Meal prepping is the hottest food trend lately, and frankly, I couldn’t be happier! I’ve been meal prepping for years simply because it’s a great way to save time, money, and reduce waste in the kitchen, so I’m happy to see so many people getting wise to this method. But there are still so many people who haven’t had the meal prep “Aha!” moment, so I wanted to do a quick Meal Prep 101 to help people grasp the concept or get over the intimidation to give it a try.
How to Meal Prep
What is Meal Prepping?
Meal prepping is simply the act of preparing a meal or recipe, then portioning it out to create grab-and-go meals for later. If you’ve ever packed up your leftovers from dinner to take with you for lunch the next day, then you’ve already mini-meal prepped! Generally though, meal prepping refers to preparing 3-7 days worth of food at a time.
Think of it like packing your lunches for the week all at once instead of packing your lunch each morning. You can use this same technique for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.
Why Meal Prep?
Meal prepping is convenient, efficient, reduces waste, and reduces temptation to eat outside your plan (whether the plan be a diet or a budget). When cooking every single day is out of the question, meal prepping can allow you to still eat home-cooked meals without having to dedicate time each day to preparation.
Who is Meal Prepping For?
Meal prepping is not for everyone. It is good for people who value convenience and efficiency more than variety. With meal prepping you generally eat the same thing for a few days in a row, so if you don’t like leftovers or get bored with food easily, meal prepping is not for you. If having control over what you eat, or maximizing your time or budget is more valuable to you than eating something different every single day, meal prepping is your ticket.
I’ve generally only seen people meal prep for themselves or maybe one other person, as opposed to a whole family. Meal prepping for a whole family would be quite difficult because there are more people to please and would require a million containers.
What Can I Meal Prep?
This is the golden question. As with any leftovers, the palatability of prepped meals varies from person to person.
Foods that work well for meal prepping:
- cooked grains & pasta
- cooked beans
- cooked meat
- roasted vegetables
- hearty fresh vegetables (think celery, carrots, peas, bell peppers, kale, cabbage, radishes, etc.)
- whole fruit (apples, oranges, stone fruit)
- nuts & seeds
- cheese
- sauces and dips (like salad dressings, hummus, salsa, sour cream, etc.)
Foods that don’t usually meal prep well:
- softer fruits and vegetables (lettuce, berries, and cut fruit)
- crunchy items like fried food, crackers, or chips
That being said, there are sometimes ways around this, like packing ingredients individually. I tend to stay away from items that require special care just for convenience sake, but it is possible to prep these things if you don’t mind putting in the extra work.
How Long Do My Meal Preps Stay “Good”?
I get this question on almost every meal prep post I make and unfortunately there is no one hard rule here. As food is stored in the refrigerator it begins a slow decline in quality. In addition to this, the way food is packed or the individual nuances of your refrigerator environment can impact the quality of your refrigerated meals. So often the lifespan or acceptable changes in texture and flavor will be subject to the eater.
Always begin with the refrigeration guidelines set by the FDA, and then evaluate them against your own preferences. In general, I don’t like to prep more than four days worth at a time because I find that by that fifth day the food is usually too limp and lifeless to enjoy. By prepping four days in a row I can prep two times per week and be covered or prep once per week and reach into my stash of freezer leftovers for the remaining days (plus the option for eating out one day).
How To Start Meal Prepping
Start SMALL. I can’t emphasize this enough. Start by packing up your leftovers from dinner one night and taking them for lunch the next day. Once you’re comfortable with that and you get to know what types of food you like as leftovers (pay attention to texture changes that might bother you), you can pick one recipe to prep for the week ahead.
I suggest starting with a single recipe meal prep instead of a meal that requires two or three recipes together. Single recipe meal preps provide your protein, grain, and vegetables all in one recipe, so there is no need to make a side dish.
Once you get a hang of one recipe or meal, you can try two (like lunches and dinners) or try prepping your breakfast ahead. The most important thing is that you prep for the level that works for you. If you try to prep three meals for five days all at once and find that after day three you just won’t eat the same thing anymore, don’t risk wasting the food. Prep only three days. Personally, I like to do just lunches, or sometimes breakfast and lunch, leaving my dinner to be my variety for the day.
