How to Hack Meal Prep: A Guide for Busy Women
Fueling your body with real & healthy food is what will keep you afloat, both mentally and physically. But one of the biggest obstacles to eating well? Time. Energy. That’s why you need to engage in a bit of planning & prepping.
Yes, this can feel challenging- but it doesn’t have to be. The first step is to tone down your expectations of what “meal prep” constitutes.
For instance, sometimes I make really beautiful, elaborate meals. I love cooking and trying out new recipes, flavors, and techniques in the kitchen. That said, I can’t cook fancy meals during the week because, well, life. Instead, keep things as simple as possible during the work week and I rely on batch cooking.
This can help you, too, to stay on track with your healthy diet.
Batch CookinG Basics
Effective meal prep will usually involve some kind of batch cooking. In the most basic sense, this means making multiple servings of a single dish or ingredient, with the idea that servings of this dish can be eaten throughout the week simply by reheating or assembling.
Most of us have done something like this- you bake a batch of lasagna and eat it throughout the week. Or you make big batch of chili or soup. But let’s think more creatively! Batch cooking can also involve cooking up a big batch of:
quinoa or brown rice
beans/legumes- black beans, garbanzos, lentils
veggies- roasted, steamed, or just cleaned and cut into bite size pieces
sauces- pasta sauce, stir fry sauce
condiments- spice blends, cashew cream
toasted nuts
snacks- energy bites or bars, crackers
veggie burgers- I keep mine in the freezer
baked chicken breasts or thighs
hard boiled eggs
salad dressings
toasted nuts
plant-based cheeses- ‘parmesan’, cashew cream cheese
Having these staples & basics on hand makes eating well much less of a hassle.
Meal Planning
So there's batch cooking. But how do you figure out what to batch cook? That's where strategic meal planning comes in. This is actually the hard part because it requires organization and foresight. It's also something I constantly work on- some weeks are great, others not so much!
I think it’s helpful also to look at meal planning from two time-perspectives.
First we’ve got Medium-Term Meal Planning
I like to keep batches of certain foods/ingredients available in my kitchen at all times so that I can easily whip up a lunch or dinner on the fly. For example, I might batch a salad dressing, some plant-based pesto (frozen in ice cube trays), bone broth or stock for soups, dairy-free “parmesan", dry seed and spice blends, frozen vegetable bouillon, and frozen cooked grains and legumes. Th
These kinds of foods are either semi-shelf stable or they’re frozen or refrigerated, so you can cook them up whenever you have a bit of extra time and they’ll last a while. For example, one batch of vegetable bouillon will take probably 20 minutes to make, and it will last months. I use it to season water when cooking grains or beans, and when I want to pull together a soup but don’t have time to make stock or bone broth.
As much as possible, I like to keep my freezer stocked with basics, too- mostly frozen fruit and proteins. For instance, my partner, Rob, is big into spearfishing so we’ve got a freezer loaded with single serving vacuum-sealed filets of local fish that can be defrosted and cooked quickly and easily. You can do the same if you buy a large package of chicken thighs or breasts- freeze them in individual bags and mark the quantity on the bag.
I also try to make sure to keep a fully stocked pantry with shelf-stable packaged and bulk items: gluten-free pastas & grains, dried and canned beans & lentils, dried fruits, spices, and nuts are just few examples. When I see that I’ve run out of something, I jot it down on my shopping list so I can re-stock (even if I’m not going to use it immediately).
And then there’s Short-Term Meal Planning
The second type of meal planning is the weekly type, the kind you usually think of. Here’s a few tips on how to tackle this:
1. Start planning more than one day ahead. If I begin thinking about my week's meals on Sunday afternoon, I'll be fighting a losing battle. Instead, I try to think about this at least a couple days prior. On Friday (or even Saturday) brainstorm your meals, including breakfast.
Try flipping through a cookbook for some inspiration. Then, always look through your fridge to see what perishables or frozen foods you have on hand that need cooking. For example, if you’ve got frozen chicken breasts, maybe that’s something you’ll want to use in your meals for the week. Or if you’ve got a big head of cabbage waiting to be eaten, find a way to work that into your plan.
Based on your kitchen scan and whatever’s inspiring you, at the very least make a quick list of all the meals you want to make. And if you’re feeling super organized, then plot everything out into a calendar. In particular, if you’re struggling with meal planning, that’s what I recommend you do.
2. Next, write up your shopping list, and plan a time to hit the grocery store and any other local markets you like to shop at. Online shopping is always an option too, especially if you’re pressed for time- Instacart, and likely at least one of your local grocery stores offer online shopping & delivery. Thrive Market is great too, for stocking up on non-perishable staples.
3. When you shop each week, stock up on healthy snacks that require little to no prep: hand-held fruits like apples, bananas, and pears; nut butters or nuts that can be portioned out; grass-fed beef jerky; sugar-free full-fat yogurt (if you eat dairy). These are easy, healthy items to carry with you to work or wherever you’re going when you know you’re going to need energy. And there’s no prep involved!
4. Keep it simple. I love cooking new things, experimenting in the kitchen, and serving dinner to friends. And I love how inspiring some Instagram foodie accounts can be. But we’re talking about your workweek, and a meal need not be ‘fancy’ in order to be delicious and filling.
Tips for planning breakfasts, lunches, and dinners
breakfast
Even if you don't feel hungry in the morning, I highly recommend you have at least a small breakfast, and be sure it contains protein. Some examples:
Smoothies. Quick, easy, portable, and satisfying. Keep your kitchen stocked with key ingredients: kale or spinach, fresh and frozen fruits, dates, nuts and nut butters, chia seeds, flaxseed, coconut water, nut milk, protein powder, collagen.
Breakfast hash. This can be prepped in advance. I like to mix up some ground turkey with sweet potatoes, kale, and seasonings. It’ll last 3-4 meals.
Eggs. What’s easier than eggs?! You’ve got two options here- making them on the spot, or pre-cooking them either by hard boiling or making egg “cups”- basically you mix egg with some other ingredients (like cooked veggies, goats milk feta, pre-cooked bacon pieces), pour into a muffin tin, and bake in the oven. You can eat them a few days.
TIP: save the fancy/complicated breakfasts like pancakes and frittatas for the weekend.
Lunch
Lunch usually requires a little more planning. I usually plan on a mix of dinner leftovers and weekend basic batch cooking. For example, on Sunday you could prep batches of vegetables, grains, and protein so that it’s easy to put together a quick salad or ‘buddha bowl’, and top with your favorite homemade or store bought dressing or sauce.
You could also cook up a batch of a curry, stew, or soup on Sunday and eat it multiple times during the week.
Dinner
Dinners can be trickier, especially if you’re cooking for others in your household (or if someone else is cooking for you!). It’s usually too overwhelming to cook dinner every night if you work full time, so I suggest either prepping most of dinner ahead a time, or relying on leftovers at least a couple nights a week. A couple ideas for easier dinners:
Stir fries with loads of veggies (frozen or fresh) and a protein (tofu, chicken, beef, shrimp) served over soba noodles or brown rice, rice noodles, or buckwheat noodles.
Hearty soups or stews.
Slow cooker meals.
Final Thoughts
With a little planning and effort, eating a healthy, mostly whole food diet can be fairly easy during the week. At first, you may feel like you’re spending more time than you like on the planning and cooking. But as with any skill, with practice, you’ll dial it in. Planning will become easier and your cook time will become shorter. And the more practice you get, the better you’ll become at improvising so you can take advantage of produce that’s on sale at the grocery store, surprise finds at the farmer’s market, or a weekly farmshare.
