Weekend meal prep can truly be a huge time-saver during the week. Maybe you’ve tried it, but it just didn’t work. If so, and you want a better solution, there’s something else you could try that’s less of a solid time commitment. It’s called daily meal prep, and all it takes is 15 minutes a day. Curious how this can work for you? Read on to find out more.
Once a Week Meal Prep Doesn’t Work for Everyone
Meal prep has been the buzzword in the healthy eating community for a while now. So I’d be surprised if you a) had never heard of it before or b) had never tried it out for yourself. It can be a very powerful method for preparing healthy meals ahead of time so you don’t have to prepare meals every day.
While it’s great for some families, it’s not so great for others.
I did weekend meal prep a couple of years ago for a few months. It was super helpful at the time. I may even go back to doing it that way in a couple of years when my kids are more independent.
In the end, I quit once-a-week meal prep, because it was taking up a good portion of my time on the weekend. Even after all the time I spent in the kitchen, I still had to do a good amount of cooking during the week. This was because I only prepared certain components of meals that would make it easier to cook throughout the week. So while, yes, I was cooking a little less throughout the week, I was also cooking a lot more on the weekend. On weekends when my husband had to work, my kids watched shows while I meal prepped. When my husband was there, we couldn’t do fun things together as a family because I was cooking. I wanted to spend time with my family, not be chained to the kitchen all weekend.
When you are busy all week with work, extracurriculars, meetings, church, homework, and all the things, the last thing you probably want to do, or even can do, on the weekends is spend all day in the kitchen cooking for the coming week. It’s just not practical.
Daily Food Prep Might Be Just What You Need
There is still a way you can have your cake and eat it too. At least, kind of.
These days, I like to do daily meal prep. It is far less time-intensive, yet still allows me to cut down on kitchen tasks for all of our meals.
For me, all it takes is an average of 15-20 minutes a day.
When I am in the habit of daily meal prep, I suddenly feel more in control of my kitchen.
Maybe you’re thinking, I already spend too much time in the kitchen every day as it is. How is adding more time going to save me time?
Hey, you got me. That’s a fair question. If you’re already spending a lot of time in the kitchen, this daily meal prep can help you:
- Organize tasks that need to be done throughout the week
- Save you time overall by batch cooking and prepping
- Cut down on how much time you spend preparing a single meal
For example, if you were to spend 10 minutes getting veggies prepped for snacking, that could cut down on lunch prep because the veggies would be prepped and ready to go. Or, if you made a big batch of refried beans in the Instant Pot, you could use some of those beans for dinner that night and put the rest in the freezer for a later time.
It’s really all about making preparation for individual meals easier. So instead of spending 45 minutes preparing dinner one evening, you could spend 20 minutes because you had already prepped beans, raw veggies, and salad dressing at various times earlier in the week.
Make sense?
The Meal Prep Mind Shift
In the traditional sense, meal prep means that you are getting lots of different meals or meal components ready to go for the week all at once. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Let me repeat: Meal prep doesn’t have to be a once a week thing.
Yes, you can definitely make ahead complete meals during your daily meal prep session, but that’s not always going to be the best use of your time.
Maybe one day you prep ahead a breakfast that takes you 15 minutes, but the next day you chop onions for the freezer. What you do for daily meal prep is going to be different all the time and based on what you need going forward.
How to Make Daily 15-Minute Meal Prep a Habit
Now you’re sold. So how do you go about making this daily meal prep thing a reality?
You turn it into a habit.
For the uninitiated, a habit is something you do without really thinking about it. Tasks like checking your email, brushing your teeth, and putting on your shoes before you walk out of the house are all habits you might do without even thinking about them. They are built into your daily routine.
That is what you want to happen with daily meal prep. But it takes time to make something a true habit.
I spent the entire month of January this year doing daily meal prep, with the intention to turn it into a habit. I wrote down every time I did daily meal prep and included what I made, as well as how much time I spent doing it (you can see down below my food prep tracker from January)
Turns out I was much more motivated about 15-minute meal prep the first 8 days in January. Then I skipped 3 days and got back into it for another 6 days, followed by another missed day.
