Planning makes life easier and organised. To think about what to eat every day and to spend the time and energy preparing every meal from scratch can be overwhelming. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, there are multiple meals we eat throughout the day. And it becomes difficult to prepare healthy meals every single time due to a decision dilemma or just a lack of energy.

This is where meal prep comes to save. In the beginning, even meal prepping a balanced meal with organic vegetables can seem like a lot. But with proper preparation and planning, meal prep can make your life easier and healthier. If you want to start meal prepping healthy dishes for yourself and your family, go through these realistic tips to get started.
Let us first start by understanding what exactly meal prepping is and what the different methods are in which you can do it.
Meal prepping, as the term suggests, means preparing meals or dishes ahead of time. Since the portions and ingredients are preplanned and controlled, they can lead to a healthier lifestyle over time. Here are a few different ways in which you can do it:
- Ingredients Prep: Instead of prepping meals, you prep ingredients in segments (like chopped vegetables, chopped organic fruits, spice mix, etc.) in advance so you can save on cooking time.
- Individual Portions: You can prepare fresh grab-and-go meals that can be refrigerated. This is better suited for breakfast options and can be consumed over a few days.
- Whole Meal Segregation: You can create a full meal in advance and divide it into small portions to be refrigerated. You just have to heat it before cooking. It’s good for lunch and dinner options and especially for meals that take a long time to cook.
Here are a few tips on how you can meal prep effectively:
- Block a time for meal prep
Meal prep is done best when you do it at a certain time. Waiting for motivation to pop up to get to work will only make the task at hand overwhelming. Thus, it is best to block a time for both meal prep and grocery shopping so that you can free up some mental space.
For example, you can reserve Sunday nights to meal prep breakfast for the week or spend Monday evening chopping vegetables that you ordered from an online vegetables shopping app. You can save time like this and be prepared for the week ahead.
- Prepare a grocery list
Usually, we prepare a grocery list based on our whims and fancies and even our budget. Conscious eating becomes a hassle after a point if you have to come up with ideas to cook a new dish every day. Thus, we make meals based on ‘what’s available in the pantry’ instead of making conscious choices during grocery shopping.
Having a fixed grocery list not only helps you make healthier choices but also saves you time while shopping. You can also search for fresh vegetables online UAE and get organic vegetables delivered to your doorstep instead of visiting a physical store.
- Organize your prep & cook time
Even your meal prep and cooking time should be in a certain flow or pattern to make it more efficient. It’s not always compulsory, but a well-thought-out workflow, depending on the meals you are cooking and your energy for the day, will help you handle the task at hand.
Start with dishes that take the longest time, for example, gravies or soups. Also, double-check all the recipes so that if two different dishes require chopped onions, you can dice them all at once. Keep the cold meals’ preparation for the end.
- Store smartly
One important thing in meal preparation is storage. How you store and how much you store will affect successful meal prep. To keep organic fruits and vegetables that you ordered from an online vegetables Dubai supermarket fresh and crisp, store them in airtight containers with a silicon lid. Use bento-like lunch boxes for meals in which ingredients need to be mixed later. Similarly, use leak-proof containers for gravies.
Buy same-sized containers and mark them as 1, 2, 3 or Monday, Tuesday, Friday for even better convenience.
The whole meal prep thing doesn’t seem so daunting now, does it? It will take a little bit of practice to get good at it. But with dedication, a willingness to eat healthy and enough patience, you can get an expert at it too!