Okay. I am officially all meal prepped out.
I am a mum-of-four from New Zealand and I have lost over 40kg following The Healthy Mummy’s 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge.
As a family, we spend a MAXIMUM of $200 (New Zealand dollars – which is about $185 Aussie dollars) a week on grocery shopping. The 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge has helped our family eat well while sticking to a budget.
However last week, I was motivated and prepared to take on a new meal prep mission and see HOW MUCH FURTHER I could go.
I set myself a challenge to prep 30 days of healthy snacks and dinners for our family of 6.
There are lots of New Zealand Healthy Mummies who see all the amazing meal prep blogs, stories and posts within The Healthy Mummy community – however – often feel a little discouraged to take on similar tasks as prices (in grocery stories) in NZ can be more expensive than in Aus!
So, I wanted to show all the NZ Healthy Mummies you really can meal prep on a budget no matter what – especially when you have support and guidance from the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge.
MEAL PREP FRENZY: Mum makes 370 meals for less than 90 cents per serve
Before we began our meal prep frenzy, my 13 year old daughter entered all the recipes we were going to make into the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge App.
This provided us with a shopping list to go off.
Then we decided to double everything.
While we had a few things in the pantry (think spices, salt and pepper and meal prep containers) we essentially had to buy EVERYTHING for this meal prep challenge.
In the end we spent a total of $325 for 370 serves. That’s the same as saying 370 meals for 87 cents per serve.
Made meals we made
Tandoori Chicken – 12 serves
Nacho mince – 6 serves
Devilled sausages – 6 serves
Meatball soup – 12 serves
Sausage pasta bake – 12 serves
Spanish rice – 12 serves
Stovetop lasange – 18 serves
One pot spag bol – 12 serves
Chicken drumsticks serves – 12 serves
Slow cooked asian chicken serves – 12 serves
Cheesy chicken meatloaf serves – 6 serves
Easy beef stew serves – 18 serves
Snacks we made
Choc chip banana bread – 36 serves
Hidden vege sausage rolls serves – 24 serves
Brocolli bites – 24 serves
Orange poppy seed muffins – 12 serves
Choc brownies x 4 – 36 serves
Pumpkin and sweet potato soup – 24 serves
Asian pork and vege balls – 20 serves
Weetbix slice x 2 – 36 serves
Peanut crumble balls – 20 serves
Spinach balls – 20 serves
In the end this meal prep took most of THURSDAY and a few hours on SUNDAY!
In the end, I was able to make enough main meals for the fam for 24 days. However, I was able to make enough snacks for 30 days. Thank goodness for our deep freezer.
Want to access thousands more healthy recipes like these?
Love the sound of these delicious recipes? Want access to thousands and thousands MORE healthy recipes just like it? Then be sure to check out our 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge.
Our 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge is a family-friendly, breastfeeding-safe program designed FOR MUMS to help them tackle their health and lose the baby weight.
Every week you are given a different meal plan to follow and each month we add 300+ NEW recipes to our Challenge Recipe Hub. That way, you’ll never get bored and stay on weight loss track while digging into healthy, yummy recipes.
Learn more about our 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge HERE.