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A Beginner’s Guide To Food Prep. Follow these 5 simple steps to learn how to food prep. They will help you get organized and prepared so that your time prepping food is more productive and less stressful. Plus a step-by-step example!

Hi friends!

Just popping in today to share a few quick tips for planning a food prep session, especially for all you beginners out there. A couple weeks ago I taught you guys how to really zone in and figure out what time of day you struggle with the most with eating healthy and I’m hoping some of you did that and are now ready to try food prep! If you’re still feeling a bit overwhelmed, follow these five steps to plan a food prep session that will run smoothly and be productive and organized!

A Beginner’s Guide To Food Prep

Are you ready? Here we go:

1. Narrow your focus. If you missed it, start by reading my post on how to find your food prep focus area). This is especially important for your first few food prep sessions. The number one reason people give up on food prep is that they try it once, get overwhelmed, spend way too long and get frustrated. And then they never do it again.
2. Plan it out. Do your research and pick a few recipes you want to make. Be sure to choose recipes that fit your focus area, whether it’s dinner, breakfast, snack time etc. Don’t forget to think about foods that aren’t really recipes but fit into your focus area like chopped veggies, hard boiled eggs etc.
3. Stock up. Make a list and grocery shop to get everything you need
4. Get organized. Divide your list into different sections: a) oven b)slow cooker/instant pot etc c) stovetop d) counter. Put everything on your recipe list into a section. Then make a plan about the order you want to do things in (see additional tips below). Be sure to prioritize in order of importance to you.
5. Get to work. Set a timer to see how long it takes you. If you’ve prioritized your list in order of importance, you can get the most important things done and then stop if it starts taking too long.

A few tips:

• Don’t go overboard. Most things will probably take you a little longer than you plan for, so don’t be too overzealous.
• Always focus on the oven first. Start by prepping something so it’s ready to go in as soon as the oven is preheated. As soon as you put something in, prep the next thing while it cooks so it’s ready to go in when the first thing is done. After you’re done prepping things for the oven, move on to things you can start working on the stovetop or in the crockpot or Instant Pot. And finally, fill in any extra time with things you can do on the counter like chopping veggies.
• Once you start to get the hang of it, you can expand your food prep. Either prep more stuff, or expand from your focus area and try making things for both breakfast AND dinner or lunch AND snack time.

Want an example? Here’s a hypothetical food prep session using these steps!

Step 1: You’ve done your homework and figured out that snack time is your problem area. You decide to do a food prep session to help you prepare some healthy snacks to have on hand for a busy week.

Step 2: After doing some online searching, you decide to prep the following:

• Lemon Energy Balls
• Sweet Potato Bites
• Egg Wraps
• Green Smoothie Snack Bars
• Nut-Free Toddler Trail Mix
• Hummus Topping

Step 3: You make a grocery list which might look something like:

• Dates
• Lemon
• Almonds
• Pumpkin Seeds
• Chia Seeds
• Eggs
• Peanut Butter
• Banana
• Sweet Potatoes
• Spinach
• Plain Yogurt
• Rolled Oats
• Maple Syrup
• Cereal
• Chocolate Covered Sunflower Seeds
• Red peppers
• Tomato
• Cucumber
• Onion
• Feta Cheese
• Hummus

Step 4: You divide your list into areas of the kitchen:

• Oven – Sweet Potato Bites, Green Smoothie Snack Bars
• Stove – Egg Wraps
• Counter – Lemon Energy Balls, Trail Mix, Hummus Topping

And then you plan things out, deciding that the sweet potato bites, snack bars, hummus topping and egg wraps are most important:

1. Preheat oven, prepare the batter for sweet potato bites. Chop some vegetables for the hummus topping if you have time before the oven is preheated.
2. Bake Sweet Potato Bites and prep Green Smoothie Bars. Finish chopping vegetables with the remaining time.
3. Remove Sweet Potato Bites and bake Green Smoothie Bars.
4. Make Egg Wraps.
5. Make Lemon Energy Balls
6. Make Trail Mix if time.

Step 5: Follow your plan! You should have time to make the sweet potato bites, hummus topping, green smoothie bars and egg wraps in an hour. If you have more time, keep going and make the energy balls and then you may or may not decide to skip the trail mix depending on how long you’ve been at it.

Make sense? Good! Now hop on the food prep train and go give it a try!

[clickToTweet tweet=”Follow these 5 simple steps to learn how to plan a successful food prep session!” quote=”Follow these 5 simple steps to learn how to plan a successful food prep session!”]

