It’s happened to the best of us: You begin the week with every intention of eating healthy and avoiding junk food. But work gets stressful, or that to-do list overwhelmed you, and suddenly the convenience of takeout or fast food seems so much more tempting.

Before you know it, you’re chowing down on something not-so-healthy and all plans to stick to your health kick are out the window.

But it doesn’t have to be that way! And there’s something that can help prevent these downhill spirals away from the healthy diet you deserve to have. That thing is meal prepping.

How to Meal Prep Like a Pro: 7 Expert Tips

Prepping your meals for the week is a great way to set yourself up for health throughout a busy week. But if you don’t know where to start, the idea of meal prepping might seem overwhelming. So, here are our seven top meal prep tips for the average person. Use these to get yourself back on track this week!

1. Before You Meal Prep: Invest in Reusable Food Containers

While not absolutely necessary, meal prep containers can make portioning, storing, and transporting your meals super easy.

Consider buying some reusable food storage containers for your meal prep journey, with these tips in mind:

• Choose containers of varying sizes and shapes for meal prepped breakfasts, lunches and dinners, and quick snaps.
• Make sure the containers you choose are microwave- and dishwasher-safe so you can easily reheat prepped meals and quickly wash the containers.
• If the containers are plastic, look for BPA-free.
• For an even more eco-friendly option, choose glass containers.

Mason jars are also good meal prep containers, perfect for storing salad ingredients, smoothies, soups, oatmeal, and more.

Check out our food storage containers here, including one-cup containers for snacks or sauces, salad shakers, lunch sets, 14-piece portion sets.

2. Choose Simple Yet Interesting Recipes

Once you have containers ready, it’s time to fill them! And that starts with choosing what you’ll be prepping and eating.

Start by looking for simple recipes that sound good to you. You can use healthy cookbooks or find them online through any of the thousands of healthy food blogs online. Here are some meal prep recipe tips:

• Think about healthy alternatives to some of your favorite meals.
• For ease, you might also consider all-in-one type meals where everything in the meal can be cooked in one pot or on one oven tray.
• Along with easy meal recipes, look for snacks that require minimal prepping.
• Choose at least two breakfasts, two lunches and two dinner recipes to spread throughout the week, plus snacks for each day.
• Plan to find a few meal prep recipes you can turn to and rotate each week to keep things interesting.

Once you’ve chosen your meals, use a notebook or online document (or the Notepad app on your phone) to list out each meal and snack you’ll have for each day of the week.

Note how many servings each recipes makes, and account for leftovers and which days you’ll repeat the same meal.

Also, don’t be afraid to make small changes within the same meal for variety, such as having chicken with sauteed veggies one day and the same veggies with fish or tempeh another.

Meal Prep Recipe Ideas

If you’re stumped on what to make, here are some simple meal prep breakfast ideas:

• Breakfast smoothies
• Baked oatmeal cups
• Breakfast muffins
• Sweet potato and veggie hash
• Overnight oats

And meal prep lunch and dinner ideas:

• Salad in a jar
• One-pan recipes
• Chicken meal prep recipes
• Vegetarian meal prep recipes
• Keto meal prep ideas

Also, meal prep snack ideas include pre-cut veggies and hummus, fruit, hard-boiled eggs, avocado or nut butter on whole grain bread or toast, smoothies, or kale chips or zucchini chips.

3. Include Some Staples for “Emergencies”

There’s always a chance for plans to change during the week or meal prepping to not go quite as planned. Although this will happen less as you get the hang of it, it’s good to have healthy fall-backs.

Keep some easy-to-access nutritious staples in your freezer and pantry. Those can include:

• Frozen vegetables and fruits
• Frozen grains like quinoa and brown rice
• Frozen meats like salmon, shrimp, or chicken
• Canned or dried foods like beans, oatmeal, salsa, veggie broth or bone broth, and tomato sauce or diced tomatoes.

4. Make a Grocery List, Organized By Sections (and Stick to It)

Once you know what you’ll be making for the week, it’s time to make a list! A good grocery list will make your trip much shorter, make it easier to find what you need, and keep junk foods or unnecessary extra items from sneaking into your cart. This last benefit will also save you money!

Visualize your grocery store as you make your list. Start with the sections you hit right as you walk in the door (which is the produce for most locations), then work your way through the store to the other side. Group your ingredients by each store section so you can just go down the list instead of skipping around.

5. Get Your Kitchen Ready for Cooking

When it’s time to cook and prep, remove as many distractions as you can. Clear off your kitchen counters, get out all appliances you need, put on some good music or a podcast, and get in the zone. Those few hours will zoom by when you’re in a meal prep-ready environment, and you’ll feel accomplished at the end.

6. Utilize Shortcuts When You Can

Convenience items are often cost a little more, but if your budget allows, they can be good time savers when meal prepping. Pre-cut and pre-washed vegetables, cooked beans and lentils, pre-cooked brown rice or quinoa, canned tuna, and rotisserie chicken are all good examples.

Another quick technique is cooking, baking, or roasting veggies together. See how many ingredients you can prepare at the same time. You’ll cut down on cook time and also save money on your utility bill!

7. Keep Your Goals in Mind

It can take a little time to get in the swing of meal prepping weekly. But any meal prepper will tell you it gets easier with time—and is definitely worth it.

Throughout the process, remember why you’ve decided to utilize these meal prep tips. Whether it’s meeting a goal weight, disease prevention, or just wanting to look and feel healthier, keep your endgame in mind. That will make it easier to power through and enjoy the process.