Meal Prep Made Easy
Meal prepping is often one of those things that we know will benefit us, but at first glance seems daunting and unpleasant. Does the idea of meal prep give you feelings of stress and anxiety? Do you imagine spending your precious weekend sweating in the kitchen, cursing whoever made you think this was a good idea?
The goal of meal prepping is to save you time, not take up your whole weekend.
Although prepping your meals for the upcoming week may sound like a lot of work, if you learn how to do it efficiently it can actually give you more time throughout the week to do what’s most important to you. Plus it can help keep you on track with your nutrition and wellness goals so you can lose weight, increase your energy, and feel amazing each day.
I can relate. For years I avoided the idea of meal prep after a couple of bad experiences spending hours planning, hours cooking, and then eating a meal that I thought was “healthy” but left me hungry and unsatisfied. But meal prepping doesn’t have to be a massively time consuming experience, and it certainly shouldn’t leave you hungry.
Over time, I realized that I could make a plan for my meals in a way that made it easier for me to eat well and didn’t take a ton of time out of my weekend. I learned ways to prep delicious meals quickly so that I could enjoy my food, feel my best, and have less stress in my life.
Lately, I don’t plan all of my meals all of the time. But I try to at least make a plan for the upcoming days when I know I’ll be super busy and it will be tricky for me to eat well.
How meal prep can benefit you
Save you time on busy days when you don’t have time to cook
Keep you in line with your wellness goals when life gets in the way
Help you to eat more whole foods and less processed junk
Save you money by avoiding restaurants and buying just what you need at the grocery store
Reduce the amount of food that gets wasted at home
Help you to eat nourishing meals each day that will keep you feeling amazing
Let’s find ways to make meal prepping quick, simple, and delicious!
Tips to Make Meal Prepping Easy
Start small, and keep it simple
Instead of overhauling your entire life for the next week, think about just one meal that you would like to change. Perhaps you find yourself eating out for lunch at work each day, or grabbing fast food for dinner when you’re rushed, or skipping breakfast and then loading up on sweets midmorning. Pick the meal that gives you the most trouble and make a plan for that meal for the next week. When that meal becomes easy and second nature, then think about adding another.
Don’t let professional Instagram food photos fool you: you don’t need to prep elaborate and beautiful meals! Focus instead on cooking simple meals with ingredients that you already know you love.
Make a plan for the week and a grocery list
Planning is actually one of the most important steps of meal prepping, especially when you’re just starting out.
But this doesn’t mean spending half the day analyzing new recipes on Pinterest! Just sit down and spend about 10 minutes thinking about what types of dishes you’d like to eat this week, then make a list of ingredients.
Having a good shopping list is important because you don’t want your plan to get derailed mid week just because you forgot a couple ingredients. Once you have an idea of what you want to eat this week, write down all the ingredients you need to make each dish, and cross off the ingredients you already have in your cupboard or fridge.
Order your groceries online to pick up
If you’re not a big fan of grocery shopping, consider ordering your groceries online to pick up at your local store. You can often order them several days in advance and pick a specific time to pick them up that’s convenient for you. That way, you’re not wandering the aisles with a full shopping cart along with everyone else after work… Pour a cup of tea, put your feet up, and shop from the comfort of your couch!
Prep food as soon as you get home from the grocery store
If you often forget about produce in the fridge, or buy lots of perishable ingredients that you end up wasting, consider prepping your foods as soon as you get home from the store.
As you unload produce from your shopping bags, do all the washing, drying, peeling, and chopping before you put it all away. You’ll be much more likely to use everything in your fridge if it’s ready to cook!
You don’t need to do it all in one day
When most people think of meal prepping, they think of spending their entire Sunday in the kitchen prepping every item they’ll eat for the following week. But no one wants to spend the whole day in the kitchen, and it can be really stressful to plan your entire week in just one day. Meal prepping should make your life easier and less stressful, not the opposite. Many people do well prepping for shorter periods of time spread out throughout the week.
