4 Ways to Make Healthy Meal Prep Easier

One of the things I hate the most about preparing a meal is the prep work that comes before the meal. When I’m ready to cook – I’m ready to cook! 

As a mom blogger, I’m just like you. I have a full schedule and finding a way to cook meals at home while working full-time from home and raise two teenage sons can be difficult, especially when schedules collide and we have to do some juggling.

On those days when we’re ripping and running, we hit the fast food lane. Eating a steady diet of fast food will not only make you feel horrible, it can do a lot of long-term damage to our bodies. Nearly 90% of all Americans exceed the recommended daily intake of sodium, did you know that? The best way to avoid things like diabetes and heart disease is by eating a healthy diet of home-cooked meals.

Nearly 90% of all Americans exceed the recommended daily intake of sodium, yikes! Share on X

So how do you do that on a busy mom schedule? The best way to make this task easier is to do your own subscription box meals for the week in advance. The time you invest into this meal prepping will more than pay off in the long run – and it will be cheaper than a subscription box meal service.

Here are 4 tips to get you started on making your meal prep process easier.

You Have to Make a Meal Plan

The first step in having a successful meal prepping experience is making an actual meal plan. You will need to think about the type of foods you and your family like when making this plan. If you are stumped about the type of foods you need to put on this plan, taking a look at the Dani Valent thermomix blog is a great idea.

This blog features a variety of delicious recipes that are easy to prepare. With the help of the internet, you should have no problem finding meals that the whole family will love.

Once you have a list of meals in mind, you can begin the prepping process.

Commit to Your Grocery List

A big part of meal prepping success if making a detailed grocery list. If you are making a new recipe, you need to find out about all of the ingredients. Once you have made your grocery list, you will be ready to head off to the store.

The hardest part about shopping for meal prep is sticking to the list. There are a number of impulse buy items down the aisles of a grocery store. Not to mention if you take the kids shopping with you, there are going to be meltdown moments where they absolutely must have something or they’ll just die. You will have to do your best to show some restraint when shopping to avoid going off script. While this may be difficult, you will benefit from this later due to the junk food temptations you can remove from your life.

Keep Your Snacking Simple

One of the biggest challenges people have when trying to eat healthy is choosing the right snacks. Some people automatically think snacking is prohibited when they are on a diet, but this is not the case at all.

The key to have success on a diet is stay full and avoiding temptation. If you are basically starving yourself, you are bound to cheat on a new diet. Being smart about your snack options is something you should put a priority on.

During the meal prep process, you should go ahead and prep some snacks as well. Doing things like hard boiling some eggs or even cutting up veggies and fruits can make snack time much easier. If you have a large variety of snack options, you will be less likely to cheat on your diet.

Try Cooking All of Your Foods At Once

The last thing you want to do on meal prep day is spend all of your time huddled over a hot stove. Strategically planning out how you are going to cook your meals for the week can save you a lot of time and aggravation.

Over time, you will develop a routine with your meal prepping. Honing in on how to cook as many foods as possible at one time will benefit you greatly. By filling your oven with your foods for the week, you will have no problem setting and forgetting it.

Preparing all of the foods you will eat in a given week ahead of time will allow you to stay the course when trying to eat healthy on a consistent basis.

Getting the entire family involved in meal prep day can be fun – unless you have a tiny kitchen. In that case, you can set the kids up at the table and give them some chopping work to do (or something less dangerous for the younger kids). Having the entire family involved in the process can make for interesting dinner conversation when it comes time to eat what the kids have prepared.

Do you do a weekly meal prep in your home? What are some tips you can share with our readers who are new to the practice that have worked for your family? Let us know in the comments below!

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