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I Finally Started Meal Prepping After Years of Talking About It
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items You pin meal prep ideas every Sunday, buy containers you never use, and end up ordering DoorDash by Tuesday. Sound familiar? This is everything I actually bought, used, and stuck with after failing at meal prep for three straight years. If you work l...
Sections
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Pressure Cookers and Multi-Cookers That Do the Heavy Lifting
Meal Prep Containers That Don't Leak in Your Work Bag
Kitchen Tools That Cut Prep Time in Half
Spices and Sauces So Meal Prep Doesn't Taste Boring by Wednesday
Scales and Portioning Tools for Consistent Results
Cookbooks and Guides That Actually Work for Busy People
Pressure Cookers and Multi-Cookers That Do the Heavy Lifting
Cooking used to feel like a second job after my actual job. These let me dump ingredients in, walk away, and come back to food that tastes like I tried way harder than I did.
Grab this before anything else on this list. I went from zero meal preps to five straight weeks because this thing makes rice, chicken, and soup while I shower after work.
Instant Pot Duo 6 Qt 7-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker
Switch to this if you want the sterilize and egg functions too. My partner makes yogurt in it every Saturday, which I never saw coming from someone who burns toast.
Instant Pot Duo Plus 6 Qt 9-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker
Use this when you want to pressure cook AND air fry in one shot. Shredded chicken goes from frozen to crispy in under 40 minutes. Feeds my whole family of four with leftovers.
Ninja OL601 Foodi XL 8 Qt. Pressure Cooker Steam Fryer
Worth it for the quieter steam release alone. My old model used to scare my cat off the counter. This one whispers, and the sous vide function actually works for chicken breasts.
Instant Pot Pro 6 Qt 10-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker, Black
Snag this if you're on a tighter budget but still want a solid cooker. The inner pot is nonstick, which saved me from scrubbing burnt rice at 10 PM on a weeknight.
COSORI Electric Pressure Cooker 6 Quart
Keep this one around for oval-shaped roasts that don't fit in round pots. Threw a pork shoulder in Sunday morning, pulled it apart by football kickoff. No babysitting required.
Crockpot Express 6-Qt Oval Max Pressure Cooker
Get this if you don't want separate appliances cluttering your counter. The air fryer lid crisps up meal prep chicken thighs so they don't taste sad and reheated on day four.
Instant Pot Duo Crisp 8 Qt 11-in-1 Air Fryer + Pressure
Meal Prep Containers That Don't Leak in Your Work Bag
I ruined two laptop bags with leaky containers before I figured this out. The right container is the difference between eating your lunch and wearing it.
Try throwing these in your bag without the paranoia. Carried tikka masala in my backpack on a crowded subway and not a single drop escaped. That alone sold me.
Rubbermaid Brilliance Glass Food Storage Containers
Use glass if you're tired of tomato sauce staining everything orange. These go from freezer to microwave without cracking, and they still look new after eight months.
2 Compartments | Borosilicate Glass Meal Prep Containers
Perfect for anyone who hates when rice touches the broccoli. The dividers are tall enough to actually separate things, and they stack neatly even in a tiny fridge.
Bentgo Prep 2-Compartment Meal Prep Containers
Toss your mismatched container drawer and start fresh. Fifty pieces sounds excessive until you realize you can prep for two weeks and still have extras for soup.
fullstar 50-Piece Plastic Food Storage Containers with Lids
Bring these to the office potluck and you'll actually get them back because your name shows through the clear glass. Sturdy enough that I've dropped one on tile and it survived.
Pyrex Simply Store Meal Prep Glass Food Storage
Swap out your stained plastic for these. Bamboo lids look way better sitting on your desk than cracked Tupperware from 2016. Coworkers will think you have your life together.
10 Packs 30 oz Glass Meal Prep Containers with Lids
Grab this specifically for salads that go soggy. Dressing stays separate until you're ready to eat. Finally stopped buying sad desk salads from the lobby deli.
Freshmage Salad Container for Lunch with Ice Pack
Kitchen Tools That Cut Prep Time in Half
Chopping vegetables for an hour every Sunday killed my motivation faster than anything. These tools got my prep down to about 25 minutes, which is right around my attention span limit.
Dice an entire onion in three seconds without crying. Bought this after I spent 20 minutes hand-chopping vegetables and decided life was too short for that nonsense.
Fullstar Pro Original Vegetable Chopper & Spiralizer
Keep a decent can opener around because you'll be opening a lot of canned beans and tomatoes. My old one kept slipping and I nearly launched a can of chickpeas across the kitchen.
KitchenAid Classic Multifunction Can Opener and Bottle
Use this for sweet potatoes and carrots. The blade is sharp enough that peeling five pounds of potatoes doesn't destroy your wrist. Sounds small, matters a lot on prep day.
OXO Good Grips Swivel Vegetable Peeler
Pair these together and they snap into a neat stack instead of avalanching out of your drawer. Color coded so you stop eyeballing a tablespoon and wondering why your rice tastes weird.
Spring Chef Magnetic Measuring Cups & Spoons Set of 15
Try this for shredding pulled pork or chicken in seconds. Sounds weird, works incredibly well. Two blades going opposite directions tear through a whole pork butt in under a minute.
Hamilton Beach Stainless Steel Electric Knife Set
Squeeze this over your meal prep bowls for instant flavor. A little lime juice on rice and beans makes the difference between food you're excited to eat and food you tolerate.
