Lazy Girl Meal Prep 101

Identical meals in boxes don’t make you a good person. My tips for doing meal prep in a positive, food loving, time hack way.

Social media might have you believe that to be your best, healthy self you need to spend your entire Sunday roasting vegetables on a sheet pan, grilling chicken and most likely doing something with an Instant Pot. You don’t.

For some people that works, and that’s great! But for me, it doesn’t. I like variety and I enjoy the process of cooking to wind down. For others, you might be lazy (hey if you’re self-aware, you’re not backing down from a label), or just incredibly short on time, or hate taking an entire day to cook. Like I said, it doesn’t work for everyone… so drop the guilt. If I’m especially busy one week, here are some of the hacks I use to make healthy, homemade meals a reality with less work. As a hint, it involves a head start with ingredients.

There’s a general misconception that prepared foods or convenience foods are ‘bad’ or ‘unhealthy’. It’s a blanket statement that’s simply not true. Over the past five or so years, the market has opened up to have boutique brands and well known companies alike, that are more ingredient and flavor conscious while being time savers. You’ll see everything from salad kits to gorgeous refrigerated pastas, frozen grain salads to perfect pantry soups and beyond. Having a few meal starters like the ones below for when I’m feeling busy, uninspired or sick is such a relief.

See my tips and what I do to meal prep in a less ‘sheet pans and the same meal 5x’ way on Inspired Home.