Preparing a nutritious and delicious meal every day, thrice a day is a task easier said than done. Home chefs have to think of what to make and then cook the meal as well. In order to make things easier on busy days, people often do some amount of meal preparation in advance. Whether it is freezing chopped vegetables or using cooking hacks, there are many ways you can actually minimise cooking time and effort. However, one woman took this concept a notch higher by preparing a whopping 426 meals in advance! Kelsey Shaw, a 30-year-old mom who lives in Indiana, US shared her story recently and left the internet stunned.

According to Mirror, this mom is being called ‘the ultimate meal prepper’ thanks to her amazing meal prepping skills. Shaw has already prepared 426 meals in a span of three months that would provide her family with two meals for up to eight months. The mother-of-three became increasingly health conscious and started preserving her food after she and her husband moved to a farm in Indiana in 2017. “When we moved to the farm, we wanted to live a slower lifestyle and wanted to know what we were eating and where it was coming from,” she said.

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_{Sun drying is a process that has been used for preservation.}

Kelsey Shaw then trained herself to learn different techniques of preservation such as dehydration, pickling and freezing to preserve fresh produce and make it last longer. It is indeed a skill and takes plenty of time and patience, but the Indiana resident would have it no other way. “I’m very proud every time I walk into the pantry. I have it stocked up to feed us about two meals a day from October through to May,” she said. She further added that this skill helped them during the pandemic when everyone was in a panic about running out of food as nationwide lockdowns were imposed.

The couple also try and use every part of the fruit and vegetable they are producing, for instance, tomatoes. “I use tomato skins and dehydrate them to make a powder that can be added to meals. I also have ready-made tomato sauce and chopped tomatoes canned in my pantry,” said Shaw. They also give the food scraps to their animal stock for consumption and ensure zero wastage, according to a report by news.au.

Although the couple tries to eat fresh as much as possible, they head to their local supermarket for items that they can’t grow such as flour and rice. “We’re 40 minutes from a supermarket so I often go every two weeks just to keep us stocked on those kinds of things,” she said.

About Aditi AhujaAditi loves talking to and meeting like-minded foodies (especially the kind who like veg momos). Plus points if you get her bad jokes and sitcom references, or if you recommend a new place to eat at.