If you’re looking for lazy meal prep tips for weight loss, this post is for you!
We often hear people use the phrases ‘meal plan’ and ‘meal prep’ interchangeably, however they aren’t actually one and the same. Meal planning is all about placing collectively a list of recipes for a given interval of time so that you can create grocery lists to make sure you always have the ingredients on hand, whereas meal prepping involves preparing meals forward of time. Both are important, and this post has lots of tips and hacks to assist you learn how to do each so that you can create wholesome weekly menus and stick to them with out spending hours within the kitchen.
9 Lazy Meal Prep Tips for Weight Loss
1. START WITH A PLAN
While that is a post on lazy meal prep tips, an important a half of being environment friendly within the kitchen is placing a plan in place and sticking to it.
Pick a day/time every week to sit down and map out your meals for the subsequent 7 days. It may really feel like a drag at first, however you’ll be amazed at how a lot cash and time you’ll save by blocking off 10-15 minutes to plan out your menu every week. Having a plan will additionally allow you to create a grasp grocery list so that you aren’t constantly discovering your self with out key ingredients, which will reduce the variety of times you want to run to the grocery retailer all through the week.
2. COMPILE A LIST OF EASY RECIPES WITH COMMON INGREDIENTS
If you’re looking for lazy meal prep tips, one other factor you are able to do to assist streamline how issues function in your kitchen is to curate a list of easy recipes that use the identical ingredients. This may take a little practice, however it will assist reduce meals waste, lower your grocery bill, and prevent tons of time within the kitchen.
If you struggle with planning a quantity of recipes utilizing similar ingredients, you can additionally make the identical meal 2+ times within the identical week, otherwise you could make a big sufficient batch that you have leftovers for lunch the subsequent day.
3. INVEST IN THE ESSENTIALS
No matter how dedicated you are to planning and prepping your meals and ingredients forward of time, you’ll fall completely flat if you don’t have the proper meal prep instruments and storage containers on hand. There are additionally a lot of kitchen necessities you can make investments in to assist speed up the time it takes to prep and cook your meals whereas additionally decreasing the quantity of dishes you have to clear up on the finish of every meal.
Here are 6 lazy meal prep must-haves we swear by!
- Food processor. I used to think meals processors were a puree-only kitchen appliance, however they additionally allow you to slice, shred, and mince veggies in mere minutes.
- Vegetable chopper. If you want to chop, slice, and/or julienne a lot of veggies in a single go, that is a nice time-saver!
- Clear meals storage containers. Having a good high quality set of stackable storage containers in various sizes is key when it involves meal prep. It retains your fridge organized, and also you can simply discover and seize no matter you want when it comes time to cook.
- Mason jars. Mason jars are one other must-have as you can use them to meal prep and retailer scrumptious portable meals and snacks like in a single day oats, smoothies, salads, and soups.
- Sheet pans. When it involves lazy meal prep tips, sheet pan dinners are on the highest of my list! Make sure you have a few sheet pans on hand and see below for a hyperlink to a few of my favourite sheet pan dinner recipes!
- Instant pot. A list of lazy meal prep tips wouldn’t be full with out collectively with suggestions on an instant pot, would it?! This kitchen equipment serves as a pressure cooker, rice cooker, slow cooker, steamer, and it can additionally make yogurt and also you can use it to sauté veggies to boot!
4. ORGANIZE YOUR GROCERY LISTS BY DEPARTMENT
Once you’ve invested in all of your meal prep necessities and deliberate your weekly menu, it’s time to create your grocery list. A nice time-saving hack is to organize your list by department. This makes the entire shopping expertise a lot extra environment friendly as you can guarantee all of the items you want to meal prep when you get home are kept together, and I discover I am a lot much less likely to forget issues when they’re damaged into sections.
5. BUY PRE-MADE & PRE-CHOPPED WHERE POSSIBLE
While store-bought sauces and dips, and pre-cut veggies and fruits have a tendency to be a tad extra expensive, they’re a nice option for these that don’t have a lot of time to spend within the kitchen. Consider the time you have available to you, and pick and select accordingly. If you have the time and desire to cook up a batch of your grandma’s well-known spaghetti sauce this week, great! But if you have to go for the stuff in a jar subsequent week, don’t beat your self up over it.
6. GET YOUR GROCERIES DELIVERED
If you’re looking for lazy meal prep tips, ordering your groceries on-line for pick-up or supply is clearly one factor you ought to consider. It’s extremely convenient, and many companies have platforms in place that will allow you to speak with your private shopper in actual time to allow them to make substitutions for you as needed.
7. MEAL PREP IMMEDIATELY AFTER YOU SHOP
While you may not really feel like chopping, slicing, and dicing fruits and veggies after battling the crowds on the grocery store, that extra 30-60 minutes can prevent a lot time over the course of a week. Experience has taught me that I am much less likely to do all of my weekly meal prep in a single pass if I put everything within the fridge and leave it for one other time. Since I’m already in meals mode when I get home from the grocery store, it’s a lot simpler to buckle down and get it done.
8. GET CREATIVE WITH LEFTOVERS
Another one of my favourite lazy meal prep tips is to plan your dinners such that you have leftovers for lunch the subsequent day. Not solely does this prevent pointless time within the kitchen, however it’ll additionally cut down on meals waste. You can both double your recipes to make sure you have sufficient leftover, otherwise you can get creative. For example, I like to create energy bowls with leftover roasted veggies and chicken utilizing spinach, quinoa, avocado, and a little dressing. YUM!
9. TRY THESE MEAL PREP MEALS!
If you looked for ‘lazy meal prep tips’ hoping you’d discover particular recipes you can prep forward of time and enjoy all through the week, we’ve linked to our favorites below!
11 oatmeal in a jar recipes
40 make forward breakfast smoothies
50 packable mason jar meals
44 sheet pan dinners
30 wholesome instant pot recipes
I hope this assortment of lazy meal prep tips saves you cash and time every week whereas additionally permitting you to stay to your wholesome consuming goals!
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