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I find it interesting when the younger generation puts a modern spin or name on an old thing and call it theirs. Take “Food Prep” for instance, we have been doing that for generations, making food ahead for the week so that dinner didn’t have to be a big ordeal every night. I like it though, “Food Prep” it’s a great name and combines the description with the name. We just called it “making meals up ahead”. For my mothers’ generation It consisted of making a big pot of soup, beans, meat and dumplings or chili along with some sort of bread. Her mothers’ generation used to keep a pot boiling on the stove with a chicken carcass in it or some other meat with its bones and vegetables. Then as she served up the vegetables and some of the meat each night she would just add more to the pot for the next day.

When I began making meals up a head, I tried things like making two dozen tamales and putting them in the freezer or several trays of lasagna, eating one and putting the rest in the freezer. In fact, that’s what I still do, we always have bags of my husbands’ Italian sauce and maybe even meatballs in the freezer. When I make soup, I always portion out some for the freezer.

Today’s generation takes it a bit further. They actually fix complete meals and separate them into individual servings, it reminds me a little of homemade TV Dinners but healthy versions. It’s a great idea especially since people today are so busy and lead such stressful lives. It becomes difficult to eat healthy and this affords many people to keep up a healthy diet while living such a busy lifestyle. I do think it’s a good thing. Unfortunately, many younger people have lost touch with real cooking and resorted to eating out almost every night which can be unhealthy and very expensive. Food delivery companies have become popular they deliver fresh food with recipes on how to prepare a few meals for the week. It is expensive and not always the freshest ingredients. I like this renewed interest in cooking for oneself and including meal prep into that should make it a more enjoyable experience.

Of course, the best thing to do would be to slow down a little. Find a happy medium between extremely busy and just busy. Find ways to spend more time with friends and family but continue to meal prep so we would have those easy to fix meals on days when we are busy. Maybe even incorporate time spent with family and friends into the preparation and enjoyment of a meal.

I added a board to my Pinterest site called Meal Prep and that’s where I will pin ideas I think are good for incorporating into that experience. I just wanted to put this out there so the younger generation would not continue to think it was all their idea, we were there first and so were our ancestors. And it’s still a good idea!