Ever since I started meal prepping over ten years ago, it has been a complete game changer. As a mom juggling a business and a household, having good systems isn’t just a nice to have – it’s necessary. On my journey, the process hasn’t always been easy, but I’ve learned some useful tips and hacks that have allowed me to stick to my meal-prepping routine through the ups and downs of life. If you’re like me and are ready to meal prep like a mother, this is going to be your ultimate beginner’s guide. So say bye-bye to cooking every night, your sky-high grocery budget, and to ridiculous food waste.

A Taste of My Backstory

Growing up, meal prepping wasn’t a thing in my Dominican household. My parents would cook three meals a day, clean after each meal, and without a leftover to spare. When I became an adult, trying to keep up with this routine led me to some upfront challenges that started kicking my butt, especially as I was transitioning into corporate America. Overwhelmed with all of my daily tasks, I started noticing that I was eating out a lot, skipping workouts, and gaining weight. Heading into my wedding, it became clear that these new habits couldn’t continue. That’s when my husband and I got into our fitness era. Discovering meal prepping through fitness influencers on social media. But the struggle was real, repeatedly trying to eat lean chicken breast, brown rice, and broccoli five days a week. Umm, no thank you!

Instead, we decided to modify this strategy in a way that worked for us. Initially, my husband took the lead in our meal-prepping journey. However, since he came from the South, his dishes, while delicious, were quite heavy and led me to gain even more weight. Seeing this, I started to take a more active role in meal prepping, only to find that my husband thought that my meals were too light. This turned into a real balancing act. Fortunately, in those early days, we found a middle ground by dividing the meal prep responsibilities: he handled the meats, and I took care of the sides. This arrangement worked for us until our family and my husband’s business grew, resulting in me taking the lead in our family’s meal prep.

My Golden Rules for Simplifying Meal Prep

I’ll be honest, meal-prepping solo was intimidating. After several attempts, farewells (I fucking quit), and learning curves. I crafted my own set of golden rules that helped me simplify my meal-prepping routine and have since become my mantras:

Rule #1 Meal Prep for Only 3 Days: Focus on Monday thru Wednesday.

Rule #2 Weekly Lazy Dinners: Reserve Thursdays for quick, under-30-minute meals.

Rule #3 The Rule of 3: Aim for a balance in each meal – 1 protein, 1 starch, and 1 vegetable.

Rule #4 Plan Before Shopping: Never go grocery shopping without a clear list that mimics your weekly meal plan.

Rule #5 Sundays are for Meal Prep: Make sure grocery shopping is done, the kitchen is clean, and that time is set aside on Sunday for meal prep.

Step-by-Step Guide to My Meal Prep Sunday Routine

Now that you’re familiar with my golden rules, let’s dive into my step-by-step beginner’s guide for Meal Prep Sunday. The initial step involves mentally preparing yourself for the task ahead. If you follow my golden rules, I am telling you, there’s a unique satisfaction in starting Sunday with everything in place, and ready for you to successfully tackle your meal prep. All that’s left is setting the vibe with your favorite playlist on Spotify. I know when I blast my R&B playlist, I am instantly in a good mood and ready to meal prep.

The Container Dilemma

A common mistake I’ve seen a lot of people make when starting their meal prep journey is beginning without the essential tools like proper containers. My early meal prep experiences were far from perfect, I used mismatched and worn-out containers that I had around the house. This frustration led me to do a complete reset of my container collection. We went out and got the popular black meal prep containers that come in a pack of 20. Those worked for a while, but the amount of dishes it created was insane! Eventually, I landed on family-style non-toxic glass containers that I got from Ikea. Which I still use today. The takeaway here is to make sure before you start cooking that you have genuinely decent containers, and are in the right mindset. Now let’s get into the steps needed to actually start meal prepping.

Step 1 – Create your Meal Plan

The first step of meal prepping isn’t cooking up a whole Thanksgiving dinner, Nope. It’s coming up with a meal plan. This is when you list out the meals that you want to enjoy for the upcoming week. This step alone is one of the best ways to stay on top of your grocery budget, avoid food waste, and pick healthier meals. If saving money is your top goal, this strategy could save a family of four around $1,500 of wasted groceries per year. In my household, a meal plan is simply a plan for our food, the same way a budget is simply a plan for our money. We don’t skip this step.

Now, when it comes to creating a meal plan, take the time to make sure the meals are both achievable and budget-friendly. This is where the Rule of 3 kicks in, ensuring that each meal is well-balanced by including 1 protein, 1 starch, and at least 1 vegetable. This foundational rule helps me structure the meals before I dive into the specifics. Additionally, I like to theme each day of the week to spark some creativity and variety in our meal planning. Here’s a snapshot of our weekly meal themes:

Sunday: Family Style
Monday: Meatless
Tuesday: Taco Tuesday
Wednesday: Healthy
Thursday: Lazy Dinner
Friday: Appetizer Friday
Saturday: Keep it Open

While this routine isn’t set in stone, it does provide a good framework. As I got comfortable with creating meal plans for dinner, I eventually expanded into breakfast and lunch. However, for beginners, I suggest focusing on dinner first. Now I will admit that it wasn’t always easy to come up with meals that I could actually cook. I had to take it slow because I wasn’t the best cook when I was first starting off. I began looking for easy dinner recipes on Pinterest and watching some of my favorite home cooks on YouTube. Getting into the routine of practicing my cooking skills on the weekends really improved my confidence in the kitchen, but I will remind you that it didn’t happen overnight.

