3 Tips For How I Make Meal Prepping Successful For Myself + My Family

Meal prepping isn’t something I EVER saw myself doing. The thought of putting together a ton of meals and snacks all at once never seemed very appealing to me UNTIL I realized something. My household wasn’t thriving when I tried to get things together in the moment. We were failing terribly and eating out more frequently AND grabbing packaged things from the pantry instead of real foods. Since that “light bulb moment,” I have realized that meal prepping is something that positively benefits my family and for that I have picked up a few helpful habits that I am sure can benefit yours.

1. Take note of what grocery items are going bad and ask yourself “would they go bad if I had them ready to eat?” If the answer is “no” then thats where I would start meal prepping. For us, produce is a major chunk of our weekly groceries and not cheap enough for me not to care how much goes bad when we don’t use it. When I get my groceries, I have found that soaking my produce to clean them, chopping them up and adding them to storage containers helps them actually get eaten.
2. Decide what meals you are having during the week and ask yourself “how can I make sure I cook this when I’m tired at the end of a long day?” I love pre-prepping all that I know we are eating for the week so that it makes things SIMPLE when I go to do it. What does this look like for our family? Cutting up all the ingredients for a roast and keeping them in a storage container until the day we cook it. Cooking tons of chicken breasts to shred and use on top of salads, in wraps, for chicken salad and whatever else we would want it for during the week. Boiling at least a dozen eggs for my kids and myself to have a quick protein option. Cutting up broccoli and and marinating chicken for chicken Alfredo. Whatever we’re eating, I’m all about making it easier to prep before the time it’s actually cooked.
3. Using the right airtight containers make all the difference. Meal prepping can go wrong when you aren’t storing what you prepped correctly. I make sure to add a paper towel to certain containers to handle the moisture levels and I’ve also made sure to invest in high quality containers and also using mason jars with their airtight lids.

With meal prepping, it does take some time getting everything done at all once but the time that it helps save during the week is unimaginable and actually helps us eat well and waste less.

What meal prepping tip has helped you the most or what do you have questions about? I would love to chat more!