This profile of Sarah Michelle Gellar and her approach to meal planning is part of Street Meet, FLEETSTREET’s series, where we meet up with trailblazers and thought leaders to deliver unique insight and inspiration into issues we all care about.
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Here’s what we know: Sarah Michelle Gellar was a 2000’s It Girl. From 1997 to 2003, she starred in the (still) cult-favourite TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, while acting in a solid lineup of teen movies, including the Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer horror series, as well as She’s All That and Cruel Intentions. She married noughties It Boy Freddie Prinze Jr., and they have two kids (a boy and a girl) and are living that Hollywood ending in Los Angeles, continuing to work as actors on the reg. She was in 2022’s Do Revenge and is now in the latest Dexter series, too.
Here’s what you may not know: Gellar loves strength training, vibration exercises and hiking with her fam. She’s a Pilates Princess who enjoys a good Megaformer shake, according to Shape. And she sees taking care of herself – eating nutritiously, getting movement – as a way to regulate her energy levels and get quality sleep. She once owned a meal kit company and co-wrote a cookbook. She also has asthma and works at keeping her manage her symptoms every day, she told Hello.
Here’s what you’re going to find out: How she meal plans. FLEETSTREET was invited to an invite-only virtual cooking class with the star and registered dietitian Maya Feller, hosted by MyFitnessPal, to launch its new meal planning options (part of the paid membership services, more on this below). And here are Gellar’s top tips from the class.
The best high-protein snacks in Canada.
1. Pick a day of the week to meal plan, and stick to it
For Gellar that day is Sunday. “I like Sundays to shop for the week, have my stuff planned,” she says.
But you can choose whatever day (or even days) that make sense for you and your lifestyle. For me, for instance, fresh food encourages me to eat healthily. So, six-day container food would push me to a drive-thru. So, I plan for meals with leftovers that won’t taste like leftovers, say a couple of extra chicken breasts, cooked the same but seasoned differently, for a quick noodle dish the next day.
Sunday’s work for Gellar, as that arms her with food she can heat up for a quick meal. “Recipe planning is really important,” she says. “I find that we make ‘bad’ choices when we’re rushed for time. That’s when we grab fried food or something that’s been in the freezer forever, that’s full of sodium.”
Protein meal planning that’s not boring.
2. Don’t do it alone
If you have roommates, friends, parents, a partner or spouse or even your own kids, get them involved. Have fun and be creative. Not only does it make meal planning less of a chore and more fun, but it also gives you food you’re actually excited about eating.
Gellar says, “And if you have kids, you want to make food fun, because they’re more interested in eating if the food looks more interesting, and I think so, too.”
Heck, if you are going it alone, treat it like self-care. Wear comfortable clothes. Put on music that makes you feel good. And minimize steps you don’t love (annoyed by chopping veggies, buy them already prepped), and use your stove settings to avoid burning (thermometer, cooking timers).
3. Limit the clean-up
Since clean-up is rarely fun, unless your Monica Gellar. But this Gellar limits any mess by using parchment paper on pans. After cooking, just toss it in the compost bin. “I put everything on parchment because I want to clean as little as possible,” she says.
Me? I clean as I go, rinsing and loading the dishwasher after using any dish or utensil, so it’s not an additional thing for me to deal with afterward.
How to keep food fresh for meal prep.
4. Go off script with recipes
Don’t have an ingredient? Want to level up (or down) flavours? Want to try a different protein? Does it need a tweak from the last time you made it? It’s not baking, so definitely add your twist to the recipes. For Gellar, that means playing with spice. And Gellar agrees: “I always say that a recipe is like a suggestion, right? And you can add your own flair.”
5. Make room in the freezer
Shop your freezer like you shop your closet and find ingredients you can use for meal planning, and… make room for your meal planned dishes. Gellar likes to stock up on protein that can be quickly thawed while reheating. “I make these great chicken burgers, and I will put them in the freezer and pop them out when I need.”
Meal prep for high-protein dishes that actually taste good.
6. Shop frozen, too
Timing the expiration of fruit and vegetables should be a Masterclass skill. How do you plan your recipes around the timeline of your produce? Well, you can use the FIFO method, for one (first in, first out). You can also whip up fruit salads and vegetable medleys.
