together that tastes great and is good for you.

Again pricing will depend on what you’re buying, but if you’re looking to buy meals that serve 2 people per meal you’re looking at £6.99 per serving:

And if you’re looking at getting meals that serve 4 people per meal, you’re looking at £5.95 per serving:

When you break it down by serving size, these meals are quite competitively priced.

If you’re someone who gets takeaway regularly throughout the week – Planthood is a great alternative, you’ll likely save some money and they’re better for you.

And if you’re a little bit more like me, Planthood can simply take the pressure off during the week!

Planthood verdict – would I buy it again?

Truthfully, to date I’ve only ordered a single box from them – but this shouldn’t reflect the offering of Planthood.

I think what Planthood are offering is fantastic and it’s great to see someone tackle the time/effort problem of recipe kits – which is what I love most about them (other than the taste of the food of course).

Come 2024, I can see myself ordering more recipe kits from Planthood – maybe once a month to take the pressure off from cooking.

If you’re in the market for a plant-based recipe kit, I would highly recommend you check out Planthood.

If you’re looking for something more hands-on that not only tastes great but is chock full of plants make sure to check out my review for Grubby the plant-based recipe kit.

Planthood’s on a mission to create the most mouthwatering plant-based recipes that are incredibly fast and convenient to prepare.

Discover the deliciousness of Planthood’s plant-based recipe kits

I’ve never really struggled with sleep, until sometime in 2021.

On occasion, I’d either struggle to fall asleep or wake up just after midnight and then lye awake for 3+ hours before falling asleep again.

So I decided to look at my daily activities to see what could be affecting my sleep.

Scientists have determined that getting a good night sleep on a regular basis is important for a multitude of reasons;

Now if that’s not a good enough reason to get a good nights sleep I don’t know what is.

Want to understand the science behind why we sleep and why it’s so important for us? This is probably the most comprehensive resource on sleep and might just convince you why to try and sleep better.

Our lifestyles play a big role in how well we sleep at night (or day, maybe you work nights), so it’s worth looking at your day-to-day activities that might be impacting your sleep.

Whilst this is definitely not a definitive list, here are some things that have helped me get better, more consistent sleep;

Our circadian rhythm which regulates our sleep pattern is governed by our exposure to light.

By stepping outside first thing in the morning after waking up we expose ourselves to natural sunlight (even on a cloudy day) which will help us sleep better at night.

This also has the added benefit of getting Vitamin D from the sun.

Blog

How to meal prep for the week an easy guide for beginners

Discover the deliciousness of Planthood’s plant-based recipe kits

allplants – frozen vegan ready meals that are good for people and planet

Is a plant-based diet affecting my health? I did a Thriva blood test to find out

Grubby, the plant-based recipe kit that doesn’t cost the earth

6 ways to get a better night sleep

I built a consistent walking habit, here’s what helped

New plant-based recipes & articles every month