Meal-Prep Tips to Get You Sorta Ready for the Week Ahead
It’s just cooking a bunch of stuff! That’s all that meal prep is. I listen to This American Life and chop endless onions and hours happily pass and I end up with containers of this and that for the week ahead.
But in this time of great stress, dire food insecurity, and unknowable chaos, we need to be flexible with how we define meal prep and recognize that it’s not always possible. And we need to cut ourselves some slack when it comes to expectations and execution.
Right now there’s a quart container in my fridge labeled “hot dogs,” and the last, lone wiener is leaning over in it. This week, I call that meal prep. If you do have the luxury of time and resources, preparing meals or the elements of meals for the week ahead can give you some peace of mind—and I’ll take any inch of that I can get. Tuesday is pasta night. Wednesday: the end of the world??? If not, Thursday: rice and beans.
So if the idea of meal prep stresses you out, start with a blank slate. Of the following tips, take what works for you and leave the others in the dust.
Photo by Laura Murray, Food Styling by Pearl Jones1/8Figure out what kind of prepping works for YOU.
We’re not here to tell you The Right Way to meal-prep. Maybe you want to fill the fridge with mix-and-match marinated lentils, carrot ginger dressing, and 14 steamed sweet potatoes one week and make a giant pot of chicken biryani to eat on repeat the next. Figure out what kind of meal-prep mood you’re in and take the rest of these tips on your journey. We see three types of people:
The big batcher: You prefer to make the building blocks of meals— think sauces, grains, cooked veg and protein—and get creative during the week.
The big enchilada: You’d rather make fully cooked meals you can reheat later.
The combo platter: A mix of the other two (and kind of an overachiever), you might make a big Sunday dinner to eat as leftovers, as well as a few components to work with during the week.
Photo by Emma Fishman, Food Styling by D'Mytrek Brown2/8When given the choice to double, do it.
When you’re already roasting a chicken or boiling beans, you might as well double up. Same goes for baking sweet potatoes: Tear, sear, and glaze the extras. For recipes that include a sauce, make a lot of sauce. Use it on roasted veg, random salads, or whatever fish was on sale (why is it always salmon?).
Photo by Emma Fishman, Food Styling by Yekaterina Boytsova3/8Put a plan to paper.
Before you shop, write down your plan. It’ll reduce the number of what’s-for-dinners and ensure that vegetables aren’t abandoned in the fridge. Here’s an example:
Monday: Enjoy your delicate, soft greens and finally-ripe tomatoes before they wilt/mush.
Tuesday: Time for that recipe you’ve been meaning to make. Maybe you did a bit of prep Monday?
Wednesday: Midweek day of rest = nachos and beer night.
Thursday: Whatever’s in the crisper + Tuesday’s leftovers.
Friday: The steak you unearthed from the freezer and defrosted overnight. Go you!
Photo and Food Styling by Emma Fishman4/8Get the busywork out of the way.
Choose one night a week to put on a podcast and take care of boring tasks that’ll speed up future dinners. Peel garlic and shallots, clean and cut greens, break down hefty veg like winter squash and cabbage, pluck parsley and cilantro, or make a versatile sauce (like tonnato, tahini ranch, romesco, or salsa verde). You’ll thank yourself come Thursday.
Photo by Alex Lau5/8Mix and match components.
So you stocked your fridge with simply cooked grains, proteins, and vegetables—congratulations! You don't have to eat them as is. Here are a few ways to transform those building blocks into something new:
Marinated or cooked beans/lentils → top salads or toast, eat straight from container
Spicy tofu crumbles or leftover ground meat → rice bowls, veg tacos, nachos
Mujadara, tahdig, chile peanut rice → add to a frittata or reheat with eggs and veg, fried rice–style
Roasted sweet potatoes → drizzle on brown butter for breakfast, purée for sweet potato tea cake (!), season with chile powder and cumin and smash onto sandwich
Sautéed greens → chop finely and mix into hot rice or blend with tahini for dip
Rotisserie chicken → toss in barbecue sauce and top a frozen pizza, avgolemono, or congee
6–12 hard boiled eggs → make gribiche dressing, combine with potatoes for dual potato-egg-salad, marinate in soy sauce, mirin, and vinegar, grate egg yolk on pasta (!), make korma
Boiled potatoes → chop and fry for a hash, mash for pav bhaji, whip into skordalia
Cold cooked fish → combine with with mayo, lemon, and tons of flaky salt (+ chile of choice)
Photo by Emma Fishman, Food Styling by D'Mytrek Brown6/8Maximize the multitask.
Why do one thing when you can run around the kitchen doing three, testing your fine motor skills and brain capacity? Here are some ideas to get you started:
Roast the most: As vegetables roast, throw in a whole head of garlic wrapped in foil. There’s garlic bread in your future.
Preheat once: While the oven’s still hot, toast nuts/seeds for all-purpose crunchy toppers.
An egg for every pot: When you’re boiling grains, throw in a few unpeeled eggs for the last 8 minutes of cook time. Don’t worry: The grains won’t taste eggy and the hard-boiled eggs won’t taste grainy.
Boiling brothers: Speaking of grains, have you ever combined green lentils with quinoa? Same cook time.
Avoid cleanup: Use the food processor to shred parm. Then use it again to make pesto.
Pasta plus: Blanch kale, cabbage, broccoli, green beans, peas, cauliflower (you get the idea) in your pasta water before adding the noodles. You’ll soften up the vegetables without dirtying another dish.
Photo and Food Styling by Emma Fishman7/8Save some for the freezer.
When you’re making soup, biscuit dough, or dumplings, divvy up half the batch to go into the freezer for Future You. If you have a big family, double the recipe so you have more to save.
8/8Pick the container based on the leftover.
We love clear cylindrical deli containers that use a universal lid and stack perfectly. But if you’re storing something oily, like leftover salmon, leakproof glass containers with locking lids, like those from Oxo, Pyrex, or Glasslock, are crucial for transport and cleanup. And tiny jars—Weck, mini mason, room service jam jars—make the perfect home for remnants of chile crisp, furikake, or three peanut M&M’s. How cute!