For more tips check out my How To Food Prep – 5 Tips For Beginners post or buy my Ultimate Guide To Food Prep ebook!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Here’s a food prep session breakdown – An in-depth look at what I prepped, the order I did things in and how I got it all done in one hour! Plus a look at the meals we ate during the week.

Hi friends!

One of the most frequent questions I get is how I can possibly get so much food prep done every Sunday. Let me start by saying that I’ve had a lot of practice. You shouldn’t look at one of my food prep sessions and think you’ll be able to do as much as I do on your first few tries. Just like anything else, it takes practice. Be sure to check out last week’s post about How To Find Your Food Prep Focus Area and this post with food prep tips for beginners if you’re just getting started.

Anyways, I thought it might be helpful to show you one of my prep sessions and then give you a by-the-minute- breakdown to show you the order I did things in and how long it took me.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Just how much food can you prep in an hour? Here’s a by-the-minute breakdown to show you!” quote=”Just how much food can you prep in an hour? Here’s a by-the-minute breakdown to show you!”]

So, a couple Sundays ago, I turned my camera on and started a timer to show you just how much you can get done in a one hour food prep session, even with toddler interruptions and a fussy baby. Here’s a timelapse of my hour of prep:

As you can see, you can get a lot done in an hour with a little practice! Here’s what I prepped:

• Ground Beef
• Chopped veggies
• Lettuce
• Farro
• Sweet Potato Bites
• Hummus Topping
• Sweet Potato Protein Cookies
• Instant Pot Hummus Chicken
• Egg Wraps
• Roasted Potatoes
• Oatmeal

And here’s the breakdown of how I did things:

So there you go! Like I’ve mentioned before, I don’t prep every single thing we eat. I still cook during the week and we go out to eat a few times. But, to give you an idea of how we use the prep I do, I tried to take pictures of most of our meals for the following week. I missed a few…but this should give you a pretty good idea of how I use my prep to make life easier!

Monday:
Breakfast: Most weeks lately I’ve been making 5 Minute Breakfast Hash for hubby and I but I didn’t make any this week so we ate a few different things. This day we ate peanut butter toast (Crazy Richard’s Peanut Butter on Dave’s Killer Bread) and fruit, plus coffee (unpictured). Squish eats the oatmeal and eggs  I prep ahead of time cold so all I had to do was scoop some oatmeal onto his plate and add an egg and clementine.

Lunch: Hubby comes home for lunch since he works close by, but we all usually eat different things. I made Squish a quick quesadilla in the microwave with some of the ground beef I prepped and paired it with a lemon energy ball from the freezer (that I made in last week’s prep) and a sweet potato bite I prepped this week.  Hubby made a taco with some of the ground beef and added some of the hummus topping I prepped to the prepped lettuce for a quick salad. I ate some of the hummus chicken, the hummus topping and some Garden of Eatin’ tortilla chips.

Dinner: For dinner, I made a quick batch of Thai Chicken Meatballs after we got home from the gym. They take about 5 minutes to mix up and 20 minutes to bake. I paired it with some Steamfresh cauliflower rice for hubby and some of the farro I prepped for me….plus some roasted green beans that I threw in the oven on another baking sheet while the meatballs were cooking.  Squish got a meatball with some cauliflower rice, a sweet potato bite and some strawberries.

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Squish had a repeat of oatmeal, egg wrap and fruit. Hubby and I had avocado toast topped with a fried egg and fruit, plus one of my prepped sweet potato cookies for me!

Lunch: Hubby had some of the prepped hummus chicken and potatoes topped with avocado and some fruit. Chase had a leftover meatball with ketchup, clementine, Siggis 4% plain  yogurt and carrots with humms.  I had a repeat of Monday’s lunch – chicken, hummus topping and chips and turned them into Mediterranean chicken nachos.

Dinner: For dinner I used some of the thin-sliced chicken we bought, added some pesto, cheese and some bacon leftover from our breakfast for dinner on Sunday night to make Cheesy Pesto Chicken Rollups. Another easy dinner – 5 min to make, 20 min to bake. I paired with a side salad using the prepped lettuce and some cherry tomatoes and some prepped farro. Squish has some chicken, plus pears and a sweet potato that I microwaved while the chicken was cooking.

