How to Meal Prep for Dummies Who Don’t Have Time
What you think meal prepping is, is wrong. You do not need to have five different meals prepared in individual Tupperware for the week, with ingredients purchased that you’ll never use again, and hours of time in the kitchen. This is fancy and great, but that’s not the life you are living.
Today, I am going to make meal prepping so ridiculously easy for you. Why? Because I want you to get results. And because I am tired of hearing how you don’t have time to do this. I promise you, with my system, you absolutely have time to do this.
What can you expect with meal prepping my way?
Results towards a better body composition
Feeling fuller longer
Less snacking
Fat loss
More energy
No afternoon crashes
A lighter mental load
Flexibility in your meals
New appreciation for your actions towards your health
Procurement
My client Nedra said this to me – a phrase I’ve repeated since the words left her luscious lips: “You have to procure on a different day than you prepare.”
Yes. 100%.
You need to purchase your groceries on a different day than you are going to prepare. They need to be available to cook when you are ready and at a convenient time. Why is that? Physically purchasing groceries will be at least an hour ordeal and prep time can be another hour. That’s two hours of nutrition that you are not invested in nor do you have the time. I am trying to save you time. And also, you can order groceries online to shorten the process.
But What Do I Get?
Here comes the dilemma: “I don’t know what to get at the store, so I just end up buying random things.”
Great. I am going to solve this problem for you too. In short, you are going to purchase the same things every week. Even better? Here’s a sample post I made for the basic girl.
You Still Haven’t Told Me Where to Start
You are going to work backwards. First, I want you to bust out your calendar (We are Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X, after all and live and die by our phone calendar). You need to look ahead at where you’re going to be for the week and what evenings look like. Let’s use my client Lauren for example. She’s a lawyer who works from home twice a week, goes into the office three times a week, has two young daughters in daycare, and an active sporty spice husband.
Here’s an example of her calendar:
Monday and Wednesday – WFH
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday – in office (with a 30-minute commute)
Monday and Thursday her husband has an evening activity
Friday evenings they eat dinner as a family at the golf club
Saturday – his day, so she is home with the girls, and they eat pizza for dinner
Sunday – her day, so he is home with the girls
Thinking ahead, she knows she will have more time for dinner on WFH days compared to commute, pick up, and husband MIA days. On tough days, meals need to be more basic. On the more flexible days, meals need to be basic. Again, working backwards, let’s write out your days and give dinner examples:
Monday: Food in bowls
Tuesday: Tacos
Wednesday: Burgers
Thursday: Stir fry
Friday: Dining out
Saturday: Pizza
Sunday: Egg sandwiches
She is going to repeat the same meals every week. There are absolutely no switching meals until you have your system down on rinse and repeat for weeks on end and you are tired of that meal. For example, Lauren is tired of stir fry on Thursdays, but she still needs something basic while two girls are pulling each other’s hair and her husband is MIA with sports. Maybe she switches to fish sticks, Banza mac and cheese, or chicken nuggets and one frozen vegetable.
Now, knowing your dinner meals for the week allows you to have the same foundations for your grocery list each week. An example for dinners only could look like this:
Ground beef
Chicken breast
Burger patties
Frozen shrimp
Eggs
Lettuce
Cheese
Frozen vegetables (such as peppers, corn, potatoes, broccoli, etc.)
Black beans
Tomato
Avocado
Tortillas
Cheese
Buns
Steamable rice and lentil bags
Stop Skipping Lunch
Here’s the best part… are you ready for it? Make extra for leftovers that are now your lunches. If you’re not into that, then make lunches simple such as a wrap or sandwich (add deli meat to your grocery list then).
Breakfast, Anyone?
Please tell me you’re eating breakfast. Let’s not even think you are skipping breakfast. In your defense, breakfast is the hardest meal to conquer for my clients. Kids are waking up and need to get out the door, you try to look like you got some sleep, and your husband is on his eighth snooze button. This is where I need you to prep something that is grab and go.
My favorites? Hash in a crock pot, a large frittata, or egg bites. Unfortunately, frittatas and egg bites will need a bit more time, but I have simple recipes that can help you do this in under 15 minutes (plus cooking time). And, breakfast doesn’t have to be breakfast. It can be leftovers from dinner or a makeshift of things you have leftover.
What if You Didn’t Plan or Things Went Crazy?
You must always have staples around, whether you pre-cook them or they’re frozen. Here are fantastic options that I recommend to my clients:
Frozen vegetables: these can be more nutrient dense than your raw vegetables you keep throwing away, easily heated in a pan with oil or butter and season how you prefer.
Frozen potatoes: turn on the oven and 25—35 minutes later, you have a starchy carbohydrate source for dinner to pair with a color and protein.
Steamable rice and lentil bags: seriously, just go for it.
Ground meat cooked: always have a ground meat cooked and ready.
Cans of soup: I like Amy’s, but there are many good quality options. For soups that have no protein source, add your pre-cooked meat.
