• Home
  • About
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Tofucado

It's always tofucado season

  • Books
    • Cookbook reviews
    • Food From Books
  • Meals
    • Breakfasts
    • Baking
    • Lunch & Dinner
    • Instant Pot
  • Season
    • Fall
    • Holidays
    • Winter
    • Spring
    • Summer
  • Special diet
    • Vegetarian
    • Vegan

How to back to school meal prep

August 28, 2019

Hi guys !  You probably noticed that I have done a complete restyle of the blog and that’s because I’m finally done with of all the stressful things I went through since 2019 started and the holidays are over so I’m back here and I have some great things prepared for you ! Today’s article is 100% dedicated to “How to back to school meal prep”. I will be sharing my best tips and some recipe ideas you can use!

What is meal prep, anyway?

So, most people will know what “meal prep” is but just to say it in a few words it’s about planning ahead and having meals ready for the week. There are tons of different ways to meal prep: those who meal prep all meals: breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner for a week, those who just do a couple of meals and those who meal prep in big big batches and freeze tuppers. Learning how to back to school meal prep is a challenge because 1) you are starting a new year and 2) you are busy. But doing this will really help you out during the week and you will eat healthy meals!

I don’t have the benefit of having a huge fridge/freezer, and I’m currently a bit low on containers so until I manage to get ahold of more of those (containers, not freezers), my meal prepping articles will mainly consist in: how I organize myself, the grocery shopping and the recipes I have planned for either past or coming week.  

How to organize meal prep?

For this first meal prep article ever and to celebrate the back to school/rentrée season, I will be sharing the way I come up with recipes/meals for the week. I usually come up with at least 3 meals for the week (lunches) and potentially 2-3 simple breakfasts to go. However, if your week requires you to meal prep for more days than that, worry not, cause you can adapt my system to as many meals you require ! 

From here onwards, I will show you how I do it if I was planning for a 3 lunch and 3 breakfast meal prep session.

Choosing which meals to meal prep

I have a masterlist of ideas excel sheet with Breakfast, Snacks and Lunches/Dinners options. This is my dumpster of literally any food combo I have come up with in the past : When I have no idea what to cook, I just go there and I have at least 50 good ideas for either meal.  This excel sheet is not only my key to meal prep, it also allows me to plan for groceries much easier. What I do then is choose 3 meals from there (usually according to what I had eaten the previous week, what vegetables are in season, what I feel like eating, the weather, …) and 3 breakfasts according to the workouts I have planned (they are post-workout breakfasts). This week, these were my meal choices :

Day #1Day #2Day #3
LunchesPasta with protein veggie balls and ratatouilleSpicy couscous with chickpeas, roasted onion, green asparagus and peasSpinach salad with carrots, cucumber, olives, red bell pepper, feta cheese & nuts
BreakfastQuick version english breakfastHigh protein banana (coated in peanut butter, oats and flax seed)Apple with peanut butter and oat biscuits

Preparing the grocery list

Most of my meals include stuff that I always end up buying anyway, but some of them include more specific ingredients. Before going grocery shopping, I take a look at the choices for my meals, and write down everything I will need. This is the key to any how to back to school meal prep tip. Without a grocery list, you will just end up buying anything without directions.

MealTo buy
Day #1Breakfast
2 eggs
1 tomato
3-4 mushrooms
2 toasts
Lunch
Pasta
Protein veggie balls (I buy some specific french brand and use either half a package or an entire one)
For the ratatouille : 2 tomatoes, 1 zuchinni, 1 eggplant, half a red bell pepper, 2 onions, 3 garlic cloves and ratatouille spices
Day #2Breakfast
1 banana
1 tbsp of peanut butter
1/4 cup of oats
1 tbsp of flax seed
Lunch
Couscous
1 cup of chickpeas
1 onion
5-6 green asparagus
1/2 cup of peas
My couscous spice mix
Day #3Breakfast
1 apple
1 tbsp peanut butter
2 homemade oat biscuits (I will upload the recipe!)
Lunch
Handful of raw spinach
1-2 carrots
1 cucumber
Handful of olives (i love olives)
1/2 red bell pepper
Desired amount of feta cheese
Nuts

*Out of this grocery list, my out-of-the-ordinary items were green peas and the feta cheese.

Which day to meal prep?

