Meal Prep 101: Our Top Tips to Get You Started

New Year usually means new goals. New goals professionally and often physically. ‘Tis the time when the desire to lose those pounds is stronger than ever. 

One thing to focus on even more than just weight is the healthy habits that support these goals. In fact, tying your goals to a bigger reason (i.e. to feel & perform my best, to keep up with my kids etc…) and really focusing on positive healthy habits will lead to better outcomes overall!

That’s why meal prep can be such an essential tool for your overall health and wellbeing.

We’re honestly just so deeply passionate about meal prep! Why are we so passionate about it? Well, there are few reasons: 

–   First and foremost, meal prep saves you time and money.

–   It adds extra time to your day, that you don’t have to spend cooking, so it makes you more productive in other areas of life.

–   It helps you stick to the plan that you have- whether it’s weight goals or just an intention of eating out less.

–   It’s so satisfying once you’re done with it.

Unfortunately, if you were never the person to prep food for even half of the week before, it can be intimidating. Where do you start? How many containers do you need? How much food to prepare?

This post will help you get started in no time, we’ll break down some of the common ways that you can optimize your cooking getting ready for the week and figure out a meal planning routine that fills your specific needs.

no size fits all

Meal prep is personalized. You do it for you, and your needs are different from my needs. Right? The number of meals per day, it can be 3 meals, it can be 5 meals. You might love chicken, so you’ll have more chicken, so it’s something that you should plan with your own preferences and focusing on the things that you enjoy.

So where to start?

Planning! Meal prep requires planning. You need to figure out what you want to eat for the coming week, and start cooking based off of that.

There are two main ways to make food ahead. You can make the dishes themselves-everything already mixed in together and divided into their own container, or you can prepare each ingredient separately and have a buffet style spread. You need to assemble it every time, but everything is already prepared, and it takes only a couple of minutes to put together.

The other question is do you want to cook breakfast, or have it prepped as well, that goes for the snacks being organized beforehand too.

All of it is personal, and you’re the boss who decides how to do it.

To keep it organized, let’s start with each meal of the day and then finish up with some amazing snack ideas to make your life as simple as possible.

Breakfast

Breakfast is one of those meals where it’s up to you whether to prepare them ahead or not. However, we are here to provide you with some ideas and options of easy and quick breakfasts.

Smoothies

Smoothies are a great and easy breakfast option, and they can be stored in the fridge or a freezer for a week or even longer.

A great tool for that are these smoothie and snack storage bags. They are freezer safe as well as dishwasher safe and can be used in so many ways.

Here are a few simple smoothie ideas:

To make it more of a satiating meal, adding some protein powder and collagen peptides can provide additional nutrients and vitamins as well as protein.

Collagen Peptides is one of the favorite supplements to take, they have the flavored powders and the unflavored powder as well, and those can be great for green smoothies, where you don’t want that added flavor.  You can check them out over here: 

Collagen Peptides

As far as bags go there are plenty of different brands and you can find them in Target, on Amazon, direct websites, Costco sometimes will have some on sale as well. If you want to support me, click the link below for these storage bags:

Stasher Silicone Bags

Overnight Oats

 

Overnight oats are a great and easy breakfast to prepare ahead of time. You can use containers or mason jars for that, add any of your favorite toppings, like nuts, chia seeds, fruits, nut butter and make 5 all within total of maybe 10 minutes of prep. 

In the morning, you grab it and enjoy right away. And on top of the convenience, it’s just so aesthetically pleasing.

Egg Bites / Egg Cups

Egg bites are great. You can make them at home yourself on the meal prepping day, but if that’s not something you want to put your time into, they are also sold prepackaged in the store. Of course, by cooking it yourself, you know exactly what goes into it and all that good stuff.

Another great thing about making them at home is that you can put anything you want into it, rather than trying to find something that matches your preference.

Boiled Eggs

That’s literally it. Do you need to add something to boiled eggs to make a well-balanced breakfast? Yes. Do you need to bother with cooking in the morning? No.  

Boiling some eggs once a week can help you have a solid source of protein and fat for breakfast, then you can add a veggie, make an avocado egg sandwich, or have a bento box style breakfast where you have some cheese and a fruit and maybe hummus and crackers. Once again, all depends on what you’re into taste wise.

You can also keep those eggs for a quick snack, add some sea salt on it and just go for it.  

Protein Muffins 

If you’re more into sweeter breakfast than savory, making some protein muffins before the week is a great grab and go breakfast. You can essentially make it any flavor, add your favorite protein powder and nut butter for even more protein and have something sweet, while not be overly high in sugar, to have with your morning tea or coffee. 

