If I Only Had One Hour a Week to Meal Prep, This Is What I Would Do

If I only had one hour a week to meal prep, this is what I would do.

1. Plan all the meals (15 min)

This will eliminate the decision pressure after you have had a long day.

Think about who you cook for and how many meals. Do you and your family eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at home?

Simplify meals as much as you can. For example: for a quick breakfast during busy weekdays, I'll alternate between a yogurt bowl with fruit or toast with scrambled eggs. For dinners, I always plan to have some leftovers, so I don't have to cook every meal from scratch. If I am planning to cook roasted chicken, I make sure I have enough leftovers to add to a salad the next day.

Are you planning to go to any restaurants or get takeout? Include it in your weekly menu, choosing the days you have less time to cook.

Make sure you have all the ingredients available before you go to the next step.

After making many weekly menus, I now have 3 different ones that I use on rotation, so we don't eat the same thing every week. I keep it flexible and change some meals depending on what ingredients I have or if I want to try a new recipe, but I don't have to start a new menu from scratch every week. This is a time saver!

2. Prepare and cook some of your food (45 min)

The idea is not cooking all meals in advance but building components of your meals that will save you time during the week.

This includes washing fruits and vegetables, peeling, and chopping. I also like to portion the protein for each meal and season the portions for the next day.

Roast 2 sheets of vegetables, whatever is in the fridge. It takes 25–30 minutes in the oven and they are done. They go into everything.

While the vegetables are in the oven, clean up everything, load the dishwasher, and pick up the containers to store the veggies when they are done.

If you have extra time, choose 2 main sources of carbs for the week. If it is potatoes, you can roast them with the vegetables. If it is rice or quinoa, cook a large amount as they keep well in the fridge.

Progress is more important than perfection. The more you do it consistently, the easier it gets, and you'll see the value of this one hour you invested.

If meal prepping sounds a bit overwhelming for now, remember that progress is more important than perfection. The more you do it consistently, the easier it gets and you will see the value of this one hour you invested.

If you already have the habit of planning your meals, I'd love to hear if you learned something new from this post.