Look at your schedule and think about when you have a little extra time to cook this coming week. Perhaps you can prep extra food on both Wednesday and Sunday. Or maybe one be trip to the grocery store seems daunting, and you want to go twice during the week. Or maybe you want to plan a big meal to cook for dinner one day and then eat the leftovers for dinner the next couple days, or freeze them for later in the week. The bottom line is, you don’t necessarily need to plan everything perfectly and do it all at once!
Invest in some quality containers
I love glass containers with a good snap-on lid. You can put them in the microwave or oven (minus the lids), freeze them, wash them in the dishwasher, and toss them in a bag without spilling. If they seem out of your budget, consider buying just one or two every couple weeks. That way you’ll accumulate them slowly, without breaking the bank.
Sheet pan dinners
Sheet pan dinners are one of my favorite meal prepping techniques. They’re also great for the nights that you don’t have anything planned and need a quick and easy meal. Just pick a protein, some vegetables, and a carb source, and you’re basically done!
A common sheet pan dinner in my household is salmon or steelhead with roasted vegetables and brown rice. I start the brown rice cooking, then toss my chopped vegetables with oil and spices, and bake them on a baking sheet with the fish. You can also choose to bake some butternut squash or sweet potatoes in place of the brown rice.
If you want to prep a couple sheet pan meals, just fill up an extra baking sheet and portion out the leftovers into containers. This is perfect for either lunches or dinners in the days to come.
Take advantage of your kitchen appliances
Have a slow cooker lying around that you never use? Dust it off and put it to work! A slow cooker is awesome because once you set it up, it takes little to no effort while cooking. Plus, you can turn it on in the morning and come home to a hot, delicious, slow-cooked meal in the evening, with plenty of leftovers for the days to come.
Although Instant Pots are super convenient for quick weeknight meals, they are also great for meal prepping. You can do things like cook a whole chicken, make pulled pork or beef, hard-boil eggs, steam a big batch of vegetables, cook oatmeal for the week, make your own yogurt, cook dried beans, and make a batch of quinoa or wild rice.
Lately I’ve been loving my bread machine for the same reason I love my slow cooker. It takes only 10 minutes to set up the ingredients, and a few hours later I have a fresh, hot loaf of bread ready to be enjoyed. Plus, most models have a timer option so you can set it to be done at a specific time (say, right when you’re sitting down to dinner—yum!).
For chopping veggies, a food processor can also be a really convenient way to quickly chop a big batch all at once. Plus, it makes super easy cauliflower “rice.” Also, a spiralizer can make “noodles” from zucchinis, sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, etc. that are much less expensive than the packaged ones at the grocery store.
Make the most of leftovers
If you’re cooking a big meal and plan on saving the leftovers for later, serve the portions into your containers at the same time you serve yourself dinner. That way you won’t risk accidentally eating too big of a portion that doesn’t leave enough for later. Leftovers are an easy solution for lunches and dinners later in the week, or you can freeze them for later use.
Leftovers are also delicious for breakfast! And it’s an easy way to sneak some extra veggies into your diet. Try mixing extra roasted vegetables into eggs for an easy scramble or omelet. Also, leftover brown rice or quinoa makes a great breakfast fried rice. Simply heat it in a pan with scrambled eggs, mix in some leftover roasted vegetables or chopped greens, and toss with a little soy sauce. Or put a fried egg and avocado on top of leftover rice, vegetables, and beans for a healthy and delicious breakfast bowl. Also, leftover roasted potatoes or sweet potatoes make a quick and easy breakfast hash.
Make a big batch of veggies, a protein, and a carbohydrate source
While it can be fun to plan elaborate meals to prep for the week, sometimes this can be time-consuming and overwhelming. Meal prep doesn’t need to be complicated!
Instead, consider cooking a protein, a carb source, and a batch of vegetables that you can play around with all week. This can be a really easy way to add some variety to your dish so you don’t get bored with it. With these three components, you can switch up the presentation and toppings to make bowls, salads, stir fries, omelettes, scrambles, lettuce wraps, sandwiches, etc.
An example of this would be to cook ground beef, quinoa, and roasted veggies. Then you could toss them on greens for a taco salad, spoon them into romaine leaves for lettuce wrap tacos, or mix them up with salsa and avocado for a healthy bowl. Or cook brown rice, salmon, and roasted veggies. This makes a delicious meal as is, and leftovers can easily be made into a stir fry, scramble, or salad.