Wednesday:
Breakfast: All the egg wraps were gone so I changed things up and made him a warm fried egg. My friends at Dave’s Killer Bread started making bagels and they sent me some to try so I also gave him half a cinnmaon raisin bagel with peanut butter and some pears. I ate the other half of his pb bagel, plus an egg for myself and some coffee. Hubby got avocado toast with an egg.

Lunch: For lunch, Squish had the rest of his oatmeal, plus Plainville Farms turkey and applesauce. Hubby ate leftover pesto chicken and cauliflower rice and I ate leftover meatballs and green beans.

Dinner: We often go out to dinner on Thursday nights bc we don’t have to be at the gym but there were schedule changes this week so we decided to go out Wednesday night. I forgot to take pictures but Squish had half a ham and cheese sandwich with mandarin oranges and carrot sticks with ranch. I had a southwest chicken salad and hubby had a Korean hangar steak. Baby girl enjoyed sampling my arugula.

Thursday:
Breakfast: Squish had pears, pb&j toast and Love Grown Foods polar puffs. It was a crazy morning so all I had were 2 prepped sweet potato protein cookies and extra coffee. I quickly made some pb toast for hubby.

Lunch: Squish had the leftover half of his ham and cheese sandwich with strawberries and carrots. Hubby made a taco with the prepped beef and potatoes and a quick salad with the prepped lettuce and hummus topping. I used some of the prepped chicken and hummus topper to make a quesadilla and an apple. Later we shared a Blueberry Cauliflower Smoothie for a snack (I prep and portion these and put them in bags in the freezer so we just have to grab, dump in the blender, add liquid and blend.

Dinner: I tried out a new recipe – sheet pan honey lime shrimp – 2 min to prep and 10 to bake. It was ok but needs some work before sharing. Shrimp is not Squish’s favorite so he got hummus chicken with pickle, carrots and yogurt.

Friday:
Breakfast: Squish ate the last of his oatmeal with yogurt and fruit. Hubby and I had avocado toast with eggs.

Lunch: I have no clue. Hubby was off work and I can’t remember what we ate!

Dinner: We went to Buffalo Wild Wings after the gym. I got chicken tacos, Squish got naked chicken fingers with fruit and carrots and hubby got wings and cheesy potatoes.

Saturday:
We went out for a post-workout brunch at First Watch. I got avo toast with fried eggs, Squish got a scrambled egg with bacon and fruit and wheat toast and hubby got a bacon avocado omelet with potatoes.

That afternoon we went to a cookout with family and had burgers and brats.

As you can see, I still cook during the week but the prep helps meals come together more quickly and with less effort. Please also remember this isn’t all we eat. Snacks aren’t pictured and I eat a lot of them!

I hope this inspires you to try doing some food prep. I think sometimes it gets a bad rap because people feel like they have to prep every single thing they’re going to eat all week. Not true! Prepping full meals is great, but prepping components and various parts like I do can be just as helpful! When you get ready to prep, remember to keep multi-tasking in mind. You can have things going on the stove, oven and counter all at once!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Learn how to find your food prep focus area. Are you ready to try meal prep but feel overwhelmed? Use these tips to figure out how to focus your first few food prep sessions.

Hi Friends!

By now you guys probably know that I’m a food prep fanatic. I love sharing my weekly prep sessions with you guys but I get a lot of questions from people who have heard about food prep and want to try it, but feel very overwhelmed and aren’t sure where to start.

That’s what today’s post is all about. I want to teach you guys how to really zone in and get ready for a successful food prep session as a beginner.

Let me preface this by saying that I never prep every single thing we’re going to eat for the entire week. I don’t think it’s necessary. I also don’t always use this “focus area” method anymore. I’ve had a lot of practice and it’s not hard for me to prep a wide variety of stuff in a short amount of time. I do keep a few things in mind though: I prefer small meals + snacks vs big meals. I have a toddler that often needs to eat ASAP to avoid a meltdown. There are weeks when we’re at the gym until 7pm multiple nights. So, depending on our schedule, some weeks I focus more on dinner than others and most weeks I always make breakfasts and snacks a priority.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Want to try food prep but feel overwhelmed? Learn how to find your focus area to make it easier!” quote=”Want to try food prep but feel overwhelmed? Learn how to find your focus area to make it easier!”]

{A dinner-focused food prep of mine where I made a Maple Mustard Chicken Skillet, Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas, Guacamole, Roasted Squash with yogurt and BBQ Pork Stuffed Sweet Potatoes to reheat for dinners and Sweet Potato Bites, Hummus Topping & Carrots to snack on while getting dinner ready or to pack for snacking if we weren’t getting home until late to eat dinner.}

So here’s my challenge for you:

For the next few days, grab a notebook or your phone and make a note every time you find yourself eating something but wishing you had another option.

