Most Sundays I spend about an hour to an hour and a half meal prepping for the week. Not only does this save money, but it also ensures you have lunches and dinners ready to go that you want to eat and are healthier than what you would pick up on the go.

My thought process with this hour or so a week is to make my week easier, so I prep 50% of my husband and my meals ahead of time for grab-and-go lunches and to help out on the nights when I have to work late, want to go to yoga or to the gym.

Before you are like this girl is nuts, I can’t part from Netflix for 2 hours on a Sunday! Here’s the why.

I spend around $25 per week on lunch ingredients and I prep at least 6 lunches for us a week. Considering lunches when we eat out during the week on average cost us $10 per lunch, we are saving a roughly $35 a week on lunch alone which is conservatively $1,700 per year. 

That’s the cost of a flight to Miami and a hotel for the week– are you feeling inspired yet?

Also- this isn’t meal prepping for a muscle competition or gains, so if your looking for a post on macros and ground turkey, my apologies.

This is about saving time where it matters, sanity and money.

Here’s how I break it down:

Lunches: I prep 3 meals (meat, veggie & carb) and 3 salads on Sunday for us to grab throughout the week. That leaves us 3 days covered where we don’t have to think about anything besides if we can bare a salad again or not.

Dinners (Monday – Thursday): 

• I cook extra protein (think 1 pork tenderloin or 3 chicken breasts), cut up veggies and washed lettuce for 1-2 nights where we both get home late and we have to start cooking around 7:30 – 8 PM.
• I make sure to have ingredients to make one crock pot meal before I leave for work at least once a week

 

 

Let me walk you through it.

Lunches this week:

• Roast asparagus and radishes with pork tenderloin and a sweet potato.  
• Southwest salad

I start with pre-heating the oven to 400 F and immediately throw in 3 sweet potatoes. They are the easiest thing to bake. Wrap them in foil, throw in the oven at 400 F and set the timer for 1 hr. At 1 hr, check them, if they seem done, they are. Easy.

While the oven is going with the sweet potato, I prep two pork tenderloins with seasoning. My go to is use a pork rub you can get at the grocery store, but we got our pork rub at Iron Works BBQ on a trip to Austin, Texas (I know, I know, I know) and it’s delicious. Throw them in for about 30 mins.

While that is cooking, I prep my veggies for roasting with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Next, I chop, wash and assemble my lettuce and veggies for the salads.

I use half of the washed and dried lettuce for the 3 prepped salads, the other half I store in a ziplock bag with a piece of dry paper towel to wick away moisture.

 

I prep each salad with the salad itself and a small container of dressing in the same container.

Southwest Salad – romaine, spinach, corn, bell peppers, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, shredded cheddar.

Southwest dressing:  

• 1 Tbsp of ranch
• 1Tbsp of low fat sour cream
• 1Tbsp of salsa

 

 

By the time salads are prepped and in the fridge, the pork tenderloin is done, so I take that out and let it rest. I throw in the roasted veggies for 15 minutes into the oven still at 400 F, flipping once in between.

Once the veggies are done roasting, the potatoes and pork tenderloin is usually all done, so I start assembling the containers with tenderloin, half a potato or a whole, depending on the size, salt and pepper.

 

Dinners for the week:

I don’t prep entire dinners that you just have to microwave like I do for lunch, but I do prep some things to make it slightly easier.

1 protein ready to go: 

I had an entire pork tenderloin left over this week for us to use for at least two dinners after work. You can use it in a quick stir fry by slicing it into strips with broccoli and onions, you can slice it thin and put on a sandwich with cheddar and bbq sauce, or just throw one of those steamer bags of green beans in the microwave and eat it with that.

Like I said earlier, most weeks I have cooked chicken breast to use in quick stir fries, salads or wraps, pork tenderloin is a little fancier.

Prepped lettuce and veggies for a quick salad:

I always have washed lettuce ready to go (even if it’s pre-washed mixed greens) so we can always whip up a quick salad for dinner with garbanzo beans or leftover chicken.

I also always have cherry tomatoes and baby carrots so you don’t even need to dirty a knife or cutting board to throw something together

Carbs! Ack! 

On Sundays I also sometimes will make a big pot of quinoa or brown rice to have with dinners or instead of a sweet potato in the lunches. I like having a cooked grain to make a salad after getting home late or eat with what I made in the crockpot.

Crockpot

One day a week I throw a few chicken breasts with veggies and a jar of salsa on low for 7 hours, or ground turkey, onions, beans and chili seasoning for chili that is ready when I walk through the door. Sometimes I just throw a bunch of stuff in and hope it comes out and it usually does.

Use your Freezer to help you

Your freezer is your friend. Like your incredible sous chef friend. If I make soup, I try to make extra to throw a serving or two in the freezer. If you have leftover brown rice from Chinese take-out, throw it in the freezer so you can microwave it for instant rice. I always have things like veggie burgers, frozen falafel, frozen meatballs or a frozen pizza in there for those days when all you want to do is rip off some plastic and push some buttons. These little backup plans are incredibly easy ways to save money and your sanity.

I’ll meet you in Miami.