The Best Ever Alternative to Meal Prep

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time to meal prep. Some kind of meal prep is important if you eat an anti inflammatory diet to support your hypothyroidism. But, I’m guessing you don’t have time either? Instead, here’s the best ever alternative to meal prep: Component Cooking. I promise, it will change your life!

I know, that’s a pretty big claim to make about component cooking! But, if you find yourself scrambling around on the weekends with sports games, birthday parties, movie nights, playdates, grocery shopping, laundry, and cleaning…where in the world are you going to find a spare 5 hours to meal prep?

Not going to happen, is it?!

Why Meal Prep Works (for some people)

While I give meal prep a hard time, the theory behind meal prep is a good one. The idea here is to prepare! With traditional meal prep, you spend a dedicated block of time making meals for the week. Simply pop them in the fridge or freezer, clean up all your dishes, and you’re done! With the meals all prepared, it’s a quick re-heat during the week, and you have dinner on the table. Voila!

I also think that meal prep works for people who are trying to start a new kind of meal plan or way of eating. (Think: paleo, anti inflammatory, Whole 30, etc.) In the early days, when you’re trying to get a handle on what you can and can’t eat, meal prep gives you one day to think about all the details. Then, throughout the week, you can easily pull meals out of the fridge without too much thought. 

(Curious if a unique meal plan is right for you? Click here to read how an anti inflammatory diet helps hypothyroidism!)

Why Meal Prep Fails

I fully support the idea of preparing each week for your meals. But, eating on the fly, grabbing “whatever’s in the fridge” – well, that’s a sure-fire way to derail any health and wellness goals you’re going after! 

Plus, let’s be real. Who is going to find 3-5 dedicated hours in the kitchen, every single weekend? And it’s not just that. First you have to plan the meals. Then you have to collect the shopping list. Grocery shopping comes next. Then it’s hours of chopping, dicing, mixing, grilling, and packing. And when you feel like you’re going to fall over, you still have an hour of dishes to wash, dry, and put away.

No thank you!

In our house, meal prep is also an issue because of all the different dietary restrictions we have to cover (mostly mine!) Dishes that are well-suited for meal prep are often one-dish meals, like lasagne, casseroles, soups, and stews.

If you have to manage ingredients that some people can eat, and others can not, these one-dish meals aren’t going to work. My family loves my hearty meat and veggie lasagne. But sadly, I can’t eat gluten-filled noodles anymore (and I only occasionally eat tomatoes). 

Because meal prep won’t work in our house, I developed Component Cooking to save the day!

What Is Component Cooking

Component cooking takes meal prep, and gives it a major update! The idea behind component cooking is to have an on-hand supply of basics (think protein, carbs, and fresh veggies). Cook a few components on the weekend, or in the early part of the week. Double everything you cook. Then, assemble the components throughout the week in unique ways, to create a variety of meals!

Why Component Cooking WORKS

In my house, component cooking works best because I have a variety of food restrictions, but I don’t want to spend time cooking more than one meal in a night! I developed component cooking so that I could cook one meal that everyone in my family could eat. (Even if there were small modifications).

Component cooking keeps my fridge stocked with tasty, healthy, clean eating options. Even when I need to put together a fast meal, there are always enough components to pull together a delicious meal.

You still have to do the prep work of planning your meals, and the grocery shopping. However, if you plan well and work quickly, you can have dinner on the table during the week in about 30-minutes. And if you do it right, you’ll only have to cook 2-3 nights of every week!

Meals that quick? Less time cooking? There’s no excuse for not serving healthy, TASTY meals that your entire family can enjoy!

Component Cooking in Action

Here’s what a few days of component cooking looks like in my kitchen:

Sunday: This is a meal everyone can enjoy, without any modification! Easy Korean Beef with cooked brown rice, and roasted cauliflower. All of these ingredients are made fresh on Sunday night. Also on Sunday, pop in a loaf of Gluten Free Fresh Bread, that can be used during the week. (It can bake while you’re cooking the rest of the dinner). 

Monday: If your house is like mine, Monday nights are chaotic! So, dinner is an easy plan of Quesadillas, using the extra Korean Beef from Monday night. 

*Anti Inflammatory style: Use a cassava flour or cauliflower tortilla, or make the quesadilla into a “bowl”, using brown rice as the base.

*Family style: Family can enjoy the quesadillas with whole wheat tortillas, shredded cheese, and plain greek yogurt (much healthier than sour cream).

Tuesday: Another meal where everyone can eat the same thing! Lemon poached salmon, roasted potatoes, and roasted cauliflower (either fresh, or from Sunday night).

The rest of the plan has you cooking on Wednesday night, then mixing components together for the rest of the week. (Hint: that means no major cooking Thursday, Friday, OR Saturday!!)

To make life easy, grab your free No Meal Prep Meal Plan here! It’s a complete guide with one week of meals, recipes, ideas for feeding your family, and more!

The Best Meal Prep Solution

The best kind of meal prep is one that works with your family, your schedule, and is easy to do week after week. This is exactly why I developed Component Cooking – to ensure anti inflammatory meals for myself, trusted favorites for my family, without making two meals every night.

Let me know if you’re picking up the full No Meal Prep Meal Plan, and what day you’re going to get started! I know this will change your life in the kitchen!