Meal Prepping is the key to success - not just success with nutrition but success for a BUSY week! Having something to grab, heat up and go is just so easy. It will save you time, money and a stop in the fast food line.
I will be first to tell you that meal prep is not really that fun. Spending hours in the kitchen can be tedious especially when you have other things to do! But making it a priority is going to set you up to succeed during the week! So for me -- I turn on my 90's alternative ("Hey Alexa, play 90's alternative") and I get going!
Even working from home, I find that having meal prep ready to go makes it so much easier during the week! Meal prep isn't always for everyone. But I don't want you to feel like a failure just because you just can’t get into it or the thought of eating leftovers makes you wanna gag. BUT if you’ve never tried it or you have but you can’t quite figure out how to make it work, this post is for you.
Let's go over the do's and don'ts of meal prepping!
Don't: Try To Prep EVERYTHING
Prepping everything for the whole week will burn you out fast! There is a time and a place for that but learning to simplify things in the interest of time (and sanity!). A great plan is to make sure you have lunches and snacks ready to go, a few breakfast choices to pick from and then write down your plan for dinners. For example, I’ll cut and roast some veggies or sweet potatoes in advance and then I will find a protein - chicken, beef, or pork- to cook the day of. Having some pieces done, even if it’s not the whole meal, still cuts down on a lot of time during the week.
Don't: Make too many new recipes
I used to do this a lot. I would try out 5 new recipes in one week only to discover I actually only liked maybe 2 of them. Which left me regretfully eating a meal I wasn’t happy with or tossing it and wasting the food (and money) to grab something else. And usually my “something else” wasn’t the healthiest choice. So I like to stick to what I like and try maybe one recipe a week. This also helps cut down on the time I spend prepping because when you’re trying recipes you’re not familiar with, that can definitely slow you down. So imagine me with my 5 new recipes. What was I thinking? *Insert eye roll here* Now I know better.
Don't: Not check the fridge before you shop
This seems like common sense but how many times can you say you've done this!? I have. Every time I made a plan for meal prep and started my shopping list, I would start from scratch instead of basing my meal choices on what was currently in the fridge. It saves me so much more time and money when I take 10 minutes to scope out the content of my kitchen and pantry and THEN decide what meals to make before heading out the door.
Now for the Prepping:
A good basic meal prep routine is to do a protein source and a vegetable. Those are the main targets I try to hit. I will add an additional carb depending on the meal and what my macros are looking like. I usually use brown rice, potatoes or sweet potatoes as my carb choice. Or sometimes I will use a protein pasta. This basic formula helps me to quickly and easily decide what to make for the week. Polenta bakes, burrito bowls and easy skillets are staples that I make over and over because they’re quick and I don’t get tired of them.
So how do you manage to prep in such a short amount of time. In order to better understand how to prioritize a meal prep in terms of the steps - here is a little sample of a simple 2 hour prep completed with 2 people. So let’s say we have burrito bowls and cauliflower fried rice on the menu for lunches and we want to also do some snacks, a breakfast and roast some veggies for dinners. Here is how you can easily manage that.
Step 1
Start by preheating the oven. While you are waiting for that, start to wash and chop the veggies for roasting while your meal prep partner (MPP for future reference) starts cooking the ground beef for the burrito bowls. This process usually takes about 15-20 minutes.
Step 2
Once the veggies are in the oven and the ground beef is done, start to prepare the burrito bowls. While my MPP prepares the chicken for the cauliflower fried rice. Burrito bowls and fried cauliflower rice are done and plated in about 20 minutes. So far we are about 40 minutes in and already lunches are done.
Step 3
Check the vegetables and maybe roast for another 10-15 minutes and while this is finishing up, prepare some snacks. Snacks can be a mixture of grab and go items like protein bars (I love RxBars), tuna packets, and Chomps meat sticks. Then sometimes there are things I actually have to do a little more with to prepare. So for example, I might make some tuna salad and add grain-free crackers to containers, wash some fruit to portion off or put things like veggies and hummus in individual portions. While I am doing this, my MPP is removing the vegetables from the oven and then whipping up some eggs and chicken sausage for a few breakfasts. This part takes about another 30 minutes or so.
Step 4
So by the middle of the second hour you should be finishing things up and beginning to clean the kitchen. This usually takes about 30 minutes depending on how much damage we’ve done.
So that’s a simplified idea of how to prioritize and carry out a quicker and easier prep. Things can take a little longer if you add more options for breakfast or if you are trying out some new recipes.
Tips & Tricks
Prep the ingredients vs making the whole meal
- You can still save yourself a lot of time during the week simply by arming yourself with freshly washed and cut fruits and vegetables. If you don’t feel like spending a ton of time cooking on a Sunday but you’d like some quick options to throw together in a pinch, this is a good tactic. Grill some chicken, cut some potatoes, have some things ready and then just throw them together during the week.
Wait for your food to cool before storing
- This helps keep the vegetables from getting soggy when it’s stored for a few days. I leave the lids off and let the meals cool down and then I will cover and store them. I don’t store things in the freezer but you could totally do that too. For me, the food stays good to go in the fridge for the week without tasting old or weird. I usually eat anything with roasted chicken or veggies the first couple days since that tastes better (IMO) when I eat it sooner and then I save the other meals for the days later in the week.
Experiment with slow cooker and one pot/sheet pan meals
- Throwing something in the crockpot is a super simple way to get another meal in for prep without having to do much extra work. Toss it in and leave it and you have one meal cooking while you’re prepping some others. Same deal with sheet pan and one pan recipes.
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