How To Start Meal Prepping Today

Ready to go back to basics, everyone? Let’s talk about meal prep! What exactly is it? It’s preparing 3 to 5 days worth of food ahead of time. The goal is to be able to do this in just 1 or 2 hours at the start of your week. 

If you’d rather listen to me talk about meal prep, you can find it on the podcast here!

How To Get Over Meal Prep Challenges

Before we get started, I just want to challenge a few thoughts you might have on the subject, because if you have a negative outlook, or a limiting belief about preparing food ahead of time, we gotta toss it out the window before we start. 

So if you think: Meal prep is boring because it means I have to eat the same food for 5 days, I want you to know that, yes, maybe some people do that, but you do NOT have to be one of them. 

If you think: Food that’s prepared ahead of time won’t taste as good 3 days later. Nope, not true! There’s ways and strategies to make things work for you. Yes, this means you might have to do some research but you’re already reading this blog post, so I can tell you’re a go getter and you’re not afraid of a little research.

 Lastly, if one of your thoughts is: “Ugh, meal prep takes too much planning and I can’t do it.” Also know that this could be easily solved with the right information and tools. So let me walk you through this.  

Reasons to Meal Prep 

• Time Saving Concept

We all have insanely busy schedules, don’t we? Every time I consult anyone on nutrition and suggest they cook their meals instead of ordering in, I can almost always predict their answer: “But B, I don’t have the time!” 

Fair enough! Time management needs to come into play. So, what we’re trying to do with meal prep is actually create time. Yes, it’s possible & I’m excited to do this with you. 

• Money Saving

Also, it’s not JUST that you’re saving time when you meal prep, you’re also saving lots of money, and I know we could all use a little help with that from time to time. 

Because even if you are ordering in healthy food, the overall cost of that lifestyle WILL add up. Let’s say you’re paying at least $35 dollars a day for all the days you’re not cooking, that might add up to $245 a week!  

• Strategy Time

Let’s get to some strategies you can start implementing TODAY to create and stick to this wholesome habit.

I want you to read all 5 strategies and mix & match them to make them your own. 

1. The Container Strategy 

Containers, or what a lot of people call Tupperware, are meal prep’s best friend. You’re going to need these so you can divide the batch created food you prepare in a neat and organized way. Go for the quirkiest, brightest, most neon selection of containers and turn your fridge into a colorful space. Or go basic. 

This makes it exciting for you to go and pick up that lunch you prepared 2 days ago.  I suggest glass containers, because the less BPA you’re exposed to from plastic, the better. Another reason is plastic containers tend to dent and the smell and color from food end up staining the plastic containers, which never really goes away. Go for mason jars for your breakfasts, snacks and salads, and rectangular sized containers for your lunches and dinners.  

2. The Schedule Strategy 

Next up, I want to talk about calendars and schedules. I want you to create a calendar for meal prep, which means you put in your meal inspiration and cravings for that week, and then color code it and make it exciting.

Every time you see a recipe you like on Instagram, Pinterest or Youtube, save it and write down its title on your schedule. So now you’ve got things like fajita, veggies & rice scheduled for Monday, soy glazed salmon and sweet potato on Tuesday, fajita quesadillas on Wednesday, salmon with pico di gallo wraps on Thursday, and a tossed crunch salad on Friday.

OR if you grew up in a Middle Eastern household and are wondering if you can eat the same lunches you used to have, you sure can! Make a classic stew in 3 different ways and prepare white rice on the side. So we’re talking: bazella stew on Monday, Fasolia stew on Tuesday, bemye on Wednesday, and repeat for Thursday & Friday. You can have them all with rice, so it’s easy!  

That’s one week DONE. This is one huge step towards making this habit stick; the fact that you’re writing down ideas for recipes on this schedule and hanging in it in your kitchen to make it happen.

3. The Staple Strategy

Next, let’s talk about “the staple strategy”. I like to split ingredients into two categories: Staples and Recipes. For staples, I mean things you should always have in your pantry and kitchen because they elevate flavor and they’re very common in most recipes you’ll come across. 

Staple ingredients include garlic, herbs like parsley, rice, sweet potatoes, whole grain pasta. Those are just a few examples, it’s not a rule that you have to have them, especially if you don’t like some of them. Choose your staples, do you prefer frozen veggies, frozen chicken, chickpeas? Then go with those.  

