5 Easy Meal Prep Ideas to Save Time and Money

Hey everyone. I wanted to share some of my favorite meal prep ideas with you.

We all know how busy our days can get. It’s not always possible to cook fresh meals every day. That’s why I love to take time at the beginning of the week to prepare and freeze as much as possible.

This way me and my family can just pull things out of the freezer and warm them up without worrying about shopping, preparing, and cooking. Here are some ideas for meals you can make and freeze.

I started by chopping up an onion. I put that in a pot on the stove with some oil and let them cook a bit. Then I added in the chicken. I wanted to cook the chicken and brown it a little bit.

I added a little water to the pot so the chicken would stick to the bottom. I cooked it for 15 minutes and then filled the rest of the pot with water and covered the pot. I let it cook like that for another half hour.

I diced up some vegetables. I cut up a sweet potato, a parsnip, 3 carrots, and a potato. I also added some frozen pumpkin pieces that I had in the freezer.

I took the chicken out of the pot and put the veggies in. I left the veggies to cook in the pot for half an hour. Then I pulled all the meat off the bones of the chicken. Once I got all the meat off I added it back into the pot.

The starch from the potato helped thicken up the mixture. I added a packet of chicken soup mix. I let it cook a bit longer. When it cooled down I put it in containers and stuck them in the freezer.

4. Minced meat lasagna

I doubled up a recipe for my minced meat lasagna. I put two packages of chopped meat in a pan on the stove. I added some chopped carrots and a package of corn. I let that cook a little and then I added a bottle of tomato sauce.

I like to make my own white sauce for the lasagna. I always have. When I make it on my own I can add more milk and stretch it out more. I just throw a lot of butter, some flour, and milk into a pot to cook.

I line the bottom of the pan with white sauce. Then I put a layer of pasta and covered that with a layer of chopped meat. I continued adding layers until I reached the top of the pan. Then I cooked the lasagnas and once they cooled down I put them in containers and stuck them in the freezer.

5. Shredded cheese

I had a couple of blocks of cheese leftover, so I shredded them. I did this using a grater and shredded them by hand. It took a while and was tiring, but I didn’t want to wash my food processor.

I put the shredded cheese in Ziploc bags and put them in the freezer. Now I have shredded cheese ready to go when I need it.

Meal prep ideas

I love the convenience of having meals ready to go in the freezer. It reduces so much stress in my life. It also saves us the money we would have spent buying ready-made food or eating out when we’re hungry and it’s too late to cook.