“Meal prepping,” as it has now come to be known in fitness circles, has always been a huge part of my budget eating strategy. Cooking your meals ahead of time and having them pre-packed in single serve portions just makes life so much easier, and drastically reduces the temptation to eat out. Shop once, cook once, have everything ready to go so you never have to waste time thinking about what your next meal will be. Meal prep does take a little bit of investment on the front end with planning and prepping, but once that’s done you’re free!
Sadly, I’ve gotten away from the meal prepping model lately and I know that I desperately need to get back into the swing of it. So, I’ve decided to start a new weekly series showcasing how I approach weekly meal prep. Meal prep can be a bit daunting for beginners, so I figured it would be helpful to see how I do it and give some weekly meal prep inspo for veterans along the way.
I’ll be using recipes that are already available on Budget Bytes and pairing them with other items to make a well rounded meal. The Sunday Meal Prep examples will just be one meal, like a lunch or a dinner, rather than a three-meal-per-day seven day plan (I don’t like to get that strict–I need some flexibility), but even having one of your daily meals prepped for the week is an enormous help. And once I have several weeks of examples, you can always combine them to do a three meal per day plan of your own.
And lastly, most of my Sunday Meal Prep posts will be for 4-6 servings. I only like to prep 5 days in advance, tops, because things just don’t last much longer than that in the fridge. For recipes that make six servings, I’ll usually stash one or two of the servings in the freezer for later. So if you only prep four servings of something at one time and there are seven days in a week, what do you do for the rest of the days?? Well, you can cook in four day cycles, you can have one “freebie” day, like date night, or you can fill in the extra days with items that you have stashed in the freezer like I mentioned above. It’s a wonderful system and once you get going you’ll feel like you have this adulting thing OWNED. ;)
So let’s get prepping, shall we??
For more information about meal prepping, how it works, and why I do it, check out Meal Prep 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Prepping and Portioning Meals, or check out my entire Budget-Friendly Meal Prep Archive.
Skillet Meatballs and Marinara Meal Prep
I was totally craving good old-fashioned pasta and marinara this week and I happened to have some Italian sausage in my freezer, so I knew exactly what I was going to meal prep. Skillet Meatballs and Marinara! This simple recipe requires very few ingredients and is super satisfying. I added some lightly steamed broccoli to round it out, and a banana for “dessert.”
This Week’s Meal Prep Includes:
Skillet Meatballs and Marinara (6 servings) $7.98
3 Tbsp grated Parmesan $0.31
1 Large crown Broccoli, steamed $2.40
4 Bananas $0.99
Total cost: $11.68
Each meal (with banana) $2.03
Each meal (without banana) $1.78
I only purchased four bananas because I planned on freezing two portions of the pasta and broccoli)
This is typically the type of meal that I would bring for myself for lunch when I still worked in the laboratory. The banana would be eaten as a snack earlier in the day or with my lunch as a sort of dessert.
If you’re buying lunch out every day when you work, you can see the extreme savings here, not to mention the health benefits. If the broccoli is prepared and there in front of you, you’re WAY more likely to eat it. I even used whole wheat pasta this time around to get a little extra fiber. :) Plus, these meals have automatic portion control. #win
Tips:
- Only partially cook the broccoli so that when you reheat your meal, it doesn’t over cook and become mushy. I steamed my broccoli just until it was bright green and the stems barely began to soften.
- It’s always good to reheat your “meal box” in increments, stirring between each increment. I usually start with one minute, stir, and add 30 seconds more at a time until it’s heated through.
- Label and date items that you put in the freezer so you can stay on top of your inventory and eat older items before they get too old. A little masking tape and a sharpie will do the trick and then you can just remove the tape before washing the container.
- These blue top Ziploc containers are my favorite because they can go into the freezer, fridge, microwave, and dishwasher. But, if you don’t like reheating or eating out of plastic, there are several great glass food storage containers on the market as well.
So that’s all I have this week, but since this is a new series, I’d love to hear what information you’d enjoy seeing in the Sunday Meal Prep posts. If you have any questions, ideas, or just want to share your own tips for meal prepping, please leave a comment below. And just remember, if you’ve never left a comment before, your comment will be held in moderation until I can verify that it’s not spam. :)
Until next week!
