a guide to meal prep
stock your fridge with delicious meals!!
Let’s talk all things MEAL PREP!
I think the idea of “meal prep” can really stress people out because it feels like you have to create and follow a big master plan and cook for hours on a Sunday. But it doesn’t have to be that serious!
As I mentioned in Saturday’s recipe, when I’m really focused on eating nutritiously (which is all the time, but there are certain times of year — like right now after the holidays — when it’s more top of mind than others!), I like to take a little time over the weekend or on Monday morning once the kids are back in school to prep some food for the week ahead.
So today I’m sharing my two meal-prep strategies to stock the fridge with healthy and delicious food for the week ahead.
Note: I typically cook unique dinners every night, so I use these meal-prep approaches for my lunches (and sometimes George’s). But everything here can be applied to dinners if that works well for you and your family!
Approach number one is to make a big batch of a full meal to eat throughout the week. The big benefit here is that you lessen your mental load. You come up with one recipe idea, you cook it (if you’re feeding more than just yourself, you can double it!), you store the leftovers in the fridge, and you eat them day after day. In just one round of cooking, you remove all friction to eating a healthy meal.
When I have a super busy workweek coming up, this is the route I typically take with my lunches, usually in the form of a big pot of soup, a one-pot rice or farro-tto meal, or a better-as-it-sits salad like this lemon-parm chicken, quinoa, and kale salad. If George is going to be out of town for a few days — or if I’m going to be traveling and want to take something off his plate — I also do this with dinners to minimize decision-making. There’s simply nothing better on a crazy day than opening the fridge and having a ready-to-eat delicious and well-balanced meal staring back at you.
This approach also works great if you don’t have time to assemble food during your workday and/or if you work in an office. One more benefit: this can be a really economical option, especially when compared to Door Dashing your meals.
The drawback? You’re eating the same thing day after day. I’m a leftovers lover and find that during busy times the ease of meal repetition outweighs the monotony of it. But if you hate leftovers, there’s a workaround. Instead of eating your way through a meal all in a row, freeze individual servings of it to pull from over the course of the month (or beyond). I know a lot of you double recipes when you cook them for dinner to freeze individual servings for future you! I do this too and highly recommend.
A huge list of whole-meal meal prep recipe ideas is below!
Meal prep approach number two is to cook meal components to assemble dishes with throughout the week. Because I work from home, this is what I typically do for my lunches. The benefit here is that you can mix and match the components in unique ways throughout the week to eat a variety of meals and avoid monotony.
For example, I might meal prep:
a bowl of tuna salad
a big batch of roasted veggies
a pot of brown rice or coconut rice or farro
homemade balsamic vinaigrette
leafy greens (I go ahead and wash and chop them, or buy pre-washed mixed greens)
From those, I can make the following lunches:
tuna salad + Crunchmaster crackers with a side of roasted veggies
a tuna salad sandwich or tuna melt with a simple side salad
a grain bowl with warmed roasted veggies, arugula, feta, dates, and toasted nuts, drizzled with dressing
tuna salad served over greens, drizzled with dressing
a salad with warm roasted veggies and rice (warm elements make salads feel fancy!)
if I have leftovers from a sheet-pan dinner I’ve made one night I can put them on top of rice and drizzle them with dressing…
One more example: I could prep…
sheet-pan chicken with artichokes and potatoes (pictured just above)
some hard boiled eggs
a pot of quinoa
leafy greens
And use those to make…
a grain bowl with quinoa, chicken, warm veggies, chopped hard-boiled egg, toasted nuts, and vinaigrette
a creamy chicken salad with pulled chicken, chopped artichokes, mayo (or Greek yogurt), celery, red onion, lemon zest and juice, salt and pepper
a niçoise-ish salad with prepped greens, hard-boiled eggs, potatoes from the sheet-pan meal, lemon-parm vinaigrette and whatever raw veggies I’ve got lurking in the fridge (cucumbers, tomatoes, and olives)
another salad with chopped-up chicken, roasted veggies, toasted nuts or seeds, any type of cheese I’ve got in the fridge, and vinaigrette
a chicken and quinoa quesadilla
I love the variety this affords — it also allows me to put deconstructed elements that I know my kids will eat into their lunch box (like hard-boiled eggs, chopped up chicken or veggies, tuna salad, etc.)
