How to meal prep

Family dinners to unwind from the day – a delicious, self-caring dish to treat yourself… we all love that. But what if you truly have no idea what to cook? Or you’re on a time crunch and would like to prepare something both healthy, and tasty of course, for yourself or loved ones. These are perfect reasons to try out meal prep!

The trend started mainly with fitness enthusiasts preparing meals to stick to their special dietary plans. Now pre-cooking meals for your lunch breaks at the office, for your kid’s day at school or for dinner with the whole family is in line with the latest trend. Anyone who wants to eat a healthy, tasty as well as balanced diet prefers fresh and high-quality ingredients while saving time. An advantage of meal prepping lies within having to only cook once in order to serve delicious meals for days to come. Thus, it also means storing and preserving your precooked food without having to worry about losing taste or texture. As prolonging the shelf life is key here, there is an easy solution to keep food fresh for longer: vacuum-sealing! The Bosch Fresh Vacuum System supports you in precooking your meals for the whole week by providing you with clever kitchen aids which can easily be turned into a powerful vacuuming device. Thanks to its technology, the 2in1 blender, hand blender and hand mixer can help prolong the shelf life by keeping your prepared dishes vacuum-sealed and taking meal prep to a whole new level.

Discover all possibilities, technology and products of the Fresh Vacuum System here

Time-saving methods always provide you with more quality time and thanks to meal prep, the daily question "what do I cook today?" is history. Since homemade food is usually the tastiest and healthiest option, it should always be your first choice. Meal prepping is a great opportunity to establish a regular healthy diet in your kitchen routine: it enables you to eat the homemade food you consciously prepared, even when time is short. Sundays are ideal for meal prepping. During the week, the prepared dishes then only need to be put together or heated up. This is quick and not only saves additional shopping time, it can also make grocery shopping even more efficient. By preparing a list of what to precook each day, you only buy what you really need, so no food is left in storage for too long. But there are a lot more benefits when it comes to this trend: we all know that freshly prepared meals always taste better, even when precooked. Precooking not only helps you to save time and be more flexible but also to have control over the ingredients you choose. As the preparation is entirely up to you, you can consciously avoid harmful additives or hidden sugar substitutes. If you or your family follow a certain diet, you can prepare your meals according to your menu, even when you're on-the-go. When you put together your own meal for your family or yourself, you can consider your individual needs and taste preferences – doesn’t that sound great? Just let your creativity flow!

Another important point when it comes to meal prep is the shelf life. What are the perfect storage conditions and the best lunch boxes, keeping the food fresh and tasty for a longer time? When the end of the week is coming up, you would like to enjoy a precooked meal that is as delicious and fresh as the one you had at the beginning of the week.

The Bosch Fresh Vacuum System is a simple solution for your new meal prep routine: the compatible 2in1 kitchen aids remove air from suitable and stackable vacuum containers and reusable vacuum bags via a powerful vacuum pump at the touch of a button. With their help, you can easily store and preserve your prepared meals inside the fridge for days as the vacuum technology keeps food fresh and tasty for longer. When stored in the freezer, you don’t even have to worry about freezer burn anymore. That’s how you make sure that the whole family can enjoy their dishes every day as if they were freshly cooked. Thanks to their 2in1 feature, the clever kitchen devices not only help you to store your meal prep dishes but also help you with every step in the preparation process. For example, by replacing the vacuum pump with various accessories for chopping, slicing, crushing, grating, kneading and stirring, you can easily turn the Bosch hand blender into a small food processor

Whether homemade sauces, pureed soup, fancy salads, tasty vegetables or sweet desserts: the Bosch 2in1 kitchen helpers are not only ideal for preparing the dishes, but also for sealing and storing them afterwards under vacuum. Speaking of storage and freezing: you will find a valuable addition in the VitaFresh system inside many Bosch fridges, which provides you with the best conditions for vegetables and fruits as they maintain optimal humidity and can easily be adjusted to the ideal freshness requirements. That’s the perfect base for meal prep!

Above all, meal prep is about one thing: planning ahead! If you draw up your "meal prep plan" for the week in advance, you can make specific purchases and prepare the food without unwanted leftovers. Dishes that can be prepared easily include salads, smoothies, soups, rice, noodle and couscous dishes.

Let’s start with the perfect breakfast: a fresh smoothie provides us with important vitamins and can reward us with a day full of vitality. With its fruity, fresh colour, it will delight the whole family at the breakfast table. Our tip: prepare the smoothies the evening before to be more efficient in the morning! Thinking of storage, the Bosch vacuum blender gives you the possibility to blend under vacuum conditions so that the oxygen inside the blender jug is minimized. This slows down the oxidation process and makes sure that vacuum blended smoothies keep up to 5 times more vitamin C after 24 hours compared to regular blending without vacuuming1. Simply vacuum-seal your smoothie inside the vacuum ToGo bottle, store it in your fridge and reward yourself the next morning with a few extra minutes of sleep and the perfect shot of vitamins!

For the office, school or lunch break at home a mixed salad with quinoa, carrots, pumpkin seeds, cucumber, chickpeas and chopped almonds can provide variety. A delicious bowl with hummus, falafel, baked cauliflower and rice is also a healthy snack to recharge your batteries for the second half of the day. There are numerous variations of salads and bowls that can be tried out when doing meal prep. Maybe your kids prefer a fruity bowl with self-made cereal, while you prepare a hearty version for yourself? For dinner you can also get creative and surprise your family with a classic that everyone loves – noodles with minced meat or tomato sauce. The best thing about this meal prep recipe: the sauce tastes even better reheated than on the day it was prepared. Why? Because all the flavors had enough time to soak through! This effect is even intensified in vacuum-sealed containers. We can’t think of any better reasons to give meal prep a go.

Want to get started right away? Here are four recipes from our partners at Kitchen Stories for easy but yummy meal-prep ideas:

• Smashed potatoes
• Sesame chicken
• Tofu
• Quinoa salad

1: Study made by an independent laboratory 08/2018.