Meal Prep Made Easy
Meal prep is a fantastic way to keep on track with healthy eating in order to lose fat faster.
Can you imagine opening your fridge to find a full week of healthy, delicious food prepped and ready to be eaten? That sure would make sticking with your diet and achieving fat loss a whole lot easier, wouldn’t it?
The idea is to plan out all of your meals on the weekend, most often on Sunday, then do the shopping and the prep at one time for the entire week. This day is labor intensive, but then your food is ready-to-eat for the next 6 full days.
Here’s my 5 Step Meal Prep Guide to make your next food prep week really simple:
Step One: Planning
Get out your notebook and pen or pull up a blank note page on your iPad, it’s time to start planning for the week. Here are the questions that you’ll need to answer:
1) How many meals do I need each day?
Check your calendar for special events
Consider your appetite throughout the day
Look at each day separately
2) How many servings do I need for each meal?
Consider who in the family needs which meals
Check the calendar for guests or visitors
Look at each day separately
Step Two: Recipes
Now it’s time to translate those meals + servings into actual recipes. Take a moment to consider the produce that is in season and any special requests or food allergies.
1) Find your recipes
Browse around on your favorite recipe site (Check out RealHealthyRecipes.com)
Pull out your favorite cookbooks
Find your family favorite recipes
2) Focus on a core group of ingredients
Plan recipes that use similar ingredients
3) Calculate leftover meals
Making enough of some recipes for leftover meals saves time
4) Make your list
Narrow down to the exact list of recipes
Step Three: Grocery List
Take your list of recipes and create a grocery list. A few things to keep in mind…
1) Pay attention to recipes that you’ll double or triple
Make sure to include all ingredients in your list
Organize your list into these convenient sections:
Meat/Seafood/Egg
Organic Produce
Herbs/Flavors
Pantry Items
3) Check your pantry for items that you already have
Save money by avoiding double purchases
Step Four: Shopping
It’s time to head to the grocery store! Take your list and, if you’re lucky, a helper down to your local market and go through each section item by item.
Step Five: Food Prep
You have options when it comes to the actual prep of each of your meals. Many you’ll be able to fully make right away and pack in the fridge. Other recipes you’ll want to simply do the chopping, measuring and organizing in order to make the meal hot and quick before you plan to eat it.
Which recipes should you fully cook in advance? The truth is that this is really up to you and your schedule. Here’s a good game plan if you don’t want to fully cook everything on Sunday:
Fully make the baked goods for the week.
Chop all vegetables.
Gather all seasonings.
Fully cook Monday’s dinner.