5 tips to make meal prep a habit

The most important thing with starting any new habit is to take baby steps and start with small achievable goals to actually create the habit.

If you start by trying to meal prep for all of your meals, you’ll feel overwhelmed and the habit won’t stick.

When it comes to meal prep, I suggest to start with just planning out your meals, making your grocery list, grocery shopping, and creating and filling out your meal prep chart. Just doing all of the PRE-prep work will be huge.

And then once you’ve made that a habit and figured out a system that works for you, you can go a step further and choose a few items on your prep chart to cross off. 

Maybe that means just washing and chopping all of your produce for the week. That alone will make a huge difference.

Over time, you’ll start crossing more and more items off that chart.

So let’s go over a few tips to help you make meal planning and prepping a habit!

Tip #1: Start a “staple meals” list.

In order to meal prep, you first have to meal plan. 

To make meal planning a lot easier, create a list of your favorite recipes to use to supplement the Cooking Club menu or to turn to when you need a meal you know you and your family will love. Write it on a white board or piece of paper you keep on the fridge or in your pantry.

When planning out your meals, it’s fun to try a couple of new recipes, but makes it easier to also have familiar recipes that you know will be a hit. 

On this staples list, try to add recipes that:

• you know are quick and easy to make or can easily be made ahead
• you’ve made so many times that you almost don’t need a recipe
• use ingredients you generally always have on hand (always keep your kitchen stocked with your kitchen staples for easy meals in a pinch).
• you know the whole family will love

Staple meals recipe suggestions:

• Skillet Pizza Beans and Greens
• Spicy Tuna Scallion Nori Tacos
• Cheesy Kimchi Beef and Veggie Bowls
• Skillet Pizza Chicken
• One-Pot Broccoli Pasta
• One Pot Salmon + Coconut Rice with Coconut Almond Sauce
• Crispy Oven Tacos with Cilantro Jalapeno Sauce
• Egg Roll Noodle Bowl
• One Pot Tomato Parmesan Pasta
• Veggie Lo Mein
• Sheet Pan Sausage and Peppers Arugula Salad

Now, when you go to plan out your dinners, choose 2-3 of your staple recipes and 1-2 new ones. Over time you can adjust and add new favorites to your “staple meals” list!

Tip #2: Keep breakfast, lunches, and snacks simple.

Tips for lunches –  eat leftovers, make one big soup, grain salad, or prep components for grain bowls (grain, protein, veg, sauce). Check out this blog post with more tips: Solving the work lunch problem.

• Thai Crunch Rice Salad with Sesame Peanut Dressing 
• Kale Quinoa Salad with Crispy Chickpeas
• Crunchy Broccoli and Lentil Salad with Dates
• Rainbow Rice Bowls with Spicy Curry Peanut Sauce
• Turmeric Ginger Chicken + Rice Soup
• Creamy Lentil Tomato Soup with Parmesan Toast

Related: 7 soups you’ll want to make on repeat.

Tips for breakfast: keep it easy and batch prep one thing (chia pudding/overnight oats, loaded smoothies, frittatas, baked oats/muffins, egg sandwiches, burritos).

• Whole Grain Greek Yogurt Waffles – make a batch on Sunday and freeze, then just pop in the toaster for quick weekday breakfast!
• Sneaky PB&J Chia Oats – I always have a batch of this chia pudding base in the fridge!
• Cheesy Frozen Veggie Egg Bake – a great veg packed make-ahead option.

Check out these blog post for more tips and recipes: Make-ahead high-protein breakfasts for back to school and High protein breakfast recipes.

Tips for snacks: choose one or two easy snacks that you can easily pack or grab when you need a pick me up. These can be things you need to make or easy things you can just grab at the store ready to go. 

• My favorite snacks: boiled eggs, egg muffins, energy bars/balls, greek yogurt with fruit + nuts, peanut butter toast, fruit + nut butter, hummus + veggies, granola + yogurt, etc… (make from scratch or buy store bought).

