A Beginner’s Guide to Meal Prep: Start With Just 3 Meals
Meal prep can sound like one of those things that requires an entire Sunday afternoon, a fridge full of matching containers and a week’s worth of identical meals lined up and ready to go, but it really doesn’t have to be that complicated.
If you’re new to meal prep, one of the easiest ways to get started is to forget about preparing seven completely different dinners and simply choose three good meals that can work a little harder for you throughout the week.
The goal isn’t to cook everything in advance. It’s to make sure that when Wednesday evening rolls around and everyone is hungry, you already have something substantial in the fridge that can become dinner with very little effort.
Start With Three Meals, Not Seven
When choosing your meals, look for recipes that store well, reheat well and can be served in more than one way, because that is where meal prep really starts to save you time.
A pot of chilli, for example, doesn’t have to mean eating chilli five nights in a row.
Make a generous batch and serve it over rice one night, then turn the leftovers into tacos the next. You have technically cooked one meal, but you’ve created two dinners that feel completely different.
The same idea can be applied to almost anything you prepare ahead of time: think about how you can repurpose the food, rather than simply how many portions you can fit into containers.
Meal One: Chilli Con Carne
A hearty chilli con carne is one of the easiest places to start because it is filling, versatile and arguably gets even better after a night in the refrigerator.
Prepare a large pot with your favourite combination of beef, tomatoes, beans, vegetables and spices, then plan to use it in two different ways.
For the first dinner, serve it over rice with avocado, fresh herbs or whatever toppings you enjoy. The following night, warm the remaining chilli and use it as a taco filling with gluten-free tortillas, shredded lettuce, tomato, avocado and a squeeze of lime. You could even use the leftovers for a quick lunch with a baked potato or over a simple salad. One batch, several meals, and very little additional cooking.
Meal Two: Chicken Soup
Next, make a big pot of chicken soup, because having a nourishing soup ready in the fridge is one of the simplest ways to make a busy week feel more manageable.
A good chicken soup can be as simple or elaborate as you like, with chicken, broth, carrots, celery, onion, herbs and whatever vegetables you have available, and it works particularly well as a meal-prep option because it reheats beautifully.
Serve it as a complete dinner with a slice of gluten-free bread for dunking, or make it your easy lunch on a day when you don’t have much time to think about food.
You can also change it slightly from one serving to the next by adding fresh herbs, lemon, cooked rice or another handful of vegetables, so it doesn’t feel quite so much like you’re eating the exact same bowl of soup every time.
The trick with meal prep isn’t necessarily making more complicated food; it’s making good food available before you’re hungry.
Meal Three: Slow-Cooked Shredded Beef
For your third meal, choose something that gives you another flexible base for the week, such as slow-cooked shredded beef.
A large piece of beef cooked slowly with onions, garlic, herbs and a flavourful cooking liquid can become the starting point for several different meals without requiring much work once it is cooking. Serve it with roasted vegetables and potatoes for one dinner, then use the leftovers in bowls, stuffed baked potatoes, tacos or alongside a simple salad.
If you prefer chicken, the same approach works beautifully with slow-cooked or roasted chicken, particularly if you use the leftovers in wraps, salads or rice bowls. The important part is choosing something your household actually enjoys eating, because meal prep shouldn’t leave you staring into the refrigerator on Thursday wondering why you prepared four portions of something nobody wants.
Keep the Rest of the Week Simple
Once you have three dinners prepared or planned, resist the urge to fill every remaining space in your fridge.
Breakfast can be something simple like eggs, overnight oats, fruit or a smoothie, while lunches can come from leftovers, soup or whatever you already have prepared.
You can also keep a few easy foods on hand for the moments when plans change, because even the best meal-prep system has to allow for real life.
And this is where prepared meal delivery can be particularly useful. Sometimes the smartest meal prep is recognising that you don’t actually need to cook every meal yourself.
Whether you’re cooking a big pot of chilli on Sunday, preparing soup for the week or ordering a few ready-to-eat meals, the principle is the same: make the healthy choice easier to reach when life gets busy.
Meal Prep Should Make Your Week Easier
If you’re completely new to meal prep, three meals are plenty to start with. Choose one meal that can be served in different ways, one soup or stew that reheats well, and one protein-based meal that can be turned into bowls, wraps or simple dinners throughout the week. Once you’ve done that a few times, you’ll start to figure out what your household actually eats, what keeps well in the refrigerator and which meals genuinely save you time.
Meal prep doesn’t need to mean spending your entire weekend cooking. Sometimes it’s simply about doing a little preparation while you have the time, so that later in the week, when you’re tired and hungry, dinner is already halfway taken care of.
