The Benefits of Meal Prepping

Originally Published: April 10th, 2018

Save Time | Save Money | Be Healthier

*Disclosure: some links may contain affiliate links. For more information on what this means, visit my disclosure page.

Do you hate cooking? Or feel as if you just don’t have time for it? So, you just grab fast food, or easy frozen meals you can just put in the oven, instead? It’s so much easier that way, right?

What about your health, though? How do you feel? Do you have energy to get through the day, or are you relying on caffeine and sugar for that?

Would you like to know how to eat healthy all week long? Without paying a ton of money, or having someone else cook for you every night….

Meal prep!

Batch cook, and bake, the foods that you enjoy and that are healthy. Depending on how you do it, it could take just a few hours each week, each month, or a couple of minutes each day.

If you’re making food yourself instead of buying it already processed, or from a restaurant or fast food; it’s probably going to be naturally healthier. Or, you’ll at least know what’s in it, because who knows what some of the ‘ingredients’ are in processed foods.

It Saves Time

You can literally meal prep all, or at least most, of your food for the week in one morning (or afternoon) during the weekend. Or do a little here and there throughout the week with a rolling prep system (aka – you spend a little time every time you run out of prepped food so you always have ready to eat food in your kitchen).

Cook your grains, roast your veggies, bake any desserts or breakfasts you’ll want for the week. Prepare whatever you usually eat, or wish you could eat if you could just find the time.

If you usually buy a frozen pizza; make the dough and prepare the toppings during your meal prep session, and store in the fridge til you want it (or bake it and freeze it, then reheat when needed)!

Whatever you like to eat, I bet you could find a healthier recipe online that you can make ahead of time. Unless it’s a smoothie – those usually need to be enjoyed ASAP, but you can make smoothie freezer packs where you assemble all the smoothie ingredients in a bag, without the liquid, so you don’t have to grab every ingredient when you want a smoothie, it’s all there in a convenient package, that you made, in the freezer.

Check out Pinterest for some ideas, there are thousands of ideas and examples for meal prepping on there! Just search for the type of food you and your family enjoy! Save yourself some more time and follow some of my boards for plenty of healthy meal ideas to make!

Less Mess

Making all, or most, of your food all on one day means less dishes to do! YAY!! I don’t know if you have a dishwasher or not, but some things are simply better to wash by hand. So this is a big deal for me! I hate doing the dishes, yet I’m the only who does them.

If for some reason I don’t meal prep over the weekend, I end up have two sinks full of dishes to do every day of the week!! That’s enough to make me just want to order food out instead of cook, and I’m a bit of a health nut! So, meal prepping once a week saves me from dreading to do the dishes, and saves a ton of time with only have to clean up from making food once. It’s a win-win; no eating out, and less of a mess!

Save Money

You will need to meal plan wisely to make the most out of saving your money with this process. I’d suggest to start by learning How to Make a Healthy Meal Plan on a Budget!

There are a few different ways you can save money by meal prepping.

First, you save money by not having to eat out.

Second, you save money but not buying as much processed food!

And, third; you save money by creating meals out of the groceries you buy, right after getting them. This makes sure that the food you buy doesn’t go bad before using it, meaning less food waste. And, no one likes paying for food that ends up going to waste. So, let’s only buy what we need and prepare it right away!

If you start to realize that you bought more food than what you needed for the week and some of the food may go bad; make meals and freeze them! You’ll save even more money and have an extra meal for later in the month, just in case you need one!

Eat Healthier

I know I already mentioned this in the beginning, but it’s soo important that I needed to say a little more about it! Plus, there’s multiple ways to meal prep to eat healthy.

There’s how I’ve been describing, where you prep once a week. But, you can also make freezer meals; this will reduce stress, save time, and save you money, even more so than weekly meal prepping!

I’ve dabbled in making freezer meals a little bit in the past, but I haven’t turned it into a habit yet. Some people have though, and will make a whole months worth of food at one time, in as little as 4 hours!

From how I did it, and understand how to do it; it’s basically just cutting up a lot of veggies, adding in a protein source (like beans), adding in spices, and putting it in a freezer bag to freeze til needed. Then dump in it your instant pot, slow cooker, or on a pan to cook. I’d recommend checking out pinterest for some ideas and recipes to use!

I may not make freezer meals regularly, but I do have kids and I like to make our food with mostly plant based ingredients. So every week I usually make a double batch of pancakes and then freeze most of them, I have one kid who eats pancakes almost everyday for breakfast, so this cuts down on having to make pancakes every morning.

And then if we are planning to have any muffins, cookies, or other easy to freeze breakfasts or desserts, I’ll make a double batch of those and freeze them until needed.

This way I can get 3 to 4 meals for us out of the breakfast food I make depending on who’s eating it (and only have to make it and do the dishes once!!). And, for most of the snacks/desserts I make, they’ll last all month. Which is amazing! Not that I hate baking, I actually enjoy it and my girls love to help, too. It just takes so much time, so being able to bake once a month saves me quite a few hours through out the month!

Why does eating healthy matter?

So, you can eat healthier by meal prepping, but why eat healthier? How will it benefit YOU?

For starters, if you’re trying to lose weight or avoid chronic health conditions (that are brought on by poor eating/lifestyle choices) then eating whole food plant-based is the best way to do so.

You’ll also have more energy (to chase after your little ones), and be happier!!

You won’t feel as groggy at 3pm or 4pm when a lot of people need a sugar or caffeine fix to last through the rest of the day.

You won’t be hangry!! Because you’ll be meal prepping and have food almost immediately available when you need it, and be feeding your body the nutrients it needs.

If you want to eat healthier, save time, and money on food, then it’s about time you start meal prepping plant-based recipes for yourself and family.

Want to finally start eating Whole Food Plant-Based, with the support and guidance you need?

Then be sure to sign up for the Waitlist to be one of the founding members of Healthy Whole Foodies!