Meal Prep Tips & Techniques

Does meal prep overwhelm you or do you ever wonder how to make it easier?

Then keep reading because today we're going over the techniques and tips for meal prepping!


Why Meal Prep?

  • Meal prepping consolidates a week’s worth of work into a matter of a few hours
  • It minimizes cooking demands during the week
  • You can prep foods in bulk (i.e. potatoes, chicken) as opposed to cooking individual portion sizes all week
  • It prevents you from having to depend on fast food for lunches due to lack of preparation
  • It takes the guesswork out of the week for what to eat each day

Variations of Meal Prepping

  • Complete meals: this is where you will prepare the entirety of a meal and have it ready to simply warm up & eat
    • Example: a container containing spaghetti squash, marinara sauce, and turkey meatballs that just needs to be heated up to eat
  • Batch cooking: this is where you can prepare multiple variations of mostly single macro foods to pull from in order to hit the correct macros for the week
    • Example: making 1 container full of rice, 1 container of noodles, 1 container of shrimp, 1 container of chicken breast, and 1 container of roasted vegetables. This allows variability in choosing which carb or protein you want to use to hit your macros each day. It's a convenient way of switching things up instead of sticking to the exact same meal daily, while still having the food prepped and ready to eat
  • Buying foods out of convenience: this isn't necessarily prepping, but it is still a way for you to save time on cooking. Simply buying foods that don't need much time to prepare can be a lifesaver when short on time
    • Examples: microwavable rice, already prepared chicken, microwavable potatoes, microwavable frozen veggies, canned tuna/chicken, etc.

Tips for Meal Prepping

  • Use as many appliances that you can at once! This saves time by multitasking vs. preparing them individually
    • Examples: have potatoes roasting in the oven, salmon in the air-fryer, a pot of rice on the stove, frozen vegetables in the microwave all at once
  • Use preparation "hacks" to make cleanup easier
    • Examples: aluminum foil and/or parchment paper on oven sheets and in the air-fryer, crockpot liners, etc.
  • Buy foods that will help save time! Examples: pre-diced onions, frozen rice to heat up, a pre-roasted chicken, pre-cooked lentils, cut and cubed butternut squash, marinated meats, etc.
  • Even prep your snacks!
    • For example, if you’re having chopped cucumbers and celery with hummus throughout the week, chop these up on meal prep day and put them into small Tupperware or plastic baggies so they’re ready. You can even prep your hummus into mini Tupperware. Prep as much as possible