Enchilada sauce: a great add on to a quick meal. One of my favorite recipes is to buy chicken breast, pour your can of enchilada sauce on it in a crock pot, and cook for 4 hours. You now have enough meat for the week, with a subtle flavor.
Chicken nuggets (I like the Costco brand or Bare): Yes, I give you permission to eat chicken nuggets.
Frozen shrimp: these defrost quickly, which is why I recommend you have a bag available. You can easily create tacos, a nice pasta dish, or add this to your stir fry.
Frozen pizza: again, I give you permission. There are great options nowadays.
Edamame, chickpea, or some form of protein pasta: in under 5 minutes you have a plant-based protein source, dinner ready, and an easy clean up. Add some butter and olive oil, use pasta sauce from the store, pesto, or, for a leaner option, lemon and garlic.
Here’s what Michelle had to say:
Life is bound to give you a day that sucks. Work went terribly, the kids got sick, your husband is on a business trip, and the dog had to go to the vet. These are the days I like to use as an indication of progress towards a client’s long term goal and as an opportunity to see where obstacles can occur. With these foods available to you, you will be immediately relieved at the convenience and ease, as well as proud of the effort towards better health.
What Does this Look Like in Practice? AKA Your Checklist
Look at your calendar and note evening plans, meetings, activities, etc.
Choose which dinners you will be having every week, on the same days, based on your schedule’s consistent plans. For example, if you get home late on Wednesdays, opt for a crock pot meal that’s cooked by the time you get home. If you work from home Wednesdays, opt for a meal that you can briefly cook since you won’t be rushing through the door.
Choose your lunches based on leftovers, meetings, work, kid’s activities and school, and convenience.
Rethink breakfast and your time. Do you need to prep ahead a meal every week? Are you okay with leftovers with an egg for breakfast? Or, do you need to make a Starbucks run?
Write out (yes, physically write out) what meals you’re having for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack for the week. This is an outline, you do not have to stay with this plan, but just plan.
Write out (yes, I know) a grocery list of what you are purchasing. Every meal should be covered on the list, and every list should be a duplicate of the other.
Set aside time to go to the store or place an order for groceries. Choose to do this on the same day, same time every week for consistency purposes.
Schedule time to prep the bare minimum: baked potato/sweet potato (two to four depending on family size) and ground meat (at least one pound).
Optional: schedule additional time to prepare a meal in advance. For example, you may schedule ten minutes originally to put the potatoes in the oven or air fryer and to cook your ground meat. Then, an additional ten minutes to prepare and begin cooking your frittata recipe for breakfast this week.
Start there. That is enough. You do not need to do more.
Here is an example from my client Caitlin:
Grocery list:
In theory, she would use the same meal planner and grocery list every week. In fact, she should laminate it and move on.
As You Get More Consistent
Before you change anything, I want you to run your own list for at least six weeks. Why? Consistency pays off. You are going to have a week where you didn’t plan ahead. Another where you didn’t prep your meat and potatoes. Another where you changed a meal and thought you had more time but didn’t. Then, a final week where you decide to heed to my knowledge and do it for six weeks because it’s easier.
Is it boring? Yes. Will meals get boring? Yes. Will you be over it? Also, yes. To achieve results, I’m sorry, but yes – it’s boring.
When you are at peace with boring and have a good system down, you can change a meal. Let’s look back at Caitlin’s routine for an example where the family is absolutely over the pot roast. Her options are:
Change the meal entirely
Change the meal slightly
Examples of what I mean:
Change the meal entirely: she can opt to have grilled pork chop, with frozen vegetables, and Bob Evan’s mashed potatoes (don’t sleep on these).
Change the meal slightly: opt for a BBQ pork loin recipe in the crock pot.
Based off the calendar, here’s how she can approach this decision:
Tuesdays are busy workdays for her and her husband, and the kids have swim class after school. The family comes home tired and hungry.
Change the meal entirely: does she truly have the time to prep, grill, and bake (approximately a 30-minute process)?
Change the meal slightly: exchange the grocery list to pork loin and add BBQ sauce (approximately a 30 second process).
Which do you think she went with?
You also can make subtle changes without changing the meal entirely. Again, using Caitlin for an example, instead of shrimp tacos they could opt for chicken. Instead of spaghetti and ground beef, they could do ground turkey or purchase pre-made meatballs. You have my permission to modify this week to week.
When Do I Do the Cooking Stuff
That’s up to you and your schedule. My client Stephanie opts to do a bigger prep Sunday afternoons while the family has downtime, but before the week starts. Then she does a smaller prep mid-week to restock the simple things. Alissia outsources her preparation to an assistant who comes to their home Monday mornings. Alexisonly preps ground beef for herself and makes the meals as she goes. Liz orders large meals from Chipotle as her prep.
So – the cooking stuff just needs to be plugged in when you have 10 minutes. The ordering, I would do at the same time and day every week. Eventually the planning, writing, procuring, and preparing will become part of your routine, but scheduling it makes a habit in the meantime.
If you want simple recipes that I recommend to my clients and a sample grocery list, please email me to receive a copy of my Simple Recipes PDF.
