Beginners Guide to Meal Prep

If you’ve ever wanted to start improving your current eating habits but struggle with finding the time, you’ll want to keep reading ahead!

Eating a well-balanced diet doesn’t have to take over your life, but instead should complement your lifestyle. By finding strategies that work in your life, you can put your best foot forward to improve your nutrition. 

Meal Prepping is the process of pre-preparing entire meals such as your lunches, dinners and even breakfast or preparing individual ingredients to easily create meals during the week such as cutting up vegetables or cooking meats. 

Whether you’re someone who has tried meal prepping in the past or completely new to the subject, finding the right approach that works for you and your lifestyle can make this habit both enjoyable and something that lasts more than one week. 

What are the Benefits of Meal Prepping?

For majority of our MWU community, time is one of the biggest barriers to their nutrition. They believe that it takes up too much time to create nutritious and tasty meals, which it can in some cases - but MWU is here to make it easier for you. Meal prepping is a great tool to ensure you are able to save time during the week by having a healthy meal waiting for you in the fridge or freezer. By just taking an hour or two out of your day to prep a few meals for yourself you will be able to ensure you stay on track with your health and fitness goals whilst also saving your future self some time. 

How do I Meal Prep?

Everybody Meal Prep's differently - some people like to make 10+ meals at once to add to the freezer to last them weeks of dinners or others like to just make a week's worth of breakfasts to help them get out the door quicker. Work out what your pain points are, do you tend to reach for a quick snack instead of a nutritious lunch then end up snacking all afternoon jeopardising your weight loss goals? Or do you come home from a busy day realising you got nothing left in the fridge so order uber eats instead? These moments are the times when Meal prepping saves you because it gives you structure in your routine and makes it easier to stay on track with your goals. We always choose the easy option when we are busy or hungry, so try make it easier for yourself with healthy planned options around you. 

Our Top Tips for Successful Meal Prepping are

• Be Prepared: Each week aim to set aside 30 minutes - 2 hours to prepare a few meals to make your life easier during the week. Set up in the MWU app through your Meal Guides what recipes you will be making. Hot Tip If you are running short on time we recommend following a Busy Girl Meal Guide as all of these recipes are designed to be super easy, minimal ingredient & quick to make!
• Keep a Shopping List: Once you have your Meal Guide set up for the week, utilise the shopping list feature in the app. This feature will automatically provide you with a checkbox list with everything you will need for a week's worth of meals. 
• Click & Collect your Groceries: Not a compulsory one, but highly recommended to save you time!  If your local supermarket has the option, you can save a lot of time by ordering your groceries online and then collecting them. Most grocery stores will not charge extra for this and you can often save money by ensuring you are only buying the necessary items on your shopping list!
• Invest in Reusable Containers:  Investing in a good set of reusable containers, such as ceramic or glass that will serve you well over the years to come. Plus your meal prep will look cute in some new containers 😉 We recommend opting for those labeled heatproof or microwave-safe, (and BPA or phthalate free) to make sure they can withstand high temperatures so no plastic is melting into your food.
• Be Mindful of the Storage Time:  Most foods that can be meal prepped are safe to be stored in an air-tight container and refrigerated for around three to five days, and can also be frozen to last you a little longer.  To keep your meals as fresh as possible, we recommend storing your salads and vegetables in seperate containers, and add any dressings or sauces at time you're actually eating them. Most MWU Recipes will let you know what the recommended storage time of the meal is, otherwise here is a general guide:
• Chicken: 3-4 days
• Plain pasta: 3-4 days
• Meat substitutes: 3-4 days
• Seafood: 2-3 days
• Open yoghurt: 2-3 days
• Keep Non-Perishable Items Handy: Stocking your pantry with non-perishable items can help you quickly prepare meals when you’re short on time, or running late for work, and need to pack a lunch. These include:
  • Microwave Rice Cups
  • Tinned Tuna or Salmon
  • Canned Beans (Chickpeas, Edamame, Black Beans, Lentils etc)
  • Canned Vegetables (Corn, Tomatoes, Peas, Green Beans, Carrots)
  • 2-Minute Noodles
  • Rice Cakes
  • Oats
  • Longlife Milk
  • Frozen Fruit & Vegetables
  • Pasta 

Should I Weigh my Food?

