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Meal prep for busy people!

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Home » Recipes » Make-Ahead » 36 Easy, Healthy Meal Prep Ideas {Ready in 1 Hour!}

36 Easy, Healthy Meal Prep Ideas {Ready in 1 Hour!}

1/27/22

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This is the list of the very Best Meal Prep Ideas on the internet! Get organized for the work week with these breakfast, lunch and dinner meal prep recipes. 

The Very Best Meal Prep Ideas

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Choosing meal prep recipes

Besides choosing recipes with ingredients that you enjoy eating, look at the preparation method for the meal prep recipes.

You want to find recipes that make it easy to prepare a large batch at one time. Even better is if it requires little oversight while cooking. That way you can do other things while you are cooking. You could even prepare several meals at one time to put in individual containers.

Some of the easiest cooking methods for meal prep are:

  • Instant Pot – not only does this cook quickly, but you can put a large amount of food in the Instant Pot. Plus, you can set it and forget it!
  • Sheet pan – sheet pan recipes cook all the ingredients on one pan.
  • Slow cooker – while this takes awhile, it cooks without any need to watch it.
  • One pot – soups or other meals that are all cooked in one pot are just as easy as sheet pan recipes.
  • Skillet – these recipes come together in one pan, making clean up super simple.
  • Meal prep bowls

Try ingredient prep instead of meal prep

One of my favourite ways to meal prep without having to spend all day in the kitchen is to do some ingredient prep, aka food prep.

Check out my video tutorial on the process and check out my food prep process, as well as information on how to meal prep.

DOWNLOAD YOUR 7-DAY MEAL PLAN HERE.

The easiest ways to meal prep

There are several methods of meal prep. Try any of them to find what works best for your family and busy schedule. Experiment with these scheduling techniques to make the most of your limited meal prep time:

  • Pick one day per week to do all the work. Find a day you have a few hours to dedicate to preparing meals. After that, you will have most of the work done for the entire week!
  • Just prep the ingredients. Instead of completely cooking each meal, prepare the ingredients to make less work for yourself the day you cook. Cut veggies, cook the meat or prepare grains. This is great prep for dump meals that go in the crock pot or Instant Pot. This method is perfect for dinners where you will need to cook for the whole family. All the prep work is done and you only have to cook.
  • Double your favorite recipes. You don’t have to search for new recipes if you want to start to meal prep. Double some of your favorite recipes each time you make them. You’ll have plenty left over for lunches or to freeze for later.
  • Try a buffet style meal prep. Prepare a wide variety of ingredients that can be combined in any number of ways. Cook the meat. Saute or steam the veggies. Hard boil some eggs. Prepare grains. Dice some fruit. Then you can combine the ingredients in any way that sounds good to you with any type of sauce when you are ready to eat.

How many meal prep recipes should you make in a week?

This really depends on the number of people you are feeding. Check out my meal planning post if you need more help with this.

If you are only cooking for one, two or three meals each week will be plenty. Check out my meal prepping for one post for more tips on cooking for one.

If you have to feed a family, you may need up to five each week.

Most recipes make four to six servings. Use this information to plan how many meal prep recipes you will need.

Make sure you have the right equipment for meal prep ideas. I prefer to use glass storage containers. Plastic can leach into your food and you can't reheat your food in it. Plus, glass is durable and easily washable. Make sure you buy containers with lids that fit tightly. Mason jars also work great for storing your pre-made meals.

Finally, check out my meal prep snack ideas before browsing for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE 7-DAY MEAL PREP MEAL PLAN HERE.

Meal prep breakfasts

You'll find my favourite meal prep, make-ahead breakfasts below. They're great to grab on your way out the door, and you can even freeze some of them so that you have plenty of variety for your first meal of the day!

The Very Best Meal Prep Ideas

  • Meal Prep Oatmeal Cups
  • Egg and Sausage McMuffin
  • Bacon Wrapped Egg Cups
  • Meal Prep Yogurt Parfaits
  • Breakfast Quesadillas
  • Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

The Very Best Meal Prep Ideas

  • Sheet Pan Egg Bake
  • Crockpot Breakfast Casserole
  • Almond Flour Pancakes
  • Freezer Breakfast Burritos
  • Sweet Potato Hash
  • Mini Breakfast Pizzas

Meal prep lunches

Typically I eat dinner leftovers for lunch the next day, but that's because I only have myself to cook for. If you're cooking for more people and you're unlikely to have leftovers, then you may want to prep a set of lunches for yourself. Here are my fave ideas below, and you can find more meal prep lunch recipes here.