 Protein Waffles  

If you are like me and enjoy some cold or reheated waffles, that’s a great, easy breakfast. Kodiak Cakes is a great brand for high protein breakfasts- they got muffins, waffles, instant oatmeal and even frozen already cooked waffles where all you need to do is throw it in a toaster.

Lunch and Dinner

Buffet Style

Buffet Style is a great way to meal prep if you want some flexibility and variety with your meals. With this method you cook everything separately.

To make a well-balanced meal we need some protein, carbs, fats and veggies.  The best way to organize this is to pick a couple protein sources for a week, so when you get bored by one you can switch it up, for example going for chicken and salmon. Same thing with carbs, maybe having some rice and potatoes to switch up them once again. You get the idea.

When you are done cooking, you organize everything in separate containers and when the mealtime comes, you assemble a plate that you feel like eating at that moment.

Dish Style

By dish, I mean a full recipe dish like a turkey chili or curry or pasta with meatballs, and you have one giant container of that one dish that you have for a few days. You can think of it as a leftover style of meal prep.

Salad Jars

It would be wrong not to mention a salad jar in this post. And of course, we are not talking about a side salad. This is a meal salad filled with all the nutrients that you need. The easiest way to get some ideas for that would be on my Instagram, but here are some ideas for you to try.

With a salad jar, by putting dressing and wet ingredients on the bottom, the salad stays fresh even if you eat it 3-4 days after you made it.

Snacks

Snacks are the best, aren’t they?

Having snacks pre-prepared can be such a great aid in the diet too, especially if you’re trying to lose weight, and you know that your pre-prepared snack is within your calories, and you don’t have to count or think about it.

Fruits– apple, raspberries, strawberries, bananas, whatever your favorite fruit is. You can add some nut butter with an apple, or make a rice cake with nut butter and a fruit, that’s delicious and nutritious as well.

Veggies– cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli. These veggies can be eaten by themselves, paired with hummus or some ranch dressing.

 

Chips and crackers– there are plenty of healthy and nutrient dense. One of the favorite brands is Simple Mills, that you can order by clicking on this link. A great tip is to measure a serving size and separate into zip locks. So, when you’re feeling like having that snack is to grab a serving without having to measure it at that moment.

Now, that we are done with the food side of things and ideas of WHAT to make, let’s get into HOW to make meal prep enjoyable and fun. None of these is sponsored, but simply are the personal favorites. 

Some great tools to use when meal prepping:

1. Tupperware 

Getting nice set of containers can be a huge motivation to get cooking. It’s nice to look at and makes meal prepping more exciting.

While you can get sets on Amazon or Target, I found the best prices to be in Costco.

Glass Containers

Plastic Containers  

2. Egg Cooker

Egg cooker is a game changer, no joke. It makes eggs perfectly the way you want them, and you don’t have to set up a timer or boil water. If you enjoy boiled eggs, this is for you. 

Egg Cooker

3. Baking reusable sheets

If you’re not only on a meal prep journey, but also on sustainability journey, getting reusable baking sheets is a great idea. While they can be harder to clean, you’ll be saving the planet as well as money spent on foil.

Baking Sheets

4. Mason Jars

Mason Jars are great for… you guessed it, Salad Jars. If you love the salad jars as a way of meal prepping some salads, these are gods send.

Mason Jars

5. Slow cooker or pressure cooker

For this category I’d recommend pressure cooker over slow cooker, because a lot of times pressure cookers also have a slow cooker mode, so you’re getting both in one.

Pressure Cooker

Slow Cooker

6. Air Fryer- true game changer

While there are so many different air fryers, I’m adding the one I have and love. But if you don’t like this one, there are plenty of other ones on a market and they are truly life changing!

This particular one also comes and goes in Costco for, if I’m remembering correctly, $50ish.

Air Fryer

7. Blender- bullet or ninja or vitamix

For my smoothie lovers out there. These are two of my favorites on the market. Both are great, Ninja could be argued to be more powerful. All depends on your budget and needs.

You can also blend soups, souses, dressings, you name it. Love me a good blender!

Bullet

Ninja 

Vitamix

8. Waffle maker

Waffle maker is a tool that’s way more versatile than just for making waffles. While the original purpose is great and protein waffles are a fantastic breakfast, lunch or dinner, you can use it to make eggs or fruit or pizza.

Waffle Maker

By Co-Author (Primary): Karina Movsesova

Editor: Amanda (Meixner) Rocchio