Meal Prep to Fit Your Lifestyle

Key Takeaways

Less variety- If you don’t like eating the same thing multiple times a week, this probably isn’t the best choice for you.

Prep is time-consuming- You will need to designate a specific time to do this cooking. If you’re cooking 3 full meals, it will of course require more time than cooking one.

“Failing to plan, is planning to fail”

Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to meal prep. Some people won’t touch leftovers and others don’t want to go near a frying pan during the week.

If it feels overwhelming to start, it can help to take a look at your options. Keep in mind, there’s nothing wrong with using different methods for different meals. You can even switch back and forth from week to week!

All “meal prep” means is that you are doing some of the work in advance to save time in the future.

Complete recipes

Keeping your options open

Grab and go

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Meal Prep Focus Points

1. Complete Recipes

I’ll start by talking about complete recipes since this seems to be what people initially think of when they hear meal prep. Some might assume you make one recipe and eat the same thing at every meal until it’s time to make the next one. It really doesn’t have to work like that.

When I focus on complete recipes for my meal prep, I will usually do this for one meal of the day. I don’t mind eating the same lunch three days in a row, for example.

Another approach I like to take is making two or three complete recipes. You can have something for dinner one day and lunch the next or vice versa. The more recipes you make the more options you’ll have, but of course, you don’t want to overdo it and cause food waste.

Benefits (help avoid stressors)

Very little work throughout the week- Once you complete your recipe, you should be done with your prep for that meal. You can grab it out of the fridge, put it in your bag, and go. There are some exceptions, but any work should still be very quick. For example, you might keep lettuce separate from your salad until the day of to prevent it from getting soggy. You can still have the rest of your meal in one container. You can even separate the portion of lettuce you want to add.

Establish a routine- Oftentimes, when you’re prepping complete recipes, you can designate specific days that you cook. It may not be realistic to complete all of your weekly cooking in one day since food will go bad eventually. However, I usually keep it to twice a week when I’m using this method. It can still be consistent and a huge time saver. You can also get in the habit of grocery shopping on one of your prep days.

Challenges (may cause some discomfort)

Less variety- If you don’t like eating the same thing multiple times a week, this probably isn’t the best choice for you.

Prep is time-consuming- You will need to designate a specific time to do this cooking. If you’re cooking 3 full meals, it will of course require more time than cooking one.

2. Keeping your Options Open

If you want some more flexibility in your food choices throughout the week, focusing on meal components may be the best approach. When you make up a balanced meal, it will include color, starch, and protein. The color is from fruits and non-starchy vegetables. Starch would be either whole grains or starchy vegetables.

Let’s break this one down in an example.

You’re meal prepping for the week and want to focus on lunch and dinner. You could start with just two of each component and still create a wide variety of dishes.