Now that your meals are planned for the week (more than half the battle!), you can make your grocery list and head to the store. Now is where the meal prep starts!

Tip #3: start with micro-prep sessions.

If you’re new to meal prep, make sure you start small and gradually build on that. The goal with starting any new habit is to first build the habit of just doing it!

Just do 10-20 minutes of meal prep a a few times a week instead of one 3-4 hour session. You’re more likely to stick to something if it’s easier to accomplish. So don’t set yourself up to fail!

Here are some examples:

• Wash and chop the veggies you’re using for the week (while you chop the veggies, cook something on the stove like rice or quinoa to use for the week).
• Meal prep breakfasts for the week.
• Make a dressing/sauce for the week.
• Choose and cook a protein that you can add to meals (shredded or grilled chicken, boil a dozen eggs, cook little meat patties).

Tip #4: Make a meal prep chart organized by cooking method (stovetop, oven, and cold prep).

This is what I would do when I was a personal chef and had to prep multiple meals in a short period of time.

If you keep this chart somewhere you’ll see everyday, you can cross items off the prep list when you find yourself with 10+ minutes to spare (like just cooking some grains or chopping some veg). The small micro preps will pay off when it’s time to throw dinner together!

If you’re more advanced or prefer to do the “get it all done at once” method, this chart is KEY to knocking out a bunch of prep in an efficient, organized, and much less chaotic way (see next tip). 

Tip #5: Multi-task!

When it’s time to prep, always start with the meal prep items that need cooking (stove and oven categories). While those items are cooking, you can chop some veggies or make a sauce (cold prep section). 

For example, get some rice going on the stove or instant pot before you start washing and chopping your veggies. While that rice cooks for 20 minutes, you can accomplish a lot

Additional tips for faster and less stressful prep:

• Always get something going on the stove and/or oven that you can start right away and walk away from, like cooking grains or lentils, boiling eggs, or cooking chicken.
• Now that you have things cooking, you can start washing and chopping your produce and doing the “cold prep”. 
• Having the right tools and equipment will make meal prep a lot easier. So be sure to check out my meal prep tools list!
• Keep your recipes out in front of you or accessible to reference if needed as you prep. You may not have to since your meal prep chart tells you exactly what to do, but it’s just good to have in case you do want to cook something or double check ingredients.
• Look at your chart and see if there is any ingredient overlap in recipes. So if two recipes call for chopping two carrots, you can chop all four carrots at the same time and store them together. And this applies to any ingredient overlap – like grains, toasting nuts, chopping herbs, etcetera…
• To avoid a massive pile up of dishes, “clean” as you go! I don’t mean clean everything and put it away – it’s easier to just rinse things and just keep it all organized so that when it’s time to do the dishes, it doesn’t look as scary and you’ve done all the rinsing of things, etc…
• Another tip for reducing dishes is to reuse bowls, utensils, etc…Unless there is raw meat involved, a quick rinse is all you need.
• Always have a large vessel like a mixing bowl to throw any scraps into as you’re chopping. That way you don’t have to run to the trash can or throw scraps all over your countertop. I always use this 4 quart plastic container that’s also great for measuring large amounts of liquids. 
• Keep a clean counter space! Get a bench scraper to easily and quickly clean your counter and cutting board. For example, chopping nuts or certain veggies like kale can be a little messy, so once you’ve chopped it, you can scrape off all of the little kale bits that flew all over your cutting board and counter without having to turn on your sink or grab a soggy sponge. 
• Keep a tidy counter space! As you’re prepping items and crossing things off of your chart, put things away that you don’t need anymore. It helps to have storage containers out and ready to transfer your veggies or grains into and put away. This will just keep your space decluttered and organized. A clean and clear workspace will make your mind feel more calm and relaxed as you meal prep. 

Those are just a few tidbits to get you started. I go into way more detail on all of this with videos showing you how to do it all in my Meal Prep Course!