Save time and set yourself up for success with our top meal prep tips.

We know you’ve probably heard it before, but meal prepping really is the Holy Grail to staying on track with a healthy diet.

We’ve all been there… you’re busy beyond belief and you don’t feel like you have the time or energy to cook when you get home from a long day’s work. We confess, this scenario played out numerous times before we started prepping. Time and time again, we wound up eating snack foods, canned soup, scrambled eggs or worse out of utter exhaustion.

Rather than turning to takeout or throwing a frozen meal in the oven, follow these simple tips and set yourself up for healthy success! You’ll not only save countless calories, you’ll establish a healthy routine and eliminate a lot of added stress. Not to mention, your wallet will thank you too!

Tip 1. Establish a routine.

Establishing a routine is the smartest thing you can do to set yourself up for successful meal planning and meal prepping.

Spend one day meal planning and a separate day grocery shopping. Then, create time for meal prep based on your weekly schedule and menu.

Maybe that’s washing and chopping fruit and veggies for an hour Saturday morning before the kids are awake or tossing some chicken in the slow cooker Sunday afternoon and roasting some sweet potatoes and vegetables to mix-and-match throughout the week. Initially, it’s more important to keep meal prep manageable so you’re more likely to stick with it.

Choose a day of the week that you can spend adequate time meal planning and making a shopping list, and then set aside time to grocery shop and food prep.

Some ideas to consider:

• Main dish: Choose two or three meals that you can rotate. One-pot dishes, slow cooker meals and meals that can be baked in the oven or on the grill ROCK because they require little attention and next to no cleanup. Save fancier meals for the weekend.
• Lunches: Consider choosing one easy-to-pack lunch such as tuna salad or grilled chicken for open-faced sandwiches, wraps or to top salads. We have a wonderful chicken salad and tuna salad recipe for you!
• Sides: Choose one or two vegetables that complement your meals and can be grilled, baked or roasted, such as Brussels sprouts, green beans and zucchini.
• Snacks: Choose one or two snacks that you can rotate. If you’re looking for some amazing ideas, check out Healthy Snacks Made Simple.

Tip 3. Prep any foods that will simplify the week ahead.

To stay focused during prep time, it’s important to sit down with your meal plan and take note of what you’re going to prep in advance. Ask yourself, “What can I wash, chop or cook to simplify our meals this week?” and “What meals or snacks need the most attention and what can I do to minimize these stressors with intentional prep?” Then, write down your what you want to prep on the back of your meal plan or a note pad, or put it in your phone.

Some ideas:

• Snacks: Prep and portion out your snacks for the week so they’re ready to grab and go!
• Fruits and vegetables: Slice up your fresh fruit (cap your strawberries, cut your pineapple or slice your cantaloupe). Cut up all your vegetables for the week and put them in containers so when the time comes all you have to do is throw them in a pan, toss them in a little EVOO, season to taste and bake. The beauty of it? You can season them with an array of herbs and spices, so they never taste the same! You can even split the pan in half, so you have two separate flavors. (Our staple herbs and spices: Himalayan pink salt, rosemary, thyme and pre-mixed seasonings such as Mediterranean or garlic herb.)
• Starches and grains: Plan to cook your time-consuming foods, such as sweet potatoes and grains, on your prep day. These foods typically keep extremely well throughout the week and require minimal attention, so you can multitask while they’re being made.
• Meats: Consider baking, grilling or cooking your meats on meal prep day. We often precook ground meat and grill chicken ahead of time so we can use them in lunches, such as chicken salad, in a wrap or to top a salad throughout the week. Just like your veggies, you can split the pan in half and season your meat two different ways, so you have two separate flavors. (We do this a lot with chicken.) Determine how long your meat takes to cook and whether or not you prefer to make it ahead of time.

Small actionable steps like chopping some veggies, pre-mixing a marinade or tossing a roast in the slow cooker and then using those components to create multiple meals will help you BIG TIME during the workweek.

Tip 4. Get creative and reinvent your leftovers.

Another little secret: Revamping a meal ROCKS! Come up with creative ways to give your leftovers a meal makeover.

We often raid our fridge and pantry to come up with some crazy new concoctions. We’ll use our leftover meatloaf in beef tacos or add curry to leftover chili and make stuffed peppers or zucchini boats. Most our our recipes include some great ideas on ways to create meals using leftovers.

Tip 5. Invest in storage containers.

Investing in storage containers is not only ESSENTIAL when it comes to meal prep, it allows you to properly portion out your leftovers throughout the week. Pyrex glassware with lids is our favorite. They’re so functional because you can easily see what you have in the fridge, reheat food in them and they’re dishwasher safe.