Meal Prep Tips

Meal prep can make a busy life easier by saving you from having to cook every day, but getting in the habit can feel daunting if you’re not sure where to start. Our top 10 meal prep tips are here to help you make the meal prep habit and show how easy it can be.

You might not have the time or energy to cook every single day, so meal prepping lets you get ahead for busy times, whether you’re stocking up the freezer with dishes ready to defrost or simply making a batch of lunches to last you the working week. From using a slow cooker, being savvy with ingredients and stocking up on good storage, our meal prep tips are here to help. In this guide, we list tips for meal prepping.

1. Decide how many days to meal prep for

The idea of meal prep might make you think of towers of containers to last you the whole week, but if you’re new to prepping ahead then start with just meal prep for two or three days at a time, or a batch of snacks for the week. This eases you into the habit, saves you from eating the same meal for a whole week and still gives the satisfaction of having food ready to go after a busy day. If you’re a household of two, make a recipe for four or six people so you’ll have leftovers to keep you going: try creamy chicken & sweetcorn soup or a family fish pie.

2. Start with lunch

A lot of meal prep focuses on dinners to fill the freezer, but meal prepping lunch can save you time, too. Our duo of easy rice salad box recipes takes a herby rice base and adds different toppings for two easy lunches, or try out our trio of meal prep pasta salad recipes to save you time during the week.

3. Make a meal plan

Making a meal plan for the week makes it clear when you’ll use each of your meals, and makes the food shopping easier as well as the cooking. You might meal prep to stock the freezer, or you might meal prep just to use in the same week after a busy day. We’ve got several meal plans to help you get in the swing of it: check out our family budget meal plan or vegetarian budget meal plan to get started.

4. Make one base recipe

Meal prep doesn’t mean you have to make lots of complete meals to have on standby. Instead, focus on one base component that can be spun a few different ways or served with different sides, so you’ll only have to cook all the way from the beginning once and will still end up with varied, nutritious meals. Our big-batch bolognese recipe is perfect for this (we’ve got vegetarian and vegan bolognese spins, too): serve once as a spag bol; then add beans, a touch of spice, avocado and sour cream for burritos; then try it topped with mash for a cottage pie.

5. Make one-pot dishes to minimise washing up

If you feel daunted at the prospect of the kitchen aftermath from a meal prep cooking session, focus on one-pot dishes. Try our one-pot goulash pasta recipe which is healthy, low-calorie and freezable, plus contains three of your five-a-day. Go high-protein with these one-pot spicy meatballs or make this pot-roast spring chicken recipe filled with green veg.