My Meal Prep Formulas:
An easy way to think about meal prepping is to make a formula out of it. When deciding which foods to meal prep I try to pick out one of the following formulas:
- Basic: Protein + Grain + Vegetable
- Low Carb: Protein + Vegetable + Vegetable
- Vegetarian: Legume + Grain + Vegetable
You can add toppings to any of the formulas above to make it more interesting, like sauces, nuts, seeds, croutons, etc. Or just keep it simple and make life easy!
What Do I Need?
Containers. Containers of different shapes and sizes. And don’t worry, you can start small here too.
I started by buying one pack of the blue-top reusable plastic Ziploc containers per week. They’re BPA free and can go in the freezer, dishwasher, and microwave, which makes them super convenient, plus they’re very inexpensive and come in several shapes and sizes.
Once my budget allowed, I graduated to glass containers. My favorite glass containers so far are the plain, single compartment Pyrex containers (I like the 3-cup rectangle and 4-cup bowl). I do also have some divided glass containers that have separate compartments, but I find their use a little more limited because not all food can fit in the smaller compartments and the compartment dividers aren’t leak proof.
Metal bento box style containers are also great, as long as you’re packing a cold meal and won’t need to reheat it in a microwave.
Fold top sandwich bags or zip top bags can also be helpful when you need to separate ingredients. And, if you like to keep your dressing and dips separate, look for 1-2 oz. size resealable containers (I’ve seen several at grocery stores and on Amazon).
Ready to Get Started?
Check out our Meal Prep Category for lots of meal prep inspo! I create new meal prep ideas fairly regularly, so check back often and don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter to stay on top of all the new recipes and ideas! Also check out our Vegetarian Meal Prep, Breakfast Meal Prep, and No-Reheat Meal Prep categories!
Share Your Meal Prep Wins
We can all learn from each other, so share your tips, tricks, and meal prep wins in the comments below! I’d love to hear what you do and what you’ve found that works and your creative meal prep hacks!
I make big batches of staples-meat, rice, etc.- and freeze them in single servings. I just use resealable baggies for most of it. A snack sized baggie holds 1 cup and a sandwich sized baggie holds 2 cups. I also buy large bags/boxes of cold cereal, crackers, pretzels, etc. and portion them into the snack baggies. I have a few in my bedroom so I can have a quick snack while watching TV. Another thing I do is make a big batch and portion it into recipe portions. I take out a portion from the freezer, thaw in the fridge overnight, and make a meal the next day, usually dinner. Big batch cooking is great if you have a sauce or other recipe you make often. Instead of making a new batch of the sauce each time, make a double or triple batch and freeze it in recipe portions. Any of the containers mentioned in the comments and blog post will work as long as you have big enough ones for each recipe portion with at least 1/2″ head space to allow for expansion.
I haven’t done a lot of meal prepping besides lunches for work days. I also sometimes cook meat and/or veggies for a few days and sometimes do a combo of pairing some of them in the same container and the rest separately. It allows me to still have a variety with a little less prep each day. I still want to try meal prepping a bit more. I haven’t done too much with making a big batch recipe-mostly just with cooking items separately to pair together.
Thank you for stating that you should start out small when cooking. My husband and I have been eating really unhealthy lately, so I want to start cooking, but I don’t really know how. I will definitely keep all of your great tips and information in mind when trying to learn how to cook.
You can do it! One step at a time!
Good tips for beginners like me very detailed about meal prepping. It was so easy, you definitely gave me motivation and made me feel like its attainable. tryna loose weight and make a reasonable lifestyle change. thank you!
Also mason jars aren’t very expensive and they are a great way to portion out things like soups, chilis and stews for the week.
I use mason jars (16oz) for everything: salads, stews, pastas, risottos, lattes. Unlike most containers they’re small enough to fit in my running backpack (I run-commute too) & leak proof!
Great tip Athena!
Where do you get the metal cups pictured with the dragon noodles and broccoli?
