Episode 15: 5 Quick & Easy Meal Prep Ideas
Meal Prep is a great way to save time, money, and brainpower while reaching your daily nutrition goals.
As a busy coach and athlete with ADHD, I’m a BIG fan of meal prep. This involves preparing my food ahead of when I plan to eat it, which allows me to go about my day-to-day life without the hassle of deciding what to eat.
This way of organizing your eating can help you to:
stay consistent in reaching your daily nutrition goals
avoid overeating while practicing portion control
spend less time in the kitchen at meal times
Meal Prep Strategies
There are many different variations of meal prep strategies to choose from. In this episode, we’ll take a look at 5 of my favorite strategies to prep ahead and stay on track in my nutrition.
1 Batch Cooking
Batch cooking is perhaps the most popular style of meal prep. This involves cooking a large batch of a meal ahead of time. Most people do this over the weekend and then store the separate servings in entree containers to take with them to work throughout the week.
When I first started meal prepping, I made the mistake of making super complicated meals that had too many different parts. I’d be stuck in my kitchen for 4 hours or more on a Sunday. I don’t recommend doing this! Since then, I’ve figured out much faster and easier ways to meal prep with much less cleanup afterwards.
Slow Cooker recipes are one of my favorite minimal-cleanup options for batch cooking. You just dump a bunch of ingredients into a slow cooker or crock pot, set it and forget it. The food will cook over the course of between 4 and 10 hours without you having to do anything to it. You can literally leave the food to cook while you sleep or work. When the food is done, separate the servings into separate containers, or you can literally throw the entire pot and lid into your refrigerator in a pinch and just divy out new servings for youself throughout the week.
One Pan Recipes are great if you especially want to cook something with a crispier or more charred texture and flavor. My favorite one pan recipes include things like casseroles, or just a ton of veggies and protein cooked together with some seasoning or marinade.
One Pot Recipes are similar to slow cooker recipes in that you dump everything into a single large pot to cook, but they usually cook in a much shorter time period.
Salads & Meal Prep Bowls are one of my go-to options for cold dishes if I don’t want to worry about microwaving something. You can throw together a bunch of nutritious items with a variety of textures and flavors into an entree container and add dressing just before you eat it.
Wraps & Sandwiches are another super simple way to prepare cold dishes with tons of nutrition, with the added benefit that you can literally eat them while you’re on the move. No fork or spoon needed!
2 Marinate Prep
Another great way to cut down on time in the kitchen before you eat is to do a partial prep strategy—where you get the meal ingredients ready ahead of time and bunched together so that all you have to do is pop it in the oven or into a frying pan just before you eat it.
3 Ingredient Prep
Some dishes work best if you go ahead and cook a few parts ahead of time. You can later add them to different dishes. This is a great option if you hate eating the same thing every day and want some variety.
For example, I’ll often slow cook or bake 2 pounds of chicken breast at the beginning of the week. Then throughout the week, I’ll add that chicken to salads, pasta, and sandwiches when I feel like I need the variety. This works well for dishes like:
chicken salad, tuna salad, or salmon salad
sandwiches and wraps
adding protein to top other dishes like soups, pasta, or salads
Ingredient prep also works really well if you don’t like the taste or consistency of leftovers. By having the meal ingredients ready ahead of time and bunched together, all you have to do is assemble and pop the meal into the oven or into a frying pan just before you eat it.
I suggest subscribing to Nikki Gets Fit on YouTube for more information on how to ingredient prep. She makes tons of content with tips and tricks that many of my clients swear by!
4 Using Pre-Prepared Foods
Another variation of this is to buy already-prepared items from the grocery store or food market to incorporate into your meal prep. I’ll often buy a rotisserie chicken from my local Harris Teeter and add it to my meals throughout the week.
Frozen foods are also a really convenient option for pre-prepared foods. I keep certain veggies like peas, edamame, and broccoli in my freezer at all times to quickly microwave or steam and add to my meals. I also try to keep one or two ready-to-eat meals in my freezer at all times for when I haven’t meal prepped and need nutrition in a pinch. Healthy Choice and Lean Cuisine make some great options for dishes that are packed with protein vegetables.
5 Freezer Meal Prep
Freezer prep is something that I honestly don’t do nearly as often as I should! There are two main ways to use your freezer for meal prep.
The first method involves cooking your meals and then freezing the individual servings to eat later. It’s like making your own Healthy Choice or Lean Cuisine meals—but more tailored to your nutrition goals and with fewer preservatives.
The other method involves chopping & assembling ingredients, then freezing everything BEFORE you cook the meal. Later, when you’re ready to eat, simply thaw and cook. This is a great option if you don’t like the taste or texture of re-heated meals!
Olga’s Flavor Factory is an excellent resource for recipes, tips, and tricks for making delicious and nutritious freezer-prep meals.
Recommended Equipment:
Before you start practicing meal prep, make sure that you have the proper containers to store the food until you’re ready to eat it!
I recommend investing in some sort of entree-size containers so that you can more easily grab and go at meal times. This also makes your food easier to pack in a lunch box if you’re on the go.
For years I used plastic entree containers because they were cheap and lightweight. But over time, these containers tend to absorb odors and get stained, and I also worry about ingesting microplastics.
So recently I invested in glass meal prep containers and I absolutely love them!
Glass food storage containers are not only more durable and sustainable, but they also don’t tend to retain any odors or stains. Also, you can cook your food directly in a glass container—which cuts down on cleanup after cooking. Here are the ones I suggest:
Although they can be heavier and more fragile than plastic meal prep containers, glass containers are my preferred go-to option.
However, if you plan on freezing your meal prep, you might want to use either silicone or BPA-free plastic containers:
For some food items, you may want to use a bag with a zip lock. For plastic-free options, check out reusable and washable silicone bags:
Another favorite storage solution is stainless steel insulated food containers or thermoses. I love these especially for days when I want to keep the temperature of my food consistent until mealtime and won’t have access to either a refrigerator or microwave.
If you’re on the go a lot of times, I also suggest getting a lunch box that will keep your food insulated. I have a multi-compartment lunch box that I use on days when I’ll be in the office for long periods of time.
Clean up your diet 🥦
Clean up your diet and reach your fitness goals in 5 steps.
ABOUT JAYD HARRISON
Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains) is a personal trainer and content creator. She helps people to build muscle, burn fat, and clean up their diets with her online coaching programs and social media content. Check out some of Jayd’s coaching videos on Youtube, or join Jayd live on Twitch and follow on social media:
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