15 healthy and easy meal prep bowl recipes (2024)

FAQs

What are 3 keys to successful meal prepping? ›

Choose a specific day of the week to: 1) plan the menu, whether week by week or for the whole month, and write out your grocery list 2) food shop, 3) do meal prep, or most of your cooking. Some of these days may overlap if you choose, but breaking up these tasks may help keep meal planning manageable.

The basic portion sizes that we want to aim for are this: 4 oz of protein, 1/2 cup of grains and 2 cups of veggies per meal. I use containers that hold 3 cups of food. My containers always contain around 2 cups of veggies, 1/2 cup of protein and 1/2 cup of grains — and that's enough for ME, a 5'3” woman.

While you definitely want variety for your meal prep, you should limit your recipes to two or three per week, and for five days ahead of time max. Being prepared is great, but you also want to make sure you're eating meals with fresh ingredients even if prepared ahead of time.

Meal prep can help you lose weight by setting you up for success. When you have a healthy plan in place, you're less likely to grab takeout and processed foods on the run.

Meal prep is important because it allows you to more consistently eat a healthy, nutrient-dense, well-balanced diet in order to attain better health, have fewer illnesses, and have more energy and feel better throughout the day. Better nutrition also helps you sleep better throughout the night.

Make sure to include carbs from brown rice, wild rice, quinoa, or whole wheat to boost your nutrient intake, and you will never run short of healthy meal prep ideas. Your taste buds will thank you for the added variety to your weekly meals.

You'll have more dough in your pocket

Eating healthy tends to get a bad reputation for being overly expensive. But meal prepping saves money because you can buy ingredients in bulk, freeze extra food for later, and most importantly, spend less money eating out.

While grocery shopping turned out to be a hair cheaper than even the cheapest meal kits, it's nearly even. If you consider the time and energy you save by forgoing long trips to the supermarket, meal kits might present the better value.

Is it cheaper to meal prep or eat out? ›

Comparing costs: Eating out vs.

In contrast, if you spend around $100 per week on groceries and cook all your meals at home, your monthly food expenditure would be around $400. That's a potential saving of $50 per month or $600 per year! So which is cheaper? It depends on the individual's lifestyle and food choices.

A: Eggs are one of the quickest products to meal prep. Find out how many portions you need for the week ahead, cook the eggs (cooking scrambled eggs only takes ca. 15 minutes), and then divide the food into individual portions to store in the fridge.

Rice and grain bowls make great meal preps! They can chill in your fridge for up to four days and are freezer-friendly in most cases. The cool thing about meal prepping rice is that many times, microwaving it can fix any rice issues you had when cooking it.

Meal prepping can be beneficial for a number of reasons, including: It can save time on daily cooking. It gives you access to healthy, homemade meals every day. It allows you to ensure all your meals are nutritious and enables you to monitor your portion control.

You can store meal prep food in the fridge for up to four days. Or, you can store prepped food in the freezer for a longer period of time.