Meal prepping in the winter season is a great way to keep a healthy and balanced diet, especially as this is cold and flu season.
This means that if you are feeling a little under the weather, but you have meal prepped your week, you don’t have the hassle after work or after a long day at university trying to faff around in the kitchen to put together something that is both healthy, warming, and tasty.
Meal prep for the colder seasons is definitely something that got me through the winter months at university. Below are some of my most highly recommended dishes to do this.
Of course, these can be edited to dietary requirements, such as the use of Quorn instead of meat, dairy alternatives instead of milk or yoghurt, and any vegetable that takes your fancy.
Honey Glazed Roasted Chicken and Veg
If chicken and vegetables is one of your go to weekly meals, then this can definitely be in your meal prep for winter.
On a Sunday if you roast chicken breast, thighs, or drumsticks that have all been marinated in honey and soy, and even topped with sesame seeds – alongside your favourite vegetables. This could be butternut squash, sweet potatoes, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots or parsnip for example. The tasty end result will be amazing.
This dish will make for a really warm in and healthy midweek meal.
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This saves you the time of having to wait for everything to cook, as you could either reheat on a very high temperature, or simply create a sauce such as honey and teriyaki with sesame seeds, or gravy if you fancy more of a roast. This can then be placed over the already cooked meal to have a quick, hot, and tasty meal already prepared.
Chilli Con Carne
Cooking a chilli at the start of the week, and then separating into batches and store it in the fridge or freezer will save you so much time when you don’t feel like cooking.
This dish can obviously be varied if you’re a vegetarian and also altered to how spicy you like your food.
Creating the chilli is really simple all you need is your meat, or meat alternative. Kidney beans, onions, tomato puree a chopped tomatoes.
If you fancy getting more vegetables in your dishes then you could also add mushrooms and even carrots. This turns into more of a hot pot chilli but is still just as tasty.
This is definitely a must do go to meal prep dish and can be served with rice or jacket potato.
Chickpea Cauliflower Curry
This is one of my all-time favourite dishes to make it university, as it is super easy and really tasty.
This can be served with naan bread and can be a really great alternative from an Indian takeaway.
This can be cooked in one pot as all you need chopped onions, garlic ginger, the pepper of your choice and red Curry paste. Following frying these together add coconut milk to add creaminess, and even a scoop of yoghurt for natural sweetness.
You can either blend your chickpeas or roast with the cauliflower and then all add these to the pan. This creates a creamy, thick and filling dinner, that you will definitely want to cook again for any potential guests you want to impress.
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