Life can get busy which is why I came up with a way to make meal prepping easy for my family and lifestyle! Gone are those days of it getting to dinner time and having no idea what I am going to make. Or going to the grocery store blindly shopping for ingredients I don’t even know I need.

When you don’t have a meal plan laid out for your week, it can make things stressful and expensive! If you are looking for a way to maximize your time and make sure your family is getting intentional, nutritious meals every night, try meal prepping ahead of time!

Build your shopping list

The very first thing you need to do when meal prepping is plan out your shopping list! Think about what ingredients you need for each recipe you are making this week. Are there any tools you need that you don’t already have? You can find a collection of cute kitchen tools I like to use here!

Wooden utensils, Pasta bowls, Measuring cups, Knife set, Round cutting board, Colander

How will you store it?

The next step to making meal prepping easy is knowing how you plan to store the prepped food. Most food will likely need to be frozen if not used right away. Make sure you have plenty of freezer-safe storage containers that work for your system. I would also suggest freezing individual portions, so you don’t have leftovers to deal with. Foil, plastic wrap, ziplock bags can also be useful for freezing recipes!

What will your portion sizes be?

If you are cooking for a large family, you will obviously have a larger portion to consider when meal prepping. But if you are planning meals for just yourself they will be much smaller. Make sure to plan ahead and think of when you need to start the meal to have it ready. But no matter how many people you are cooking for, taking 30 minutes to an hour each week to prep a meal as much as you can will save you so much time and stress!

Time to start cooking!

Once you have your meal prepping day picked out, you are ready to get in the kitchen! Chances are the meals you are prepping for will fall into one of two categories: ready-to-go portioned meals, or pre-prepared individual ingredients. Of course some ingredients will save better than others, but typically speaking, most things can be prepped ahead of time in one way or another.

Pre-prepared Ingredients

It’s a good idea to prepare large batches of individual ingredients that you use often so that you can toss them into a recipe at any given moment! Here are some ideas of what be considered a classic meal-prepped ingredient:

• Fruit
• Roasted veggies
• Rice
• Sauces
• Cooked meat
• Hard boiled eggs

If you wanted to prep ingredients in a large bulk, and pull out as needed for recipes (such as cooked, shredded chicken) you could do that as well! Some meal ideas for shredded chicken might be:

• Street tacos
• Chicken pot pie
• Enchiladas
• Cream cheese chicken chili

Ready to go meals

If you are really on a time crunch and want entire meals that are ready to go, this is a great method! Adjust recipes to make as many servings as needed and then save in the fridge or freezer depending on when you plan to eat it. Some good meals you can make and freeze would be:

• Breakfast burritos or dinner burritos
• Soups
• Pasta dishes
• Rice based meals

Now that you have a fully stocked fridge and freezer you can relax and enjoy your feasts!

Pro Tip: Label each freezer meal or ingredient with the name and date to make sure you know exactly what you have on hand and know that it’s safe to eat!