That’s what building a habit really looks like. You can’t be absolutely perfect all at once. You might have a really great week, and then see a plunge for a day or two. Then you might do well for several days in a row and then slack for a day or two. The hope is that it gets easier and easier and eventually makes it to that coveted habit stage.
It will become a habit if you work hard enough to make sure it becomes one.
An Example of 15-Minute Meal Prep
When you commit to 15-minute meal prep, you’ll find the greatest success by completing it about the same time each day.
Back in January, I chose to do my daily meal prep right after lunch every day. I homeschool my kids, so after we ate, I would go straight into meal prep. I prepped what was most important in the next few hours or the next day or two.
You do not have to spend 15 minutes on daily meal prep. If that sounds like too much time, or you literally don’t have that much time to spare, start with 5 minutes. Some days I spent 5 minutes prepping something, like putting soup in muffin tins for the freezer. Other days, I spent over an hour prepping (when I made naan bread for the first time). It all came down to what I needed to prepare for upcoming meals and/or what inventory I was running low on in the freezer, fridge or pantry.
Something that could help you is setting a timer and stopping when it goes off (at least finish up what you’re doing and then put it away). Or you could use the timer as a catalyst to get more done. Some people find it easier to commit to the 15 minutes and then decide to continue or not when the timer goes off.
For those who may not be able to see the picture below, I will write out what it says.
FOOD PREP TRACKER – JANUARY 2020
- Jan. 1 – 1 head garlic, minced – put in baggie in freezer (15 minutes)
- Jan. 2 – Grapes, washed and celery, washed and cut (10 minutes)
- Jan. 3 – Eggs, hard-boiled (less than 10 minutes)
- Jan. 4 – Egg salad, prepared (18 minutes)
- Jan. 5 – White rice for freezer (less than 10 minutes)
- Jan. 6 – Carrots and celery, diced (for soup tomorrow; less than 10 minutes)
- Jan. 7 – Naan bread (for butter chicken tomorrow; about 1 hour)
- Jan. 8 – Soup in muffin pan for freezer (5 minutes)
- Jan. 9 –
- Jan. 10 – (Nobody’s perfect 🙂 )
- Jan. 11 –
- Jan. 12 – 6 Onions, chopped for freezer (about 30 minutes)
- Jan. 13 – Carrots and celery, diced (for soup tomorrow; 11 minutes)
- Jan. 14 – Sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed (for muffins; 18 minutes)
- Jan. 15 – Cheese, shredded (5 minutes)
- Jan. 16 – Fruit salad (20 minutes)
- Jan. 17 – Roll and freeze leftover cookie dough (5 minutes)
- Jan. 18 –
- Jan. 19 – Applesauce (22 minutes)
- Jan. 20 – Sweet potato muffins (for breakfast and freezer; 21 minutes)
- Jan. 21 – Ingredients prepped for slow cooker meal tomorrow (20 minutes)
- Jan. 22 – Sweet potato puree in freezer (5 minutes)
- Jan. 23 –
- Jan. 24 – Peppers and onions, diced and cooked (10 minutes)
- Jan. 25 – Curry chicken salad (21 minutes)
- Jan. 26 – Chocolate banana muffins (20 minutes)
- Jan. 27 – Garbanzo beans out of freezer (15 seconds)
- Jan. 28 – Overnight steel cut oats (5 minutes)
- Jan. 29 – Banana pancakes (35 minutes)
- Jan. 30 – Pork in freezer (5 minutes)
- Jan. 31 – Beans, cooked (10 minutes)
What Can You Do in Just 15 Minutes a Day?
You’d be surprised what can be prepped in just 15 minutes (see above). I timed myself for each of my meal prep sessions in January, and some things took less than 15 minutes, while others took more than 15 minutes. Overall, I spent an average of 15 minutes on my daily meal prep.
You can do basic things like chop onions for the freezer, prep raw veggies for snacking, or make beans. You can also make snacks like energy bites, dessert hummus, or ants on a log. Sometimes I also like to get dinner started so it’s not so time-consuming later when things feel crazy in the afternoon. You can really do anything that will make your life easier in the future. That’s how I like to look at it.
So, are you ready to get started doing 15-minute meal prep? Get your own free food prep tracker below!
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