If you are tracking your calorie intake the best way to ensure the highest accuracy is with food scales. You can purchase a set of scales from your local Kmart or online at Amazon starting around $10. While other forms of measuring such as cups and tablespoons can seem more convenient, it often causes larger amounts of inaccuracy on the actual calories in your meals. 

Here’s how to Weigh like a Pro:

1. Check your unit of measurement: Whether you measure in grams or oz or if you’re measuring liquids in mls your scale will have a setting for each to follow.
2. Tare your scale: More often than not you will need to weigh ingredients that cannot be placed directly on the scale whether these be foods such as yoghurt, meats, pasta or rice and larger vegetables. In these instances it is best to place the bowl or container on the scale first and tare to zero. This ensures that when you add your ingredient to the scale it is only weighing the ingredient itself and not the bowl. 
3. Weighing oil, spreads or syrups: To save scraping your biscoff off a spoon and into a second bowl. You can place your jar on the scales and tare to zero. As you spoon out your desired amount, you will see a negative of your amount eg -30g. You can do the same with oil by placing it on the scale and taring to zero then drizzling slowly and re-weighing until you reach your desired amount.
4. Weighing Raw vs Cooked: Be sure to check whether your ingredient is listed as raw or cooked in the recipe as this will impact your weights. Meats generally lose 30% of their weight once cooked through water loss while grains such as rice and pasta gain weight with water absorption. When it comes to non-starchy vegetables such as broccoli, tomato, capsicum etc there’s no need to worry about cooked vs raw as the weight difference is very small and insignificant.

How to Weigh your Food when Meal Prepping in Bulk

Whether you’re cooking a stir fry, pasta or salmon bowl it can be near impossible to re-weigh individual ingredients once it’s all mixed together. The good news is there is no need to worry about this at all. Let’s take a closer look:

If you’re cooking a stir fry which is 500 calories per serve whether it looks like this:

Or looks like this:

When we look at the total across the 4 days they both equal 2000 calories or an average of 500 calories each day. When it comes to nutrition and tracking your calories it is best to look at this from a weekly average rather than day to day. 

How to Weigh your Food when Cooking for More then Yourself

If you’re tracking your calorie intake but cooking for yourself and your partner/ friend or even cooking for you and your family the first thing to know is there is no special trick to get it 100% right but simply do the best you can and remember nutrition will never be perfect! When cooking for yourself and others while tracking you can calculate this on a percentage basis (time to whip out your calculator). In this example we’ll continue with a 500 calorie stir fry.

Let’s say you’re cooking for yourself +1

If you both eat roughly the same amount this is an even 50/50. Here you simply need to multiply your stir fry ingredients by 2x 

When it comes time to serve up you can simply split this portion in half.

 If you, however, eat less than the other person you can estimate what this difference would be. For example if your partner eats a bit more than you, you can multiply the recipe by 2.5 to provide an extra ½ serving.

When it comes time to serving you can either weigh the entire meal and portion out with the below:

Total calories = 1250

Your serving = 500 calories.

500/ 1250 = 40%

750/ 1250 = 60%

This means that you are eating 40% of the entire meal while the other person eats 60%. You can roughly estimate this as you serve to provide the other person with slightly more. Or you can also weigh the total meal and then multiply by 0.4 to find 40%. For example:

Total meal weight = 1600g 

Your serving = 0.4 x 1600g = 640g

Ingredient Prepping

If you’re someone who isn’t a fan of eating the same thing everyday, you can still meal prep! Ingredient prepping is a time-saving strategy that can make your meals come together even faster throughout the week. This involves tasks like chopping vegetables, pre-cooking meats, or portioning out snacks in advance. By doing a bit of prep work ahead of time, you can easily assemble meals without the need to start from scratch each day.

