prepping for a stress-free week.

By Jodie McGough, Nutrition Manager, National Nutrition Foundation

Meal prepping has become a weekly habit in our household, and it’s made a huge difference to how we eat, budget and plan for the week ahead. Each week, we start by choosing from a list of our favourite meals.

Meals like spaghetti Bolognese, poke bowls and curries are regulars. These meals are super flexible, which means we can easily swap ingredients depending on what we have on hand or what’s in season. For example, poke bowls might have salmon one week and tofu the next, while our curries rotate between chicken, fish or tofu, with vegetables chosen depending on the season.

Once we’ve decided on meals, we write up a grocery list and head to the shops on Sunday morning. Sunday night is our prep time where we get meals ready for the week ahead. Lunches are our focus: in winter, we batch cook hearty soups, while in summer we tend to have lots of pasta salads.

Since it’s just the two of us, we often have leftovers that become lunch or dinner the next day. We also try to stick to seasonal ingredients, which are usually cheaper and fresher. When certain items like berries aren’t in season, we opt for frozen alternatives.

Meal prepping has so many benefits. Having our meals planned and groceries ready means we don’t have to make decisions after a long day at work. It also cuts down on supermarket trips and helps us spend less overall. And when we have leftovers we can’t eat right away, we freeze them.

Meal prep might take a bit of time up front, but the payoff throughout the week is well worth it.