5 Meal Prep Tips You Need To Know

There's no denying that I'm a big advocate for meal prepping! 

When life is busy and crazy, the last thing you want to worry about is what to cook for dinner or make for lunch. 

Just a couple hours of meal prep, can make healthy eating and cooking 10 times easier because everything is all ready to go, which means you're less likely to skip breakfast or suffer from 3pm-itis.

Meal prepping saves time, energy and money, all while allowing you to enjoy healthy and delicious meals....so really what more could you possibly want?

I've even designed every recipe - over 120 - in my BARE Guide to be easy to meal prep, so no matter what your tastebudds are craving you can feel happy and healthy, while enjoying all your favourite foods.

To get started, here are my 5 top meal prep tips that EVERYONE needs to know!

Whether you're a student, busy mum or just a beginner, these will help you organise your food for the week & make healthy eating 10X quicker & easier.

From how to prepare your meats & chicken to how prep multiple meals at once, here's everything you need to know.

1. Get organised!

Before you start cooking and even before you go food shopping, you need to get organised. Plan out all your recipes for the week and create your shopping list so you know exactly what you're making and need to buy, and therefore won't be overspending or wasting food.

In my BARE Guide, I provide you shopping lists and weekly meal planners that you can fill to organise you food for the week. I also give example weekly plans and shopping lists that you can follow or use for inspiration.

2. Prepare and marinate your proteins. 

Once you've finished food shopping, you want to prepare and marinate your proteins first. The reason for this is that while you're proteins are marinating (1-2 hours), you can use this time to start to cooking the rest of your food instead of wasting time at the end.

3. Take one step at a time.

When you planning on cooking 3-5 different meals, it's easy to start to feel a little overwhelmed so my best advice to focus on one recipe at a time. Once you've put your proteins aside to marinate, start by focusing on preparing your breakfast, then snacks, lunch and finally dinner. 

4. Containers, containers, containers!

Part of the ease of meal prepping, is that your food is portioned out into individual servings BUT for this you'll need to have good containers. There's nothing worse than running late in the morning and trying to portion out your food in a hurry so be sure to have plenty of good containers on hand that you can portion your meals out ahead of time.

5. Don't be afraid of your freezer.

You're freezer is your lifesaver on crazy busy days! Stock it up with your meals so you can easily grab them on the go. Plus, if you're not planning to eat your food within 3 days of cooking than it's important that you freeze your food - otherwise it will good off and could give you food poisoning and no one wants that!

BONUS TIP: Have fun!

The last thing I want you to do is to think of meal prep as another thing on your to do list. It's here to make your easier, healthier and happier! So to ensure you enjoy your time meal prepping, I highly recommend you put on some music, a favourite podcast and even some Netflix - whatever you need to make it super fun!

 

If you have any other questions, be sure to let me know via my contact form or Instagram! I absolutely love hearing from you and want to answer any questions you may have.

Leah xx