Whichever approach I take for the week — whole-meal meal prep or component meal prep — I’m always happy I did it, and healthy eating is so much more easily achieved. You can also combine the two approaches — cook a big pot of soup plus a few components to mix and match.
Here are the tools and containers that IMO are vital for meal prepping:
These are my all-time fave glass containers for food storage.
and parchment paper for roasting veggies. From Molly: Caroline’s been telling us to buy those parchment sheets for years but I still had a huge roll of parchment paper to work my way through. I recently ran out and bought the individual sheets and wow, they are truly a game changer. Gone are the days of unrolling wieldy parchment, getting out the scissors (my box’s built-in cutter sucked), and trying to get a piece of parchment to lay flat on a sheet pan (I know you can crumple up parchment to get it to lay flat but ugh that’s an extra step!). Sounds dramatic but it has honestly been the little unlock I needed to follow through on prepping roasted veggies more often (vs. watching those sweet potatoes wither away). (I feel validated. - Caro)
These are really nice, biodegradable containers if you’re taking lunch somewhere that it would be easiest to just throw away the container after. I also use these for delivering meals to friends when they have new babies, a death in the family, etc.
If I’m using a head of lettuce or kale (rather than pre-washed mixed greens or arugula), I go ahead and wash my greens in this salad spinner…
then store them (along with a paper towel, which absorbs the moisture) in gallon ziplocks if they’re too big for my containers.
I freeze extra servings of soup, mashed potatoes, risotto, you name it in quart ziplocks, and lay them flat in the freezer (typically on a sheet pan) until solid. Then I can stack them easily in the freezer. To thaw, I run the ziplock under warm (not hot, so that the plastic isn’t heated enough to leech) water until the ziplock detaches from the food, then pull it off. I place the brick of frozen food in a skillet or wide pot, add a splash of water, cover, and cook over medium heat, stirring often, until warm.
I use these jars for my salad dressings and sauces. I always make my dressing or sauce in the jar to avoid having to wash an extra mixing bowl.
We’ve rounded up a big list of What to Cook recipes that are great for meal prep, but this list is not exhaustive! The majority of WTC recipes — both in this newsletter and in What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking the book — can be used for meal prep. One-pot rice meals, soups, stews, and salads with a base of kale or cabbage are great for whole-meal meal prep, whereas sheet-pan dinners, CYOA (choose-your-own-adventure) bowls, and meals with a main protein plus a side are ideal for component meal prep.
In the newsletter recipes linked below, check the “notes” section for notes titled “love your leftovers” or “leftovers are a good thing” or “meal prep/freezer-friendly” — they’ll give specific intel on how best to repurpose leftovers, how long they’ll last in an airtight container in the fridge, any special instructions for thawing or reheating, etc.
If one of your go-to meals for meal prep is missing from this list, let’s hear it!!
Whole-meal meal prep recipes
A collection of WTC recipes that yield a big serving size and can be reheated in the microwave for lunches or dinners — no special assembly/kitchen required! They’re also all freezer friendly, should you like to double dinners to freeze portions for future lunches.
