Want to put together quick and healthy meals all week long? Welcome to your secret weapon: meal prepping. There are several ways to do it. But no matter how you stack it, meal prepping saves you time and money. It also helps you make healthy choices. Here we’ll cover the various ways to meal prep, the tools you need and top tips for getting started.
What is meal prepping?
Meal prepping describes various methods of planning and preparing meals in advance. You can:
- Batch cook and reheat leftovers. Think chili and soup, egg muffins, burritos or steel-cut oats. Use this food safety chart to check how long you can store different foods in the fridge or freezer.
- Prep individual ingredients ahead of time. Get parts of a meal started by washing and chopping up vegetables and making a pot of whole grains like quinoa or farro. You can also roast chicken, make a dressing or sauce, and wash fruit in advance. Save time and energy by multitasking while you’re cooking: Use one rack of the oven to roast a chicken, while cooking root vegetables on another.
- Buy prepped meal components. Save on time (and cleanup) by shopping for pre-diced vegetables like onions, peeled and cubed butternut squash; bagged salads, rotisserie chicken and pre-cooked grains.
- Prepare and portion specific meals. Using bento boxes or other containers, you can pack lunch for every day of the week.
All of these methods can save time and money while helping to maintain a healthy diet, so choose which works best for you.
Benefits of meal prepping
There are so many reasons to meal prep. Here are a few:
- It saves time during the week. Rather than heating up your oven and bringing out your knives and cutting boards repeatedly throughout the week, meal prepping consolidates the heavy cooking into one session.
- It supports your health goals. It can be hard to make healthy choices in the moment, especially if you don’t have appealing choices on hand. When you’ve prepped the food you want to eat ahead of time, it keeps you from making easy, less healthy choices.
- It reduces food waste. Buying ingredients for multiple recipes and planning ahead to freeze leftovers helps to cut down on food waste.
- It can save money. Planning and prepping ahead lets you buy in bulk and reduce impulse purchases, like takeout.
Planning your meal prep
Meal prepping starts with a game plan. It goes hand in hand with meal planning. Think about what you’d like to eat next week.
- Determine how much you want to prep. Think about which meals you want to streamline. Do you want to make it easier to pull together fast and healthy dinners? Or perhaps you want to make lunches that you can grab and go. Start slow so you don’t get overwhelmed. Perhaps just choose one eating occasion (like snacks or lunch) that you’ll prep ahead of time. Or prep for just a few days rather than the whole week.
- Decide what meals/recipes you want to make. What would you like to eat this week? Get inspired by browsing recipes or thinking about which family favorites you could make.
- Consider what ingredients you already have on hand. To save money, think about what ingredients (like vinegars, soy sauce, spices) you already have in your pantry. That way you can focus on buying just the fresh ingredients, like vegetables and protein.
- Schedule a set meal prep time. Look at your schedule. Figure out when it makes sense to shop for food and prep. If you can get groceries delivered, that could save even more time.
What you’ll need for meal prepping
Successful meal prepping starts with having the right tools and systems in place.
- Containers: The first step is to gather the necessary containers to store your prepped meals and ingredients. Look for options that are durable, leak-proof and easy to label and stack. Bento boxes and mason jars are both options for storing grab-and-go breakfasts and lunches. Freezer bags are also great for freezing soups and stews.
- Shopping list: Next, establish a reliable way to keep your shopping list, whether that’s using a pen and paper or the notes app on your phone. Having a set of go-to recipes and a weekly meal plan will also streamline your prepping process.
- Time-saving tools: Finally, look for time-saving kitchen gadgets that can speed things up, like a food processor for quickly chopping veggies or a rice cooker for perfectly cooked grains. Slow cookers or multi-cookers also are great for hands-off cooking.
Putting it all together
There are so many ways to meal prep and recipes you can try. It can be overwhelming. But there are great resources out there, so you don’t need to figure it out on your own. The key is to get excited and inspired and find what works for you. Happy prepping!