Five Steps To Get Started on Meal Prepping (with Free Printable Package)

Learn how to easily prep meals with these easy five steps to get started on meal prepping. Meal prepping is a life saver and a great way to get healthy and delicious meals on the table in no time. Especially on busy weeknights when you don’t have time to cook dinner.

Five Steps To Get Started on Weekly Meal Prepping

By now I’m sure you have heard about meal prepping and what it means. You may not have started meal prepping yet but are definitely interested. You may not now how to get started and just the thought of spending a whole morning prepping food may be overwhelming to you. However, meal prepping is very simple and there really isn’t one way to meal prep. At the end of the day, meal prep is about what works for you and what’s more convenient. To help you get started I have put together five tips to meal prep so you can get organized and start prepping some meals. 

First, here are some terms to get familiar with:

What is Meal Prepping?

Meal prepping is simply batch cooking a significant amount of meals, pre-portioning and pre-packing them. These meals are kept in the fridge for the week to be easily reheated and served in the same container which is usually a Tupperware dish. This is the technical and basic definition and idea behind meal prepping. 

Although, essentially meal prepping is making a few meals ahead to have handy for the week, there are multiple ways that you can meal prep. You can also food prep and or build a freezer stash. There is no right or wrong way to meal prepping. The basic idea behind it is to cook large portions of foods to encourage healthy at-home-eating while saving time and money. Ultimately meal prepping should be what works for you and your family. 

What is food prepping?

Food prepping comes down to simply prepping foods ahead of time that will make serving meals much easier. It’s pretty much batch cooking a few staple foods that can then be easily served with other foods to make full meals. For example; you can batch cook a large pot of rice and toss a few veggies on a large baking sheet pan to roast. Keep both in the fridge for the week and then you can make different proteins as the week goes by such as salmon, chicken breasts, or even steak and serve along with your prepped rice and veggies. This concept is great for those who are not fans of eating the same thing everyday and like some variation with their meals. 

I also like to throw in here the practice of washing and prepping all your produce once you get home from the grocery store. Use a salad spinner to wash and dry fruits and veggies. Take an extra step and chop some veggies such as carrots and celery. You can then keep them in containers in your fridge. This will make it so much easier once you are actually ready to cook. Your produce is already prepped and it will cut down on your prep time. It’s also great to have fresh fruits ready to eat for easy and healthy snacks. Prepping your produce ahead of time will also encourage you to use them up preventing them from going bad therefore creating less waste. 

What is a freezer stash?

Once you become familiar with building a freezer stash, the next best part of your life has begun! A freezer stash is having a few staples you keep in your freezer that can easily be thawed-out, reheated and ready to be served. Believe me, you want to have a freezer stash! It makes life so much easier. Especially for busy days when you don’t have time to cook or just don’t want to. 

Personally, my favorite types of foods to freeze are breakfast foods. I will often make a large batch of pancakes, waffles, egg muffins, etc. Then freeze half to keep in my freezer stash. Double the recipe and freeze half! This comes in handy when I need a quick breakfast on a busy weekday. Even when we have a lot going on during the weekend and don’t have time to cook breakfast. 

Other staples to keep in your freezer stash are breakfast sandwiches, breakfast burritos, shredded chicken, rice, cauliflower rice, variety of veggies, fruits for smoothies, etc. 

What is Meal Planning?

Meal planning is the first step in your meal prep. Before you start prepping your food and cooking your meals, you want to actually plan those meals. Make a list of meals you want to serve each day of the week you’re planning and prepping for. You can find a sheet below you can write these meals down on. This will help you stay organized, shop for what you need only, waste less food, and ultimately save some money. 

Getting started with your Meal Prepping:

Now that you are familiar with some key terms, let’s get started with your meal prepping. If this is your first time, you may find it a bit intimidating, but I promise once you do it, you will fall in love with this practice. Here are five tips that will help your meal prepping go pretty smooth.

Tips for Meal Prepping:

1. Plan meals ahead of time:

Like I mentioned above, the first step of meal prepping is always meal planning. You want to start by planning out the meals you want to make for the week ahead. It will help you stay organized, save time, and money. I huge pro tip here is to go through your fridge and pantry first. Come up with meals and snacks that you can make with most of the stuff that you have. This will reduce waste and again save you money by ensuring that your are only shopping at the grocery store for stuff that you actually need. 

