When it comes to eating at the office, “meal prep” is currently the phrase on everyone’s lips. It’s what our mothers used to call “cooking ahead”. Quinoa salad, cooked veg or even something to heat up – we bring our meals to work with us packed in a lunch box or preserving jar. Modern meal prepping usually aims to do more than just sate our hunger while saving us time and money during our lunch break. It’s often more about knowing exactly where the food we eat comes from. And that it’s healthy. Of course, following a diet can be another reason for bringing our own meals to work with us every day. Claudia Schilling has written a book on the subject – “Hin und Weg” (AT Verlag) – packed full of recipes for lunch on the go, or even picnics. While meal prep gurus plan their menus for the entire week, she finds making all your food for the week in one day something of a challenge. “It›s asking too much. But anyone can plan a bit ahead by doing a little more cooking the evening before with next day’s ‘takeaway’ in mind.” Personally, she likes to prepare sugos, pestos, bread rolls and energy bites or muesli bars for the upcoming week. And the lunch boxes themselves are just as important as what goes into them. The selection on offer has grown along with the meal prep trend. “I’m not keen on plastic boxes,” Schilling says. “They often spoil the flavour of the food.” Plastic-free lunch boxes made from bamboo fibre are a more recent innovation and many shops now also stock the traditional stainless steel containers, which are both dishwasher safe and very robust. And as a tip, Schilling recommends acquiring a thermos flask with a wide mouth especially for soups. Book recommendation: “Hin und Weg”, by Claudia Schilling, AT Verlag, roughly CHF 39.90
