Learning the Basics of Healthy Meal Prepping

Save time and money while focusing on nutrition with these tips.

Eating healthier should not be a burden, but it can feel like one when you have a hectic schedule and lots of responsibilities. Thankfully, meal prepping is here to take the stress out of nutritious eating. When people hear the term “meal prepping,” an image of a week’s worth of carefully portioned food in microwavable containers may come to mind. And while that can be true, there is far more to meal prepping than this. In fact, meal prepping is a strategy that can be adapted to any unique schedule, budget, and lifestyle. 

According to the Cleveland Clinic, meal prepping methods can include: 

• Making individual portions: This is when you create entire meals in advance and divide everything up into separate meal containers so you can easily grab one out of the fridge, reheat, and eat during the week. 
• Cooking in batches: This involves making one or a few extra-large dishes that you eat throughout the week, like a pot of chili, cold pasta salad, or lasagna. 
• Ingredient prepping: This is when you prepare the ingredients required for specific meals ahead of time to reduce your daily cooking time during the week. This can involve things like washing, peeling, and chopping large batches of vegetables and fruits or cutting and marinating meats that you will use in your recipes throughout the week. 
• Creating freezer meals: This is an offshoot of all other types of meal prepping, allowing you to store ready-made meals or prepped ingredients in the freezer for later use beyond the current week. 

When meal prepping, you can make use of just one method or any combination of the four methods. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the different meal prep methods so that you can determine what works best for you and your lifestyle. Whatever your meal prep style, you can learn how to meal prep and get started in the five-step guide outline below.

Step 1: Think about storage containers and storage space.  

• Even before you think about what you’re going to make, you should consider how you are going to keep everything fresh and organized.  
• You should also assess how much free space you have in your refrigerator and freezer for your upcoming prepped meals or ingredients. If you have limited refrigerator and freezer space, you may only be able to prep for one or two days in advance rather than a week or more.  
• When making individual portions of meals that you want to quickly reheat, choose containers that are airtight, microwave safe, BPA free, and dishwasher safe. While glass containers are more costly, they are more durable, don’t absorb odors or stains, and are sustainable.  
• When ingredient prepping vegetables or creating one pot freezer meals, airtight, BPA free, and transparent plastic containers and reuseable one gallon silicone bags are affordable, convenient, and space saving.  
• When ingredient prepping fruits, glass mason jars can help keep fruits fresher for longer. 
• To prevent soggy salads or foods, be sure to have small containers handy to store sauces, dips, and dressings separately

Step 2: Make a realistic game plan. 

Now that you know what storage containers you’re going to use and how much free space you have, it’s important to consider and answer the following questions: 

What meal(s) do you want and need to prep?  

• When you first start meal prepping, try choosing one meal you might struggle to eat healthy with. For example, if your mornings are hectic, save time by having breakfast prepped with pre-portioned smoothie mixes, frozen breakfast burritos, or frozen whole grain muffins that you can quickly reheat in the microwave.  
• Meal prepping does not mean that you need to have every meal of the day prepped for the whole entire week, only prep for days when you need it.  
• Take things slowly and only prep for the meals you want to and when you need to base your upcoming schedule.  

What recipes are you going to make? 

• Remember to pick recipes that you enjoy eating and are relatively simple to make without a lengthy list of ingredients. 
• When creating a weekly or monthly menu plan, pick recipes that reuse ingredients to maximize ingredient usage, reduce food spoilage, and reduce grocery costs. 
• Pick recipes that include three to four food groups so that they provide your body with a good mix of nutrients. Your meals will be more satisfying and healthier if they include a balance of lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, low-fat dairy, and colorful produce to add texture, flavor, and variety.  
• When researching recipes to make, look for recipes that can be made in a slow cooker or an Instant Pot as these recipes can be made in large batches and don’t require so many different pots and pans.  
• Keep a collection of meal prep recipes handy to make menu planning easier or create a Pinterest recipe board to provide you with inspiration and help you stay organized. Great resources for healthy recipes can be found at Recipes | MyPlate, Cleveland Clinic’s Meal Prep Ideas for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, or Click ‘N Cook: Easy, Healthy Recipes. 
• It may also be helpful to plan themed days of the week such as meatless Mondays, taco Tuesdays, whole grain Wednesdays, and so on to help you narrow down what recipe to make and to help create a consistent routine. 
• The menu planning stage of meal prepping is also a great time to think about healthier alternatives or additions to your meals like varying your lean proteins, replacing your grains with whole grains, using low-fat or reduced fat dairy products, and reducing the amount of sugar or salt you use in recipes. 
• Finally, keep in mind that when meal prepping, you do not need to eat the same meal day after day and week after week. During your meal prep day, make one or two different entrees and a few easy side dishes that you can mix and match.

Step 3: Pick a prep day during the week.  

• The underlying foundation of meal prep is making it a habit. Because meal prepping takes time, you want to identify a day of the week when you consistently have time to do it.  
• Sunday before the start of the work week is a popular choice, but choose whichever day works best for your schedule. You can also choose more than one day to meal prep if that works better for you.

Step 4: Make your grocery list and go shopping. 

• This is a wonderful time to review what is in your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer to figure out what you’ll need to buy, what items you’ll make yourself, and what items you want to buy ready-made. 
• Meal prep does not mean everything must be made from scratch, instead you can save yourself time and energy by buying items like a rotisserie chicken, a container of mixed spring greens, frozen mixed fruit, and so on.  
• Organize your grocery list by store section (or the five food groups) to make shopping quick and easy. Organizing your shopping list in this manner also ensures that you include and purchase all the food groups and create well-balanced meals. For a free template, try the Create a Grocery Game Plan – Grocery List.  
• As you figure out your favorite ‘prep-able’ meals, or your menus become more familiar and consistent, watch for sales and coupons to stock up on frequently used shelf-stable ingredients like pasta, rice, and other whole grains, lentils, beans, jarred sauces, healthy oils, and spices.  

Step 5: Start cooking and meal prepping. 

• Since meal prepping does take time, make your time in the kitchen as enjoyable as possible by playing your favorite playlist or turning on an audiobook or podcast. 
• On your meal prep day, start with items that take the longest to cook like meats, brown rice, dried beans and legumes, and roasted vegetables. While these items are cooking, you can use this time to prep other simpler items.  
• If you are ingredient prepping only, start by prepping produce first before moving onto raw meats, poultry, seafood, and eggs to reduce the risk of cross-contamination and prevent the spread of harmful bacteria.  
• When it comes to freezing foods, some foods freeze better than others. Cooked meals like chili, soups, and stews tend to freeze well in airtight containers. Foods with high moisture content, such as salad greens, tomatoes, or watermelon, are not recommended as they tend to become mushy when frozen and thawed.  
• Remember to label all prepped foods with a date so that you can track when to use them by and rotate the oldest foods/meals to the front so you can eat or use them first.  
• Different foods can be kept in the refrigerator and freezer for different amounts of time – be sure you know how long that is so that you can prevent food from spoiling before you get the chance to eat it! Cooked meals are good in the fridge for about three to four days while frozen food can last around one to three months in the freezer. For more detailed information about cold food storage safety visit: Cold Food Storage Chart | FoodSafety.gov or Freezing and Food Safety | Food Safety and Inspection Service.