Weekly meal prep is easy when you find what works for you. I have all the tips to teach you how to meal prep like a pro, including how to get you started, recipe inspiration, and tips for making meal prep healthy and easy!
Whether you're looking to meal prep for convenience or to lose weight, I have a bunch of my best meal prep ideas here for you to enjoy. But first, it's important to understand how to meal prep for best results.
Sometimes, eating healthy with a busy schedule can seem all but impossible.
After all, who has time to cook three meals from scratch per day, go to work, run errands, spend time with family and friends, and take care of the house?
Except…
IT IS POSSIBLE.
And you don’t have to hire a chef to cook food for you or buy expensive prepared meals.
In This Post You'll Find:
Listen To This Article On How To Meal Prep
I'm going to show you a way to meal prep your weekly meals in just a few hours.
Bonus: you can track your calorie intake, eat healthy, spend time with your loved ones, and enjoy your favorite activities.
Spending time with family instead of cooking food during weeknights, eating a healthy breakfast daily, and, overall, living a happier and healthier life? Sounds good to me!
If I can do it, so can you, my friend.
What Is Meal Prep?
Meal prep is a great way to be in control of what you eat. It involves prepping some or all of your meals ahead of time. It’s like having freezer meals that you can buy from the grocery store or takeout brought to your door, but better.
With meal prep, you get. exactly the food you want. That means your meal will be healthier and filled with nutrients instead of sugar and processed ingredients that are not good for you.
You can also eliminate the temptation of foods that are bad for you since you have something tasty and healthy waiting for you in the fridge or freezer.
Why You Should Meal Prep
Ready To Eat Food
The most important benefit of meal prepping is always having something to eat. Even if you love to cook your meals from scratch daily, sometimes you just can’t. Your busy life might get in the way, and you won’t make it home in time. Or you will be too tired to cook. That’s why it is such a lifesaver.
Just Reheat Your Meal + Go!
And when these situations occur, having something delicious in the fridge you can heat up in 2 minutes is definitely better than ordering food.
Save Money on Food
Avoiding buying food daily and having your food ready at home will save money on grocery shopping and restaurants. Plus, having a plan will make it so you waste less food because it didn’t get included in any of the meals.
Portion Control
Prepping your meals ahead of time in individual meal prep containers makes it much easier to adhere to the correct portion sizes. This can be a game changer if you're tracking macros.
Who Should Meal Prep?
While Dustin and I love meal prepping because of all the benefits, it is not a perfect fit for everyone. It is great for people who have less time during the week to cook and also don't mind eating similar things for a few days.
In our family, we also do "bulk meal prep," which I use to describe making a large batch of rice, chicken, sweet potatoes, or whatever. Then, each person reheats the portion they want with just the ingredients they want.
This way, we use fewer containers, and people get to pick and choose what they like. This also allows for a freshly cooked meal in a fraction of the regular time.
What Types Of Food Can Be Meal Prepped?
There is a lot of nuance to the answer, as tastebuds, diet, and health issues can all play a role.
Great Foods
Cooked Meat: I prefer ground turkey or beef, chicken thighs, or chicken breast in my meal prep.
Cooked Rice: I usually use white rice or brown rice.
Other Cooked Grains: Quinoa is also really big in our house, and oatmeal makes a great snack or breakfast, whether it's planned cooked oats or overnight oats.
Starchy Vegetables: Sweet potato meal prep is our favorite, but red potatoes are great also.
Other Vegetables: Vegetables like zucchini spears, thyme roasted carrots, roasted broccoli, or roasted cauliflower.
Sauces: Homade hummus, pico de gallo, and healthy salad dressings can be prepped ahead, though store them in a small container and then pour when ready to eat.
Tricky Foods
Perishable: Anything that perishes quickly and doesn't last a few days should be avoided, like salads (although not mason jar salads), bananas, and avocado.
Foods You Don't Like: This may seem obvious, but if you don't particularly like a food, making extra and forcing yourself to eat it reheated or cold throughout the week isn't the best recipe for success.
Fish: While we do meal prep fish, this one is trickier. A lot of people don't like reheated fish and it needs to be eaten quicker than other proteins.
Foods With Different Reheat Times: Try not to pair foods in the same container that reheat at different times, or in some cases, don't even need to be heated. For example, cottage cheese with ground turkey or a taco bowl with avocado. Instead, keep foods or it will be tricky to deal with in a hurry later.
