4 Meal Prep Solutions To Help You Eat Better & Save Time

Let me paint you a picture and you can tell me if it looks familiar. You wake up early, have a quick bite to eat, get your morning workout on, work all day, then head home where it’s already supper time and you want nothing more than to have a shower and sleep. 

You have probably heard it all before and know exactly what meal preparation is, however, if you’re reading this then you are looking for something other than the conventional ideas. I find that a lot of the pitfalls with meal preparation is that you are trying to follow someone else’s idea of meal prep and that is just another thing you need to work into your busy schedule. 

Why meal prep in the first place?

A 2015 study looked at the cooking frequency and diet quality in adults in the USA. They found that people cooking dinner at home 6-7 times per week ate less calories, fat, and sugar in a day compared to those who cook dinner only 0-1 times per week(1). 

Additionally, a 2017 study found that eating home cooked meals more frequently was associated with greater fruit and vegetable intake. They also found that people who consumed home cooked meals more than 5 times per week compared to 3 times per week were 24% less likely to have an excess percentage of body fat(2). 

Meal prepping is a useful time saving tool for when life gets busy. Below I have outlined some of the common issues I hear about meal prep and some of my solutions.

Issue #1: Boring

One of the first issues that I hear so often is that meal prep is boring. Many years ago, before I became a dietitian, when I thought of meal prep, I would think of a plain chicken breast, rice, and frozen vegetables that have been microwaved within an inch of their life. And let’s be honest for a second here…I don’t want any part of that!

The main solution to this issue is to make spice rubs and actually use them. Don’t just let them sit in the cupboard while your chicken is sad and grey. Branch out into different spices that you hardly ever use or have maybe never heard of- sumac, turmeric, fenugreek…

Another technique that I use is to look into how other cuisines and cultures use spices and in what combinations. This led me to a cinnamon spiced rice which I make quite regularly. You can also use inspiration from meals you have had elsewhere and begin to work out how you can make them in bulk. For example, I was going out for lunch one day and had a fantastic peanut lettuce rice bowl. I loved the dish and started looking up recipes online and now it is one of my staple meal prep dishes.

Issue #2: No Variety

The second issue I constantly come across is that meal prepping lacks variety. Quite a few meal prep suggestions or ideas involve making one dish and eating it for 4 days in a row for multiple meals. If that works for you, fantastic. But, I like to have something different about every second day. The point of meal prep is to prepare large batches of food, and in order to get the variety within a week you will have to rely on individually proportioning and freezing meals.

Issue #3: Time Consuming

Although the pandemic probably improved this aspect for quite a few people, finding enough time to meal prep will continue to be a problem for most. Meal prep is supposed to save time, so make sure that’s what you’re actually doing. 

For example, let’s take prepping veggie snacks for yourself. Instead of cutting cucumbers or carrots into thin little strips which can take a lot of time, cut them in half and eat them like that. Gone are the days of chopping up veggies into small dainty pieces because at the end of the day, it all goes to the same place. 

Another part of the puzzle that is often forgotten is to look at how you are actually preparing your food for the day. It’s best to have a dedicated couple of hours on one day so you are only doing dishes once, pulling out ingredients once etc.

Organize all of the recipes you want to make and start to group quantities of ingredients for preparation. For example, if you are going to prepare 3 recipes and each call for 1 cup of chopped onions, chop all 3 cups at once. This will save you a significant amount of time.

Also think about the overall structure of your meal prep day and plan accordingly. If you need to bake multiple dishes in the oven, start with the recipe that requires the lowest cooking temperature, then while it’s baking, prepare your next dish. Pull out the first one, turn up the oven then put that next dish in. This will prevent you from waiting for the oven to cool off, saving you time. Think of operating like a commercial or restaurant kitchen -everything has a purpose and time is of the essence. It gets easier the more you practice. 

Issue #4: Over Complicated

The final most common issue is over complicating your meal prep. You don’t need elaborate dishes with 15 ingredients for your meals to be tasty. Stick to simple ingredients with simple cooking methods – they will probably be healthier as well. Here are a few of my “typical” meal prep dishes:

• Peanut Bowl Zucchini Squares
• Taco Bowl Pulled Pork
• Greek Bowl Granola Bars
• Banana Loaf

I tend to lean heavily on the “bowls” for meal prep because I really enjoy them and I don’t need a microwave to heat them up. Many of the base ingredients are the same (usually it’s just what I happen to have in my fridge) however the sauce is different. For my greek bowl, peanut bowl and taco bowl, I will wash and cut all of the romaine lettuce (and other veggies), batch cook a big pile of quinoa or rice, and batch cook a pile of lentils or beans (depending on what I feel like).

Summary

At the end of the day, meal prep looks different for each person and what works for some won’t work for others. Some people like to plan out all of their meal prep dishes, do one big shop, and one big prep day. Others like to look in their fridge and build meals in bulk based on what they have. Feel free to take or leave the tips I mentioned above to help you be successful in your version of meal prep. At the very least make more than one serving every time you cook so that you have left over to use later on.

Summary of tips:

• Make spice rubs and use them
• Look to different cultures and cuisines for inspiration
• Replicate dishes you enjoy
• Use your freezer and individually portion meals
• Organize and plan the “preparation” and cooking
• Stop making elaborate dishes – stick to simple and tasty
• Meal Prepping doesn’t need to be this all-day event on a Sunday that the media tends to suggest, it can simply be making 2-3 extra servings at most meals