Utilize your freezer
Freezing fresh produce is a great way to enjoy nutritious fruits and veggies later in the season. Produce is most nutritious when it is ripe and in-season, and if you freeze them at this time, they will retain their high nutritional content even a couple months later. When produce is on sale because it is in-season, or if you see a good deal at the farmer’s market, stock up and freeze the leftovers.
When you’re chopping veggies, put the scraps that you would normally throw away in a ziplock bag in the freezer. When the bag is full, you can simmer the scraps on the stove top to make a delicious and nourishing vegetable broth. You can even freeze the vegetable broth in ice cube trays to use later.
Having some people over for dinner this weekend? Prepare a casserole ahead of time and freeze it so it’s ready to pop in the oven the night of. This is also super helpful for having weeknight meals on hand, and you can even just make a double batch one night and save the other for a future date. Freezer-friendly casseroles include shepherd’s pie, lasagna, enchiladas, baked ziti, chicken alfredo, and more!
Prepare multiple meals at the same time
Sometimes it can save you time to think about more than one meal at once. Here are some examples of what that could look like:
If you often cook the same veggies for dinner, consider chopping an extra batch or two. For instance, if you’re dicing broccoli, zucchini, and bell pepper for a stir fry tonight, you could cut an extra portion to have ready for your sheet pan dinner in a couple days.
Prep your snacks or lunch at the same time that you’re making breakfast. For instance, if you’re putting blueberries in your breakfast and you’re also going to put them in a smoothie for later, make the smoothie at the same time.
If you’re chopping veggies for a slow cooker dinner, chop an extra portion and toss it in a ziplock bag in the freezer. That way, some day in the future you can make the same slow cooker meal without the prep work.
Take advantage of pre-made items at the store
Sure, homemade is great, but who has time for that every day? Pre-made sauces, marinades, and salad dressings can save you a ton of time in the kitchen and add lots of flavor to your dishes. Just check the ingredients first; ideally you should try to avoid products with unwanted additives. Look for added sugar, inflammatory vegetable oils (i.e. canola, corn, safflower, sunflower, soybean, and cottonseed), and ingredients you can’t pronounce. Try to find products with short lists of real food ingredients that you recognize.
You can also take advantage of already prepped foods like pre-washed salad greens, frozen “riced” cauliflower, spiralized veggie “noodles”, frozen chopped vegetables, etc. That way you can just grab them while cooking without having to take the time to chop/wash/prepare them yourself.
A final note
Be patient and kind with yourself!
This is a big change you’re making! Don’t expect to be a perfect meal-prepping-master all at once. It will take time and trial and error to figure out what works best for you.
Start small, try new things, and don’t be hard on yourself if your plan doesn’t go as planned.
References
Gold, B. (2022). 6 Genius ways you can use your Instant Pot for meal prep. Real Simple. Retrieved from: https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniques/instant-pot-meal-prep
Kresser, C. (2019). How industrial seed oils are making us sick. Chris Kresser. Retrieved from: https://chriskresser.com/how-industrial-seed-oils-are-making-us-sick/?fbclid=IwAR0co-l1cx2ieAk6l1tQCIZZ19fgLHFYzAcWhdOGUqh4ylhYY88YQLMcaU8
Mullins, B. (2019). Best kitchen tools for healthy meal prep. Eating Bird Food. Retrieved from: https://www.eatingbirdfood.com/meal-prep-kitchen-tools/
Sparacino, A. (2021). 11 Freezer meal prep hacks you need to try. Shape. Retrieved from: https://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/diet-tips/meal-prep-freezer-tips
Wheeler, J. (2019). 7 Ways to use your Instant Pot for meal prep. CNET. Retrieved from: https://www.cnet.com/health/nutrition/ways-to-use-your-instant-pot-for-meal-prep/
White, D.A. (2019). 12 Expert-approved tips to make meal prep easier. Food Network. Retrieved from: https://www.foodnetwork.com/healthyeats/healthy-tips/2019/10/meal-prep-tips-hacks-experts