How To Meal Prep
Easy meal prep is often more about meal planning than anything else. Whether or not you are using this Anti-Inflammatory Meal Plan, this meal prep for weight loss guide, or coming up with your own meal plan, planning ahead helps avoid frustration. Here are some important tips for how to meal prep to ensure success:
- Start small: This means prepping just one meal for 3 servings in a week, then building from there.
- Make a plan and stick to it: Plan out calories or calculate macros ahead of time and make healthy meals, including meal prepping snacks or smoothies for in between meals. This will keep cravings under control.
- Choose 1 day per week: This allows you to prep everything and be done all in one day. If you don't have 2-3 hours to spare on one day, see #4.
- Choose 2 days per week: Split up the cooking windows to better suit your availability. This is better if you don’t want to spend much time in the kitchen at one time or prefer to swap meals out faster.
- Make meal prepping fun: If you don’t have time for complicated recipes, choose simple ones. It’s better to choose what works for you.
- Add Variety: One of the common complaints I hear is that there isn't enough variety. This isn't true if you swap meals out faster, however. A lot of people will use the same meal plan over and over, and those get bored. This is why I rotate meals every week in my 30-Day Healthy program, and we have multiple entrees to choose from each week.
- Make it delicious and not boring: Experiment with spices, herbs, and marinades. You’ll have countless easy ideas without too much effort.
- Create a healthy menu: With meal prep recipes for the week. I have everything you need here – breakfast meal prep, lunch, dinner, protein smoothies, and other healthy meal prep ideas. Choose your favorites and create your very own menu.
- Make a shopping list: Check the recipes you included in the menu and make a shopping list. Avoid buying unhealthy ingredients and replace the ones you already have with healthier options. For example, buy coconut sugar or raw honey instead of white sugar, opt for whole wheat flour or chickpea flour instead of all-purpose flour, and choose extra virgin olive oil instead of canola oil.
- Don’t shop when hungry: Avoid going grocery shopping when you’re hungry -- you’ll be tempted to buy more food than you need, especially unhealthy convenience foods.
The key takeaway is that meal prep is flexible. The goal is to make it work for you so it’s something YOU want to do. If you want to do it, you’ll stick to it and be successful.
How Long Does Meal Prep Last?
Again, this is a more nuanced question. I usually make 5 days' worth and eat the stuff that goes the quickest first, like fish.
You can also opt to freeze certain meals and then reheat as it gets closer to when you'll eat them. I like to meal prep smoothies ahead for just this reason.
Tips For Meal Prepping
The secret of successful meal prep is to do what works for you and to store your healthy meals properly to keep them fresh and flavorful. Here are some valuable tips I've learned along the way to help you out:
- Allow the food to cool before transferring to the fridge. However, make sure you don’t keep perishable food for more than 30 minutes at room temperature to avoid any temperature-related issues.
- If you want to freeze your meal prep recipes, allow them to cool completely by placing them in the refrigerator first.
- To reheat freezer meals, you have 2 options – thawing the food overnight in the fridge and then reheating it in the microwave for about 2 minutes or reheating in the microwave without thawing for about 5 minutes.
- If you use gallon freezer bags, make sure you squeeze as much air as possible out of the bags before you store the food in the fridge or freezer.
- Some recipes will last for up to 7 days in the fridge while others last for only 4-5 days. This is something to consider if you want to cook for the entire week.
- Make recipes you're familiar with so you know you'll love them during the week.
- If you like variety, make sure to choose 2-3 different recipes for the week so you can switch it up.
Meal Prep Containers
To store your food, you’ll need some airtight storage. Here are my favorite:
- glass meal prep containers
- gallon freezer bags or Ziploc bags
- mason jars – I use these for salads like in this mason jar salad recipe
You can read more about my favorite meal prep containers here.
Store your meal prep in the fridge or, in some cases, in the freezer. But, make sure you check if your meal prep containers can be stored in the freezer. If not, use freezer-safe gallon freezer bags.
You can store the protein and the side separately for a buffet-style meal prep or you store them together in a meal prep container for a full meal.
Ready To Get Started?
Check out our Meal Prep Category for lots of great meal prep ideas. Some of our most popular are my Chicken Meal Prep, Breakfast Meal Prep, Vegetarian Meal Prep, and Meal Prep Snacks categories!
Shaun Berthelsen
Love this post! The recipes, meal prep and everything looks so effortless! Meal planning and prep is so helpful for that.
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