Fresh Prep Hacks

10 creative Fresh Prep hacks to make the most of your meal

As a long-time Fresh Prep user, I’ve found a few simple ‘hacks’ over the years that have made my time in the kitchen more organized, and stretched my meals further.

Ripen avocado: For recipes that contain an avocado, take out the avocado to ripen on your counter before you put the rest of your kit in the fridge. Sometimes the avocado takes a day or two to ripen, and taking it out of your fridge will help it do that faster.

Use a rice cooker: For recipes that call for rice, always use a rice cooker. It’s more consistent than using a pot on the stove. Also, make double the rice so you can have leftovers for the next day. It’s good for fried rice (rice, ham or bacon, peas, and an egg).

Invest in oven-safe frying pans: Several recipes have instructions where you start by searing meat in a frying pan, then put directly into the oven. You can still make a meal without it, but it’s one less dish to wash.

Preheat your oven, ASAP: For recipes that use the oven, preheat your oven, ASAP. Often, preheating is the longest part of the recipe, and might take even longer than the cooking time! 

Roast extra veggies: For recipes that call for roasting vegetables (like potatoes or yams) if you have extras at home, cut them up and put them in the oven on a second roasting pan so you’ll have leftovers for tomorrow. With a steak + potatoes meal, for example, we were able to stretch a two person Fresh Prep meal to feed a third spontaneous guest by adding in more roasted veggies and potatoes.

For home entertaining: Speaking of stretching a two person meal to feed three, I’ve always thought of Fresh Prep as a cook at home by yourself or with your partner kind of service. But it recently dawned on me that there’s no reason why you couldn’t order for four and use Fresh Prep to host a meal at home! You’ll get an impressive dinner for four on the table in 30 minutes, it’s more cost-effective than eating out, more impressive than takeout, and way faster to cook than if you were to plan and prep everything from scratch.

Save the chili flakes: Fresh Prep almost always includes too many chili flakes in the meal kit. Use half and save the rest for another meal. We’ve never had to buy chili flakes— we just use from our stash of leftover Fresh Prep spices!

Re-use the paper and plastic bags: With the Fresh Prep paper bag, use it for compost after your meal (ie. bones, peels, etc) or, line and use it as a plant pot. For plastics, Fresh Prep used to have a plastics recycling program, which has now been put on hold because of Covid. Instead, rinse the larger plastic bags and reside as dog poop bags (this probably only works for small dogs, use common sense and gauge size accordingly!)

Keep your recipe cards: Ever since Fresh Prep updated their recipe card format, they now include the exact measurements and ingredients for each meal. Part of the experience of Fresh Prep is learning to be a better home cook. If you keep the recipe cards that come with the same meal, you can try and recreate on your own!

Share your discount code: Every Fresh Prep user has a discount code where you can earn credit for meals or the Freshprep online store. Here’s mine: https://www.freshprep.ca/?r=5wl8-7yaym — get three free meals when you sign up with my referral link!

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