For example:

• You find yourself eating a bag of chips from the vending machine for a snack but you wish you had a protein bar, a hardboiled egg or some trail mix on hand.
• You’re eating dinner but don’t have any vegetables on your plate and wish you had a side salad.
• You need dinner in 20 minutes so you swing through the drive thru but wish you were eating at home.
• You eat a protein bar for breakfast but really wish you had a warm egg breakfast.
• You go out to lunch because you couldn’t find anything to pack the night before but you wish you had a healthy chicken wrap, some fruit, etc.

After a few days, go back and review the list.

Whatever meal/time of day has the most mentions is probably your biggest problem area and the one that you should choose to focus on in your first few food prep sessions.

Some common focus areas that I’ve helped people hone in on in the past include:

• Produce
• Meat
• Breakfast
• Snacks
• Packable Lunches
• Dinner

{A snack-focused prep of mine where I made Sweet Potato Brownies, Hummus Topping, Oatmeal, Egg Wraps, Carrots, Sweet Potato Protein Cookies & GF Pumpkin Yogurt Bars.}

Once you’ve found your focus area, make a plan for your food prep session that revolves just around that one area. The goal is to help you feel lazer-focused while prepping and not overwhelmed…and get enough prepped so that you notice how helpful it is during the week and are motivated to try again the next weekend.  Here are a couple hypothetical situations.

Situation #1

If you’ve realized that you really struggle with healthy snacks. You’re either making multiple trips to the vending machine each week, grabbing candy from the dish to snack on, or going hungry until dinner and then over-eating. So, make snacks your food prep focus area and do some research to find a few snack recipes to try. For example, you could plan to set aside an hour to do the following:

• Hard boil a dozen eggs.
• Peel and chop some carrots to eat with hummus.
• Make a batch of trail mix.
• Make a batch of sweet potato bites.
• Make a batch of lemon energy balls.

When it comes time to food prep, turn the oven on. Start the eggs on the stove. Make the batter for the sweet potato bites. Peel and chop the carrots. Stick the bites in the oven. While they’re cooking mix up your trail mix and portion it into baggies and make a batch of lemon energy balls in the food processor.

That’s it! It’s your first food prep session so don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to do too much! For the upcoming week, you’ll now have a variety of snacks to choose from when you get hungry late morning or mid-afternoon. Take note of how you feel throughout the week having them on hand! It should inspire you to make time for food prep again next weekend!

{A lunch-focused food prep session of mine where I made beans, carrots and hummus topping, lemon energy balls, popcorn snack mix, lettuce, shrimp with farro, marinated turkey tenderloins and green smoothie snack bars. I cooked the turkey tenderloin early in the week and ate it over lettuce for salads, mixed the shrimp and farro with the hummus topping, ate slices of turkey tenderloin paired with beans and a snack bar or a couple energy balls, etc.}

Situation #2

You’re pretty good about eating breakfast and packing snacks. You have a few work engagements that require dinner out during the week so you really want to make sure you have healthy lunch options available. You could set aside an hour to prep the following:

• A batch of Instant Pot Hummus Chicken
• Some Chicken Avocado Burgers
• A few salad in a jars
• Some Pesto Corn Salad

When you’re ready to prep, turn the oven on. Start a batch of hummus chicken. Prep the burgers. Stick them in the oven. While they’re baking, prep a few salads and make the pesto corn salad. Shred the chicken once it’s finished cooking.

Now you have several quick lunch options to pack at night including a wrap made with the hummus chicken, a burger with a side salad and some corn, a salad in a jar.

If you find that it didn’t take you a full hour or you have extra time the next weekend, you can prep stuff for lunches and then move on to adding a dinner or a breakfast option like waffles as a way to change things up in the morning. Also note that if you don’t have an instant pot you can make pulled chicken or pork in the crockpot or oven. It takes longer but doesn’t require any extra active work on your part.

So there you have it! I hope some of you guys give this a try! Let me know if focusing in on one specific area to start is helpful for you! Look for a post next week with more details about how to plan your first food prep session once you’ve identified your focus area!

If you want more help right away, be sure to check out my Ultimate Guide To Food Prep ebook or check out my resources page for more food prep related posts!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–