Instant Pot Meal Prep Recipes for Spring
Meal prep is a great way to save time and eat healthier every day. However, even the process of meal prepping takes some time. The Instant Pot helps save us time. There’s no better time to give it a shot than during spring, with some Instant Pot meal prep recipes for spring.
Instant Pot meal prep recipes for spring can help us enjoy our meals without spending too much time in the kitchen. Spring is the perfect time to start trying out some new recipes. Fruits and veggies are blooming everywhere, which means fresher tastes.
The nutritional value of these ingredients is also enhanced since they are in season, which is a nice bonus. Unfortunately, spring is also when we want to spend more time outdoors. The weather is warming up; the sun is gracing us with its presence, and breaking out of our homes is at the top of our to-do list.
The solution? Meal prep. Meal prepping is a way of cooking that allows us to reorganize our time. The idea is simple: cook multiple dishes at once, store them in the fridge or freezer, and simply reheat them when needed throughout the week.
What is meal prepping? It is the act of making your own frozen dinners. Of course, the freezer isn’t the only way to go; you can also store them in the fridge. The only downside to meal prep is that you do have to find some time during the week to cook the meals you will store for later.
The Instant Pot is the best way to solve that problem. Instant Pots cook food faster by using pressure, heat, and steam all at once. All that said, Instant Pot meal prep recipes for spring can help you enjoy the weather while still having a quick meal when you get home.
Instant Pot Meal Prep Recipes for Spring
Spring is the best time to try new recipes because you have so many fresh ingredients that are in season. It is important to note that we shouldn’t use this time to meal prep for an entire month simultaneously.
You can get away with that using recipes like a fantastic Instant Pot chili recipe that improves as it sits in the fridge. But you wouldn’t want to do that with something like a delicious beef and broccoli Instant Pot recipe.
The broccoli won’t stay in the fridge for long. Instead, we want to go with a week at a time.
How to Meal Prep for a Week
The first step to meal prepping is understanding how to turn any meal into a meal prep recipe. For example, this tasty honey garlic chicken Instant Pot recipe is best served over rice. You can cook it all at once and then store it in the fridge for later.
But cooking rice is simple and can be done in minutes. Meal prep is about saving time, not always about eliminating time in the kitchen. Instead, cook the honey garlic chicken, then store it in the freezer for much longer.
Cook some rice one night while heating a serving of the chicken, and boom, your meal is ready within 20 minutes. Some Instant Pot meal prep recipes for spring will greatly benefit from this method since some ingredients won’t hold long in the fridge.
Now, we just need some recipes to get us started. All we need are enough recipes to get us through a month.
Meal Prep Recipes with Rice
Another aspect of Instant Pot meal prep recipes for spring is utilizing the same ingredients differently. That honey garlic chicken recipe is a simple recipe best served with rice.
Cooking rice usually means leftovers we want to use either the same day or the next day. Use that leftover rice again with the Instant Pot chicken yakitori recipe you stored in the freezer. A couple of other recipes you can use with that rice include:
Meal Prep with Fresh Produce
Another way to utilize fresh spring ingredients in your Instant Pot meal prep recipes for spring is to use them as toppings. You can make the pulled pork for pulled pork tacos ahead of time and then just dice a tomato, avocado, and purple onion to make some tacos.
The same could be said for other dishes like Instant Pot burgers or even an Instant Pot pizza casserole. More recipes to try include:
Instant Pot Soups for Meal Prep
The absolute best route to go with meal prep recipes is soups. Spring doesn’t exactly scream soup, fair point. However, there are some soups out there that rely heavily on fresh produce to provide the flavor.
You can also dress up a soup with fresh produce toppings to make it even more spring. An Instant Pot cheddar broccoli soup is only better with quickly blanched broccoli on top. A split pea soup is another fantastic option.
Soups can be frozen for weeks and still come out delicious when you heat them up. The only meal prep tip you should follow with soups is to freeze in individual servings. That will help make the one recipe last longer. More Instant Pot spring soups to try include:
How Meal Prepping Works
All of these recipes are perfect as Instant Pot meal prep recipes for spring. Each recipe can be entirely or partially made ahead of time. This way, we have more time on those busy weeknights when we need it most.
Using leftover side ingredients is also a great way to save time and money. Ultimately, picking apart a recipe and meal prepping what we can and then using fresh ingredients the day we plan to eat is the best way to get the most flavor and nutrition from that fresh produce.
More Instant Pot Recipes
How to Make Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup | Chicken noodle soup could work for meal prep. But this recipe is even better as a canning recipe.
Instant Pot Chicken and Gravy Recipes | Chicken and gravy is an easy weeknight meal that can be tossed together quickly.
Instant Pot Lasagna Recipes | Lasagna would not be a great meal prep option; you just need too much time to reheat it properly.
Low Carb Instant Pot Pork Chops Recipe | Pork chops come out amazingly well every time you use an Instant Pot to cook them.
Instant Pot Goulash Recipe with Beef | Goulash is a pasta dish, which means it is not great for meal prep. But that doesn’t mean this recipe isn’t worth trying.