Spices are also VERY important to have at all times. They can completely transform a dish, things like oregano, basil, garlic powder, paprika, cinnamon, turmeric, and bay leaves. Again, choose the things you love, my husband always keeps cajun spices and chili powder. And my dad never lets go of garlic salt… you get the idea.

Right, so now you have a good stock of staple ingredients for a few weeks. You’re doing GREAT. Then there’s the recipe ingredients. Those are the ones you’re not likely to find in your kitchen already because they go bad if not used right away or it just didn't occur to you to buy them when you were grocery shopping.

What you do here is bring up all the recipes you’ll be making for the week (thanks to your filled out fridge schedule, this should be easy!) and write down all the ingredients you’re going to need for meal prep day. If you’re going to prepare on Sunday’s, I’d make sure I have the ingredients on a Saturday so there’s nothing standing in your way on Sunday morning. You can do this by ordering your groceries online (you know I’m a huge fan of that) or going for a quick stop at the store. 

4. The Weekend Strategy 

Onto The “Sunday Funday” Strategy… or the weekend strategy. Pick your prep day, maybe it’s a Sunday or Saturday for you. I know how it is guys, we spend all week dreaming about the weekend so we can hang out and relax from our responsibilities and jobs, which you totally deserve. 

But I’m going to tell you about a feel-good strategy that works every time for me and will have meal prep hours go by in a flash: Pick 2 hours on one of your weekend days, usually it’s the second day for me. Pick those dead hours where there isn’t much going on between lunch and dinner, connect your phone to a speaker and play some awesome oldies playlist or a feel-good audiobook while you prep! 

You have your recipes lined up, your ingredients in front of you, set a timer for 2 hours, raise your sleeves up and cook away with entertainment in the background, with the blissful knowledge that you won’t have to make a decision about what to eat every day this week.

I don’t know about you, but a good playlist can do wonders for my productivity, especially during house chores, admin work or training. It helps time go by and you feel like you’re having fun! Every once in a while, get your partner, family member, or friend to join you to level up the fun. 

I suggest making this a weekly occurrence where you just know that Friday at 5 pm, like clockwork, you’re researching recipes. Saturday morning you’re getting the ingredients, and by Sunday afternoon you’re ready to prep.

5. Multipurpose foods

Here’s a cool concept: You can repurpose the ingredients you have to make different meals. You don’t have to eat the exact same dish for 3 days in a row. Use the ingredients from the first meal and repurpose it into different options for day 2 and 3. 

Let’s use chicken as an example. Take out the kilo of chicken that was pre-cut by your butcher. This portion could be divided for at least 5 meals, giving you 200 grams of raw chicken per meal. You can season half of the sliced chicken with taco seasoning and the second half could be marinated with lemon and garlic. 

The taco seasoned portion could make 1 taco wrap meals and 2 taco bowl meals. We’re getting creative by using the same ingredients for multiple meals! Instead of having taco wraps 3 days in a row, you have a wrap one day, and repurpose the ingredients to make a taco bowl salad on the next day. I would add some taco chips on top of the salad for crunch. 

For the lemon and garlic chicken, you could cook it on the pan and serve it with a batch of whole grain rice. You can go low on carbs on another day with a bunch of sauteed asparagus or cauliflower rice will do the trick. & that’s a 5 day lunch plan!

How To Find Recipes For Meal Prep

Here’s a quick sample of where I personally get recipe ideas from:

• Get on Pinterest and make a food board with meal prep ideas
• Buy a meal prep book: Tasty makes one and loads of other Instagram personalities have released e-books, too.
• If you’re subscribed to MyFitnessPal newsletter, they also send out really cool meal prep ideas. 
• You can always call up a friend or mom to get some inspo for the week.

Home Improvement

Now for our home improvement segment, I’ll just recap the ways you can start doing meal prep today and have it stick this time around!  

1. Get yourselves some glass containers that are appealing to you. No reason to have a boring kitchen! 
2. Schedule in the meals for the week. Get as creative as possible. Next, schedule a time for grocery shopping and for meal prep itself.
3. Make sure you always have a good stock of staple ingredients to use at any point in the week. You can get ingredients for specific and unique recipes on your weekly grocery run.
4. Consider the Sunday Funday or the weekend strategy. 
5. Research to see how you can multipurpose foods and leftovers. 

And that’s a wrap! I really really hope this was helpful to you guys and that it was the push or step you needed to finally start planning your meals in advance. You should see a difference in your overall nutrition, mood, and wallet in just a few short weeks.