How to Save 5 Hours Each Week with our Prepared Meal Plans

Now that we’re transitioning back to in-person work and school, our lives are getting busier by the day, which can make it extra challenging to maintain a healthy diet. If this is the case for you, meal-prepping is the answer! Meal-prepping saves you hours in the kitchen each week and helps you to stay on track with your eating goals.

The last thing you want to do when you get back home from a busy day at work or school is to make yourself a meal that will probably only last you that one night with nothing to eat the next day! This non-ending cycle will only lead to added stress and bad eating habits, like ordering fast food instead. 

We’re going to share with you a few tips that will help you save hours in the kitchen each week, while reducing the stress that comes with last-minute grocery runs and fast food purchases. Here’s how you can save time with meal prepping:

Brainstorm your Favorite Meals:

Take 10-15 minutes at the beginning of each week to sit down with yourself and come up with a list of your favorite meals that you want to eat for that week. This includes all 3 meals- breakfast, lunch and dinner. This helps you get an idea of what groceries you’ll need to purchase (such as pre-made meals from Pure Plates,) as well as what food items you already have on hand in your home.

This is the very first step of your meal prepping journey! You want to make sure that you’re planning your meals in advance so that you neither over-purchase or under-purchase. This saves you the trouble of making that annoying double trip to the grocery store!

Make a Meal Schedule

Now that you have come up with a rough plan, it’s time to make a meal schedule. One of the most essential meal prepping components is to have a planned meal schedule. 

Start by visualizing your week in terms of work hours, planned dinner dates, work meals, etc. Anticipate how your days will look and schedule your meals according to that! Organization is a key aspect of meal planning and will help you save the most time.

Remember, you want to work around your schedule and not the other way around! The ultimate goal here is to help you get an idea of what you’ll be eating and on what days of the week. This will be a lifesaver when you’re in the kitchen scrambling to figure out what to eat. 

Pro tip: You can use Excel or Google Sheets to create your meal list and schedule your meals to ensure it doesn’t get lost anywhere, plus it automatically syncs on your phone- super convenient when you’re at the store! If this sounds like added work for you, let Pure Plates take care of it for you by utilizing one of their own personalized meal plans.

Go Grocery Shopping with Pure Plates:

You now have a plan, a schedule, and a list- it’s time to shop. You did it! This part should be effortless now that you have everything you need. 

With meal prepping, you only need to do a quick once-a-week or bi-weekly trip to our site to get everything that you need. This is a huge time saver since you’ve planned everything you need in advance and all there’s left to do is to follow the list on your phone. Pure Plates also offers snack options to add on so that your full eating schedule is taken care of.

Organize your meals

When shopping with Pure Plates, all you have to do is properly store and organize your food when it gets delivered! This makes things so much easier for you later in the week and when you are ready to consume them. Pure Plates will also tell you how long the foods can be stored so that you can feel confident in your choices.

The Bottom line...

We understand that you all have busy lives and you may be struggling with trying to “figure out” what to eat each day and making the time to actually cook your meals. We’re here to help you end this struggle!

Meal prepping is a journey and it can be a challenging one. We first want you to acknowledge that there’s not one “perfect” meal plan that fits everyone. Everyone’s schedule and eating habits are different and that’s totally okay!

Now that we’ve given you our tips on how to save hours in the kitchen each week by choosing meals with Pure Plates, it’s time to choose your foods like our popular chicken dishes, or one of our vegetarian options.

If you’re still feeling overwhelmed, make sure to check out our personalized meal plans as a kickstart for your meal prepping journey to help you save time and money to ultimately reach your eating goals!