I got those on Amazon. :)
I think this is by far the best website business I have seen. It is professional, has a lot of great ideas and content and very informative and helpful. I was looking for the ginger chicken sauce and your recipe was simple, easy and fast. I have my chicken drumsticks marinating as I type this. I see you have an app and the tabs above are organized perfectly.
From now on, I will be using many of your tips and recipes to make my weekly meal plans for my diet. Thanks for making meal planning so fun and easy.
There’s an app?!? So getting it!
I haven’t seen it mentioned, but I could easily see making 2 dishes at a time and swapping between them over the 4 or 5 days, especially if you are prepping for 2 or 3 people. That would provide variety especially if you changed up some of the ingredients (Many times, I will make a foil dam in my casseroles to divide vegetarian vs. meat versions of the same recipe, or add chicken on one side, beef on the other.), especially if you keep a variety of chopped nuts and dried fruits or veggies.
Thanks for all the info.
I really liked what everyone had to share! Thank you so much! Thanks for the tips!!
Meal prep has been good to both my wallet and my waistline! I’m a fan of freezer-friendly meals, and I prep breakfast and lunches for the weekdays. What helps is experimenting at dinner, in hopes to find the “oh YEAH” meals you can eat again and again! Also I try to find two meal prep recipes and share with my fiancee, and eat the meals on alternate days. Before I plan, I think about what type of cuisine I’m craving – do I want Thai-inspired flavors? Southwest? or homestyle? Then I pick recipes from there that match what I’m in the mood to eat.
Love it!!
Good tips!
Thank you for the wonderful ideas. I am on my own, divorced and find preparing food difficult. This is great as I prepare in the am on a free day. So common for women on their own at my age not 2 eat properly.
Love your site.
The one question I was hoping you would answer is – What if I don’t want to eat the same thing for a meal (be it breakfast, lunch, whatever) for several days in a row? You kind of touched on it when you wrote
“If you try to prep three meals for five days all at once and find that after day three you just won’t eat the same thing anymore, don’t risk wasting the food. Prep only three days.” I guess I just like more variety in my week than what seems to be worth meal prepping for. Thoughts anyone?
Maybe look at meals you can prep and freeze – so you’d make 3-5 days worth, freeze them, then you’d end up with a collection of lunches in your freezer you can choose from the night before.
Meal prepping simply isn’t a good fit for everyone, so you may just need to utilize other budget saving techniques. OR, you can try prepping freezer friendly meals and that way you have a variety of single serving dishes to choose from each day. Here is a quick round up of some of my favorite dishes that I like to freeze in single serving portions for reheating.
I always ask people how different is different enough to not feel the same.
Example – if you make overnight oats, would tossing different fruits into individual containers make it different enough you wouldn’t mind eating it multiple days in a row? So blueberries in one, and maybe strawberries in another?
Or, salads – would adding beef to a few and chicken to the rest along with a separate dressing make them “different”? I try to think of small tweaks like sauces or proteins that will allow me to make a meal feel different. It’s much easier to freeze extras like meat for use another week than it is to let salad greens or other produce go to waste if you don’t eat a whole containers worth.
Again, wonderful insight and suggestions! Thanks Jessie!
I meal prep for a family of 2 adults and 6 kids. My prep mostly centers around precooking beans, grains, and meat. I also chop vegetables and cheese. I keep each meal’s ingredients in groups of separate containers. I tend to cook dinner and breakfast daily and lunch every couple of days. We have leftovers all day the day before I grocery shop. Our food waste is next to nothing, but we do have some hilarious leftover mashups sometimes.
I love it! Thank you for sharing your method! :) (And those hilarious mashups can sometimes lead to amazing discoveries, am I right??)
I have been meal prepping for years…LOVE those Pyrex containers you mention.
My favorite meal prep experience was when I would split it with a former coworker. We would each bring in four meals a week. So, two days I would eat what she cooked for the week, and two days I would eat what I cooked for the week.
It provided variety, and it was exciting to swap Sunday night texts with the recipes (usually from your site) of what we had prepped that week.
I love this idea!! Thank you for sharing!