Tips for Easy & Efficient Meal Prepping

People often ask me for some of my “secret sauce” tips for achieving and maintaining weight loss goals.  For the past two years, I have found that weekly meal planning and prepping has been one of the keys to a successful healthy lifestyle. 

When you plan your meals in advance it helps you to stay on track with your healthy eating goals, it allows you to avoid the impulse to eat off plan or to over indulge; which often happens when you’re busy, stressed and worn out.  Planning ahead for meals and snacks also helps you stay on track with your grocery budget, you avoid eating out too often, and it provides you an opportunity to try out some new healthy recipes.

Top-rated tips for easy meal prepping and six great time saving hacks to make your life easy-breezy when it comes to meal prepping are highlighted below.  To learn even more, click here for full details:(https://www.healthcoachinstitute.com/articles/everything-you-need-to-know-about-meal-prepping)

Step 1: Pick your meal prep day(s).
Meal prepping is most efficient when you have a plan and set aside a block of time to shop, prep, and assemble your items. Sunday is a day that works for a lot of people because most people are home and can devote a chunk of time to meal prep, but of course, you should choose whatever day works best for you and your schedule. In the beginning, you might just want to try meal prepping for a few days of the week at a time.

Step 2: Choose and schedule your meals.
Decide on some simple go-to meals to prep based on wherever you feel like you need to streamline the most. For some people, dinnertime is the most chaotic. For others, it’s breakfast or lunch. If you do decide to prepare more than one meal, try to select meals that share ingredients. Some people find it useful to pick themes for specific meals, like Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, or Slowcooker Sunday. Once you’ve determined your selections, write them down in your planner or on a calendar for visibility and accountability.

Step 3: Purchase your ingredients.
Write out everything you’ll need for your meals, grouping like ingredients together so you can find what you need efficiently at the grocery store. Then head to the store to grab all of the items on your list. Wherever possible, shop in bulk.

Step 4: Get the right containers.
Having the right containers on-hand is key when it comes to meal prepping. Here are a few things to look for:

• Airtight, leak-proof, durable containers that will stand up to a lot of use
• Freezer, dishwasher, microwave-safe and made of glass if possible
• Preferably stackable to aid in keeping your refrigerator organized.
• Containers with divided sections for storing multi-component meals

Step 5: Assemble your ingredients.
To facilitate efficiency, organize all of your meal prep ingredients, grouping like items together in once place—like on your counter. Measure and chop anything you can in advance so items are ready to go when it’s time to cook.

Step 6: Get Cooking!
Now it’s time for the fun part—cooking! The best way to prevent meal prepping from turning into a marathon event is to multitask. Start by cooking the items with the longest prep times first. Take advantage of “down” time when items are simmering on the stove or baking in the oven, and use that time to wash fruit, chop veggies, etc.

Step 7: Store Your Meals
Once you’ve finished cooking, it’s time to store the fruits of your labor. Grab your containers, portion out your food, make sure the lid is on tight, and write the date on the container for easy reference if you are going to freeze any portions. Try to store any highly perishable foods (think fruits and veggies) in clear containers at eye-level to keep them top of mind whenever you open the fridge.

6 Easy Meal Prepping Hacks

1. Prep Your Staples. Save yourself some time by prepping starches, proteins, and veggies in advance to use in a variety of ways (think: chicken, quinoa, brown rice, black beans, and roasted veggies).  
   
2. Break Out Your Sheet Pan. Cut down on time, energy, and dishwashing by roasting multiple ingredients at the same time on a sheet pan. 
   
3. Use Pre-Prepped Ingredients. Rotisserie chicken, diced veggies, frozen fruit, frozen brown rice, and frozen shrimp are just a few of the ingredients that you can purchase already prepared to save you a lot of meal prep time. 
   
4. Double Batch Cook. If you’re making something like a pasta sauce, stew, or chili, double your recipe and freeze the extra portion so you’ll have an entire extra meal at the ready when you need it.
   
5. Make Smoothie Packs. Who doesn’t love a delicious, healthy smoothie in the morning? But they can be a bit time-consuming to prepare. On a Sunday night, prep freezer packs with all of your smoothie ingredients (greens, fruits/veggies, protein powder, nuts, seeds, etc.) so you can grab them quickly in the morning, throw them into your blender with your liquid of choice, blend, and go!
   
6. Soak Your Grains. To drastically decrease the cooking time for hearty grains like steel-cut oats and brown rice, soak them in a bowl overnight with water. This can cut cooking time practically in half and also aids in digestion.