Meal planning and prep - the one magical thing everyone says will change your life and make eating healthy a breeze. Have you always wanted to have those beautiful pre-portioned meals that are all over Instagram? Dedicate a few hour of your Sunday to doing this and you can have it all, so they say. But let’s be real - not everyone has the time, the dedication or the talent to of cooking to make delicious and beautiful meals every weekend.

To be totally honest - we kind of hate to meal prep. Don’t get us wrong, we love the results of it and it makes our weeks a breeze but it’s sacrificing a half your Sunday that could be spent in so many other ways and we get it, it’s hard. It’s kind of like going to the gym - getting dressed and getting there is the hardest part of it but so worth it once it’s done. As with everything else, we’re totally different in our approach. Lara loves making lists and going to the grocery store every Sunday and spending hours reading labels. Viviana on other hand, is all about the list-making and recipe-choosing but once she’s in the grocery store it’s in and out as quickly as possible.

We’re here to tell you that meal prep doesn’t have to be a big production or this impossible endeavor. Whatever you see on Instagram or what you think meal prep should look like - forget about that. Meal prep will only work if you do it so you will have to figure out what works for you and what you’ll actually do every week. For example, when we are together, we can knock out (5) different recipes in like 2 hours and have lunch and dinner done for most of the week for the whole family. Usually, however, we tend to stick to some basics and spend maybe one hour tops in the kitchen.

Regardless of whether we meal prep, we ALWAYS meal plan and make a grocery list - that way we at least know what we’ll be eating throughout the week and know we have the ingredients to pull it off. That alone has made the biggest difference in eating at home vs. going out to eat (in addition to the amount of money we realized we were spending in restaurants - absolutely ridiculous!).

Here are some of our basic go-to’s when we’re meal planning and prepping and some tips so you can make it work for you:

• When we plan out our week, we usually plan out our lunch throughout the week plus 3-4 dinner recipes. Friday is usually always leftover day.

• We have 3 basic breakfasts on rotation:

  • Overnight Oats - you can prep these all at once or every night before bed

    • 1/3 - 1/2 cup of oats

    • 1/3 - 1/2 cup of almond milk/water/regular milk

    • Lots of cinammon

    • In the morning, add your favorite fruit + a small handful of granola

    • For extra protein, you can add protein powder or Greek yogurt

  • Greek Yogurt + Berries + Granola - the definition of grab and go

  • Scrambled Eggs with Veggies or Sausage or Alone + Toast or a Tortilla - easy and quick if you have a few minutes to spare to cook in the morning

• If you do nothing else, cook 1-2 lbs. of chicken and shred it. Our favorite is tossing it into the Instant Pot with a bunch of spices.

• Always have lettuce/spring mix, tuna and random veggies for salads. Toss it all together the night before or the morning of and you have a perfect lunch

• Pick one grain or starchy veggie (think potatoes)and cook a big batch to have all week

• Pick three veggies that are easy to cook or eat raw, like broccoli/cauliflower mix, bell peppers, mushrooms

• Have a variety of fruit handy, they can easily transform a dish by adding blueberries to a salad, or pineapples on a burger, or even adding mango to store bought pico de gallo!

• If you don’t have time/don’t want to chop everything, buy veggies and fruit already cut up. It’s a bit more money but worth it for those times you know you will have a crazy busy week

Meal prepping doesn’t have to be complicated. While it’s awesome to think you can have 5 different dinners and lunches every day with complex flavors, the reality is that most of us don’t have time or energy for that and keeping it simple will be the number 1 life-changing thing you can do.

Need help with your meal prepping? Reach out to us! We’d love to help and can teach you how to make this work for YOUR life.

Share your favorite recipes or meal prep tips in the comments below!