The Very Best Meal Prep Ideas

  • Chicken Spring Roll Jars
  • Honey Sesame Chicken Bowls
  • Dynamite Shrimp Sushi Bowls
  • Baked Falafel Lettuce Wraps
  • Crockpot BBQ Chicken
  • Buffalo Chicken Ranch Meal Prep

The Very Best Meal Prep Ideas

  • Bento Lunch Boxes
  • Honey Sriracha Meal Prep
  • Jerk Chicken Bowls
  • Peanut Chicken Meal Prep
  • Sweet Chili Chicken Meal Prep
  • Big Mac Salad Jars

Meal prep dinners

You can either cook dinner fresh each night, or prep some meals ahead of time for those busy nights (check out my fave dinner ideas). I prefer slow cooker and Instant Pot meal prep for dinners because you can have everything cooking all day or just dump everything and push start. However, you may also want to actually cook and portion out food for nights where you have activities in the evening. These recipes are better suited towards dinner and will give you that hot meal you're looking for.

The Very Best Meal Prep Ideas

  • Ground Turkey Stir Fry
  • Sheet Pan Zucchini Chicken Meatballs
  • Meal Prep Butter Chicken
  • Cashew Chicken Meal Prep Bowls
  • Pesto Pasta Meal Prep
  • Meal Prep Veggie Stir Fry

The Very Best Meal Prep Ideas

  • Sheet Pan Chicken Tandoori
  • Crockpot Sweet & Sour Chicken
  • Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup
  • Coconut Mango Chicken Meal Prep
  • Greek Chicken Souvlaki Bowls
  • Korean Chicken Meal Prep

Helpful meal prep tools

  • Grab some glass meal prep bowls to pack up your weekly lunches.
  • Meal prep with your freezer! Butcher Box, conveniently delivers a variety of meats to your door frozen.
  • Use these Ziploc bag holders if you're preparing freezer meals
  • Freeze and refrigerate leftovers in round glass microwave-safe bowls with lids

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE 7-DAY MEAL PREP MEAL PLAN HERE.

Honey Sriracha Chicken Meal Prep Bowls

36 Easy, Healthy Meal Prep Ideas {Ready in 1 Hour!}

This is the list of the very Best Meal Prep Ideas on the internet! Get organized for the work week with these breakfast, lunch and dinner meal prep recipes
4.86 from 7 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 300kcal
Author: Taylor Stinson

Ingredients

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Instructions

  • Click on over to each recipe linked to in the blog post.

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Nutrition

Calories: 300kcal
Tried this Recipe? Tag me Today!Mention @GirlonBloor or tag #girlonbloor!

This is the list of the very Best Meal Prep Ideas on the internet! Get organized for the work week with these breakfast, lunch and dinner meal prep recipes #mealprep #recipes #healthy This is the list of the very Best Meal Prep Ideas on the internet! Get organized for the work week with these breakfast, lunch and dinner meal prep recipes #mealprep #recipes #healthy This is the list of the very Best Meal Prep Ideas on the internet! Get organized for the work week with these breakfast, lunch and dinner meal prep recipes #mealprep #recipes #healthy

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About Taylor Stinson

Hey there, my name's Taylor! I’m the founder of The Girl on Bloor, a food blog where I share healthy meal prep recipes for busy people. I'm a busy city girl living in downtown Toronto on (you guessed it!) Bloor Street. I've got 10 years experience meal prepping, along with a Master's degree in journalism, and you can find my work across the internet featured on publications such as Buzzfeed, HuffPost, Women's Health, Reader's Digest and more. I also run the awesome 5-Day Meal Prep Challenge, which is a free email course and Facebook group where I share my meal planning strategies and easy meal prep tips and recipes. Be sure to check out my free beginner’s guide to meal prep and follow me on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to get my latest recipes and meal prep tips!

Comments

  1. Hasia says

    May 28, 2022 at 00:21

    5 stars
    Awesome recipes, especially for busy people who want to save money and stay healthy on the go!!!
    Amazing ideas!!!
    Will definitely give a try!!!
    🤤

    Reply
  2. Tia Diane Fox says

    March 12, 2021 at 10:52

    So excited to try these!!

    Reply
  3. Tammy says

    January 7, 2021 at 14:40

    I have tried many of your recipes, they’re delicious, easy to cook, and ingredients are easy to source. I’ve been following you for twin years and it has helped me keep a healthy lifestyle – and a healthy weigh! Thanks a lot!

    Reply
    • Taylor Stinson says

      January 8, 2021 at 16:11

      Thank you so much for the kind words Tammy, I really appreciate it! 🙂

      Reply
  4. Lilija Prialgauskiene says

    January 7, 2021 at 14:08

    5 stars
    Love you ideas, everything looks so easy to make and delicious.

    Reply
  5. Lyss says

    February 10, 2020 at 10:34

    Loved all of you videos! Will definitely make. Thanks!

    Reply

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Taylor Stinson

Oh hey there, welcome!!

I'm Taylor Stinson, a busy city girl living in downtown Toronto. Looking to switch up your weekly meal prep routine? I've got you covered with healthy recipes and meal planning resources. Join 1.5 million other monthly readers and dive in! MORE ABOUT ME..

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