How To Get Started With Meal Prep

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What is meal prepping

Meal prepping is an act of preparing meals for an entire week to:

• Free up time during the week
• Stop worrying about ‘what to cook for dinner’
• Save money by not eating out
• Lose weight by weighing and pre-portioning out meals

Ways to meal prep

1. Pre-cook all meals for the week.
2. Batch meal prep – cooking one meal in large quantity and eating it for a couple of days. Chili is a good example.
3. Assemble ingredients for each meal and freeze or store in the fridge. Then cook one meal a day with these pre-assembled ingredients.

P.S. I personally prefer #1 or #2 because if I meal prep I want to have pre-cooked meals so that I can just reheat and eat (especially for dinner!).

HOW TO MEAL PREP WITHOUT A RECIPE – This resource is perfect if you want to create your own custom meal plan in 5 minutes even if you are a meal prep newbie. I teach my signature ‘Express Meal Prep’ formula that you can use over and over and never get bored with meal prep.

How to get started

Start simple. If this is your first time meal prepping, start with making one batch meal prep recipe. Cook one meal that you can have for dinner and take as leftovers for lunch the following day. It’s best to take it easy at first without getting overwhelmed in the kitchen.

Once you’ve made a batch meal prep recipe or if you feel like you’re to dive deep into meal prepping – it’s time to make a meal plan.

Choose a day of the week to meal prep. I recommend choosing the day when you have free time to dedicate to cooking without interruption. I like to meal prep on my days off like Sundays. If Sunday is not an ideal day for you, pick one morning or evening to get it done.

Some ideas for batch meal prep recipes on Simple Fit Vegan:

• Thai Peanut Noodle Bowl
• Thai Red Curry with Lentils and Eggplant
• The Best Vegan Chili
• Butternut Squash Farro Stew
• Farro with Shiitake Mushrooms and Red Peppers

10 VEGAN MEALS IN 1 HOUR – This is done-for-you meal prep plan. Cook 10 meals in 1 hour and you’ll have lunch and dinner to last you from Monday to Friday.

How to make sure you’re getting all the right nutrients

I’ve written more extensively on what vegans should eat every day to get all the nutrients on the blog. To summarize, here’s what you should be eating every day for optimal plant-based nutrition (also called Vegan Plate Formula):

• 5 servings of vegetables (greens, raw and cooked veggies, vegetable juice)
• 4 servings of fruit (fresh fruit, smoothies)
• 3 servings of legumes (beans, lentils, tofu, peanuts)
• 3 servings of grains (rice, quinoa, tortillas, bread)
• 1 serving of nuts and seeds (almonds, pistachios, pumpkin seeds)

Variety is key here. You have to vary up your vegetables, fruits, etc. throughout the week and most importantly from week to week. I know that we all have our favorite fruits and veggies but to get all the nutrients our bodies need, we need to diversify the ingredients. For instance, if you batch cook quinoa as your primary grain for the week, make brown rice the next week, and barley the next.

I’ve put together a free Vegan Nutrition Basics Mini-Course that will teach you the basics of vegan nutrition. If you choose to complete homework, it will come with tracking sheets that will make keep track of the nutrition during meal prep so much easier.

Storing meal prepped dishes

Some people like to buy an individual container and pre-portion cooked meals for the week. This way you can pull the container out of the fridge and you don’t have to worry about putting your meals together. This is a great idea if you’re trying to lose weight.

You don’t have to use individual containers if you don’t want to. I prefer not using them. I store all pre-cooked meals in separate containers, for example, brown rice goes into one container, roasted veggies in another, salad in the other, and so on.

Since we are not dealing with any meat or dairy, your meals will be safe in the fridge in an airtight container for 5 days.

What are the staple items that I should always have on hand?

1. Canned beans (chickpeas, white, black, etc.) – you can make some super quick batch meals with canned beans like falafels and burgers
2. Lentils – they cook in 15 minutes and make excellent bases for weekly meal prep.
3. Spices – paprika, cumin, turmeric, oregano, chili, etc.
4. Dressings and sauces –  it helps vary up your meals if you’re starting to get bored. For example, if you make a black bean burger, you can have it with buffalo sauce one day and teriyaki the following.
5. Basic grains – brown rice, quinoa, bulgur, barley, amaranth, etc. Since grains should be part of your daily diet, you should always have them on hand.
6. Pasta
7. Oil
8. Frozen vegetables – edamame, peas, etc,
9. Oats and pancake mix – if you’re meal prepping for breakfast.
10. Nuts and seeds – eat them on their own for snacks or add them to breakfast, smoothies, or

Meal prepping doesn’t have to be hard. Start slow with one simple recipe. When you feel more confident, move on to making multiple recipes for the week (breakfast or lunch/dinner or both). Follow the Vegan Plate Formula to ensure you’re getting all the nutrients. Add variety to your meals by choosing differing ingredients from week to week.