Sunday is my go-to date for meal prepping. I do the groceries over the weekend and go to a vegetable/fruit market on sunday morning so I know I will have everything ready for sunday afternoon/evening. However, you can choose any date that suits you best ! My work week starts on monday so sunday is the best for me. 

Prepare the containers before you cook

Having all the tuppers ready to serve the food before you cook it is really helpful. 

Cook the meals you’ve chosen

It’s the last step to the meal prep (besides closing your containers and putting them in the fridge). It’s the most satisfying one because you can 1) smell the yummy food you just prepped and 2) know that you won’t have to worry about meals during the rest of the week !

Tip : Cook in batches as much as you can ! If your 3 recipes include “roasted onions”, cook all of them at once and then divide in the tuppers. Same goes for everything, if you are planning “hummus” on monday and roasted chickpeas on wednesday, use the same roasted chickpeas for both even if the end result won’t be the same. This really speeds up the process and reduces the amount of time you’ll spend meal prepping. 

This is the entire process I go through when meal prepping. I know my method might be a bit longer than others because I choose to have different meals every day, but I really enjoy cooking and food and it makes me really happy to see that I have a different meal to look forward every day. 

P.S: I haven’t been able to take some of my own pictures, but I will make sure to take some next time ! Or to share the ones I have previously taken.

in Food tips, Meal Prep # Meal Prep

Reader Interactions

you may also like
Asian Pantry essentials: vegetarian friendly
Pantry and fridge essentials: Grocery list and recipes
What a vegetarian eats during Christmas
Trio of fruit parfaits for a very sweet Christmas dinner

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Follow me

Join my newsletter!

Categories

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

bookswithtofucado

bookswithtofucado
Surprised at how many 5 star books I read recently Surprised at how many 5 star books I read recently
💀📚So these are some of my fave horror books. 💀📚So these are some of my fave horror books. What are yours?

I made a full video with more horror book recs if you want to check it out👻

#bookrecs #bookpictures #book #books #horrorbooks #spookybooks #spookyseason #spooky #dracula #stephenking #horrorcommunity #bookswithtofucado #bookstagram #booklover #bookish
💀Babel by R.F. Kuang turned out to be much much 💀Babel by R.F. Kuang turned out to be much much better than I thought. 

💌Read this if you like: nerd students being nerdy about languages, magic, suspense, conspiracy plots and close friendships! 

#bookswithtofucado #babel #rfkuang #darkacademia #academia #darkacademiabooks #babelrfkuang #babelbook #books #beautifulbooks #bibliophile #bookshelf #bookreview #fantasybooks #magicbook ##bookrecs #bookpictures #favebooks #favoritebooks
The new member of the family 🐈 The new member of the family 🐈
🥐 🥐
September was a great reading month even though I September was a great reading month even though I felt I didn't read at all. I read two 5 star books 🌟and one of them is definitely gonna be in my top 10!!

🌞What's the last book you gave a 5 star rating ? 

#bookswithtofucado #books #acertainhunger #yabooks #lgbtqbooks #lbgtqrecs #lgbtq #bookrecs #favebooks #5starbooks #5stars #bookpictures #bookstagram #book #booklover #reading #bookworm #bookish #bookaddict #bibliophile  #love #bookshelf #readersofinstagram #libros #reader #bookphotography
Smells like autumn over here 🍁🍂 Smells like autumn over here 🍁🍂
📚🌻So these were my 3 favorite books of the s 📚🌻So these were my 3 favorite books of the summer, what were yours? (The pallbearers club was also one of my favorite ones, if not my nº1 of the summer but unfortunately I don't have a physical copy)
Books featured in the picture:
- Book lovers by Emily Henry
- Crying in H mart by Michelle Zauner
- Le livre des Baltimore by Joël Dicker

#bookswithtofucado #booksofthesummer #summerbooks #summerreads #booklovers #frenchbooks #tiktokbooks #booktok #cryinginhmart #japanesebreakfast #michellezauner #emilyhenry #joeldicker #booktube #romancebooks #fictionbooks #sadbooks #favoritebooks #topbooks #summerwrapup #summertbr #holidaybooks #beachreads #summer #books #beautifulbooks #beautifulcovers #bookcovers #covers #top3
🌻 🌻
Category is: beautiful, stunning covers🤩 I am s Category is: beautiful, stunning covers🤩
I am so excited to read these books but except the "for the throne" book, I don't really know what they are about. 

