Inspiration in the kitchen

Choosing to look on the positive side of life means I have a tendency to find inspiration in less common places and pastimes. Meal planning and food preparation are no exception.

Meal planning and food preparation have countless benefits, so this blog will discuss the key advantages. May this blog bring fresh gut health-inspired ideas into your kitchen and your meals.

But first, some statistics…

Before continuing, I want to share a surprising (or scary!) statistic or two with you.

According to Cleanup.org 7.3 million tonnes of food waste goes to landfills every year in Australia alone. This equates to a staggering 300kg of food per person per year!

Can you imagine for a moment what 300kg of food looks like?

This is approximately the weight of a fully-grown mountain zebra!

Thinking about this statistic, it’s clear that planning and prepping healthy food in advance for the week ahead can save a lot more than just money.

Practical benefits of meal planning & prepping

What else could you gain by making a few tweaks to your current grocery routine?

Key benefits of meal planning and food prepping include:

- Know what to cook ahead of time
- Make healthier food choices
- Increase your nutritional intake
- Save time
- Save money by sticking to a budget
- Avoid impulse purchases
- Avoid wasting food (an obvious benefit, but it must be said!)
- Form new behaviours that are better for you and your family
- Keep meals interesting by increasing the variety of vegetables you buy and eat
- Reduce stress
- And in the process, also feed and nourish your microbiota to promote good gut health!

A combination of tips and strategies often works best when making changes to reap more of the benefits listed here.

8 ways to beat the statistics

Consider doing one or more of the following options:

1. Instead of shopping every day, plan no more than 2 or 3 micro shopping trips each week
2. Or, better still, get all groceries on your list over a single weekly shopping day
3. Pace yourself by doing meal prepping the day after your main shopping day
4. Sign up for a regular/weekly organic fresh produce box delivery
5. Cook more plant-based meals
6. Buy and cook different vegetables every week and buy only the ingredients you need for your planned meals
7. Adjust to eating small amounts of better quality animal protein
8. Avoid shopping when you are hungry

Tip: prepping veggies

I have a further tip to offer when it comes to buying and cooking vegetables. Roast, stir-fry, steam, boil, shred, snack on and even marinate veggies in olive oil, lemon juice or vinegar before consuming. A world of possibility is just waiting for you.

Who knows what new favourite flavours you will discover in the process.

There is so much to gain by doing more to reduce food waste and improve the quality of the food you eat.

After all, what have you got to lose?