Or, you can shop in the freezer aisle, especially when certain foods are out of season. “Frozen vegetables are actually your best way to get a lot of the nutrients,” says Gellar.
If you do shop with convenience in mind, including the inside aisles with cans and boxes, Gellar suggests checking nutrition labels. Not just to track your macros, but also to consider other nutrients like sodium. (You can rinse canned beans, to lower the salt, she adds.) Also, consider other nutrients that you might want to add (such as fibre and vitamin A) or limit (like saturated fats and salt). When batch cooking, you’re in control.
7. Think to-go!
Meal prep, as we know it, gets its health rep from bodybuilders, who control their protein, carbohydrate and fat intakes. Their meals were tend to be very similar and very streamlined. I don’t know about you, but that’s enough to make me want to eat out. So, plan for variety, including lunches on the go.
“I look at my schedule and I figure out how much time I’m going to have,” says Gellar. She says her schedule determines her lunch hour, not her hunger pangs, so she will bring her lunch with her. “I bring my own food so that I can eat when I am hungry.”
What are macros? Should you care?
8. Plan for leftovers
“I look for what will make great leftovers, too,” says Gellar. Adding that she often batch cooks dishes that not only last in the fridge or freezer, but also taste good hot or cold. “Zucchini boats are great, warm. They’re also fine out of the fridge.”
Other cooked foods that taste good fresh out of the oven or the fridge? Flatbreads, casseroles, quiche, noodle dishes, chicken, quesadillas, and more.
Get Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Southwest Turkey Zucchini Boats recipe.
9. Invest in good food containers
Would you run in flip-flops? Would you lock up your bike with a ribbon? Why would you put food for the week into cheap containers? Not saying you have to go broke, but just make sure that they keep your food fresh!
“At our house, we use the vacuum-seal type,” says Gellar. “And what’s great about those is that they’re reusable.” Proof that it works? The fancy French cheese she buys at the farmer’s market “lasts for weeks,” she says. “[The containers] are a little pricey, but I highly recommend them, because they will really prolong how long the food stays.” And that means saving money from not tossing the food she didn’t have the chance to eat.
10. Take a cooking class
Find inspiration in the cooking classroom. And do what Gellar does, sign up for one when you’re travelling. “Our favourite thing, when we travel as a family, is that we always try to take cooking lessons wherever we go,” says Gellar about her family vacations. “We’ve done cooking classes in Bali. We went to Italy last summer and took a pasta-making class in Tuscany and a pizza-making class in Florence. I love to learn culturally and locally.” Her favourite souvenir: Spices she won’t find at home.
Good to go
What I like about Gellar’s tips is that they’re accessible. Even booking a cooking activity on vacay (or your local recreation centre) is doable. I’m already getting ideas for next week’s meals. Hope you are, too.
Meal planning on your phone
As a spokesperson for MyFitnessPal, of course, Gellar endorses the app’s meal planning features. “You can pick [meals] based on what you like. Is it vegetarian? Is it high protein? Is it Mediterranean? Whatever [nutrition plan] you follow,” she says. “You can pick the recipes that you like, you can get the ingredients that you need, and it’s kind of all done for.”
The FLEETSTREET editors put it to the test. And here’s the gist of how the meal-planning feature on the app works.
- You select your nutrition goals. It can be anything from hitting macros, eating out less, learning how to cook and more.
- You log your weight. Or you can skip that, if you want.
- You select a meal planning style. Choose what best suits your dietary needs, including balanced, vegetarian, low-carb, you name it.
- You make more selections. That includes your meal planning experience and cooking skills, the number of meals, food allergies, restrictions, and dislikes, as well as your preferred cuisines and foods, and how much food you have on hand and how often you shop.
- Swipe right on recipes. Set up your algorithm by confirming the types of recipes you’d like to try. You can also select your meal planning preferences for variety, convenience, ease, budget and flavours.
Et voilà, your week is planned. You’ve got a shopping list (or a checklist if you’ve got a stocked kitchen) and grocery reminders – and you’re good to go!