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I’m so excited for this feature! I love following meal prep on blogs/Instagram, but most have so many expensive ingredients. I can’t wait to see your budget-conscious versions.
I am REALLY excited about this series! I’m a stahm and my husband works from home and neither of us can ever seem to get it together when it comes to lunches. Having random leftovers and foods in the fridge that still require assembling or cooking just doesn’t cut it when I’m chasing a 3 year old and 10 month old and he’s between customer calls. Prepping things for the week ahead that are ready for the microwave or eaten cold, like some people have suggested, would be great! We’d love some great plant-strong meals!
I like where you’re going with this! : ) Your parfait recipe has been my “breakfast meal-prep” at work. Excited about trying some lunch options of yours, too!
I love this! I’m pregnant and starting to meal prep to fill up my husband and I’s freezer a bit so that we’re not completely overwhelmed when our firstborn shows up, this series will definitely help esp. since a lot of meal prep ideas I’ve seen so far are freezer-friendly. Thanks a lot! :)
I am PUMPED about this new series!! I love it! I love meal prepping and I think it is such a great way to eat a healthy variety while saving time and money.
I think that one thing people struggle with in meal prep is how to have variety while now buying a ton of ingredients – I think it would be great if you could show how a simple grocery haul could lead to a variety of meals….for example how a bag of peppers could be used in stuffed peppers, fajitas, and sausage with peppers and onions – I think meal prep intimidates people because they think they will waste food or not have variety. Also, I think that including sample meal schedules for the week showing that variety would be helpful…just a few ideas! :)
P.S. I am a huge fan of yours and have been for years…I love that you include photos in your post of the cooking process, I love that you have a wide variety of types of food, and I love that your recipes are simple enough that I can memorize them and cook again and again…my favorite is your pumpkin lentil curry soup…it is the jam!!
When I was working, I was a big soup of the week fan. I would have soup and salad. My guy would have soup and sandwich. Fruit, nuts and/or maybe baby carrots for snacks. You choose where you spend your money. I prefer to save mine for vacation! Also, I (almost) always made my lunch the night before or it didn’t get made….five more minutes in bed pleeeeease?!
I’d love to see more meal prep plans for having variety during the week– I hate to eat the same exact thing over and over again. I would also love meal prep breakfast options, especially those that do not involve eggs or having to heat from frozen.
Longtime reader, big big fan! I would love to see any recipes for foods that have some variety between the days so you aren’t eating the same thing every day for 4-6 days. That’s one of the big things that has kept me from meal prepping in the past. Also, do you just prep for yourself, or do you prep for a group ever? Thanks for your brilliant site; it keeps us well fed in my household!
Great idea to do a series on meal prep. Much appreciated!
Super excited to see you doing some meal prepping posts! I cook almost exclusively from your site :) Keep the great stuff coming!
I need that too. I get home late at night and I am too tired to cook and clean up.
Hi Beth! Been a huge fan for years. I’ve recently started a meal-prep lifestyle as well, and I’d love to get some ideas for meals that can be eaten hot or cold. My job involves a lot of site visits and running around, so sometimes I have a microwave and sometimes I don’t.
This looks great! I’ve been attempting to do more meal prepping, too. Id love to see healthy prepped meals, since I really need to stop getting lunch at the pizza shop close to my work >.>
We’ve been trying to eat more paleo / low carb meals – I’d love to see those sorts of meals that still reheat well.
If you are doing paleo, doesn’t that mean you don’t reheat at all?
Paleo has nothing to do with heating or not heating food generally (though of course a specific individual may choose to put such limitations on themselves!). It’s not a raw diet by necessity.
I would be interested in seeing some meal prep for lunches that don’t need heated. I work outside and don’t have a microwave or fridge (I do have an insulated lunch box).
I did a mason jar salad (use a big one!) with bowtie pasta mixed into a french lentil salad on the bottom, goat cheese and walnuts on top of that, and parsley and arugula at the top (https://www.instagram.com/p/BTA5IxHF8ZM/?taken-by=weirdgoodfood). Shake it up super good right before you eat, then pour into a bowl. Wipe bowl with napkin/paper towel when you’re finished.
Thanks! That looks awesome!