Think of your favorite foods, simple meals, and recipes that call for few ingredients. Simple and quick is the way to go. Make sure you plan foods for every meal of the day; Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Also for every day of the week; Monday-Friday. Take it easy on the weekends. Take advantage of leftovers and/or treat yourself and your family to take-out or a nice dinner out at a nice restaurant. It’s completely ok to resort to take-out once in a while and give yourself a nice break.

2. Make your grocery list and assign a day/time to go shopping:

After you have your meals planned for the week, it is time to make your grocery list. Look over the ingredients that you need the make the meals you have chosen. Again, go through your fridge and pantry and go over which ingredients you already have. Make sure you have enough of the ingredients you do have and make a list of anything else you will need. The last thing you want is to run out of a main ingredient in the middle of your prepping. 

If possible, schedule a specific day or time to go shopping. Like this you will be sure to have everything you need for your meal prep.  If you are shopping a day or two ahead of your meal prep, then prep all your food ahead of time. Wash and dry all your produce, peel and chop anything you can, and store everything all ready to-go. This will make your meal prep so much easier and go so smoothly. 

3. Schedule a day and time to do your meal prep:

To make this practice a habit include it into your weekly schedule. Find a day and time that works best for you and make that your designated time to meal prep. I personally do mine on either Sunday or Monday mornings. Depending on what we have planned for the weekend. Things always come up so somedays your designated day and time for meal prep may change and that’s ok. Some weeks, I don’t even make it to meal prepping at all. And that’s fine too. This is when I resort to my freezer stash or get by making easy and quick meals. Meal prep is meant to make your life easier, not more complicated. So if you can’t get to it, don’t feel like you failed. The last thing you want is to put more pressure on yourself and to start viewing meal prep as another chore. 

4. Build a freezer stash:

This is extremely helpful when it comes to food prepping. Prep some food every week to freeze and start building a freezer stash. These are foods or meals you can sort to when you are on a rut or need something quick to make. My go-to foods to prep and freeze are smoothie bags, waffles or pancakes, pasta sauce or pesto, bone broth, chopped up veggies for stir fries or soups, etc. Once you have a good stash built in your freezer it will make meal prepping even easier.

5. Make it fun:

As I mentioned above, don’t look at meal prep as another chore or another thing you have to get done. Make it fun so that you look forward to doing it. I love to cook so I enjoy prepping all my food and making new and healthy meals for my family every week. I realize not everyone is as passionate about cooking as I am, however you can still make it fun. Get comfortable and turn on some music. I love to do this too and I even dance in my kitchen. If you’re into social media share your cooking on your Instagram/Facebook stories or snap it. Chances are you will inspire your friends to do the same. Make it a family thing. Have the kids or your spouse/partner help you out and share a nice time with them. Enjoy the food as you cook! That’s my favorite part about cooking, getting to eat as I go! 

Meal Prepping Package:

To help you get started on your meal prepping journey, I put together this meal prepping package of you. You can download and print this pages as you need them. You can also just keep them in your phone and fill them out on there so you are not using too much paper. On here you will find:

Meal Plan Sheet- Plan out all your meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and snacks for the week. 

Healthy Grocery List- This list has all your grocery essential grouped into categories so you can easily fill in the items that you need for each group. 

Meal/Food Prep Tips- 15 tips and ideas to keep and sort to for your weekly meal and food prep. 

Looking for recipes to include in your meal prep this week? These are some of our favorites:

• Air Fryer Sweet Potato Home Fries
• Chicken Pesto Pasta
• Chicken Taco Soup (Crockpot)
• How to Make Oatmeal (Stovetop and Instant Pot)
• How to Perfectly Boil Eggs
• Grilled Summer Veggies
• Sausage and Peppers Pasta
• Healthy Breakfast Cookies
• Sheet Pan Omelet
• Gluten-Free Vegan Quinoa Granola

Here are some of our favorite recipes to keep in our freezer stash:

• Blueberry Protein Pancakes
• Veggie Loaded Omelette Muffins
• Veggie Loaded Turkey Meat Sauce
• Instant Pot Taco Meat
• Best Homemade Turkey Burgers
• Chicken and Veggie Meatballs
• How to Cook Quinoa
• How to Make Cauliflower Rice
• Best Gluten-Free Pancakes
• Homemade Beef Bone Broth (Instant Pot and Slow Cooker)
• Easy Flavorful Shredded Chicken (Instant Pot and Slow Cooker)
• Sweet Potato Waffles
• How to Cook Lentils