When I first started blogging, one of my very first posts was about my meal prep system (you can read that post here). It was something I had perfected over my years of being gluten free, because for me, there’s simply no other way to keep control of my life unless I have ready-made meals available.
Why? Because I have celiac disease, which means I can’t just grab-and-go a meal from a fast food joint or any old restaurant. And the convenience food options aren’t great – packaged gluten free foods are not helpful (that’s another blog post for a future day!). So unless I want to cook from scratch every single day (nope!), I need to have a system in place that fills my freezer with food that I can simply grab and reheat.
Anyone can use this system, whether you’re gluten free, vegan, dairy free, grain free, whatever-free – it works, and it’s EASY and FAST. So fast in fact that I typically yield about 20 meals in under 2 hours – more if I have more food on-hand to cook and empty trays to put it in.
When I first started out, I made very intricate meals in large batches and froze them in individual portions, with everything cooked on the stove top or in the oven. It took all day! Over time, I started learning shortcuts and realized that I really just need four components to each meal: protein, carbohydrate, vegetable, and fat. I found the quickest way to cook a variety of foods in each category, and it’s allowed me to fill my freezer with easy-to-grab, nutritious, whole-food meals in under two hours.
But now that I’m a health coach and talking to clients on the regular, I’ve learned that the challenge for many people is how to meet the needs of not only themselves, but their family as well. Their child might have another food issue, or their husband hates anything green, or whatever the case may be. They are ready to pull their hair out and ultimately end up cooking a meal for themselves and then another meal for their family. And that is EXHAUSTING.
The Solution
I’ve put together a free guide showing you the exact system I use, in a format that you can actually use to customize your meals. You can print this off or type into the document, whatever is easiest for you. But the best part is that it’ll walk you through the fastest way to meal prep, and then help you organize your thoughts around what you and your family like to eat, and in what combinations.
For a full post about how I actually cook everything, refer back to my initial post here. But otherwise, here are the key steps to this process:
- Think of a plate having four parts – protein, vegetables, carbohydrates, and fat. This is important as it’ll give you a balanced meal that will keep you full, with energy high and blood sugar stable.
- Using the guide, identify which foods in each of those categories you and/or your family enjoy. Try to identify a few in each column. Pick what you actually like, and skip the rest! (Tip: if you choose frozen veggies, it really speeds everything up!).
- Identify a variety of combinations that sound good to you – that way you’re never eating quite the same thing. After you’ve cooked it and you’re ready to plate it up, I like to use the Fitpackers trays.
- When you’re ready to serve, that’s when you can really customize your meal. Top with a sauce (like marinara, or BBQ sauce), spices, vinegar, mustard, etc. The opportunities here are endless!
Here are some of my favorite recipes to use for variation in my freezer meals:
I hope you find this system to be of value. Don’t forget to snag your free guide! If you are inspired to do your own meal prep, comment below and show me what you made!
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