What is meal prep? Its main benefits

The principle

Meal prep (sometimes also called batch cooking) is the principle of cooking several meals in one session instead of starting from scratch every evening. Sometimes you will cook enough for a few days, sometimes for a whole week (or more), but the idea is spending less time cooking, not having to stay for hours every day in the kitchen. Cooked food often keeps 3-4 days in the fridge, and several months in the freezer.

How does meal prep work?

You choose your dishes in advance, which brings one of its big benefits: a single shopping trip. After that, you spend a couple of hours in the kitchen, usually on the weekend. Many people prepare their meals on Sundays, but you can adapt it to your own schedule. When done, the meals go into the fridge or freezer, and on a weekday all that's left is to reheat or assemble.

The key is in the organization: dishes that share ingredients, steps ordered so that the oven and the stove work while you chop, and the most fragile dishes eaten first.

And what's also great: you only clean your kitchen once!

The main benefits of meal prep

• Less time cooking: one two-hour session replaces five or six short ones, plus the dishes and the "what are we eating tonight?" debate that come with each.
• Saving money: one planned shopping list means fewer impulse buys, less takeout on tired evenings, and ingredients bought in the right quantity.
• Less waste: when every ingredient has a planned use, the half-bunch of cilantro doesn't end up in the trash.
• Eating better and healthier: a home-cooked dish waiting in the fridge beats a sandwich grabbed on the way. You decide what goes in it: salt, portions, vegetables.
• A lighter head: deciding what to eat every day is a small, repeated chore. Deciding once a week takes it off your mind.

Who is it for?

Meal prep is for pretty much everyone who wants to try it. Whatever your dietary restrictions are, your calorie intake, or the style of food that you like, you can always optimize the process of preparing your meals in advance. Plan once, cook once, eat the whole week. Some people think that this is for big families or for people who go to the gym every day (maybe because social media has contributed to this image), but the truth is that meal prep is just a technique, and you can adapt it to your own taste and style.

Students, couples who both work, parents, people working from home, people who want to eat more vegetables, people on a budget: if you eat at home and would rather not cook every day, meal prep is for you.

Start meal prepping with what you already have

If you want to start meal prepping, you can always try to do it with what you already have at home. You don't need to buy anything special for a first try.

Most kitchens already have enough: one large pot or Dutch oven for a stew, a soup or a curry. One sheet pan for roasting vegetables or meat in the oven. One or two frying pans for quick things: sautéed vegetables, sauces, eggs. A sharp knife and a cutting board. These matter more than any gadget.

Try to find containers you already own: old jam jars, takeout containers, bowls covered with a plate or plastic wrap. They'll do perfectly for your first week of meal prep.

And finally, of course, your fridge, with a bit of room cleared, and a freezer drawer if you have one.

That's it. Start simple. Cook two or three simple dishes, eat them over three days, and see how it feels.

If you like it: what's next?

Once meal prep becomes a habit, a few things make sessions faster and storage easier:

• A set of airtight glass containers in two or three sizes. Glass doesn't stain or keep smells, goes from the fridge to the microwave or oven, and lets you see what's inside. Choose stackable ones to save room.
• Glass jars for soups, sauces, salads and overnight oats. They seal well and stack in the fridge door.
• Freezer bags or freezer-safe boxes, plus labels or a marker to note the dish and the date. On day five you won't remember what's in which box.
• A second sheet pan, so two things can roast at the same time, and a large pot for cooking grains or legumes in quantity.

And if you want to push it further (optional):

• A rice cooker, slow cooker or pressure cooker. They cook without you watching, which frees your hands and the stove.
• A food processor, for chopping a lot of vegetables or making sauces and soups quickly.
• A very good knife and a large cutting board. If you invest in one thing, make it these.

Get started now with Bocalito

The easiest way to try meal prep is to start small: create a meal prep plan for three days, two or three dishes, one session. Bocalito makes the meal prep plan for you and gives you instructions from the shopping list to serving each meal: you say how many people, how many days and how much time you have for cooking, choose one of three menus, and get a single shopping list, a step-by-step guide for your cooking session and a day-by-day plan. It's free, and you can see a real plan before creating an account.