No-Prep Meal Prep

A while back I wrote an article about what I eat in a day, and in it I talked about how I meal prep lunches for the week.

Here’s the gist: on Saturday or Sunday, I’ll either slow cook or grill a bunch of chicken breasts, or grill a big pork loin or some lean hamburger patties, or just cook some lean ground beef in a skillet. That’s my protein. Then I’ll boil up a big pot of either sweet potatoes or regular potatoes (I’ll roast them occasionally, too), or I’ll make a big batch of rice, or I’ll make a big pot of beans. Then I microwave some frozen vegetables for micronutrients. I put all this stuff in Pyrex dishes, put them in the fridge, and then dole myself out a lunch each day. It doesn’t take much time, and it’s pretty dang cheap.

But some weeks I don’t have time to meal prep on Saturday or Sunday. Things just get busy with work or kids, or I’ve been traveling and I don’t have time to grocery shop and cook.

I still want to eat well during these busy stretches. I don’t want to eat fast food or QT taquitos. So when my schedule is crammed, I’ll basically do meal prep without meal prepping. There are two ways I do it.

Option 1: Buy a Precooked Protein and Some Frozen Veggies and Assemble

Prep time: A quick trip to Walmart or the grocery store, ten or so minutes microwaving frozen veggies

Cost: $3.50–$6 per lunch, depending on the protein

My go-to option when I’m busy is to stop by Walmart on the way home from dropping the kids off at school to pick up some prepared foods for lunch. There are a lot of great options out there now. You just get an already-cooked protein of some sort, a starch, and some frozen vegetables, and then you microwave it up and you’re ready to go.

The Protein

Rotisserie chicken. Sometimes I’ll just buy a rotisserie chicken from the Walmart deli and slice off pieces to eat. Skin has a lot of fat, so if I’m trying to lose weight, I discard that and stick to the meat. If you want rotisserie chicken with even more convenience, you can buy a package of shredded chicken. Will cost you more.

The Starch

Frozen or heat-and-eat potatoes. If I want regular potatoes, I’ll get a bag of frozen potatoes or heat-and-eat potatoes.

Frozen rice. The steam-in-bag kind.

Canned beans. Great source of fiber and protein. Thinkin’ about those beans.

To get my micronutrients, I’ll add some frozen veggies. Green beans, broccoli, a California medley, whatever. They’re just as nutritious as fresh and take a few minutes to cook in the microwave.

Putting It Together

I’ll buy enough protein/starch/veg to last me a few days. I’ll microwave a few bags of the sweet potatoes or regular potatoes, or a big bag of frozen rice, as well as some frozen veggies, and put them in the fridge. Then, each day I dole out a portion of starch and veggies, and add some protein — like the fajita strips — to it, weighing things out so I get a well-balanced, macro-friendly meal. It only takes a few minutes.

Option 2: Keep Macro-Friendly, Ready-Made Meals in the Fridge/Freezer

Prep time: 4 minutes

Cost: $4.99—$5.99 per meal (Counter); $11.99 and up (Factor and Ice Age Meals)

The other thing I’ve done is to keep some macro-friendly, ready-to-go meals in the fridge or freezer. So when I don’t have time even for option 1, I can pull something out and have something to eat.

Target carries this great brand of frozen meals called Counter. Very macro friendly.

• Frozen bowls. Taco Mac & Cheese, Chicken Alfredo, and a few others. About 30 grams of protein and 310 to 370 calories, $5.99 each.
• Frozen burritos. The Beefy Queso Burrito has 30 grams of protein and 340 calories and costs $4.99. I keep a few of these in the freezer.

Meal Delivery

There are also companies out there that offer delivery services for macro-friendly meals.

Factor. Factor meals are good. (Note: Factor is a sponsor of the podcast, but I’m not getting paid for this mention. I just like them and have used them for my no-prep meal prep.) Factor meals are delivered fresh and are meant to be kept in the fridge, warmed up in the microwave, and eaten within a week. You can also freeze them; just make sure you put them in aluminum foil or a freezer bag to keep away freezer burn. It’s a subscription that you’ll have to remember to skip when you don’t want it. Cost is about $12 a meal.

Ice Age Meals. I’ve used Ice Age Meals in the past and really liked them. Really substantial Paleo-inspired meals. There’s no subscription; you just order a box. The downsides are that they’re not as tasty as Factor — more like a straightforward macro delivery (though they taste fine) — and they’re pricey, starting at $14.99.

Trading Money For Time

All of these options do typically cost more than prepping meals yourself. My regular home-prepped lunch starts at $1.25 and tops out at around $3.50. An assembled meal of heat-and-eat food starts at $3.50 a meal, and can go all the way up to $15 or more.

But what you get in return is convenience. You’re trading money for time. It allows you to continue to eat well so you can stick with your health and fitness goals even when you’re time crunched and meal prepping isn’t a possibility. There’s no investment that has a higher ROI than one you make in your health.

I don’t do this whole no-prep meal prep all the time. I fall back on it maybe once or twice a quarter, when I get particularly busy. It’s not something I recommend as the mainstay of your eating routine, but it’s good to have a no-prep meal-prep option in your back pocket for when things get crazy, but you still want to eat well.