Freshly Brewed Babble: Meal Prep for People Without A Spare Second

Considering my Instagram bio illustrates my lifestyle of “Keepin’ busy,” I don’t allow myself to have very much free time during the week. Whether you’re a sleep-deprived college student or a career-driven busy bee, it’s often that we find ourselves adapting our personal lifestyle to our strenuous work hours, not vice versa. Sometimes, I even sacrifice basic necessities, food and sleep included.

Over the years, I’ve learned to embrace the title I earned in my senior year of high school. Yes, my senior superlative was “Most Likely to Pull an All-Nighter.” Simply put, I mastered the system of jam-packing my life to its maximum capacity while still getting by with maintaining a decent eating and sleeping schedule.

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Chia pudding is not just trendy; it changes lives.

In recent years, the concept of overnight breakfasts has become a serious food fad. Coming from a person who has always been so resistant to eating breakfast at the crack of dawn, especially when the only option in the pantry is corn flakes, meal prepping the night prior will save you. I, personally, have some texture issues with the ever-so-famous overnight oats. However, chia pudding is light enough, easy enough, fast enough and versatile enough to prepare at 2 a.m. for breakfast later that morning. On my way out of the house in the morning, hair still damp and makeup half-done, the last thing I want to do is cook breakfast just to wolf it down with such speed and aggression that I force myself into having inevitable stomach pains. Yeah, what a great way to start the day!

Once chia pudding came into my life, that all changed. It’s a quick bite that still suffices as great leftovers, it doesn’t leave you feeling absolutely ill and it’s exciting to play around with flavors. The biggest perk? It’s cheap! There are really only two ingredients that you need to successfully master the relatively healthy start to your day. Just because it’s a simple recipe, doesn’t mean I don’t use it as an opportunity to think that I’m in the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen. A few tablespoons of chia seeds go into a sealable container, cover the seeds with milk of choice — for me, that’s almond or oat milk — and add anything from cacao or peanut butter powder to agave or vanilla extract. Better yet, follow the recipe that’s Bon Appétit made and approved. It really just takes a matter of minutes to make. Pop the container into the refrigerator, and by morning, you’ll have a breakfast that will maybe prevent you from making a little less of a fool out of yourself during that big presentation — as long as you don’t have any chia seeds stuck in between your teeth.

Photo by Chelsea Stern

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Drink responsibly... for the sake of your sleep schedule.

For all of my fellow dependent planner users out there, a new part of your day to consider penciling in is your beverages. Maximizing your sleep, especially when you’re shy of your eight hours, is essential to surviving the day. I could offer suggestions, like stop using your phone before bedtime, but realistically, I’ll be reading up on my astrological sign’s best attributes until an unnecessarily late hour too. However, a more natural solution to relaxing before bed is chamomile tea. A squeeze of lemon can brighten up the taste, but if you were on too much of a time crunch this week to get the chance to go produce shopping, lemon juice concentrate is a very worth-it intermittent purchase that rarely spoils once refrigerated.

The obvious perk-up in the morning is coffee, and a real time and money saver in that department is by refrigerating a brew of several cups in a sealable container. That way, you make the coffee when it’s convenient for you and you have your pick of iced or hot when it comes time to drink it. Let’s be real, those fancy single-serve Keurigs are quite the investment. So, if you’re working with the average drip coffee maker, let it work for you on your time.

While catalyzing a good night’s sleep with chamomile tea and jumpstarting your day with a good ol’ cup of Joe is pretty straightforward, sandwiching those beverages between glasses of water is imperative. Consider your fluid intake for the day as the “Jump Street” movie sequel: very decent out of order or even as individual films on their own, but so much better if you watch “21 Jump Street” first. In this case, water is your “21 Jump Street,” and your coffee or tea is “22 Jump Street.” You just need the buffer of the water, 2012 Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, before you can enjoy the benefits of your specialty beverages, way-too-old-to-pass-for-college-students Hill and Tatum. Trust the formula of water before coffee and tea, and your sleep schedule should run a little smoother.

Photo by Chelsea Stern

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So, the next time you find yourself giving up your breakfast and morning coffee for an extra tap of the snooze button, consider introducing some amateur meal prep to your lifestyle.

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