With a busy schedule and lifestyle,

one thing we can do to make our life more convenient is to meal prep.

This is not a new topic as many people have been meal prepping for some time, some even years.

Meal prepping has a lot of advantages aside from just being convenient.

It is healthy, it helps you save money, and saves you a lot of time from eating out.

If you want to be healthier and save more money,

you can try meal prepping with these simple hacks.  

1, KEEP TO A SIMPLE FORMULA OF 1 GRAIN TYPE, 1 PROTEIN TYPE, 1-3 VEG TYPES. 保持简单的配方：一种粮食，一种蛋白质，一至三种蔬菜。

Meal prepping shouldn't be complicated.

Just like mathematics, following a simple equation will make meal prepping much easier.

The most common meal prepping formula would be 1 grain type, 1 protein type and 1-3 veg types.

You can change the equation to whatever fit your needs and liking,

as long as they work for you and keep you healthy.

For grains, the easiest to prepare would be white or brown rice.

You can opt for noodles as well.

For protein, you can choose to have a meat or meatless if you're vegan or vegetarian.

Chicken is the easy and healthy, and very versatile too.

However, there are other choices like turkey or fish.

If you do not consume meat, you can totally choose tofu, eggs and beans.

As for the vegetable, the almost anything works.

You can choose to cook your veggie or you can keep them raw like salads.

2, PUT INTO PORTION TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK. 预早把他们分量分类来方便整个星期。

If you're one who has a busy job and is always on the go,

a good way to ease your day is to pre-portion your meals into different containers,

so when you leave in the morning you can just grab the delicious meal and leave immediately.

If you think there are way too many things to wash by the end of the week,

then you can use a different way to pack these food.

Another way is to pack all the same kind of food together,

such as all vegetable in a container, all meat in one and so on.

Come the morning you just portion and pack the food into a container and bring it out.

This is a great way to pack if you have tad bit more time in the morning,

or the food you prepared is prone to getting soggy. 

3, MAKE USE OF BAKING TRAY FOR PRE-PORTIONEND DISHES. 用烤盘准备要分类的食物。

The oven is your best friend when it comes to meal prepping.

You can fully utilize them to ease your meal prepping process.

One way it can help your meal prepping is pre-portioning.

Since a baking tray provides a huge surface for you to lay your food,

you can use it to portion your food in advance,

such as separating your vegetable into groups so they can be packed into containers equally and easily.

For food that has sauces and will flow to other food on the same tray,

you can use aluminum foil to separate them apart.

If you have several smaller baking trays,

you can use them to separate as well without aluminum foil or silicone mold. 

4, CUT VEGETABLES INTO SAME SIZES FOR EASY EVEN COOKING. 把蔬菜切成相同大小好让他们煮得均匀。

Another way you can fully utilize the oven is to cook your vegetables in them.

The best choices of vegetables to roast in your oven would be

broccoli, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots,

or any vegetables that are harder and more sturdy as a piece.

By cutting them into the same sizes,

you can just put them into the oven and let them be cooked on their own without needing to check much.

Even if your vegetables are flavoured differently,

it will definitely not ruin the taste of them.

However, you do need to flip them halfway through the cooking to make sure they are evenly cooked on both sides.

You get to save your time in the cooking process,

totally beneficial for people who are busy even when meal prepping. 

5, CHOP VEGGIES IN ADVANCE. 预早把生蔬菜切小片。

If you are preparing raw vegetable,

one way to ease the packing in the morning is to chop the vegetables in advance.

However, one thing to take notice is that vegetables,

especially green leafy ones,

are prone to getting soggy even with water,

so make sure keep your vegetables dry.

After you washed and chopped them,

pat them try with a paper towel or cloth before storing them in the fridge.

If you're using a variety of vegetables,

you can definitely mix them together to save containers, too.

Vegetables that will do great using this hack would be

lettuce, spinach, rockets, cucumbers, carrots and so on.

When you are packing them in the morning,

try to avoid packing them together with food that are wet or with salad dressing,

as this would make the vegetable soggy and less appealing.

