Meal Planning & Prep Guide
The key to sticking to your goals and setting yourself up for success is meal planning and meal prep.
This will save you so much time and money because you won’t be buying unnecessary items, as well as not throwing food out that you didn’t end up using.
It can be challenging when you are pressed for time to cook proper healthy balanced meals for you and your family. Especially with caring for your children, pets, children’s activities and not to mention work.
When I work with clients inside Fix Your Gut Solution this is always a discussion that we have. Meal planning and meal prep is definitely a game-changer when it comes to creating healthy habits and meeting your goals. To take the guesswork, overwhelm, and boredom out, I provide meal plans and 50+ recipes to give ideas.
Meal prepping is great for people who want to spend less time in the kitchen make healthier choices and save money. It also promotes nutrient-rich healthy meals and discourages fast food options. Find a method that works for you and pick one day per week to meal plan, shop, and cook. You can involve the whole family making it a team effort while spending time together. This will also teach your children the important life skill of cooking, healthy choices, and making memories while doing so. Meal planning and meal prep gives you more time to spend with family, friends and do the things you love doing most.
When you have healthy options ready to go and easy to grab, you won’t be reaching for a quick processed snack or meal.
More than ever with our busy hectic lifestyles, we need to take the time to fuel our bodies for the nutrients and energy required to get us through our day.
Meal Planning & Prepping
is key to sticking to your goals and setting yourself up for success!
Step 1: Determine the Best Prep Method for You
Depending on your schedule, the meals you prefer to prep ahead, and your cooking style, one of these meal-prep methods may work best for you. (or a combination)
The most popular ways to meal-prep are:
Make-ahead meals: Full meals cooked in advance which can be refrigerated and reheated at mealtimes. This is particularly handy for dinnertime meals. For those with little time to prepare meals during the week, cooking complete meals in advance to be reheated at mealtimes (like a pot of soup or a casserole, shepherd’s pie, stew, chili, or one-pan meals. You can pre-cook your meats, starches, and veggies and just reheat. Set up your crockpot in the morning and dinner will be ready when you get home. Using the ready-to-cook method you can have all of your crockpot items chopped and ready to toss into the crockpot or even Instapot. All of these are also great made in batches and can be frozen for up to 6 months.
Batch cooking/freezing: Making large batches of a specific recipe, then splitting it into portions to be put in the fridge for days to come or frozen and eaten in the months to come. This method seems to be best for those that don’t have the extra time to cook in the evening. This is the method I use most!
For example, doubling a chili recipe or steaming veggies, extra rice to freeze and use in the next 3 to 6 months. I always have soups, bone broth, and chili in the freezer. In the Winter months, I make and freeze shepherd’s pie, cabbage roll casserole, stuffed peppers, spaghetti sauce, and stew. I haven’t found too many things that cannot be frozen. I make spaghetti sauce and put it on spaghetti squash in portion sizes it freezes great and is easy to grab. In the Summer I love to pre-make turkey burgers and beef burgers, then I freeze them with parchment paper in between. So easy to grab even frozen.
One of my favourite things to make is roasted veggies. Put all of your favourites in a large bowl, add olive oil, garlic, herbs, and spices. Toss it all up, put it on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake. Timing will depend on the veggies you use. I also like to make a huge salad to have for a few days.
Individually portioned meals: Preparing fresh meals and portioning them into individual grab-and-go portions to be refrigerated and eaten over the next few days. This is particularly handy for quick lunches.
Things such as chia seed pudding, overnight oats, are portioned into single-serving glass containers or mason jars. Let’s say that tonight you are making chicken, sweet potatoes, and broccoli for dinner… It doesn’t take any longer to cook extra chicken etc. The oven is already going, so you may as well cook extra of each. You can portion it into glass containers and grab it for lunch or dinner in a couple of days. You can also freeze cooked meats, veggies, rice, quinoa, potatoes, squash, etc., and make your own healthy TV dinners.
Ready-to-cook ingredients: If you prefer to cook meals right before serving and don’t like leftovers you can prep ingredients (e.g., chopping onion and peppers in advance for chili, omelets, stir-fry, etc.) cuts down on kitchen time, which can be especially helpful on a busy weeknight. This is also helpful when prepping for smoothies. Just chop everything up and put it into mason jars or glass containers. Another thing that I love to do is make a dozen of hard-boiled eggs to have on hand to grab for quick and easy snacks. When you get home from shopping, go ahead and wash your fruit and veggies. I like to cut up veggies to have for snacks as well, easy to grab and you don’t have to take the time to wash and chop when you want them, they are all ready to go. You can even put veggie sticks in small mason jars with hummus or hummus. Put a couple of tablespoons of hummus or guacamole in the bottom of the jar and then put your veggies sticks in, they are already dipped and ready to eat! This really saves time!
Build meals around seasonal local produce for the best flavor and value!
Step 2: Get Organized
Schedule your prep: Setting aside some time for prepping is important! Consider meal prepping on the same day each week so becomes a habit and part of your regular schedule. I like to meal prep on Sun and Wed, sometimes I only have to do it on a Sunday because I usually have enough prepped to do us until Thurs and then I just cook on Fri and Sat with what we want those days as I have more time.
The method that will work best for you, will be the one that you can fit into your schedule. You can pick one method one week and another method another week, depending on what you have going on. Batch cooking seems to be the best for those that don’t have the time to cook in the evening. Batch cooking is my most used method, it works for me.
Pick a day of the week that is the least busy for you. Usually, Sun’s and Wed’s are the best days, however, that depends on your schedule.
Laying out all tools and ingredients you will need to start prep can be helpful when creating multiple recipes at once.
