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10 ways to speed up meal planning and prep

Behaviour technique

By Weight Watchers
Last updated 11 September 2024
10 ways to speed up meal planning and prep

If you ever wished you had a personal chef—same. The next best thing: finding ways to simplify your planning, prepping, and cooking.

Try this!

Don’t have time to prep and cook a full meal? Lean on quick- or no-cook foods and recipes. Pick up cooked proteins (BBQ roast chicken, frozen prawns, burger patties). Buy pre-chopped veggies—you can even add them to takeaway meals. Tend to be missing ingredients when you do have time to cook? Write a grocery list while planning meals for the week, and get everything in one run. Consider ingredients you already have when planning. Choose recipes that use five ingredients or less, like pastas, stir-fries, and salads. Just don’t want to cook every. single. day? Designate one day to batch-cook. Bolognese, soups, and stews freeze and reheat well; store in individual portions. Roast or slow-cook a large chicken, beef roast, or other protein to use all week in no-cook meals.

Let's dive a little deeper...

Universal time-savers • Lean on tacos, salads, egg dishes, and burgers, which all come together quickly. • Stock up on ready-to-go ingredients (cooked brown rice, canned beans, frozen veg). • Use tools like the microwave (it cooks frozen fish and veg in a flash), a pressure or slow cooker, and a food processor (it makes chopping and grating a breeze). • Browse the WW app’s What to Eat At Home tab for ideas and recipe categories like Quick & Easy and 5 Ingredient Meals.

Whether you like playing chef or prefer the role of diner, science says eating more home-cooked meals helps save Points®and keeps you on track. OK, cool. But life doesn’t always make it easy. Work, family, the desire not to cook—these things often have plans for you other than shopping for food, chopping, sautéing, and babysitting the stove.

Plot twist! You can have other plans too. By relying on time- and energy-saving shortcuts and quick and easy recipes, you’re likelier to whip up more healthy, tasty meals at home and stay within your Points Budget.

Your goal doesn’t have to be cooking at home every night. With WeightWatchers®, all foods are on the menu. Likewise, you don’t have to aim for five-star, five-course menus. Just try to make nutritious meals as simple, fast, and convenient a choice as possible. Do that and you’ll help yourself avoid in-the-moment decisions that can slow your process and have more time to focus on everything else, including your success.

3 fast facts

  1. When you’re busy, you often have less capacity for complex tasks.

  2. Research shows that people tend to choose the easiest and most convenient options, especially when busy.

  3. Having quick, tasty, and budget-friendly meal ideas at the ready can reduce the need to make decisions in the moment and keep you on track.