8 meal prep secrets you need to know from a mum who’s lost 46kg!

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As busy mums, we all have plenty on our “to do” lists. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle full of healthy homemade meals that please the whole family can sometimes seem like an impossible task.

So when it comes to meal prep, it can often be daunting, and it can be tough figuring out where to start.

But mum Melanie has shared her 8 secrets to meal prep and how it has helped her to lose 46kg!

Melanie before and after

8 meal prep secrets you need to know from a mum who’s lost 46kg!

1. Keep it simple and make a plan

Meal prep list

Choose recipes that the whole family will love. That’s my best advice when it comes to meal planning.

I find that family-friendly meals are often the easiest and simplest creations. For example, it can be as easy as buying some chicken thighs. Then to ‘spice things up’ (literally) marinate them and pop them in the oven to roast! Easy. 

The best part is, when you plan your days ahead, you can take the fuss out. For instance, in the morning you already know to pull your chicken out of the freezer to defrost. That way, come dinner-making-time all you need to do is make a quick salad (and turn the oven on).

You can then divide the leftovers into packs, and pop them in the freezer.

P.S For all 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge members, I suggest leaving your App notifications on – that way you’ll never forget to take out items from the freezer.

2. Use like ingredients

By using the same ingredients for different meals, I cut down on prep time, and cost on my shopping bill.

I always load up my vegetables in any meal, so by having a load of grated or chopped mixed veg (carrot, onion, zucchini, frozen spinach and kale, celery are my staples); it not only bulks up the meal to make it go further, but means that I can always have everything ready to go to cook with.

3. Utilise your kitchen gadgets

Food processors, blenders, hand mixers, slow cookers, and multi cookers all make the job quick and simple.

I often have my slow cooker and my multi-cooker on the go, with something in the oven; and it is usually 3-4 recipes, one prep.

4. Freeze

Meal prep with portions in containers to store

By dividing up and freezing fruit or veg that may be coming to its best before ‘fridge’ date can be such an easy way to save money and make sure everything is being used. Goodbye wastage!

Fruit can be frozen and made into ‘nice cream’ or used in smoothies. Vegetables can be used in smoothies too, but if you chop it up beforehand, it can even be used in things like Mexican Lasagne, soups or stews, even the popular Healthy Mummy Stovetop Lasagne.

5. It doesn’t have to be all at once

Some ladies choose to have one BIG meal prep day every week. But if this scares you or doesn’t suit your lifestyle, just divide it up to make it work for you.

Make an extra couple of serves at dinner, or even an extra recipe that takes the same amount of time. Pop it in the freezer or fridge for easy ready-to-go meals!

6. Make the kids snacks work for you

Prepped sausage rolls

Great recipes like hidden veg sausage rolls, coconut chicken nuggets, or meatballs can be a great addition to your daily intake.

Using the meatballs or nuggets in a salad, or even the hidden veg sausage rolls as one of your snacks for the day, is a great way for The Healthy Mummy to work for everyone.

7. Use zip lock bags instead of containers

Often most people use expensive containers for all of their meal prep, which is definitely needed for some recipes, but for things like mashed veg, mince recipes, cooked meats, or fruit and veg, I always use zip lock bags.

This helps my portion control, and also frees up so much space in the freezer because they can be laid flat.

8. Always prep your snacks

Meatballs prepped

Snacks are the easiest to prep (even though they are often perceived as the hardest or most expensive).

A batch of bliss balls (like these chocolate and peanut butter bliss balls) takes around 15 minutes to make.

On another note dips from the Healthy Mummy website and 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge take me around 5 minutes to prepare.

Other easy and hassle free snacks include cutting up some vegetables for grab and go snacks.

 

Feb Challenge ADWow! Amazing tips.

For MORE quick and easy recipes which use 5 main ingredients and LESS – click here.

In the meantime, if you wish to become a meal prep pro and HIT your goal weight – check out our 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge.

February is our  Meal Prep & Time Saver 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge which means you will be given the tools to master meal prep, delicious meal plans to follow and easy-to-follow workouts you can do at HOME!

Sign up here.

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