The Fast Food Restaurant You Can Use As A Shortcut To Easy Meal Prep

Meal prepping can be a chore, but it tends to be beneficial. By the time Wednesday rolls around, who wants to make a nice meal from scratch? Thankfully, there are tons of tips on efficiently meal prepping at home, including restaurant-style meal prep hacks you can use at home. However, one restaurant does all the work for you. Panda Express is the perfect choice for precooked foods you can order in bulk and separate into meals that will last the entire week.

You can get family-size or catering meals at plenty of restaurants, including Kentucky Fried Chicken and Chipotle, but Panda Express's options ensure you can get a hearty grain, a vegetable, and a protein with each serving, thus helping people meet their nutrient goals. And if you learn how to reheat Chinese food properly, every bite will be as first-day perfect as the last.

To do it, order the family box at Panda Express, which start at between $35 and $40, depending on your location. The meal comes with two large sides and three large entrées packaged in five containers. Then, divide the meal into your own containers to last throughout the week. Leftover food has a shelf life of three to four days, and you can freeze whatever you can't eat before then to reheat later.

The family meal comes with two large sides. You can choose from white rice, fried rice, chow mein noodles, or super greens (steamed broccoli). You can order two boxes of the same or two different sides to switch up the base of the dish. You can also order an extra side (around $5-ish) to ensure there's enough to go around. 

There's also a variety of entrées, some spicy and some mild. You can either order three of the same entrée or three different entrées, with options including standards like beef and broccoli, orange chicken, and kung pao chicken. You have to pay extra for premium sides, like the honey-walnut shrimp or the coveted black pepper sirloin steak everyone wants the secret to. Panda Express also offers a plant-based orange chicken at some locations (for an up-charge), though you can also get steamed broccoli as an entrée. There are many other options, depending on your location and the time of year, but it's best to stick to unbreaded options that are easy to reheat (and healthier, as an added bonus).  

With so much variety, people with various dietary needs and preferences can make several prepared meals with just one food order. The family box typically serves around five people, meaning you can split it into five average-size meals. However, if you make smaller portions, you can stretched it to make additional meals.