An hour of meal prep on Sunday sets you up for a yummy week

What if you had a prep cook in your kitchen? A sous chef who made sure that all of the slicing and dicing and mincing and zesting was done for you, so that when it came time to make dinner, all you had to do was wash your hands and start cooking?

Most of us aren’t going to get this in our lifetimes. But what if we took an hour on Sunday evening to be our own prep cooks, and make life easier all week long?

Yes, you can buy many of these items pre-cut — but since they’ve been cut days before, even as you take them from their bags, you can see some browning or dryness or aging. When you prep the ingredients yourself, you have a better shot at a longer shelf life, and you know exactly how fresh they are.

If you are a meal planner, already aware of which recipes you plan to make for the week, then identify the ingredients that can be prepped ahead of time, add them to your shopping list and get them into recipeready shape.

But if you aren’t quite sure what you are making, then you can still be your own best friend by prepping a bunch of ingredients you likely will call into duty.

If you have a food processor, this task just got easier, as you can pulse everything up, small batches of one ingredient at a time, and have yourself an arsenal of prepped ingredients at the ready. Keep all of your prepped items in tightly sealed containers in the fridge.

Here are some suggestions: ingredients that make frequent appearances in my kitchen. But you’ll determine the ingredients you most often use.

MINCED GARLIC: This will last for up to a week in the fridge, and mincing it yourself is much better than buying a jar of pre-minced.

MINCED SHALLOTS: If you don’t cook with shallots, please reconsider. They are a bit of a cross between onions and garlic, but they have a mild sweetness as well. Use about half the amount in any recipe that calls for onions, and twice as much if you are subbing them for garlic. Shallots are perfect in vinaigrettes.

SARAH E. CROWDER — KATIE WORKMAN VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS This November 2016 photo provided by Katie Workman shows food being prepped for a meal in New York. One hour of meal prep on Sunday can make life easier and more delicious all week long.