For example, washing and cutting up vegetables at the start of the week means they’re ready to throw into a salad, stir-fry, or wrap when needed. Similarly, cooking a batch of chicken breast or other proteins can give you ready-to-go options for lunch or dinner. This not only speeds up meal assembly but also makes it easier to stick to your planned meals, helping you stay on track with your nutrition goals.

Not only does ingredient prepping save time, but it can also reduce food waste. When you have everything portioned and ready to go, you're less likely to let ingredients go unused or spoil. It’s an easy way to stay organised, make nutritious meals more convenient, and reduce the stress of cooking after a long day.

Try these Budget Friendly Easy Recipes to Get you Started

Breakfast Bars

Ingredients:
(Serves 6)

• 360g Rolled Oats (Raw)
• 4x Bananas (480g)
• 450ml Skim Milk
• 60g Dark Chocolate Chips
• 180g Peanut Butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C and lightly spray baking dish with oil, if required.
2. Add banana to baking dish and mush together using back of fork. Pour oats, milk and half of peanut butter into dish and mix to combine. Additional water can be added if required to reach a runny batter consistency.
3. Stir through choc chips.
4. Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes, until cooked through. Please note cooking times with vary based on depth of baking dish. Once cooked remove from oven and let cool.
5. Melt remaining peanut butter and drizzle over the top of oat bars.

Nutrition (per serve): Calories: 529 | P: 19g | F: 24g | C: 60g 

Butter Chicken Meatballs

Ingredients:
(Serves 4)

• 500g Chicken Mince (Raw)
• 485g Butter Chicken Sauce
• 1x Capsicum
• 1x Onion
• 240g White Rice (Raw)

Directions:

1. Prepare ingredients: finely dice onion and capsicum.
2. In a bowl combine chicken mince and onion. Mix together using hands. Create 1 tbsp sized meatballs and set aside on plate.
3. In the meantime, cook rice as per packet instructions.Heat pan over medium high and apply a light spray of oil, if necessary. Add meatballs and cook for 2-3 minutes each side, until cooked through. Add butter chicken sauce and capsicum to pan, mix to combine. Cook for a further 5 minutes.
4. Add rice to container or bowl and top with butter chicken meatballs and sauce.

Nutrition (per serve): Calories: 497 | P: 31g | F: 15g | C: 60g

Tuna Pasta Bake

Ingredients:
(Serves 4)

• 280g Protein Pasta (Raw)
• 380g Tuna (Canned) (Unflavoured) (In Springwater)
• 240g Carrots
• 200g Mushrooms
• 400g Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce
• 160g Light Cream Cheese
• 80g Cheddar Cheese (Shredded)
• White Onion, to taste
• Garlic, 4 clove

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Cook pasta as per packet instructions, undercook by roughly 3 minutes and drain excess water
3. Prepare vegetables: mince garlic, dice onion, thinly slice carrot and slice mushrooms.
4. Heat a medium-sized pot over medium - high heat and apply a light spray of oil, if necessary. Once hot, add onion, garlic and saute for 2-33 minutes, until softened. Add pasta sauce, tuna, carrot and mushrooms to pan. Cook for 6-8 minutes or until carrots have softened.
5. Take pasta sauce off heat and stir through cream cheese. Once combined, add pasta and stir well.
6. Transfer pasta into oven-safe dish and sprinkle cheese on top. Bake pasta in oven for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

*This meal can be stored in an air-tight container and kept in fridge for 2-3 days.

Nutrition (per serve): Calories: 584 | P: 51g | F: 21g | C: 48g

Your Friendly Reminder 🩷

When it comes to cooking for more than one person whether this be your significant other, family or friends there is no real ‘trick’ to it, it’s about doing the best that you can.

Remember that the key ingredient in your meal prep journey is flexibility. Nothing in nutrition will ever be perfect so even if you think your measurements may be slightly off or you're not sure if you've portioned out correctly, the goal is to make meal prepping work for you.

If you're looking to take your nutrition to the next level and smash your fitness goals, our Platinum Membership includes all Meal Guides and a 1500+ Recipe Library curated by our team of dietitian.