Meal Prep Help!

For your first go at it, I really recommend trying recipes you already know how to make. Then start small, like introducing one or two new recipes per week. Meal planning is tedious and frustrating, but it gets easier the longer you do it.

But here's how it works for me... On Friday or Saturday I go through my list of what's in the freezer, look at the calendar for the following week and come up with a plan... I note what nights are super busy and when I have time for a more leisurely meal prep. Then I'll make my grocery list based on the recipes. If I'm doing a crock pot meal one day, I'll cut and prep everything I can and pop everything but the liquid into a freezer bag so it's ready to dump in the crock pot. If I need rice or farro or quinoa for a meal one night, I'll cook it and freeze it so all I have to do is reheat. I'll measure out smoothie ingredients into containers so I can just dump and blend. And I usually make a dish that tastes good cold for lunches like a quinoa or farro salad, then parcel out into individual servings.

Also, I pretty much always cook double what I need so I can pack leftovers for hot lunches or quick meals. Once you do that for a while, you won't need to do as much on a Sunday in the kitchen. I generally make hummus every other week and pack in individual servings for lunches, bake protein bars, breakfast bars or muffins on the opposite week and do a big soup/stew or chili that I freeze in single or double servings (I usually end up with 2-3 options in the freezer for that type of thing since I rotate recipes.)

Each night after dinner while we are washing up, we take the next day's meals out of the freezer and put into the fridge to defrost, blend our morning smoothies, etc.

It helps to have a lot of containers that are the same size so that you can figure out portions consistently. I stocked up on those ziploc containers in all different sizes and it makes a world of difference.

Also, I strongly recommend starting by doing a 100% inventory of your fridge, freezer and cupboards. Try to keep that up to date so you aren't wasting money buying ANOTHER bag of frozen peas when you already have 3 eating valuable real estate and a cupboard full of part bags of red lentils. (Not that I know anyone like that. Nope. Definitely not me.)

It really is the best way to maintain sanity while trying to make healthier choices. After all, if you already have something tasty planned, you won't be as tempted to stop for takeout or order a pizza. And, it lets you plan indulgences like pizza night in advance so you can work it into your plan.