💬 Do you usually buy books just because of the cover?
📚Book review: A haunted road atlas by @theemsch 📚Book review: A haunted road atlas by @theemschulz and @xtineschiefer (podcast @atwwdpodcast) 

I gotta say I was way too excited about this book because it is the first time I can actually buy something from my favourite podcasters without having to pay +50€ of shipping. But that's just a side note. 

🌍What is this book about? As the title says, it's a guide of haunted places in the US :  a mix of paranormal and true crime stories told by Em and Christine and other cool / haunted places to visit in each city/state. 

👻The stories, while obviously dark, are told in a funny way and it goes by like a breeze. I read it like a normal book, but you can totally read it one state at a time and it'd be even greater.

The book is quite original because well, there is a million road trip guides out there but few like this one! 

🔥I'm a huge fan of ATWWD so i may be a bit biased, but nonetheless this was great and entertaining and I really want to do a freaking road trip now! 

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5 
Genre: Horror/true crime/road trip guide
📚 two weeks ago I posted a video about all the 📚 two weeks ago I posted a video about all the on-going series I am reading and all the ones I want to finish in 2022. ⁠
⁠
Some of them (shown in the picture)⁠
- John dies at the end series (horror/comedy)⁠
- The last magician series (YA/fantasy)⁠
- Wayfarers series (sci-fi)⁠
⁠
And others: ⁠
- Scythe (YA/dystopia)⁠
- I hunt killers (YA/mystery)⁠
- The Wheel of time (Fantasy)⁠
- Mistborn era 2 (Fantasy)⁠

⁠
The list is long and in total there are 25 books I want to finish in 2022! ⁠
⁠
📢What series are you currently reading or want to finish in 2022 ?⁠
Here's all the books I read in April 2022 ! Not th Here's all the books I read in April 2022 ! Not that many for my average but I also got a PS5... and that kinda distracted me 🙃

The 6 books I read : 
- Gallant by V.E. Schwab (2/5⭐️)
- Homicide and halo-halo by Mia P. Manansala (3/5⭐️)
- If we were villains by M.L. Rio (4.5/5⭐️)
- The school for good mothers by Jessamine Chan (3.5/5⭐️)
- The last thing he told me by Laura Dave (3/5⭐️)
- The broken girls by Simone St. James (5/5⭐️ absolute favorite!)
I also re-read the first two heartstopper volumes! 

Check out the video in the link in my bio ! 😍

#books #bookwrapup #bookhaul #haul #book #bookreview #heartstopper #yabooks #yanovels #youngadult #bookpile #haul #bookstagram #booktok #booktube #mysterybooks #horrorbooks #lgbtq🌈 #aliceoseman
Come book shopping with me in Paris and celebrate Come book shopping with me in Paris and celebrate Sant Jordi (Saint George's day)🌹📚! A little book haul in the end with all the books I bought/got offered in the past two months. 

Hope you enjoyed it!

Book stores I visited: 
- Librairie Jousseaume 
- The Abbey bookshop @theabbeybookshop 
- The red wheelbarrow @theredwheelbarrowbookstore 

Check out here the vlog 👉https://youtu.be/aLMwKKfpBnE

#bookstores #parisvlog #vlog #bookshopping #bookshoppingvlog #bookhaul #haul #bookhaulvlog #readingvlog #reading #librairieparis #parisbookstores #bookstore #shopping #books #bookvlog #paris #parisianbookstores #fantasybooks #sanderson #brandonsanderson #yabooks
📚all the books I read in march + a super yummy 📚all the books I read in march + a super yummy vegetarian pot pie

If you want to find out more about all the books I read in march (Spoiler alert, there are some very good ones and some vvvv bad ones) while I cook some vegetarian dutch oven pot pie 👉 it's right here ! https://youtu.be/pJCCM0ab62I

What's your favourite book of march ? Let me know! 

#bookwrapup #marchwrapup #bookstagram #sjm #crescentcity #truecrime #vegetarianpotpie #dutchoven #potpierecipes #dutchovenpotpie #lecreuset #bookstragram #booktube #bookreview #frenchbooks #vegetarianrecipes #onepotmeals #onepotrecipes #tofucado #bookhaul
Ever since I made this recipe two months ago it ha Ever since I made this recipe two months ago it has become my go-to quiche. Every time I make it, it is a success and everyone loves it so it definitely need to be here. The recipe is a spinach, mushroom and sun-dried tomato quiche with some goat cheese and let me tell you, it is not only super easy to make but also freaking delicious. 

