Meal prepping secrets for success (plus 3 easy recipes)

Do you enjoy a homemade lunch or dinner, but don’t have the time or energy to cook so you end up grabbing unhealthy fast food?

Meal prepping could be a great answer for you. Meal prepping means making food ahead of time in batches, portioning it into individual servings, and storing in the refrigerator or freezer so they’re ready to grab and go.

Meal prepping can save you time, money and calories versus eating fast food or restaurant take-out. And because you have control over the ingredients and amounts used, it’s generally a much healthier choice. Plus, it can help your food dollars go a lot further.

I started meal prepping after I began my healthy living and weight loss journey. Used to be, I’d grab fast food for lunch, or to feed my family I’d hit up a drive-thru for a bucket of fried chicken or other unhealthy food on the way home from work. But I got to the point that I didn’t want greasy, unhealthy, over-priced fast food for me or my family anymore. However, as a busy working mom, I didn’t have endless hours to spend in the kitchen.

So, I developed a system that worked for me. Sundays became my usual meal-prepping day. That’s when I set aside a little bit of time to make ahead healthy meals for lunches and dinners for the hectic week ahead.

It’s a misconception that cooking and meal planning have to be time-consuming or complicated. You don’t have to be a chef, or have a lot of extra time, to make a good home-cooked meal. I favor simple recipes and time-saving techniques such as using a slow-cooker. The secret is to make food in larger batches ahead of time, so that you have meals at the ready after long days.

As a health coach, this is something that I advise clients to do and I help them come up with a strategy that works for them. Many of my clients make a big batch of two or three delicious meals that can feed them for the rest of the week. Every meal you eat that’s homemade and prepared nutritiously is better than consuming fried fast food. It’s so much better for you. When making your grocery list, look for lean proteins, fresh fruit, fresh veggies (but canned and frozen work too!), whole grains like brown rice, and all the other healthy eating staples.

If you don’t want to cook, then something as simple as adding pre-cooked grilled chicken and a big container of salad to your shopping list works great as a healthy meal prep. Check the pre-made section of the grocery store for these items. To save time in the mornings, I’ll divide the salad into individual Ziploc bags and portion the chicken into bags ahead of time. Then I can just grab a bag of each to take for lunch. When you’re short on time, it’s an easy way to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Keep it simple and batch cook

I don’t make unique dishes for each day. Rather, I make enough of one thing to have the same meal for 3-4 days. I like to make two different meals so that I have both lunches and dinner covered for the entire week. For example, last week I made baked chicken and sides (recipe follows) and a slow-cooker pot roast with vegetables. I cooked once, and this fed us for almost the whole week.

When you’re busy with work or other commitments, there’s nothing better than knowing you have a ready-made hot lunch or dinner to come home to. It eliminates the need to pull in a drive-thru.

Try prepping this easy, nutritious meal

I’ve created the following three recipes so that you can make and bake it all at once, using all the racks in your oven. If your oven is smaller, make the chicken first and then the vegetables after. As an alternative, instead of roasting the mixed vegetables, you could prepare it on the stove top according to the package directions, or use canned, if preferred.

With these recipes, you can easily prep several lunch or dinner meals in under 10 minutes, not including baking time.