Meal planning and meal prepping are two weekly habits that I could no longer live without. They are the steps that make busy work weeks manageable by helping me save time. They also help me stick to my food budget. Not to forget, these two steps help me eat nutritious meals as often as possible!
Meal planning is planning out what meals you will eat throughout the week, and making sure you have the right ingredients on hand. Typically, this is an action you repeat on a weekly basis. Meal prepping, on the other hand, means preparing meals ahead of time. It involves preparing and/or cooking ingredients or entire meals in advance.
Meal planning and meal prepping are often talked about together, however, they are not the same. In fact, you can totally do the one without the other. Continue reading to learn more.
This post is all about: Meal Planning Vs Meal Prepping – What’s The Difference?
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The Difference Between Meal Planning And Meal Prepping
Meal planning and meal prepping ultimately are both practices that can make our lives easier and more organized!
However, they are not the same.
What Is Meal Planning, exactly?
Meal planning is planning out what meals you will eat throughout the week, and making sure you have the right ingredients on hand. Typically, this is an action you repeat on a weekly basis.
You can personalize your meal plan in such a way that is suits your lifestyle!
You can for example choose to cook every night, making sure you cook enough to have leftovers for lunch the following day. Or, you can plan to cook most nights, and get take-out a few nights per week.
If you prioritize eating the freshest ingredients, you can choose to grocery shop twice a week or more. If you prioritize convenience, you can plan to shop once a week only.
In terms of recipes, you can choose to rotate the same recipes every week or you can experiment with assigning specific recurring categories. Think “Meatless Monday”, “Taco Tuesday”, “Takeout Thursday”, or try “Pasta Night”, “Salad Night”, or “Stir fry Night”.
Meal Planning Can Help You…
- feel less overwhelmed at the grocery store
- reduce food waste
- ensure that you use up leftovers
- feel less indecisive and lose time on week nights trying to figure out what to cook
- eat a wider variety of meals throughout the week
- maintain your specific dietary restrictions
- nurture your relationship with food and cooking
- buy less take-out meals
Sounds good? You can take it one step further!
Now, What is Meal Prepping?
Meal prepping means preparing meals ahead of time. It involves preparing and/or cooking ingredients or entire meals in advance.
The simplest way to approach meal prep is in three steps:
- Make a meal plan + grocery list
- Go grocery shopping
- Start the meal prep party
After selecting your meals for the week and shopping for ingredients, meal prep involves setting aside some time to prepare the upcoming meals or ingredients thereof.
There’s no one way to prep. Depending on your lifestyle and what works for you, there are different approaches to meal prep:
- Prep raw and freeze: prep all your ingredients for a dish, and freeze them, ready to cook them later.
- Batch cook and freeze: cook a large batch of soup, or stew, and freeze for later.
- Individual meals prep: prepare food and portion it in single-serving containers.
- Ingredient prep: just prep ingredients ahead of time so that meal assembly is faster.
Meal Prepping Can Help You…
- make sure that you actually action your weekly meal plan
- free up a lot of time during your busy work week
- make sure that you eat consistently during the day
Meal Planning Vs Meal Prepping – Which One Is Right For You?
Ultimately, whether you meal plan or take your meal organization to the next level with meal prep, totally depends on what best suits your lifestyle.
Is convenience during the week your absolute priority? Try meal prepping!
If you are new to meal prepping, start out small by preparing just a few lunches ahead of time. As you become more efficient, you can slowly increase how much you prep.
Do you find it more important to eat freshly prepared dinners every night, but want to feel less overwhelmed at the grocery store? Try meal planning!
Did you find this post helpful? Don’t forget to let me know, by leaving a comment below.
This post is all about: Meal Planning Vs Meal Prepping – What’s The Difference?
