Meal prep is one of those things that we know can benefit us by cutting down on time in the kitchen and brainpower trying to constantly decide what to eat, but is also exhausting and often ends with tons of uneaten meals. This is where batch prep comes to the rescue, especially when planning meals for your whole family. By simplifying the food preparation process, batch prep allows you to minimize decision fatigue when it comes to creating meals and spend less time in the kitchen.

Batch prepping refers to cooking large quantities of food ahead of time so that you can easily throw together a meal when it’s time to pack your lunch for the day or feed your family for dinner. Batch prepping veggies, carb sources like rice and potatoes, and protein sources like chicken and eggs, ahead of time makes it easier to piece together a meal without having to actually cook. All you have to do is throw together your pre-cooked foods, measure, and reheat!

When batch prepping, we can think less about the specific meals we are going to eat for the week, and more about creating the building blocks of those meals. This also makes grocery shopping and any meal planning you may do much easier! Batch prep proteins, carbs, and produce to create those building blocks for meals. Then you can toss in some yummy fats, flavors, and condiments to create a meal!

Batch prep can look like:

BATCH YOUR PROTEINS | Having a bunch of prepped protein sources on hand can make it easier to create protein-centered meals, whether you eat meat or trend towards plant-based eating. Some suggestions:

• Crockpot chicken

• Cook (and season, if desired) lean turkey or ground beef

• Make pre-measured turkey, beef, or bison burger patties

• Roast a pork tenderloin

• Grill proteins (shrimp, chicken, kebabs, etc.)

• Roast lean chicken or pork sausages

• Hard boil a dozen eggs

• Make a tuna or chicken salad using canned protein

• Cook lentils or chickpeas

BATCH YOUR CARBS |  After creating your meal around your protein, throw in a prepped carb source. This may look like:

• Cooked rice

• Roasted potatoes or sweet potatoes

• Cooked pasta (to use later or make a cold pasta salad)

• Cooked quinoa

• Cooked couscous

BATCH YOUR PRODUCE | There are many different ways that you can go about this step, but the idea here is that making veggies (and fruit) easier to add to our meals makes it much more likely that we’ll eat them (rather than letting them go bad in the back of the fridge).

• Wash and chop your veggies as soon as you get home from the grocery store before even putting them away 

• Buy pre-made salad kits to add easy veggies to your day

• Roast veggies (squash, zucchini, onions, carrots, etc.)

• Grill veggies along with your grilled proteins

• Wash and chop your fruit or make a fruit salad

• Make a veggie side (like this risoni salad), a fresh salsa (like this cowboy caviar) or pickled veggies (like these red onions)  that can accompany other easy meals

Now when it comes to creating a balanced meal, we can use these building blocks of a prepped protein, carb, and veggie then add in fats and flavor. Fats and flavor are often synonymous, and that may look like adding avocado, nuts, olives, oils, sauces, or salad dressings.

Using batch prep to build easy meals

Now that you’ve made some building blocks for your meals, here’s some ideas on how you can put it all together to create yummy, easy meals without having to cook a bunch more or think about it too much:

BREAKFAST:

• Easy breakfast muffin egg cups or breakfast bake using prepped ground meat + frozen veggies

• An omelet using pre-chopped veggies and roasted potatoes

• A breakfast burrito using pre-chopped or frozen veggies, egg + cheese OR tofu and already-made salsa

• Overnight oats + pre-chopped fruit

• Avocado toast with hard boiled egg

• Greek yogurt + pre-chopped fruit

LUNCH:

• BBQ Turkey Hash or similar hash style bowl with prepped protein, carb source and veggies

• Buffalo chicken wrap using crockpot chicken

• A salad with pre-cooked quinoa, a prepped protein, and chopped veggies

• A chicken or tuna salad wrap or sandwich + pre-chopped fruit

• Already-made veggie pasta salad + extra mixed greens

DINNER:

• Taco salad or burrito bowl 

• A pasta dish with cooked pasta and prepped protein with marinara sauce

• Prepped pork tenderloin with a side of roasted veggies and potatoes

• Salmon or white fish with rice and veggies

• Veggie stir-fry with carb source + prepped protein or tofu

• Lentil “hash” with prepared veggies and tofu or seitan and favorite condiment

We love batch prep so much that we have an entire cookbook dedicated to it. Everyday Macros uses simple batch prepped foods to create a week of meals complete with a grocery list and meal planner. Give it a try!