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The BEST Meal Prep Tips
Hi Beauties,
I love sharing ways to help make your life easier so you can achieve balance and not feel overwhelmed by all the things you have to do on a daily basis.
I know meal prep is a hot topic of conversation, and rather than just sharing my tips today, I asked members of The Balanced Life Team to share their best meal prep tips with you! It’s always nice to hear ideas from different perspectives and those in different stages of life, so keep scrolling to read our best meal prep tips. 🙂
Robin
“After grocery shopping, I immediately wash and chop all of the produce that I want to have on hand for quick recipes, meals and snacks. Soaking fruit in a big bowl of cold water with a tiny bit of vinegar helps to kill bacteria growth, so they keep longer in the fridge. Important tips to make sure foods stays fresh: allow to air dry on the counter for a few hours, use high-quality glass food storage containers, and include a layer of paper towels to catch extra moisture if needed.”
Becky
“Snacks! I like to wash and prep some veggies (carrot sticks, cucumber slices, and bell pepper slices), as well as fruits (blueberries, sliced strawberries, kiwi slices, watermelon chunks, etc.) to have on hand for snacks and quick lunches for myself and my kiddos.” 
Jordin
“Let go of the all or nothing mentality. If you can’t meal prep and plan for every meal that week, that’s okay! Choose what’s most necessary for you and your family. For me, that’s breakfast. I’m not an early riser, so I am usually looking for something quick and nutritious that doesn’t take a lot of time. I prep healthy muffins, a breakfast casserole, or just smoothie ingredients on Sunday, so my weekday mornings are more enjoyable.”
Teddi
“My husband and I make meal planning a family activity! We sit down on Saturday to plan our meals and make a grocery list. We love going to the grocery store together, we can tag team the list and pick out special treats together. That way, we get a chore done while spending quality time together.”
We would also love to hear from you! If you have some tips that have helped you plan ahead and avoid stress during the week when it comes to meals, please share in the comments. 🙂
And, if you are looking for more inspiration, check out the blog posts below with some delicious recipes to help you plan your week:
My 10 Go-To Healthy Dinner Recipes
Quick, Healthy Breakfast Recipes
Here’s to a stress free, meal-prepped week!
xo,
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6 thoughts on “The BEST Meal Prep Tips”
My husband and I both work full-time, so we meal prep on weekends. We will make a big meal Saturday, enjoy it fresh, and use lunch size Tupperware and put all our leftovers away in these single servings so they are ready to be packed for work M-F! We will try to do the same on Sunday but put these away as our dinner leftovers. We tend to eat the same lunch and same dinner for an entire week cause it’s just two of us and this limits waste and prep/cook time. We will break up the routine with a simple mid-week recipe or splurge on a night out.
I’ve found in my current stage of life with two littles, meal prepping on the weekend was adding stress and taking time away that I wanted to spend with my husband (maybe I’m just slow!). So apart from making healthy muffins and/or breakfast cookies in big batches to freeze every few weekends, I skip all the other prep. I have a list of several go-to recipes, many which don’t require a lot of chopping or long periods of cooking, and we just do everything the day of. We make double batches and use the leftovers for lunches. I plan 4-5 meals a week with a couple leftover nights mixed in or a flex day. Then I order my groceries from Walmart Grocery so I’m not tempted to go off the list while walking through the store!
We eat a lot of fresh salads during the week so I chop up the vegies on Sunday night and keep in glass containers in the frig. We also love to add whole grains to our salads so I will cook up quinoa and farro to keep in the frig to easily at to a salad and make it heartier. Another great trick is to wash and chop up Romaine lettuce and vacuum seal in quart mason jars. No brown lettuce and keeps for a week – cold and crisp!
I tried this today -went shopping, came home and prepped all my veggies. Now I have them ready to snack on. Thank you!
I love all the comments already posted, and am also not a huge meal planner most of the time. I usually have 2-3 meal ideas in my head based on whatever meats I have available that week (from sales or my freezer). In the summer and fall, the meal is often more based around the plentiful veggies we have from our CSA farm share (I work there one day a week, too!). My tips are having those go-to recipes and ingredients on hand and also almost always preparing double or more when I make a recipe. That way we have leftovers for another meal another day and a meal or lunches for the freezer. When baking I especially like to make extra since it freezes so well.
Breakfast quiches! They are my go-to breakfast during the week; I make them in my stoneware muffin pan on the weekend and keep them in the fridge, some in groups of two in a ziplock bag so if I’m running late I have breakfast to-go already. To make them even easier I blend everything in my vitamix, no whisking required and clean up is a breeze!