10 Ways to Spend Less Time Meal Prepping

If you’re spending hours meal prepping every week, you could be spending a few hours too many. Meal prepping is good for healthy eating, saving money, and setting your week up for success — but you’re not getting the most out of it if it’s not saving you time, too.

Below are 10 ways you can shave time off your meal prep, so you can spend more time doing things you enjoy with your weekend, be it brunching, wine tasting, hiking, or following dogs on Instagram. (Just me…?)

10 Ways to Save Time Meal Prepping

1. Use services like Instacart to do the grocery shopping for you.
2. Purchase pre-washed lettuce and pre-cut veggies like carrot shreds, brussel sprouts, etc.
3. Buy pre-packaged dips like guacamole or hummus. Just read the food label to make sure there aren’t hidden preservatives or unreadable ingredients! Personally, I trust Primal Kitchen for clean salad dressings and mayos.
4. Set staples on automatic re-order using services like Thrive Market or Amazon Fresh.
5. Get healthy prepackaged snacks through services like Nature Box, Graze and Urth Box.
6. Save a trip to the store when you forget something with one-hour delivery via Prime Now.
7. Cook all the food that requires an oven at once, versus in multiple batches.
8. While food cooks in the oven, prep your grab-and-go items like chopped veggies, fruits, overnight oats, etc. In 30 minutes, everything will be done at the same time!
9. Master the cookie sheet dinner: put veggies on one side and meat on the other, then pop in the oven for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Put your feet up until the buzzer goes off!
10. Make friends with your crockpot (here are a few recipes to try).

If you want more ideas for making healthy eating easy in busy lives, reserve your seat at the free webinar: “Balance Without Losing Your Mind: Healthy Eating for Busy Professionals.”

This is part of a weekly series by Certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner Jessica Biber, NTP, of Taste of Health. This month, we’re featuring one new bite-size #foodforthought per week about meal prepping for busy professionals.