Life gets tough sometimes, between work, family, and friends you just run out of time. Meals and eating routines are often the first or second thing to go when your schedule gets busy. Learning how to meal prep for a busy week can make a huge difference in your life. Maintaining nutrition will help you stay focused on your goals and relieve stress. This is one of the core reasons for starting Prep Yo Self.
Busy schedules sometimes don’t allow for cooking during the week or even sitting down for a meal. Although it is important to take time to relax and eat for mental health as well. Meal prepping can set you up for a smooth meal routine by having ingredients pre-prepped or entire meals ready-to-go.
Fast food or frozen food often becomes the solution in these situations and that’s not a healthy choice. Occasionally is one thing but when it turns into everyday you may want to review your meal plans.
When you get busy, every meal can be tough. Breakfast becomes a quick bite out the door if anything at all. Lunch becomes fast-food or vending machine snacks and dinner isn’t much better. This is especially tough if you’re responsible for cooking for more than just yourself.
Bulk meal prepping for a busy week makes a world of difference. Not all recipes can be completely finished ahead of time however the ingredients can be prepped. Every little thing that you can do to set yourself up for an easy week is worth it.
Schedule your grocery trip
Not having the right ingredients or any food at all in the house is one of the major reasons that people stop off at fast-food on the way home. It’s a lot more work to do an impromptu grocery store trip and then cook when you get home after a long day at work. Make sure you have the groceries ready to go at home before the week starts. Schedule your grocery trip days in advance and stick to it.
Stock up on ingredients for quick meals
Meal prepping for a busy week doesn’t have to be pre-cooking entire meals. Sometimes it just means stocking up on ingredients for easy meals and prepping them. Basic recipes or even sandwiches can be delicious with good ingredients and prepping vegetables and proteins ahead of time can make quick lunches and dinners easy. This means it’s more likely that you won’t opt for fast-food every time.
The important part for this approach is to remember that you have the ingredients in the fridge and actually use them before they go bad. Stock up on shelf stable ingredients to avoid food waste and costs.
Find your favorite recipes
Testing recipes to find the right ones for you and your family takes time. Often these recipes become staples in the meal prep routine. Consider recipes that work well for batch cooking and reheat well. Soups and stews can also be frozen and then thrown into a pot to reheat. There are tons of great recipes that make a large amount of food with less work and money.
Breakfast
Lunch & dinner
- Casseroles: Basked Asparagus Tomato Egg Frittata
- Soups and stews: Instant Pot Beef Udon
- One-pan: One-Pan Taco Rice
Choosing large volume cooking options can also include instant pot or sheet pan recipes. These cooking techniques can maximize delicious food production with little effort. Cooking some chicken or pork in an instant pot on Sunday can yield protein for dinner for nearly the entire week.
Prep Yo Self Resources to help meal prep for a busy week
Meal prepping hacks can save you time, money, and keep you on your meal plan for longer. There are a lot of tips and tricks that you pick up along the way so we want to share them with you to assist in your meal prepping endeavors.
- Organize Your Fridge
- Choose Good Meal Prepping Recipes
- Write Out Your Grocery List
- And more read here
Tasty dinners don’t need to be expensive to be delicious. Save money by choosing cheaper proteins like chicken, ground beef, tilapia and pair them with budget-friendly side dishes.
- We love anything stuffed in a tortilla.
- Casseroles are a great way to get the biggest bang for your buck with cheap ingredients.
- There is nothing more comforting than a warm bowl of pasta for dinner.
- And more read here
Cooking can be very time consuming and laborious however it doesn’t have to be. With these tips for meal prepping in batches, or batch cooking, you can be more efficient with delicious meals.
