Pre-made meals are often associated with store-bought frozen meals.  Frozen and ready to cook pizzas, lasagna, fish, and even fine dining delicacies are turned into frozen or pre-made meals. You must agree with us that buying frozen pre-made meals is not a good idea.

Here is the most convenient solution for you to save time, money, and your health by meal preps. Yes, it makes life easy and healthy by just preparing three meals for three days.  It is like go and grab meal of the day, all pre-prepped and portioned for you.  Hence no stress of thinking about what to cook today, last minute run to the grocery store, grueling routines and wasting of time in the kitchen. In this guide, we will briefly discuss how to do it. So hold tight for one of the perfect solutions for your life, time, and health.  Prepping meals are a healthier way of living.

How to Prep Meals: Detailed steps

Step#1: Research about the healthiest meal options

Healthy meals are not just about salads. There are many options that will you surprise you.  We recommend starting with the breakfast, lunch, and dinner recipes that are around 300 to 500 calories and for meals with your favorite proteins or ingredients.

Step#2: Build the Menu for three days

Prepping meals for an entire week can be hectic and may result in food waste too.  It is better to start prepping  meals for three days.

The schedule for 3 meals for 3 days:
Monday Breakfast:  Mixed Berry Smoothie Cups
Monday Lunch:  Cashew Chicken Stir Fry
Monday Dinner : Baked Salmon
Tuesday Breakfast:  Sunny-Side Up Eggs
Tuesday Lunch:  Low-Carb Eggplant Lasagna
Tuesday Dinner: Roasted Shrimp & Veggie Salad
Wednesday Breakfast:  Strawberry Banana Smoothie
Wednesday Lunch:  One-Pot Lemon Garlic Shrimp Pasta
Wednesday Dinner: Chili Beef Noodles

Step#3: Shopping list

Now that you have decided what to have in three days, let us get the ingredients you need. Make a list of the component, mark the one you need, and look for what you already have in your pantry. This method helps you save money, food waste, and the time of rushing to grocery shopping too. How convenient!

But do remember that you need to mention how much of the ingredient you want to have per portion. This way, you can easily calculate the calories you are opted to consume every day.

Another important thing about the prep meals is the containers you are going to store the food in. We recommend buying Tupperware or glass containers that are air-tight and BPA-free.  You might also need baking sheets, tin foils, cupcake liners, silicone liners, and container dividers for easy cooking and portioning.

Step#4: Schedule time for preparing meal prep

Once you have all the ingredients and your containers and labeled for the three days, store in refrigerator.  If the protein was fresh, good chance it can stay fresh until the day it is scheduled for cooking.  If not, plan on cooking multiple meals on a single day and store for the designated day.

Step#5: See what to store or what to keep fresh

For example, Baked Salmon for dinner on Monday can prepare the marinate and side ahead, but it is better to bake the fish right on time for the dinner. In this way, the fish will remain fresh, and the method of cooking really does not require any special attention.

Similarly, if you are Roasted Shrimp & Veggie Salad for dinner on Tuesday, you can roast veggies ahead, but you can always reheat them with the frozen shrimps. In this way, most of the work for you had already been done.

Step#6: Preparing the dishes

Now that you know what to cook before time, you can quickly start preparing the prep meals. It is easy because most of the dishes may be using a few same elements or sides. You can prepare them all at once instead of preparing them every day.  Similarly, you can use the one pan-sheet cooking method or slow roasting method.

Step#7: Compiling the dishes

It is essential to lay down everything dish in sets to see if you are missing something. In this way, storing them for the week will be effortlessly accessible.

Step#8: Safe storing

You have your containers, liners and food.  Start with poring them in the containers without mixing them. This is important because somethings the salts from the protein of any other seasoning element of the dish may also affect the texture of the other ingredient.  Portion everything with the help of liners, container dividers or small bowls that can sit in the containers.

Fish can be cooked quickly and cooking it beforehand can lose their freshness. So freeze them and cook them when needed. Use name tags to differentiate what you have in the refrigerator or freezer.

Step#9: How to consume the prepped meals

If you will have one ingredient to bake or cook, you might need 10 to 15 minutes of your time in hand. Honestly, to have a healthy meal is an reward in itself.

Usually breakfast and lunches are literally on to-go meals. Just grab your container and few fresh pre-packed sides and you are ready to go.  If the meal was already cooked, heat them in the oven if  possible.

Step#10: Few fresh Add-ons

If you feel like adding a fresh touch to the dish, feel free to have fresh fruit and vegetables. We understand how you can crave something different even though you have the container prep meal in the refrigerator, but it is ok to have a little spin. Throw in a little treat for yourself at times.  Do this for a few weeks and food prepping will become a habit.