Meal planning and meal prep for the week can either be the best or worst choice you make. We want to help make it the best with these 6 keys to doing it successfully.
Meal planning and preparation can be the most impactful things you do all week, if you let it. Come Tuesday night, after you’ve worked a long day, the last thing you want is to spend hours in the kitchen. But when you learn how to execute meal prep in a way that suits you, you’ll never have to wonder what you’ll make for dinner. You’ll have a plan, and even better, it’s prepped and ready to go.
I know, meal planning and prep can sometimes be a real drag. No one wants to waste their precious weekend hours working in the kitchen when they could be relaxing and enjoying the time away from the workday.
The good news is, there is a middle ground. A place where you can have delicious meals at your fingertips, prepared and ready to cook, without wasting your life.
Here are the six keys to successful meal planning.
1. Make Meal Planning Specific To You
Our lives, needs, cravings, and desires are all a little different. That’s why it’s nearly impossible for anyone to create the ‘perfect’ meal plan for you. The only way to meal plan is the way that works for you. Pay attention to your way.
You may be someone who prefers to keep dinners spontaneous but needs something prepped and ready for breakfast and lunch. Instead of focusing on prepping full meals, focus on prepping ingredients that will help you build a healthy breakfast and lunch. Prepping simple ingredients allows you to be flexible with what you eat while ensuring that you eat.
Or maybe you’re like me. You enjoy and even prefer using leftovers for breakfast and lunch, but need help with dinner. In this case, it’s best to prep for that knowing that if you can cook a larger dinner, you’ll use it as meals for breakfast and lunch.
Take some time to understand your current season of life, your needs, and your preferred approach to planning and preparation. From that, create a meal plan and prep guide tailored to your lifestyle.
2. Focus on Ingredients, Not Meals
Let’s work to debunk two of the most common hurdles we hear about meal planning:
- You’re going to get bored eating the same foods every day.
- You don’t have time to cook six full meals (let alone one) for the week.
The good news, with the meal prep, batch cooking style of meal planning we’ve laid out, you can avoid both of these issues. The secret ingredient that changes everything? Focus on preparing ingredients, not whole meals.
It’s the approach we take in our Batch Cooking Basics Guide. Learn how inside.
Here’s how it works. Pick one protein, one grain, one veggie, one salad, and one dressing or sauce that complement one another and prep just those things. From there, you can use those prepped ingredients to layer into any number of different meals.
This method beats boredom, repetition, and the need for excess ingredients and complicated recipes. Plus, it’s budget-friendly and saves hours in the kitchen.
You can use this method while changing up your ingredients weekly to keep the ideas seasonal and fresh.
Learn more about doing this inside our Batch Cooking Basics Guide here.
3. Create a Solid Plan
Now that you’ve determined what meals sound best, and which ingredients you’ll be working with, ask yourself these questions:
1. What are the most stressful meals to create during the week: breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks?
If you know you’re someone who skips breakfast more than you’d like, plan on prepping slow cooker oatmeal to warm up in the office or egg muffin cups to grab on your way out the door. Or if lunch is hard for you, you opt for fast food or skip it altogether, prep the fixings for a lunch you can layer.
2. How many eaters am I prepping for?
Knowing how many meals and people you are preparing for helps you choose the recipes you will make. You will need to re-evaluate this weekly as things change. You might have a party on a Tuesday night or a kids’ activity on Thursday. Know your schedule and build from there.
3. Are you a leftover lover or a fresh foodie?
Some people are perfectly okay with eating leftovers for four meals in a row. Others? Not so much. Know your style.
Create space to scroll through your favorite food blogs or flip through your cookbooks for ideas of ingredient combinations that work together. When you have a plan, you can create a grocery list to gather the necessary ingredients to start preparing.
Grab your Grocery Shopping List here
4. Schedule It In
The one thing we know about time is that if you don’t fill it, it will fill itself. You can also assume that your time probably won’t be filled with meal planning and prep unless you schedule it. Unless, of course, this is your jam.
Take a look at your schedule and set a time to meal prep and make a date with your kitchen. If you can commit to this as a regular appointment, it will more easily become a habit. Don’t overthink it or make it become what it doesn’t need to be. Even an hour of prep time can save you three to four during the week.
5. Get the Right Equipment
From containers to cutting boards, having the right tools can make this process much less painful and maybe even enjoyable. That’s what we’re going for, to enjoy the process. You won’t stick with what you hate. Find a way to enjoy it, even if that means cranking some tunes and singing as you work.
Another way to enjoy the process is to ensure you have the right essentials to make meal planning simple.
Meal Prep Utensils:
- Worth every penny, there’s no greater kitchen utensil than this.
- The one essential you shouldn’t skimp on – a solid wood cutting board.
- Change up your veggie game with this.
- You can cook an entire meal on these.
- Slow-cooked in less time, this is all the rage, and we know why.
Storage Containers:
- These are great for stacking, packing, or freezing.
- We use these to pack soups in or extra broth, and you have to get these lids.
- The smaller ones are great for sauces, juices, and homemade condiments.
6. Beat Meal Prep Shaming
From the beautiful and perfectly portioned meals you see others posting online to the endless meal plans and meal prep guides available online and in magazines everywhere these days, meal prep can seem overwhelming. We get it. It looks easy, but it can seem daunting. You may have even tapped your toe in the water only to see how much time and effort meal planning in the wrong way can become, so you’ve just thrown in the towel.
Instead of giving up, create your way. When you let go of how someone else told you to do it and find your own way, you’ll kick meal prep shame to the curb. The only way that works is if it’s your way.
Start easy, and keep it simple. Prepare just one ingredient that can be used in two or three dishes. Don’t feel like you aren’t successful if you don’t prep for the whole week. The point of meal prep is to create more time to enjoy your life, while keeping your meals simple.
Meal prep and planning should never add more stress to your life. The key is to use it to reduce stress.
Make Planning Easier with the 2026 Nourished Planner
You can purchase your very own 2026 Nourished Planner and change the way you live. Last year’s planner sold out quickly, so don’t delay! These won’t be around all year!
To see a quick run-down of what you can expect in this year’s version of the 2026 planner, click here.
Don’t forget to check out our Batch Cooking Basics Guide, where you’ll learn the real secrets to successful meal prep, and it starts with just a few simple recipes.
