Meal Prep 101

Now that back-to-school season is here and life is getting a bit more structured and busy, meal prep becomes a much more useful tool to help get dinner on the table fast and with less stress.

This information was pulled from my Member Meal Prep Guide (found here) that you have access to, so download and print it out if you haven’t already! By following my simple strategy, you’ll be able to consistently eat healthy meals, reduce food waste, and get dinner on the table fast during the week!

Meal Prep Mastery Course!

If you really want to learn all the skills to become an efficient meal prepper, check out my Meal Prep Mastery Course. It was designed with members in mind so that you can get the most out of your membership and become more confident and informed cooks!

This could be you…

The Meal Prep Guide

What you’ll get:

• The Meal Prep Strategy
• Meal Prep Day Plan
• How To Cook the Basics
• Tips for Storing
• Pantry Staples List (print this one out and keep it in your kitchen to reference when making your grocery list!)
• Essential Meal Prep Tools with links (or read my Fall Meal Prep essential tools blog)

One Hour of Easy Prep for Fast Weeknight Dinners

Meal prepping is KEY to being able to throw dinners together quickly during the week. If time is a barrier for you to get dinner on the table, meal prepping is the answer. 

It doesn’t have to be scary, stressful, or take up half the day either. Instead of cooking different meals at once, you’re just prepping/cooking different components of your meals. My fool-proof method will make meal prep feel a lot less scary.

By having different components of your meals already prepped or cooked and ready-to-go, you will be way more likely and excited to cook dinner instead of ordering take-out or eating popcorn for dinner (we’ve all been there!).

While you’re doing the prep for all of your Cooking Club recipes, you can cook some extra grains, lentils, sauce, etc… to throw easy lunches together and stretch your ingredients even more. 

You’ll feel so happy, nourished, and proud when you open your fridge and see cooked farro and lentils, a yummy sauce, and vegetables that are already cut up and ready to be eaten or roasted. 

Trust me, it’s worth it!

The Meal Prep Strategy

When I was a personal chef, I came up with a really solid system so that I could prep my client’s meals in a short period of time. So here’s the strategy…

On Sunday (or whichever day you dedicate your meal prep too), you’ll make a list of all the components you need to prep, organized by the cooking method (more on that in the next section). If you’re a Cooking Club member, I do this all for you!

The goal is to have all the make-ahead components of your meals prepped and ready to go so you can quickly throw dinner together with little to no prep on the weeknights.

This usually means you’ll be:

• Cooking grains
• Chopping veggies
• Making a sauce or dressing
• Etc…

Meal Prep Day Plan

Organize all of the items you need to do by cooking method in your meal prep chart. Below is an example (I create this table for you each week with your weekly club menus).

Below is an example:

The table looks like a lot, but multitasking makes it go by super fast! Here’s how you go about it for any meal prep session:

1. If the prep list includes anything in the “oven” category, always start by preheating your oven.
2. Get anything going on the stove that you can walk away from (cooking grains, lentils, etc…).
3. Next, prep all of your veggies (sweet potatoes, veggies, tomato, kale, fennel, cucumber, cilantro). Prioritize the veggies if you plan on roasting them or using them for soup.
4. If you need to use the oven to roast veg or make a soup on the stove, your veg is prepped and ready to go! You could stop at prepping the veg (doing this alone is a huge time saver during the week and reduces food waste) or go the extra mile and get that soup going and veggies roasted.
5. Since everything that needs to be cooked is cooking, now you can finish your cold prep. Finish chopping any veg, make your dressing, throw together your spice mix, etc…
6. You’re done!

Two ways to meal prep!

Some people find it easiest to set aside an hour or two on the weekend to prep all of their components for the week. This is the classic way to do it and is what I’m teaching you to do in this post.

However, I know a lot of members don’t like to do it this way. Instead, they will print their meal prep table, put it on the fridge, and prep components when they have the time.

For example, if you’re getting breakfast ready, you can quickly cook some farro on the stove, chop some veggies, or throw together the dressing.

Throughout the course of a day or two, most items will be crossed off the prep list!

Not a Cooking Club member yet?!

Let me help you take the guess work and decision fatigue out of weeknight dinners.

When you join, you’ll get 3-4 seasonal recipes every week along with a weekly prep guide, grocery list, and cooking videos! I want to help you save time and money and become a better cook!