How I stuff my freezer

Today I finished my second prep day in my Dubai kitchen. This means the freezer is stuffed, my hand is blistered and Sam made dinner tonight. Somehow I never have the foresight to think about the current day’s dinner when I do my prep days and we always end up with either Sam cooking or ordering take-out – keep meaning to change that.

So here, as promised is what I get up to on these prep days.

I like to start by cutting up all the vegetables. Most women I’ve read about doing this start by labelling and writing instructions on their freezer bags. I however, must admit that the idea of that level of organisation kind of freaks me out – what if I change my mind about what to add, what to call it etc. etc. Therefore I choose to leave that step until I’ve filled the bags, which creates the much more desirable barely legible scribble effect. Which is just so much more me.

Then, once I have worked up a good blister or two, I line up and open my empty freezer bags and start sharing the ingredients between them. This is the point at which I tend to start getting the most creative – and where things tend to start going the most wrong. I am learning though. For instance, I learned last month that just because I enjoyed juicing the entire bag of lemons, that does not mean that every meal I am prepping will taste good with a cup (or four) added.

Eventually, when the veg, meat and seasonings have all been put in the right bags, I get to scribble my instructions on them and load them into the freezer – Tetris style!

This is by far my favourite part of the process. Not only because of the fun I have arranging the bags in the most space-effective way possible (maximising hard-on-soft-mould-ability) but also because of the immense sense of satisfaction I get from stepping back at the end and knowing it’s not only all done but also looking neat and tidy!

My first Prep-day, I prepped and fit twelve bags into the freezer. But there was still a bit of space left so today I prepped fourteen which fit nicely with still a little bit of wiggle room. Therefore, next month I’ll be shooting for the stars and attempting to squeeze sixteen in there – go me!