On Sat or Sun morning while having your coffee, write down the meals that you would like to make for the week. Have a look in your fridge and pantry to see what you have, you may have something that you can search for a recipe so that you can use it up.
You can then Google or hop on Pinterest for some recipes. Don’t know what you want, again hop onto Pinterest and search for some recipes. I have many recipes on my Pinterest that you are more than welcome to check out. You can use Pinterest as a search engine, so you can search for chicken, gluten-free, etc. I also share recipes on my Instagram and Facebook
Build meals around seasonal local produce for the best flavor and value!
Schedule your prep
Pick a day of the week that is the least busy for you. Aim for the same day each week.
Step 3: Take Stock and Shop
When your menu is planned, it's time to build a shopping list. Always bring a shopping list or else you end up buying things that are not needed for your meals, or even worse, buying unhealthy options. This also happens if you go shopping hungry, never go grocery shopping hungry, this is when not so healthy decisions are But before rushing to the grocery store, take inventory of your kitchen. There is a website and App where you can input the food items that you have in your fridge and pantry and get recipe ideas based on what you already have on hand. https://www.myfridgefood.com/
Shopping list: Navigate the grocery store quickly with a list organized by department. Keep a running inventory of foods you frequently use during weekly prep, like olive oil, vinegar, onions or herbs & spices, rice, etc., and add these to your list when necessary.
Always bring a list when grocery shopping and never go shopping hungry or you may end up buying this you don’t need or that is a craving that does not fit your health goals. Have your meal or snack prior to shopping. This will not only end up saving you money but you also save on time too.
When you get home from shopping, wash all of your fruits and veggies so that they are ready to go and easy to grab. Put it all in the sink and fill it with water with ¼ cup of white vinegar. This will take away dirt, bugs, and some sprays off of your produce. Once your produce is washed, pat dry, cut and prepared for storage in the fridge so they are ready to enjoy. This will make it more convenient to grab so that you don’t grab something that is not in line with your health goals or meal plan.
If you feel this adds too much time, there are lots of pre-chopped items at the grocery store to pick from. In most produce sections, you can find pre-cut fruits and veggies, as well as zucchini noodles, squash, potatoes, asparagus, veggie mixes, salads, etc. This will save you time.
Check your supply of containers: You will need an assortment of storage glass containers.
Pre-wash Produce
Fill sink with water, add 1/4 white vinegar and put all produce in sink.
Step 4: Prep and Store
Here are some helpful tips to keep in mind before you start chopping:
Make the most of your time: Begin with foods that require the longest cooking times. Preheat the oven and prepare ingredients that will be cooked first. Bring water to a boil for longer-cooking grains like farro or rice. If two recipes call for the same ingredient, like chopped onions, prep the onions for both recipes at once, then divide to use as needed. To save the step of needing to wash your cutting board between tasks, cut produce that will be eaten raw first, followed by produce to be cooked. Always remember to use a clean cutting board and utensils after preparing raw proteins, like meat or poultry.
Pick the Right Combination of Recipes
Picking the right combination of recipes will help you be more efficient in the kitchen.
To save time, select recipes requiring different cooking methods. Having too many recipes requiring the same appliance — the oven, for instance — will limit the number of dishes you can prepare at once. This is especially important when selecting make-ahead meals or for batch cooking.
A good rule of thumb is to stick to one oven meal and a maximum of two stovetop meals at once — for example, chicken, a stir-fry, and a soup. You can also save time and space by making one-pan meals or a roasted chicken/duck/pot roast/turkey etc. by adding veggies and potatoes to it. That way you still have the entire stovetop available. Don’t forget about those appliances in your cupboards such as crockpot, Instapot, Dutch oven, BBQ, etc.
Then simply add meals that don’t require cooking to the mix, such as sandwiches or salads.
Organize Your Prep and Cook Times
A well-thought-out workflow will save you a lot of time in the kitchen.
To best organize your prep and cook times, start with the recipe requiring the longest cook time. This is often the soup or oven meal. Once that meal is underway, focus on the rest.
Reserve the cold meals for last since they can easily be made while the other meals are cooking. For extra time savings, double-check the ingredients for all recipes before starting. This way, if two recipes require diced onions or julienned peppers, you’ll be able to chop the total quantity at once.
Freeze properly for best quality:
For soups and cooked grains, cool to room temperature (within 2 hours) and store in a glass container or mason jars. Leave an inch at the top of containers for food to expand as it freezes. Top casseroles with parchment paper and cover tightly in foil f you don’t have lids for your casserole dishes. Be sure to label and date the containers.
Be mindful of storage life: If stored in airtight containers, cut vegetables like onions and peppers will keep for three to four days in the refrigerator. Heartier vegetables, like chopped carrots, celery, and winter squash, will keep for at least five days. Lettuce and greens that have been washed, dried, and kept in the refrigerator can stay fresh for up to a week. If buying mixed greens or spinach in the clear plastic container, if you put the paper towel on top of the lettuce and close the container it will draw the moisture and make your lettuce and spinach last much longer. Cooked vegetables, grains, and dishes containing meat, poultry, seafood, or eggs should be consumed within three to four days.
The Bottom Line: Meal prepping is great for people who want to spend less time in the kitchen make healthier choices and save money. It also promotes nutrient-rich healthy meals and discourages fast food options. Find a method that works for you and pick one day per week to meal plan, shop, and cook. You can involve the whole family making it a team effort while spending time together. This will also teach your children the important life skill of cooking, healthy choices, and making memories while doing so. Meal planning and meal prep gives you more time to spend with family, friends and do the things you love doing most.