Zulay Kitchen Cast Iron Juicer
Perfect for anyone in a studio apartment with three inches of counter space. Everything nests inside itself, so it takes up about as much room as a single mixing bowl.
Joseph Joseph Nest 9 Plus, 9 Piece Compact Food
Spices and Sauces So Meal Prep Doesn't Taste Boring by Wednesday
Eating the same bland chicken five days in a row is why most people quit. Flavor variety is what kept me going past week two, and these bottles did all the work.
Drizzle this on day-three chicken and it tastes like you just grilled it. No weird sweeteners, no high fructose corn syrup. My picky teenager eats it without complaint, which says a lot.
Primal Kitchen Organic Unsweetened Classic BBQ Sauce
Toss this on literally anything. Eggs, avocado, chicken, roasted vegetables. Bought my first jar as a joke and I've gone through probably nine jars in two years.
Trader Joe's Everything but the Bagel Sesame Seasoning Blend
Use just a tiny splash in stir fry or rice bowls. Sounds intimidating if you've never cooked with it, but it adds this savory depth that makes takeout-level food at home actually possible.
Why I Love Red Boat Fish Sauce (and Recipes)
Spoon this over rice bowls when you want something with a kick. Wednesday's meal prep went from boring to something I actually looked forward to eating at my desk.
FLYBYJING Original Sichuan Chili Crisp: Premium
Rub this on chicken thighs before pressure cooking and they come out tasting like a steakhouse side dish. For anyone who thinks meal prep chicken has to be flavorless and sad.
KINDERS Buttery Steakhouse Seasoning (9.5 Ounce)
Keep this at your desk for emergencies. When your meal prep needs rescuing on day four, a few shakes of this brings it back to life. Not just heat, actual flavor.
Organic Habanero Hot Sauce by Yellowbird
Shake this on beef, pork, or even roasted potatoes. Been using it since college and it still hasn't let me down. Cheap, available everywhere, and it makes everything taste grilled.
McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak Seasoning, 29 oz.
Scales and Portioning Tools for Consistent Results
Eyeballing portions is how I ended up with either three days of food or enough to feed a small village. Measuring takes 30 extra seconds and saves hours of frustration later.
Get this if you've ever stared at ‘6 oz chicken breast’ in a recipe and just guessed. Accurate to the gram, and the tare function means you don't have to do math after a long day.
Etekcity Food Kitchen Scale, Digital Grams and Ounces, 11lb
Read measurements from above instead of crouching down to eye level like a weirdo. Sounds like a tiny upgrade but it genuinely speeds up liquid measuring when you're doing big batches.
OXO Good Grips Angled Measuring Cups with Markings
Ditch your old bent spoons from the dollar store. These are narrow enough to fit inside spice jars, which eliminates the annoying step of dumping spices into your palm first.
KitchenAid Universal Measuring Spoon Set
Try eating off this for a week if you tend to overserve yourself. The visual guides printed right on the plate retrained my brain about what a normal serving actually looks like.
Portion Perfection PORCELAIN Weight Control Plate
Pair this with a meal prep app and suddenly you know exactly how many calories are in each container. Took the guesswork out of my lunches and I stopped snacking at 3 PM.
Greater Goods Perfect Portions Nutrition Food Scale
Use the smallest one for portioning grains into containers. The pour spout and non-slip bottom mean you won't accidentally dump an entire pot of quinoa onto your counter.
OXO Good Grips 3-Piece Plastic Mixing Bowl Set
Batch your sauces and grains in these. Restaurant kitchens use them for a reason. Clear sides let you see exactly how much rice you have left without opening five different containers.
Cambro RFS6PPSW2190 6-Quart Round Food-Storage
Cookbooks and Guides That Actually Work for Busy People
Most cookbooks assume you have two free hours and a stocked pantry. These are the ones that understood I'm cooking after a 10-hour day and just want clear instructions that don't require a trip to a specialty store.
Start here if you just unboxed your Instant Pot and feel intimidated. Every recipe has photos for each step. Made his crack chicken on my first try and it came out perfect.
The Step-by-Step Instant Pot Cookbook: 100 Simple
Grab this for structured weekly plans instead of winging it. Shopping lists are already done, recipes overlap ingredients so nothing rots in your fridge. Saved me so much grocery money.
The Meal Prep King Plan: Save time. Lose weight. Eat
Flip to this once you're comfortable and want variety. Over 350 recipes, and the timing charts in the back are worth the price alone. No more Googling ‘how long to cook frozen chicken.’
The Instant Pot Bible: More than 350 Recipes
Perfect for anyone who wants meal prep food that actually looks appetizing in photos. Her honey sesame chicken is the recipe that made my roommate finally ask to join my prep Sundays.
Damn Delicious Meal Prep: 115 Easy Recipes
Use this if you want protein-heavy meals that aren't just grilled chicken and broccoli on repeat. The jerk salmon bowls became my go-to lunch, and coworkers kept asking where I ordered from.
Fit Men Cook: 100 Meal Prep Recipes for Men and Women
Keep this around for weeks when you're too tired to shop for a long ingredient list. Five ingredients max, real food, and most recipes take under 30 minutes from start to packed container.
Instant Pot Miracle Healthy Cookbook: More than 100
Try her method of cooking three base proteins on Sunday and remixing them all week. Monday's chicken tacos become Wednesday's chicken salad. Stopped feeling like I was eating the same meal five times.
Cook Once, Eat All Week: 26 Weeks of Gluten-Free