*Check out the full recipe here👉 https://youtu.be/_Eg1QD_sKvM 

#tofucado #quicherecipes #reels #foodreels #quicherecipe #vegetarianquiche #spinachquiche #sundriedtomatoes #mushroomrecipes #mushroomquiche #eggrecipes #quickrecipes #30minfood #quickfood #quickmeals #quiche #recettequiche #quicheepinards #recettes #homemadefood #vegetarianrecipes #vegetarian #veggie
Kinda realized I had never posted the reel of one Kinda realized I had never posted the reel of one of my favorite recipes of 2021, so here it is: my kimchi mac & cheese recipe which I have done at least 10801854 times since I first posted it. 

Check out the full recipe in the link in bio! (👉 https://tofucado.com/20-minutes-spicy-and-creamy-kimchi-mac-cheese/) 

#tofucado #tofucadoandbooks #kimchi #kfood #kimchimac #kimchipasta #cheesekimchi #cheesykimchi #koreanfood #koreanfoodlover #koreanjunkfood #kimchirecipe #kimchimeals #quickmeals #kimchirecipes #koreanmeals #koreanrecipes #easyrecipes #comfortfood #macandcheese #macandcheeserecipe #spicyfood #spicymeal
I have been talking about this recipe for so long I have been talking about this recipe for so long and it's finally here!! I basically make this 25 minute creamy swiss chard pasta every week because 1) it's super simple to make; 2) I looooove swiss chard and 3) it's freaaaking delicious!! 

Check out the full recipe in the link in bio! (👉 https://tofucado.com/25-minute-creamy-swiss-chard-pasta/) 

#tofucado #swisschardpasta #swisschard #recipes #vegetarianrecipes #veggiepasta #pastarecipes #homemadepasta #creamypasta #creamyvegetarianpasta #easyvegetarian #vegetarianlunch #vegetarianpasta #swisschardrecipes #easyrecipes #quickrecipes #quickveggiemeals #quickmeals #easymeals #vegetarianmeals #pastameals #pastabowl #onepotpasta
✨ January wrap up ✨ Some very good books but s ✨ January wrap up ✨
Some very good books but some very bad ones too in January. My fave read was "Le refuges" by Jérôme Loubry, such a Great thriller. 
The worst was house of accidents, it could have been SO GOOD, yet it was...so bad.

How many did you read this month? And which one was your favourite? 

#bookreels #books #januarywrapup #januarytbr #january2022 #bookwrapup #bookreviews #yabooks #youngadultbooks #horrorbooks
✨Meat & veggie broth✨ Quick recipe with the In ✨Meat & veggie broth✨
Quick recipe with the Instant pot today : this is one of my favourite things to make because you get : awesome broth, awesome meat and veggies, and tons of possible meals out of it. 

To make this easy broth you will need : 
- 2 to 3 different types of meat : I usually get jamón (but in France it's very costly to find good one), chicken legs, beef ribs or beef meatballs). For this one I used the chicken legs, beef ribs and pork belly. 
- veggies: all you want, everyone is welcomed !! I mainly use cabbage, carrots, leek, celery, potatoes. Sometimes I put garlic in there. 
- chickpeas 
- salt and pepperrrrr
- i use a bit of soy sauce to give an extra quick as well. 

Now, put everything in the instant pot, put water till almost the max limit and close the lid. If you making it with meat, go 1h + natural release (up to two hours). 

*If you want the vegan version, check out the full recipe here👉 https://tofucado.com/instant-pot-rich-vegetable-broth-recipe/ 

*If you are new to the instant pot world and wanna know more about it, I have a guide for you ! 👉  https://tofucado.com/instant-pot-basics-and-recipes-for-beginners/

That's it for today! How do you like making your broth? 

#tofucado #homemadebroth #instantpot #instantpotrecipes #iprecipes #easybroth #pressurecooking #meatbroth #veggiebroth #homecooking #ipbroth #instantpotbroth #ipideas
Load More... Follow on Instagram
2021 © Your Blog Name
made by soulmuse
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT