Before we became a family of three, I used to spend half a Sunday in the kitchen cooking. I would spend a few hours throughout the week researching new recipes to make for the upcoming week. Then, I would meal prep almost every breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, and dessert for the entire week. I would experiment with different recipes and spend a lot of time researching the perfect way to make a particular dish only to throw the recipes out the window and do my own thing. Or as Rob likes to call it, “Go rogue.” Old picture from our old apartment. Granted, I needed to spend all this time researching and cooking because I was still learning how to put things together and how to fuel my body with more than just chicken and pasta dishes (hello drained lentil soup over rotini), but when Zoey arrived, that time was cut short. You can read my 9 tips on how to make meal prep realistic here. Thankfully, Zoey slept a good amount as an infant so in between feeding her every three hours, I was still able to do a decent amount of meal prep and recipe research. As a toddler, Zoey likes to help in the kitchen, which slows things down and required me to become more efficient and specific with what I made. With the addition of William, who loves to cuddle and hates to sleep for fear of missing something, meal prep has dwindled to a frantic 10-20 minutes here and there throughout the day. Instead of having five days of lunches ready to go and all the meat for the week’s dinners cooked, I am lucky to get the next days lunch prepped. Dinner for that night happens in mini bursts throughout the day before one of the kids needs something. I try to get as much done as I can during the day for dinner because witching hours have been real around here and the neediness and meltdowns typically start around 4:30-5. Being a huge proponent of meal planning and meal prepping as a key way to be successful in dietary health goals, and to just eat better in general, I have become pretty skilled at preparing a few things in a short amount of time. It might take a few 20 minute sessions throughout the day or week to get everything done, but it is vital to ensuring we eat, our food does not go to waste, and that we eat well. Get your free Meal Prep Planner here that tells you exactly what to do in the kitchen with 20 minutes or less. Over the last few months, Rob and I have been focusing on eating more plants and less meat. Ok, I have been focusing on this and Rob is along for the ride since I do the majority of the meal planning. So, meal prep involves a lot of chopping vegetables, batch cooking rice or quinoa, and potentially marinating chicken or defrosting ground turkey. We have red meat only a few times a year either for a special occasion, or when we eat out. This list of meal prep tasks are not all done in one 20 minute session, but rather each one by itself can be done in 20 minutes or less. If you are organized and efficient, you could probably tackle two tasks at once like cooking rice while you chop vegetables. Being in the early stages with both Zoey and William, I find that my brain can only handle one task at a time right now. To determine where to start, and not get overwhelmed, I suggest you tackle the meal or snack of your day that is your least healthy and do all your meal prep surrounding it. This will give you a solid focal point to your meal prep strategy and ensure you are eating better for that meal. Call it your improvement meal. For many of my clients that improvement meal is usually afternoon snacks and lunch. The more you can do ahead of time to set yourself up for success, the easier it will be to reach success. If you have more than one meal that gives you trouble, pick one at a time to improve and really focus on it for at a least a month. I recommend you pick the one that has the least amount of stress surrounding it, which is usually lunch since kids are already out the door and no one is having an evening meltdown. Keep in mind that all these meal prep suggestions come from a diet that focuses on eating lots of plants, while grains, and lean proteins. These are also suggestions from someone who does not use a crock pot (though I do have an Instant Pot  am still learning how to use efficiently). If you are still working on learning to cook or learning how to eat a diet that focuses more on plants, whole grains, and lean proteins rather than processed foods, then the tasks listed below may take you a bit longer as you figure everything that. That is ok! Learning to cook and fuel your body takes time. Embrace the journey and know that you will be more proficient in no time. Keep up the good work! What to do in the kitchen with 20 minutes or less:

• Wash all fruit
• Wash all vegetables
• Chop fruit
• Chop vegetables
• Batch cook rice, quinoa, beans, or pasta
• Hard boil eggs
• Bake or grill meat
• Portion out meals into containers
• Portion out snacks
• Defrost meat
• Marinate meat
• Make a (dump and bake) casserole (Make two and put one in the freezer for later!)
• Prepare smoothie packs
• Meal plan for next week
• Write a grocery list based on your meal plan

Want this list as a PDF? Ready to get super focused in the kitchen with the limited time you have? Get your free Meal Prep Planner. This planner will show you how to meal plan in an organized manner so you can get on track with your health goals without wasting time or just grabbing takeout. Before you get your Meal Prep Planner, make sure you snag your free Meal Planning Guide so you know exactly what you will be eating throughout the week and how to structure your meal prep time.