Amazing Meal Prep Resources to Help You Save a Bundle

If you’re like many families across the country, there’s precious little time at the end of the day for cooking a healthy dinner. Chances are good that instead of toiling over a hot stove, it’s much easier to eat out or buy fast food for the family. That’s not good for your health or your wallet! The act of meal-prepping isn’t new, but it is becoming increasingly popular in many households. “Meal prep” means to plan, cook, package, and refrigerate or freeze enough meals to feed your family for three or more days. It’s a habit that not only saves time, but since you’ll reduce eating out, it can also help save you money. Buying certain foods in bulk is another way to save, especially if you plan to use specific ingredients in several meals. Before getting into the meal-prep habit, it helps to understand exactly how it works.

• Workweek Lunch: Workweek Lunch is a good place to start if you’re not sure how to begin your new food-prep plan. The website gives exciting, time-friendly recipes and meal-prep tips. You’ll also find articles on how prepping meals helps make it easy to ditch dieting in favor of incorporating routine healthy food choices instead.
• Budget Bytes: When you visit this page on the Budget Bytes website, you’ll find a page of quick and affordable meal-prep recipes that you can click on and follow. What makes the links to the recipes stand out are the tasty images and the cost break-downs for the recipe and per serving. The page also gives you a link to a Food Prep 101 guide.
• Why Meal Prep to Save Time and Money Will Save Your Life: When you read this article on the Budget Diet website, you’ll get information on ways to meal-prep and save money. The page outlines steps for prepping chicken and vegetables and snacks and freezing both raw meats and prepared food.
• 30-Minute Meal-Prep Recipes So You Aren’t Spending Sunday in the Kitchen: This Greatist article is all about reducing your time in the kitchen and adding variety to your meals. The article breaks down recipes by the main ingredient, such as poultry, meat, and seafood. If you’re a vegetarian, the page includes a section of meatless meals just for you.
• 36 Easy Meal-Prep Recipes: This Dinner at the Zoo page is a gold mine when it comes to meal-prep recipes. The page includes links to recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and advice such as how long prepared meals should be kept in the refrigerator.
• /r/MealPrepSunday: Meal Prep Sunday is a Reddit forum of everyday meal-preppers giving helpful tips and advice. This is a good place to ask questions and browse through topics that have already been discussed.
• Save Time and Money This Week Through the Magic of Meal Planning: This article, which appears on the Penny Hoarder website, does a good job at outlining meal prep and its benefits. It’s an easy and detailed read that includes information on storage and prep tips.
• How to Meal-Prep to Save Money, Eat at Home More, and Do Fewer Dishes: If you’re ready to start a meal-prep routine but aren’t sure what you’ll need to get started, this is the article to read. Saving With Spunk explains having a meal plan and getting the inventory you’ll need to get started. It also outlines how to shop and the meal-prep steps.
• 15 Simple Money-Saving Strategies for Storing and Preparing Food at Home: Saving money is a huge motivator when it comes to meal prep. Instead of focusing on meal prep steps, this article outlines the money-saving strategies associated with it.
• 30 Days of Health Meal Prep: Eating Well wants to challenge you to start your meal-prep routine by issuing this 30-Day Meal Prep Challenge. The page gives you everything you need to get started by offering a guide, ideas, recipes, and even videos.