Become a Weekend Warrior: How to Meal Prep

By: Sara Raffensperger, Editor, FaveHealthyRecipes.com

You're a busy person who just can't find the time during the week to make yourself healthy and nourishing meals. If you want to cut down on eating out during the week and eat a little healthier, then you need to learn How to Meal Prep and become a Weekend Warrior. If you master these meal prep plans, then you will always have something delicious to eat no matter how busy your day was. Preparing meals for the week will only take you a few hours on Sunday and will save you so much time and energy during the week. Make yourself healthy meals for a week and you will be able to relax and enjoy your free time after work.

If you consistently prep your meals every week, you will notice that you're saving money and you're feeling healthier. When you make your meal prep plans, you are preparing for the near future and making your life a little easier during your busy weeks. Instead of eating out, you will have healthy meals for the week and feel great.

Start your meal planning with our

How to Meal Prep

There's nothing that will make you feel more accomplished, productive, or prepared for the week than having food ready for your lunches and/or dinners. It's one less stressor that you have to worry about during a busy week. What you eat determines how you feel for the rest of the day, so you need to eat healthy foods so you can power through that afternoon slump.

Before you start the actual process of preparing meals for the week, you should know how what and how much you need to eat. American dishes are typically much larger than recommended portion sizes so people typically have a skewed vision how much they should eat.
Check out this helpful article to find out the Portion Sizes for a Healthy Balanced Diet.
Look ahead to your week. Which days are the busiest and when will you need pre-prepared meals?
Make your menu. Scroll through healthy recipes and jot down ideas for your meals. They don't have to be fancy or complicated by any means. If you can make one-pot meals with versatile ingredients like roasted veggies or chicken, then your meal prep will be that much easier.
Go shopping for all of the ingredients you need. Your weekly shopping trip will go by quickly because you'll be armed with your specific list. You probably won't be tempted to stray from the list because you're so focused on the task at hand.
Cook for the week! Cook the time-consuming aspects of your meals: chicken, vegetables, potatoes, etc. This will only take you a couple of hours, which, when you think about the time saved during the rest of the week, is definitely worth the effort.
Store your food conveniently. Pack your prepped food in stackable containers and make them easily accessible in the freezer or the refrigerator. In the morning, you can easily grab a container for lunch or after work, you can quickly find what you're going to eat that evening.

For more grocery storing tips, check out The Beginner's Guide to Storing Groceries.

Healthy Meal Prep Recipes

Now that you know how to meal prep, it's time to look for easy make ahead meals that you can make for next week. You're going to look forward to eating all of these easy prep meals. Portion them out for daily meals and eat delicious food every day.

Do you have any go-to meals to make ahead? Let us know in the comments!

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Toby K Editor

Sep 08, 2016

Love it! I'm all about meal prep (although I've been lazy and haven't done it in a while). I'm definitely going to try some of these tips this weekend.

margiekins22

Sep 06, 2016

This is beyond helpful! I really needed a guide on how to meal prep and I am so happy that I found one! Plus, it's super nice that it gives you some recipes to make as well!