6, COOK A CERTAIN PROTEIN IN DIFFERENT WAYS. 以不同的方法煮一种蛋白质的食物。

If you're preparing protein for the week,

you'd probably want a variety of choices instead of eating the same bland thing every day.

You can choose only one type of protein, but cook them in different flavours.

For example, if you're cooking chicken as your protein,

coat them in three different flavours: spicy, honey, and lemon.

After coating them, cook them in the oven at the same time,

since they are all chicken and are of the same sizes,

where they can be cooked evenly.

When they are done, you get three different flavours of chicken for you to alternate between.

You can totally do this to other types of protein as well, such as fish and tofu.

Try to choose protein where you can cook in the oven instead of needing to cook on the stove,

as this will ease your cooking process.

7, USE THE OVEN FOR HARD BOILED EGGS. 拥烤炉煮白煮蛋。

If you're a huge fan of hard boiled eggs and your meal prep includes them in your recipe,

you don't have to wait by the stove and let your eggs be hard boiled.

Another reason why oven is a great investment is that it can help you cook you hard boiled egg all at once.

Yes, no more waiting for the water to boil,

no more waiting by the stove, no more having water splashed on you.

All you need to do is to place your eggs on the baking rack or muffin tray

and cook them at 175 degree Celsius for around 30 minutes.

When they are done the cooking,

get them out of the oven and let them rest in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.

This definitely saves you a whole lot of time,

which can be used on preparing other things. 

8, COOK VEG AND PROTEIN IN THE OVEN AT THE SAME TIME. 同一个时间用烤炉煮蔬菜和蛋白质的食物。

Since a lot of food in meal prepping requires the oven,

you can save your time and the electricity by cooking everything all at once.

Just prepare your protein in a tray, let them be coated or marinated,

however they are flavoured.

On another tray or even the same tray if it's allowable, lay out your coated vegetable.

If the cooking time is the same, you can totally add in your eggs as well.

Having three of the food cooked together simultaneously will definitely ease the process of your meal prepping.

While waiting for them to cook,

you can then move on to preparing other food. 

9, BATCH PREPARE GRAINS FOR THE WEEK. 准备大量的粮食。

Grain is an important part of our diet.

Even though it gives us carbohydrate which many people who are losing weight avoid as much as possible,

it is still healthy for us and our body does need it.

Try to go for carbohydrates that are healthy, say brown rice, brown rice noodles or pasta.

The easiest grain to prepare would be rice.

Simply wash up your grains and put them in a rice cooker and let it do its thing.

Just like the oven, it will inform you once they are done the cooking.

If you want to spice things up,

try cooking white rice with vegetable or chicken broth for more flavour,

or add in frozen mixed vegetable into the grain and water combination to make "non-fried fried rice." 

10, USE A SLOW COOKER/RICE COOKER WHERE YOU CAN COOK MULTIPLE FOOD AT ONCE. 用慢炖锅/电饭锅煮能一起煮的东西。

If you do not want to roast your food and prefer having them cooked a simpler way,

using a slow cooker or rice cooker can help you a lot.

Say you prefer steaming your vegetables or protein instead of roasting them,

then while you’re cooking your rice,

steam your other food at the same time using the steamer basket that comes with the rice cooker.

Do you know that you can also cook hard boiled eggs in the rice cooker?

You can place your eggs on the steamer

and allow them to cook while your rice is being cooked as well!

11, MAKE FULL USE OF THE FRIDGE AND FREEZER. 充分的利用冰箱。

Once you're done with pre-packing,

you do need to use the fridge or freezer to store your food.

For food that you will be eating in a day or two, you can store them in the fridge,

whereas for food that you won't be eating too soon, keep them in the freezer.

When the day comes and you are going to eat them,

heat them up in the microwave and you'll have yourself a healthy, warm bowl of lunch.

They'll even taste extra good because you worked hard preparing the food.

If you want to start a healthy lifestyle, diet is crucial.

It's what you take in that matters the most rather than what you burn.

After all, it's better to "prevent than cure."

There is no better way to ensure your diet is as healthy as possible by meal prepping.

It helps saves you time and money, which is what everyone is concerned about.

Now you can get the idea of "eating healthy is expensive" out of your life.