The Lazy Person’s Guide To Meal Prepping
By admin
I respect anyone that can spend hours in their kitchen on a Sunday (or any day) prepping their food for the entire week.
From full dinners to 5 days of packed lunches, some people prep it all.
I am not one of those people. Few of us are.
Here’s my friend Heather’s fruit of her labor:
Impressive, right?
I’m always amazed by how much she can prep in a single day. A Wonder Woman in the kitchen.
My friend Lindsay is another that blows me out of the water…
Did I mention both of these ladies are moms? Meal prepping to this extent is important to them and they make it happen.
Kudos to them.
If you have the opportunity to do this, then go all out. Make every meal for the week, every breakfast for your mornings, and every lunch for your bag.
I can’t. At least not always.
Meal Prep Is Overwhelming
I don’t know about you, but this can be overwhelming to the untrained prepper.
Thinking that you’re supposed to prep so meticulously can be daunting. And because of that, you’re not going to do it at all.
How many friends do you know that meal prep?
Do you look at them as if they are super human?
Have you ever mumbled the words, “I wish I had time to do that?”
You do. You just can’t expect to jump right in to these ladies’ level. And you don’t have to.
Let me tell you, there are ways to dip your toes into meal prepping. I’m going to show you the lazy person’s meal prepping.
And by lazy person, I mean my method.
First things first…
Why Meal Prep?
- Spending an hour or two prepping will free up several hours later in the week.
- Prep for your meals makes it more likely you’ll make good nutritional choices.
- You will know ahead of time whether you have what you need for the week. With enough food, you’ll avoid last minute dinners out.
- Save money! You know what you need to buy, stick to the plan and avoid splurges.
- Every meal comes together faster. You know what you are having and what you need to do to pull it all together.
- Prepping makes it easier to hit your weight loss/fitness goals. It’s all planned ahead of time, no last minute grabs.
Meal planning is going to help you stay accountable; avoid hanger pains; help you stay motivated. It’s fun! You’ll see.
But first, you need to know how to make it as easy as possible.
Step 1: Meal Plan
You can’t prep for meals if you don’t what what you’ll be having during the week.
This is easy. Sit down and write down “Monday – Sunday” on a piece of paper. Beside each, write down what you want to have.
Don’t worry. This is not written in stone. You can always change things up or switch the order of meals. It’s your plan, tweak it to make it work.
Next write down “Lunch”. Write 1-2 things you plan on eating for lunch every day this week.
Few of us eat something different each day, which is why I suggest just choosing 1-2 items.
And finally write “Breakfast”. Like lunch, write down 1-2 meals you want to have to start the day.
Here’s my list from this past weekend:
Next, make a list of all the ingredients you need (you don’t have already).
Okay, the hardest part is over. Head to the store, get what you need for the week (along with the normal items) and get ready to prep.
What You Need
There actually are a few items that are going to help make prepping easier.
I’ll link up some of the items to what we have.
- Tupperware
- Ziplock Bags
- Mason Jars
- Lunch Bag* <– I’ll be doing a review on my bag soon!
*I suggest a lunch bag because when you have something cute to carry your lunches in, you will be more likely to use it. Who gets excited about a brown paper bag?
What Will You Prep?
Here’s where the lazy person in me comes in.
I am not going to suggest cooking your meals.
Instead, I recommend prepping the individual elements that those meals will need.
Look over your list and decide what that means to you.
For me, I knew I wanted to have quinoa salad for lunch. I also knew that Dan wanted quinoa for dinner. Instead of making my lunch salad and a quinoa side for dinner, I just cooked 2.5 cups of quinoa.
I stuck it all in my Rubbermade and called it done.
If that still sounds like a lot, start with your vegetables.
Grab all the vegetables (except onions) and pre-cut them.
That’s it! Place them in tupperwear with a folded paper towel (to help crispness). Now when you cook dinner, all you have to do is pour them in the pot for steaming. Or toss them in a bowl for salads.
It’s so nice!
Do I cook meat?
I know a lot of people that precook a butt load of chicken breasts for the week. While that is great, it takes a lot of time. I don’t mind cooking just 2 pieces of chicken at night if everything else (sides) are prepped and ready.
I am not a fan of chicken sitting in the fridge for up to 6 days before I eat it. Which is why instead I do this…
When we get home, I divide the chicken into gallon size freezer bags. Each bag has just enough chicken (or whatever meat it is) for a single meal.
It goes back in the freezer for when we are ready for it. Are you wondering why this is prepping? Because it saves time! Cooking 2 pieces of chicken is much faster than 6 pieces of chicken. And it thaws faster too.
If I cooked all the chicken in the pack, my husband would eat it all. We would go through food way too fast. By just cooking what we need, we actually save money!
Prep A Snack
The one thing I do suggest putting a little time into is snacks.
I’ve learned from clients and myself that snacks are the hardest part of the day. When you’re hungry, but it’s 3pm what should you get?
Don’t go to the candy jar.
Plan 1-3 snacks out.
For this week, I made Everything Bites.
What’s an everything bite? I just looked in the pantry and took out all the nuts and seeds I had. Then blended them together with a few dates and 2 eggs. Baked at 350 for 10-minutes and voila… Everything Bites.
I’ll put the entire recipe below.
Other snack options?
- Pre-cut celery for celery and nut butter
- Walnut Fudge
- Frozen Bananas and/or grapes
- Pumpkin Spice Donut Holes
For those of you that are really lazy… just make sure to have a few Lara Bars in your purse!
What’s My Normal Prep?
How much time did I spend in the kitchen prepping? 1 hour.
That’s it. I told you I’m lazy. Well, lazy and with a broken leg I can only stand on one foot for so long.
Here’s what I did in that hour:
- Peels bananas, halved them and placed in freezer for protein shakes.
- Cooked 2.5 cups of quinoa for lunches and dinner.
- Quartered 1-lb of brussel sprouts for breakfast omelets.
- Sliced portabella mushrooms for dinner and breakfasts.
- Sliced an onion.
- Chopped up broccoli.
- Separated pack of chicken. Each ziplock contains 2 breasts.
- Made Everything Bars.
- Blended everything together for my homemade chipotle BBQ sauce. The sauce is for crock pot chicken this week.
- Prepared my lunch for the next day. This included quinoa, chicken sausage and salad mix. In another container I sliced an apple for a snack.
One hour. That is it. No major meals yet several things that will cut cooking time in half each night.
See, a little bit of meal planning goes a long way.
Just Do It
It doesn’t take a Wonder Woman to prep. Everyone can do it.
Especially when you see how easy it is and how little you need to do to help big.
Trust me. Just do it.
There is so much to meal prepping, but this will help get you started. Hopefully this will make it seem doable, because it is!
There are times when I do prep like Lindsay and Heather, but not often. And that’s okay. With time, I’ll share more tips to help on the meal prep journey!
Everything Bars
Ingredients:
- 1 Cup Dates, Pitted
- 1/2 Cup Cashews
- 1/4 Cup Walnuts
- 1/3 Cup Unsweetened Coconut
- 2 Tbsp Chia Seeds
- 1/4 Cup Dark Chocolate Chips
- 2 Egs
Directions:
- Pre-heat oven to 350-degrees.
- Place all ingredients into a blender or food processor. Blend until cookie-dough consistency.
- Place 1.5 Tbsp into greased muffin pans (I used silicone).Bake for 10 minutes. Allow to cool and enjoy.