Meal Prep Methodology
The Prep
Kitchen
Two hours on Sunday. Seven days of meals that don't require a second thought.
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Meal Prep Methodology
Two hours on Sunday. Seven days of meals that don't require a second thought.
Read the Guides
per week of active prep
ready to assemble
cover the whole week
to a complete system
The Method
Cook proteins, grains, and vegetables as separate building blocks — not as fixed meals. Mix and match through the week without monotony. One pot of lentils becomes soup, a grain bowl, and a wrap.
The right container for every component. Glass for proteins. Produce keepers for greens. Stackable quart containers for grains.
Start what takes longest first. Grains and proteins go in early; vegetables come last. This sequence cuts two hours down to ninety minutes without cutting corners.
The Library
01
Why cooking building blocks beats batch-cooking the same dish five times in a row.
Read guide02
Match every component to the right container and your fridge stays organised all week.
Read guide03
Start the longest cook first. The sequence that turns prep into a calm, efficient routine.
Read guide04
Cooked salmon: three days. Dressed salad: none. Know your fridge timeline before you prep.
Read guide05
Which vegetables to blanch, which to keep raw, and how to store each so they stay crisp.
Read guide06
The exact schedule — minute by minute — for a full week of components in a single session.
Read guideHow It Works
Pick three proteins, two grains, and four to five vegetables that share flavour profiles. Write a prep list before you go to the shop — not a recipe list, a components list. Overlap is the goal.
15 min planning
Grains into the pot first. Proteins into the oven at the same time. Blanch your vegetables while both are cooking. By the time the grain timer goes off, everything is done in parallel.
90 min active cook
Let everything come to room temperature before it goes in a container — condensation is the enemy of shelf life. Label with the date and the component name. Stack by protein at the top, grains in the middle, vegetables below.
15 min storage
The Sequence
Techniques
Technique 01
Lay every component out before it goes into containers. You can see the full week at once — and spot any gaps. Missing a protein? That's the moment to add a can of chickpeas, not Thursday evening when you're hungry.
Technique 02
Top shelf: ready-to-eat components. Middle shelf: raw proteins for cooking later in the week. Bottom shelf: vegetables that need their own airflow. Eye-level items get used first — so put the things that expire soonest where you can see them.
Prep for flexibility, not for rigidity. The moment you stop batch-cooking one fixed meal and start building a library of components, cooking stops feeling like a chore.
The Prep Kitchen
Cooked grains: four to five days. Cooked proteins (chicken, fish, legumes): three to four days. Blanched vegetables: four days. Raw cut vegetables: two to three days if kept dry. The key factor is moisture — any water left in the container shortens shelf life noticeably.
Airtight glass containers are worth the investment — they don't absorb odours, they're oven-safe, and they last for years. Start with a set of six 700ml containers. Plastic works fine if it's BPA-free with a proper seal. Avoid loosely fitting lids; they let air in and flavour out.
This is exactly why you prep components and not meals. The same roasted sweet potato works in a grain bowl on Monday, alongside eggs on Wednesday, and tucked into a wrap on Friday. Change your sauces, your spice mix, and your combination — not the ingredient itself. Three sauces kept in the fridge door do the heavy lifting.
Blanch them. A sixty-second dip in boiling water followed by an ice bath locks in colour and texture, kills the enzymes that cause wilting, and extends their fridge life by two extra days. Broccoli, green beans, snap peas, and asparagus all benefit from blanching before storage.
Yes — pick two components, not five. One grain (rice or farro cook in 20 minutes), one protein (sheet-pan chicken takes 35 minutes), and a bag of pre-washed leaves. You cover three to four meals without a full session. A partial prep beats no prep every time.
Pick one protein, one grain, two vegetables. That's all you need for your first Sunday session.
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