Do ready-made and semi-prepared products belong in your prep?

They do. Washed greens, frozen vegetables or a can of cooked legumes take over one step of the prep and keep the weekly prep at a size you can actually manage. You make the choice by reading the product's own label; the list of ingredients, the net quantity and the nutrition declaration are information the label is required to carry.

Why does making everything from scratch make the prep bigger?

Weekly prep gets put off to the extent that it piles up into one day. Soaking dried legumes, washing and drying greens, chopping and boiling vegetables; each is small on its own and large in total. As the prep grows, so does the threshold for starting it.

Taking one or two steps from a ready-made product lowers that threshold. The aim of prep is not to do all the work yourself but to leave no work for weekday evenings. Judged by that measure, a ready-made product is not the rival of prep but part of it.

What do you look for on the label?

The labelling regulation lists the required information one by one: the name of the food, the list of ingredients, the net quantity, the date of minimum durability or the use-by date, any special storage and use conditions, and the nutrition declaration. So the information you need in order to compare is already on the package.

The ingredient list is ordered by amount; looking at what is written first gives you a quick read. The net quantity lets you compare two packages — with products that also state the drained weight, make the comparison on that. The special storage condition tells you which shelf the product goes to once it is home; if a separate period is written for after the package is opened, that is in the same place.

The nutrition declaration is in the same place too, and it gives the fastest way to compare two products. Holding two packages side by side and reading the same line carries more information than reading the promotional sentences on the front of the package.

How do canned and frozen products come into the prep?

Canned legumes go straight into a salad, a soup or the pot once they are drained and rinsed. Do not leave what is left in the can: the guideline says that after a canned food is opened and used, what remains should be kept in a suitable container in the refrigerator. The packaging itself is not used for any other purpose either.

Frozen vegetables are kept in their original packaging and go straight into most dishes. When you buy them, feel the package with your hand; if the pieces have stuck together into a single block, the product may have thawed once on the way. Products whose packaging is bulging, damaged or leaking are not taken off the shelf.

Where do you draw the line?

A ready-made product shortens one step of the prep; it does not build the menu. The decision about what you will eat that week is still yours, and if that decision has not been made, the ready-made product in the cupboard waits unused too. So buying ready-made products does not take the place of planning.

Judging a product group as a whole does not help either; the ingredient lists of two products on the same shelf can differ clearly. Making the comparison on the label gives more information than deciding by category.

There is another limit, in the amount: because ready-made products are easy, more is bought than needed and it sits in the cupboard. Buying ready-made products according to the weekly plan as well is the step that really makes them part of the prep.

What can you do today?

In this week's prep, work out the step that takes the most time and look only at the ready-made equivalent of that one. In the shop, read the first lines of the ingredient list before you put a product in the basket. And put what you buy away according to the storage condition on its label as soon as you get home; a product waiting on the wrong shelf takes back the time it saved.