As you know, I love meal prep Sunday.. Typically filled with my delicious BARE Guide meals.. However, I don't want you to miss out, especially if you're not yet apart of the amazing BARE Guide community. Below is everything you'll need to create your own meal prep Sunday plan - from the super tasty recipes to my step-by-step method.
What you'll discover is that not only is it actually incredibly EASY and fun but going to set you up for life.
Meal Prep Sunday Method
1. Make a decision
Ok first things first. You need to decide how many meal plans you want to create AND how many days you're going to follow each meal plan.
For instance, you may decide to follow one meal plan Monday to Wednesday, and then another Thursday to Sunday or you may do the same plan every single day.
Now remember you don't have to meal prep or follow plan for the whole week, it's completely up to you and what works for you and your preferences.
2. Set Your Layout
Grab a pen and paper and for each meal plan you're designing write the following...
Breakfast:
Snack 1:
Lunch:
Snack 2:
Dinner:
This layout allows you to easily fill in and read each meal plan!
3. Choose Your Recipes
Probably the most important recipe of the all...deciding what you eat!
BUT don't stress because I've made it super simple for you with the following tips...
1. By clicking this link, you'll be sent to a whole group of Meal Prep Sunday recipes that are designed to easily fit into your life!
2. You're more than welcome to choose recipes outside of the Meal Prep group, simply look for recipes that you can easily batch cook, keep in the fridge, reheat if you need and/or don't require too much extra work when you're about to serve.
3. Focus on choosing one recipe at a time to reduce any form of overwhelm. Let's just take one step at a time!
4. Choose at least one snack that's super easy and doesn't require much prep work like apple and peanut butter, carrots and hummus or yoghurt and frozen berries!
4. Use my abundance of resources to help you choose the right meals for you and gain meal prep inspiration. You can find all 8 weeks of Meal Prep Sunday here, as well as my 5 Rules to Building a Nourishing Meal, The Easy Meal Plan For Busy Women and Your Guide to Food Portion Sizes and Control.
4. Get organised
Now that you've worked out all your meals, it's time to get organised.
Start by following the steps below:
1. Go through each recipe and construct your shopping list for the week. What's great about meal prepping is you don't need a million different ingredients because you're making the same meals.
2. Go food shopping!
3. Once you're home, make sure you're kitchen is clear and ready for cooking, and then get out all the ingredients and containers you need. This is also the time you can put on some music, a podcast or a movie - or maybe you just want silence - whatever you need to enjoy the next couple hours.
5. Start Prepping
Now it's time to start prepping and cooking!
At this point it can feel a little overwhelming - where do you even start? what order do you follow?
So here are my top tips for prepping!
1. Go through your recipes and work out if anything needs marinating or will take a while to cook in the oven. These things need to be done FIRST because while they're marinating or cooking, you can be getting other stuff done - like all your easy stuff...
2. I like to get all the easy stuff done and out on the way asap because it creates momentum and makes you feel like you're ticking things off! For me the easy stuff is usually, your snacks and breakfast.
2. After cooking warm or hot meals make sure you give them some time cool on your bench, before putting them in containers and closing the lid on. Putting hot into the fridge straight away, can cause bacteria to form and no one wants that.
4. Now if you've been following Meal Prep Sunday for a while, you'll notice it is possible to float between the recipes to get things done quickly but if that is ever too overwhelming (including tip 1) just focus on ONE recipe at a time. It doesn't need to be any trickier than that.
Give this a go this week and be to let me know your thoughts and what you would like to see more in Meal Prep Sunday.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE hearing your feedback!
Be sure to also share your creations with me on Instagram so I can like, comment and share!
Use the tag @leahitsines and hashtag #leahitsines to reach out.
Leah xx