cheesy beef and sweet potato flautas (p. 125)
cousin lex’s tex-mex enchiladas (p. 33)
crunchy refried bean taco-dillas (p. 160)
enchilada rice skillet (p. 180)
garlicky grains with asparagus & sausage (p. 28)
healthy-ish turkey bolognese (or p. 226)
no-stir mushroom risotto or low-effort mushroom risotto (p. 219)
one-pan al pastor enchiladas (p. 135)
one-pot cheesy rice and beans (or on p. 112)
one-pot squash-ta (p. 100)
peanutty pork & brussels (p. 39)
quick veggie chili (p. 107)
ratatouille lasagna (p. 242)
roasted peanut carrot soup (p. 237)
summer soup (p. 168)
tomato farrotto (p. 171)
white chicken chili (p. 148)
veggie peanut noods (p. 52)
Whole-meal meal prep salad recipes
This deserves to be its own category!! To make a dressed salad last for days, use hearty kale or cabbage instead of softer greens like romaine or green leaf lettuce, which would get soggy in the fridge. Alternatively, if you want to stick with romaine or another softer lettuce, you can make Mason jar salads. For that: put a serving of dressing in the bottom of the jar, followed by hearty veggies and legumes (like bell peppers, carrots, cucumbers, etc.), then greens, then toppings like cheese and nuts. That way the dressing doesn’t touch the delicate greens while it sits in the fridge.
cannellini caprese with burrata (p. 63)
chopped Italian goddess — use kale or cabbage
cousin kat’s kale chicken salad (p. 33)
dilly chop (p. 77)
esquites chicken salad — use kale or cabbage
lemon-parm chicken, quinoa, and kale salad (also in that post you’ll find 4 more good-all-week salad combos!!)
lemon-parm crispy white bean & artichoke salad (p. 116)
mob wife salad — use kale or cabbage
peanut chicken chop (p. 55) — use kale or cabbage
thai chicken chop — use kale or cabbage
thai veggie chop (p. 115) — use kale or cabbage
turkey taco salad (or p. 119) — use cabbage
Component meal prep recipes
An index of WTC recipes that yield components that, when prepped ahead of time, can be used to make mix-and-match lunches or dinners all week.
bo ssam (p. 238)
coconut curry chicken meatballs (p. 147)
crispy white bean & cauliflower tahini bowls (p. 172)
grilled lemon harissa chicken & zucchini (p. 34)
grilled pork steak coconut rice bowls (p. 188)
harissa roasted veggies (p. 159)
herby chicken salad (p. 33)
lamb hummus bowls (p. 99)
maple-roasted sweet potatoes and labneh (p. 209)
one-pan coconut curry chicken with roasted vegetables and lime
one-skillet chicken & gingery rice (and on p. 192 — there are two other ideas on that page too!)
pesto meatballs (p. 122)
sheet-pan honey-roasted chicken, carrots, and brussels sprouts with tahini yogurt
sheet-pan miso maple mustard chicken, sweet potato, and brussels
tandoori-spiced chicken and potatoes with peanut chutney & crispy kale
tuna salad (or on p. 81)
Component meal prep ideas that don’t require a recipe
a rotisserie chicken — I like to shred it up to use for lunches
frozen meatballs
sliced deli turkey and ham — I love using it in salads and make sandwiches with it for my boys’ lunch boxes
savory pre-cooked chicken sausages
hard-boiled eggs
a cooked grain like farro, rice, bulgar, barley, millet — just follow the instructions on the box. Or quinoa, but follow my instructions instead. Or couscous (if you have the book see page 202 for ideas to spice it up)
frozen microwavable rice
a good store-bought dressing (see my recs here)
a pre-shredded or crumbled cheese (feta, blue, cheddar, etc.)
roasted nuts/seeds — great for grain bowls and salads
dates or other dried fruit for salad and grain bowls
If you’re a meal prepper, what’s your strategy of choice?
Souper Cubes are a product invented by an LA mom, and they are so much easier than freezing ziploc bags! Really great for freezing components or single servings. I have several different Caro soups in my freezer in Souper cube blocks.
Just yesterday I saw a reel of a guy doing meal prep that said: “Meal prep: so that you can have something cold, a little bit old, and not quite what you’re in the mood for all week long.” Ha! Kind of my feelings about meal prep, BUT I really really appreciate how all of your meal prep suggestions actually consider or take advantage of the stuff being cold and a little bit old (“gets better in the fridge!”). XO