How to Make Meal Prep Easy
We’ve all been there - it’s 9 pm on Sunday night and you’ve just laid down in bed when you realize you completely forgot to pack lunch for work tomorrow. You groan, knowing you don’t want to eat take-out for lunch again but you’re too tired to even decide what to make for lunch, let alone to get up and make it. “Ugh, I should really meal prep,” you think before your drifting off to sleep.
This cycle continues and bleeds over into all of your meals. Soon, you’re grabbing an unsatisfying protein bar for breakfast as you race out the door in the morning, eating yet another slice of pizza for lunch, and stopping by the McDonald’s drive through for dinner on your way home. You know you want to be nourishing your body with more nutritious food but aren’t even sure if it’s possible anymore. You’re tired of feeling crappy because you’re eating fast food constantly but also have no idea where to start with making and planning out meals.
Maybe you’re tired of ignoring your health and know it’s time to put yourself first by learning how to meal prep healthy, delicious meals. Or maybe you’re excited to get back into a routine and are looking forward to making lunches for you and your kids but want to cut down on food costs and reduce food waste.
No matter where you’re at currently, meal prep can help you plan, eat, and save exactly like you’ve been wanting to! Although meal prepping can seem daunting at first, once you have the right strategy and plan in place, the whole process becomes much less daunting and dare I even say… easy?!
Here is a simple guide to help make meal prep quick and easy while saving you a ton of time and money!
Step 1: Plan
Plan out your meals for the week
I encourage you to plan not only what meals you’ll be having but also how many times each recipe needs to feed you and your family for
Plan when you will take the time to prep the ingredients for those meals
This one’s a biggie! You can only meal prep if you actually carve out time to meal prep
Plan when you will grocery shop for those items
Much like the last point, you need to plan ahead and make time for these tasks before life gets in the way and you realize you’re completely out of food
Create your grocery list
Use your meal plan to create a grocery list and try to stick to buying only items that are on that list and nothing more (this will save you from wasting food and $$$)
**NOTE: There is so much more to planning out your meals than what is listed here. Planning is often the most overwhelming part of meal prep, which is why I have covered it extensively for you in my new online course Meal Prep Made Easy! This course covers the entire process of meal prepping - including planning, prepping, and plating in great detail and walks you through the process step-by-step so you feel empowered and confident to start prepping! It also comes with a FREE 7-day meal plan with an accompanying grocery list! If you’re curious what else is offered with the course or you’re ready to take control of your health, time, and money, click here!
Step 2: Prep
Take 1-2 hours per week to prep all meals
The amount of time needed for this task will vary based on how many meals your prepping, what prepping method you’re using, and how many people you’re cooking for
Know what style of prepping you would like to use
There are actually quite a few different styles of food prepping! I tend to divide them into the following 4 categories:
Batch-style prep
Portion-style prep
Pre-assembled (uncooked) prep
Pre-cooked prep
**To learn more about what each of these styles of prepping involves and how to find a style that suits your needs best, enroll in my Meal Prep Made Easy course here!
Store your meals/ingredients properly for each prepping method
Each prepping method requires you to store your meals differently (freeze, keep in the fridge, place in portioned out containers, etc.). Base your food storage method off of whatever prepping style you used so that you can store food safely until you’re ready to use it
Know the best ways to prep each ingredient
There are a lot of different ways to prepare a vegetable or a protein! Make sure you know how you’re going to be preparing each ingredient before beginning
Step 3: Plate
Thaw, reheat, or cook each meal depending on the style of prepping you chose
The process you need to go through in order to make a meal ready to serve is again based on how you chose to prep and store the ingredients for that meal. Be sure you’re taking into consideration the amount of time it takes to thaw, reheat, or cook something in advance so that you’re not caught by surprise 30 minutes before you’re supposed to have dinner on the table
Make your plate beautiful!
As humans, we eat with our eyes first! Putting a bit of effort into make a meal look appetizing will help you and others enjoy it more
Evaluate each meal for the future
Did a recipe make too much? Not enough? Did freezing a certain recipe make the texture strange after it was thawed and reheated? Take note of anything that you could change for a more streamlined process in the future
And there you have it, your simple guide to make meal prep easy! Although this guide is a great starting point, there is so much information that’s not in this guide that is needed to help you master meal prep! That’s why my friend and fellow Registered Dietitian, Betrina, and I have made you a full online course completely dedicated to meal prepping!
Meal Prep Made Easy is packed full of useful information, helpful tips and tricks, and our tried-and-true money and time saving methods so that you can meal prep healthy and delicious recipes for you and your family with ease! Our current students are absolutely loving the course so far and have been giving all of the recipes included in the FREE 7-day meal plan rave reviews!
To get your hands on this course and to help save you time, money, and the headache of figuring out and planning meals, click here to sign up for the course! I absolutely cannot wait for it to change your life!
XO,
Aubrey, RDN
