Meal Prepping Containers

I am a meal prepper. According to some, I’m an extreme meal prepper. However, there are enormous time, money, and health benefits to prepping meals, although I will admit that sometimes I do crave a little variety on my seventh day. However, I think one of the most important steps to meal prepping well is choosing your containers.

I’ve gone through various stages of meal prepping. When I was in school, and I had access to a microwave, I’d make burritos, wraps, or enchiladas nearly every week as the ingredients mostly overlapped and they were affordable. Later, during graduate school, when I didn’t have access to a microwave, I bought a lunch box which could be plugged in and heat up meals (similar to this one) which was essentially a hot plate in an insulated bag. It took a few hours to heat up but it worked. I used oven safe glass tupperware which I would directly bake my food in and then take with me to school. However, this was not the most effective method and in hindsight, I should have been more concerned about the fire hazard it presented if left plugged in. Now, I’m packing meals for lunch. For awhile, I was using old round tupperware, but eventually, they mostly all broke and had to be replaced.

When I started looking at some new options for meal prepping, I ran across Souper Cubes. They’re a viral meal prep product that allows one to freeze food in different sized cubes, which can be frozen and stored. One only has to defrost the meal and cook it, and they’re ready to go!

I almost got a set, they’re even being sold at Costco. However, I watched a video of someone actually using them, and my desire to purchase them shriveled up.

Most people pack the cubes with raw food and freeze it. One could cook the food and then portion it out, but that doesn’t seem to be the main use case. What this means is that a microwave is not sufficient to cook these meals. An oven or airfryer, or similar, is required to actually cook, which takes a 3 minute microwave stint and replaces it with a 30 minute air fryer session and the middle is still frozen. Additionally, oven safe tupperware is required, which often isn’t as stackable or packable as plastic ones. Now do this at work or school.

Instead, I went with a different method, but I kept the idea of Souper Cubes. I bought some universal round take out containers in a variety of sizes. i bake my meals in the pan, let it cool overnight, and then portion them out into the tupperwares. They stack easily, reheat easily, and freeze easily. However, the lids do take some practice to open easily without issue.

I’m really happy with my current set up. The only thing I’d change in the future when the time comes to get a new set, would be glass tupperware. I love glass tupperware, it washes well, reheats well, and doesn’t leach microplastics into my food. However, I haven’t found many that stack well without sticking. I don’t have a lot of space to store tupperware, so I’ll keep waiting for my perfect tupperware. Until then, I’ll keep replacing my current stash with the same.