Five Tips That Make Meal Prep Easy

Five Tips That Make Meal Prep Easy

How to Make Meal Prep Easy

A lot of people are looking for ways to make meal prep easy. After all, cooking at home is good for your health and your wallet. And preparing your meals in advance is a great way to save time. It also helps you save money and eat healthier. That’s because you’ll waste less food and you won’t end up spending money on takeout, which usually isn’t great for your health.

However, prepping meals in advance can seem intimidating or confusing to those who’ve never done it before. If you want to know how to make meal prep easy, here are some tips.

Start Small

While you may have dreams of prepping an entire week’s worth of meals every Sunday and breezing through the week, it’s important to realize that it may take some time to work up to this point. If you try to jump straight to this step, you might end up getting discouraged.

It could be a good idea to start by focusing on preparing a couple days’ of meals at a time, or preparing some ingredients in advance but not entire meals. You can work up from there once you get the hang of it.

Use Containers that Work

Having good containers is a key part of meal prep. Make sure you have enough ways to store your ingredients and meals. You’ll want to choose containers that are convenient and that keep your food fresh. You may want to get all uniform containers to make it easier, but this isn’t necessary if you have another way of storing your food.

Create a Menu

Meal prep works best when you have the menu for the week – or at least for the next few days – set out in advance. When you know what you’ll be eating each day, it makes meal prep easy.

One tip is to design a menu that lets you use similar ingredients on several days. For instance, if you use chopped red peppers in a stir fry on Monday, you can make a pasta dish on Tuesday that also contains red peppers.

Set Aside a Night or Two

Add meal prep to your schedule when it works for you. Maybe you have an hour on Sunday night to chop up some ingredients, for example. If you do, add meal preparation to your schedule for this time to make sure you do it. Also, if certain days are busier than others, schedule some meal prep time right before these days to streamline your life. For instance, if you usually have meetings until late on Wednesday, make sure you do some prep on Monday or Tuesday to make your Wednesday easier.

Figure Out What Works for You

Everyone is different, so your meal preparation plan doesn’t have to be the same as anyone else’s plan. Over time, you’ll figure out what recipes and schedules work well for you and that will make meal prep easy and even fun!