Map Out Your Weekly Meal Plan

It’s now time to tie everything together. Here’s how I implement all of the steps above to create a tasty meal plan for the week:

Sunday: Family Style (Baked Chicken with roasted potatoes and carrots)
Monday: Meatless (Tofu Bowl with rice and cabbage)
Tuesday: Taco Tuesday (Carnitas Tacos with pico de gayo, guac and chips)
Wednesday: Healthy (Brown Sugar Salmon with quinoa and broccoli)
Thursday: Lazy Dinner (Trader Joe’s Orange Chicken, rice with green beans)
Friday: Appetizer Friday (Hot wings, Flatbread, and Veggie Platter)
Saturday: Keep it Open

I want you to notice that I used the themes and the Rule of 3 to put my meal plan together. This is what I mean when I say keep it simple!

Step 2 – Go Grocery Shopping

Once I have my meal plan in hand, the next step is to get ready to go grocery shopping, in your own kitchen that is. A lot of us create a shopping list as if we don’t have some ingredients already like rice, frozen vegetables, and beans. These are common staples that you may already have, so don’t add them to your list if you don’t need to. If your goal is to save money on groceries, another great tip is to check out your local grocery store ads for any sales. I love using the Flipp App to quickly review all of my favorite grocery ads in one place. I also have recently downloaded my local grocery store app where I’ve been able to get some exclusive coupons and sales that I can’t get anywhere else.

The Essential Shopping List

Now start creating your essential shopping list. I personally jot down my grocery shopping list on my notes app on my phone, which allows me to share my list directly with my spouse. This has been a game changer because we can be at different ends of the store knocking out our grocery shopping or for times when I can’t go and he takes on the shopping on his own. An important tip here is to get yourself into the habit of double-checking your list before you leave the house and before you leave the grocery store. I know grocery shopping can be distracting, but the last thing you want to do is miss a specific ingredient that you need because you forgot to check your list.

Efficient Grocery Run

Last but not least, you need a good grocery shopping routine. I personally go shopping for my groceries a few days before I prepare my meals on Sunday. The worst thing you can do is go grocery shopping the same day you cook your meals. Seriously, I don’t recommend it! I also go shopping early in the morning to pick the freshest fruits and vegetables. I’ve noticed that the quality and selection tend to dwindle later in the day. So in my household, we try to avoid any late afternoon grocery shopping in general.

Step 3 – Cook your Meal Prep

To see the benefits of meal prepping, you need to cook the food, not just prep it. I know some people on social media promote just cutting up your vegetables and seasoning your meats as a form of meal prepping. But from my personal experience, the best part of meal prepping is not having to cook during the week. Monday through Wednesday are the busiest days of the week and those are the specific days we’re trying to simplify. So yes, my meal-prepping strategy includes cooking my meals.

Stress-Free Cooking Sessions

Since every single meal is cooked differently, I want to share some cooking tips that can streamline your meal-prepping sessions:

The night before, take your meat out of the freezer to make sure it’s fully defrosted by the time you need it.
Wash, chop, and set aside all of your vegetables in one go to save time while cooking.
Use my Dominican sazon to quickly season your meats.
Cook like kind items at the same time, like roasting all of your vegetables on the same sheet pan.
Make it a habit to clean as you go, to keep your kitchen manageable and clean.

Cooking might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I view it as an essential life skill. Leaning into this process has helped me become a better cook to the point that the women in my family now brag that “she can cook, like a mother”. Which is a huge compliment!

Step 4 – Store & Maintain Your Meal Prep

The last part of meal prepping is actually storing your meals efficiently. Initially, when I started meal prepping my refrigerator setup was far from ideal for storing multiple meals. I had to rearrange the shelves of my fridge to create a dedicated space for my meal prep containers. During this time, I also started aligning my meal containers in the fridge according to the days of the week they were going to be pulled out. With Wednesday being the last day of meal prep, that is the first container I place in my fridge. Following Tuesday’s meal that goes in the middle and Monday’s meal on top. Once I made this switch, my husband instantly thought I was a genius because the hassle of shuffling through several containers to get to Monday’s meal was a hot mess.

Plate for Visual Appeal

Before you store your meal prep, you need to allow your meals to cool. Once cooled, I plate my meals into my containers in neat rows. This layout not only keeps the meals looking tidy and appealing but also prevents the food from becoming soggy.

How to Maintain Meal Prep Sunday

Once you’ve completed the 4 step process of meal prepping, now it’s all about maintaining your meal prep Sunday routine. In my household, we personally create our meal plan during our monthly Family All-Hands Meeting. This is where we discuss several important topics that keep our household running smoothly, like our meal plan for the month. Creating a monthly meal plan might be more advanced for some. If you’re starting off, start off with a weekly meal plan. But during our All-Hands, we’ve found it to be a great opportunity to collaborate, get feedback, and decide on what we want to eat next month. By doing our Family All-Hands Meeting and sticking with my golden rules this duo allows me to continue my meal prep sunday routine with poise.

It’s Not Just a Routine, It’s a Lifestyle

Reflecting on my 10-year journey of meal prepping, I am amazed at its direct impact on my life. It’s more than just a routine, It’s a lifestyle that has helped me stay organized, healthy, and poised in my busy world. These are wins that aren’t for the public but for myself and my household. Plus, just knowing that I don’t have to cook every day of the week is pretty awesome. So, If you’re considering meal prepping, my advice is simple: start now! Embrace the “Meal Prep Sunday Lifestyle” – it’s more rewarding than you may think.

Join the Meal Prep Sunday Lifestyle

Every Sunday checkout my Instagram stories to see what I am meal prepping. I hope you’ll join me next week for Meal Prep Sunday and continue to enjoy my 4 Game-Changing Strategies mini-series.

Meal Prep like a MOTHER: Your Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Meal Prep