Meal Prepping Resolutions for the New Year 

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During the holidays, I reflected on my eating habits for 2024 and realized that this year I want to incorporate more healthy foods into my meals without the daily hassle of cooking. Let’s face it: cooking for at least 30 minutes every day while managing a family, household responsibilities, and self-care can be overwhelming. After a long day at work or school, it’s easy to fall into the trap of eating quick, less nutritious options when healthier alternatives aren’t readily available.

This is where meal planning and prepping comes in. By setting aside time each week to plan out meals and cook or prepare ingredients ahead of time, you can enjoy healthy, delicious dishes throughout the week while saving time, energy, and reducing food waste—all while sticking to a food budget. Creating ready-to-eat meals or having prepped ingredients to work with allows you to eat well without spending hours in the kitchen every day. Today we’ll dive into meal planning and prep strategies to help you make healthy eating more accessible and practical for your busy weeks ahead in 2025.

Take a Time and Food Inventory

Start by evaluating your weekly time availability. How much time can you realistically spend on cooking each day? How often do you go grocery shopping? Try to find a consistent time (or multiple) each week that you can go grocery shopping and meal prep (for example, a day-off). Also take stock of what food you already have available at home, particularly older items that need to be used soon.

Map Out Your Meals

Creating a weekly meal plan can remove the stress of having to decide what meals to make each day on the fly. It also helps us determine how much food we’ll need for the week and helps us stick to our food budget. However, don’t make your meal plan too rigid; allow some flexibility if plans or appetites change. Also include snacks and drinks in your plan as well. If creating a plan for a week of meals feels daunting, try planning several meals each week at first and then scale up from there. Alternatively, you can also stock up on a variety of items from all five food groups (proteins, vegetables, fruits, grains, and dairy) that your household enjoys and mix and match throughout the week, switching things up based on what dishes your family is craving. I personally love experimenting with salads—keeping the same base greens but rotating through different proteins (chicken, beans, eggs, etc.), grains, and produce. I also keep a running list of recipes I’d like to try, which keeps me inspired and excited about meal planning.

Pre-Prep Your Ingredients

To save time on busy days, prep your ingredients ahead of time. Chopping produce or cooking grains or meats and having them ready to go in the refrigerator reduces the time spent on future meals. For example, I always have chopped onions, peppers, and mushrooms on hand in the fridge, ready to throw into any dish.

Leverage Leftovers & the Freezer

Making large batches of food and packing the fridge and freezer with leftovers is one of the biggest time-savers for me. It also makes packing lunch more exciting because I can mix and match leftovers. For instance, I might cook a big batch of rice which I can eat with a protein and sautéed vegetables, use in stir-fries, and even turn into a rice pudding! Roasted vegetables also make a great addition to any meal, and boiled eggs are a versatile snack or ingredient for other dishes.

When meal prepping, don’t forget about your freezer. Freezing leftovers or prepped ingredients can extend their shelf life and prevent waste. If you’re anticipating a busy week or traveling and won’t be able to eat everything in your fridge, freeze what you can.

Mix Up Your Food Formats

To prevent food waste and make your meals more diverse, keep a combination of fresh, frozen, and shelf-stable ingredients on hand. Fresh ingredients like greens can be eaten raw in salads or cooked in dishes, offering versatility. It’s a good idea to prioritize using your fresh foods first, and then rely on frozen and shelf-stable items to supplement your meals as the week goes on.

Take Advantage of Seasonal Foods

Eating seasonally can not only support local agriculture but can also be cost-effective. Recently, a friend gave me two large heads of collard greens from their garden. I initially wondered how I would use them all before they spoiled. But then I realized I didn’t have to use them all at once! I cooked down one for meals that week and froze the other for later use. You can also use food preservation techniques, like pickling, canning, or dehydrating, to save seasonal produce available in bulk now for later use. Many vegetables, fruits, and herbs can be preserved for use later in the year, giving you nutritious ingredients to enjoy throughout the colder months.

Hopefully this article has inspired you to try incorporating meal planning and prepping into your 2025 goals! For more information and strategies for incorporating healthy and local foods into your weekly meals, contact the North Carolina Cooperative Extension – Lee County Center and ask for either Ashley Szilvay or Meredith Favre, our Family & Consumer Sciences and Local Foods agents respectively, for more information.