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10 Meal Prep Tips for Busy Families

September 6, 2021 Plant-Based Juniors 2 Comments

Meal prep tips! If you’re struggling with how to meal plan with a busy lifestyle, here are some of our best time-saving meal prep tips.

For many families, meal prep and planning seem like daunting tasks on most days.

And we get it. Between busy schedules, attention demands from others, a household to manage, and everything in between – getting food on the table every night can be a chore in itself.

We want to help make meal prep easier for you!

Here are 10 meal prep tips for busy families.

1. Bake tofu cubes.

Tofu is a great food for the whole family, including new eaters doing baby-led weaning. For older kids and adults, try baked tofu cubes! We love these in salads, bowls, or straight off of the pan. All you have to do is press, cube, season, and bake them.

2. Make and freeze PBJ balls.

Easy (and healthy) homemade snack alert! Batch and freeze our PBJ balls for a quick and easy, energy-filled, and nutrient-dense snack to keep your babes fueled throughout the week. These often use beans and nut butter for a base, sweetened naturally with a variety of flavors you can create.

3. Make and freeze muffins.

Who doesn’t love a muffin at any time of the day? Batch and freeze some vegan zucchini chocolate muffins for an effortless breakfast on-the-go option. For new eaters, try our baby-led weaning muffins.

4. Pre-season canned or cooked beans.

Pre-seasoning beans with lemon juice, olive oil, and dried seasonings makes them ready to serve in a flash. They are great to serve as a snack or side for baby, or to toss into pastas, salads, or bowls.

5. Batch yogurt.

Prep a batch of our tofu yogurt or almond cashew yogurt to serve as a calcium-rich, snack, side, or even dessert.

6. Roast veggies.

Roasting a pan of veggies ensures a vitamin and mineral-packed side option to pair with meals throughout the week. You can even make these the star of the show, by using them to fill tacos, making warm veggie sandwiches, or chopped and served over rice.

7. Pre-cook grains or pasta.

If you know you’re doing a couple of grain-based meals for the week, save time by cooking your grains or pastas in advance. Toss cooked pasta with a little bit of olive oil and store in a ziploc bag or airtight container in the fridge for up to a couple of days.

8. Wash and chop produce.

We don’t recommend washing and prepping fresh produce immediately when you buy it, as this can actually increase risk for bacterial growth if you don’t use it soon after. But if you’re prepping for the week, it’s okay to chop your veggies and fruits a couple days in advance and store them in airtight containers in the fridge.

Plus, this might help encourage snacking on fresh produce during the week, and allow you to easily offer them with snacks and meals for kids.

9. Make a dressing, sauce, or marinade.

Planning to have a salad, bowl, or marinating protein or veggie dish this week? Make your dressing or sauce in advance! Whether it’s a creamy cashew cheese dip, an Italian blend, or a thick BBQ, you can puree these and store them in mason jars in the fridge for later use.

10. Create easy breakfasts.

Breakfast can be a tough one, especially when kids wake up hangry. Some of our favorites are chia pudding parfaits and zucchini oatmeal bake! You could even prep some ingredients to make our veggie-packed oatmeal.

Meal prep tips! If you’ve wondered how to meal plan better with your busy lifestyle, we hope that you find some of these time-saving meal prep tips helpful!

Chime In: What other time-saving meal prep tips do you practice? Share them in the comments below!

If you liked this post, we think you should check out these too:

  • 5 Plant-Based Healthy Smoothies for Kids
  • 3-Ingredient Strawberry Lemonade Popsicles
  • 5 Healthy Plant-Based Snacks for Summer
  • 5 Tips for Planning Plant-Based Lunches for Kids

Comments

  1. Sarah says

    September 6, 2021 at 8:07 pm

    We usually stick to two days or less for leftover or prepped food in the fridge because we’re worried about bacteria and spoilage. Can any of these safely last longer than two days? Thanks!

    Reply
    • alexwhitney says

      September 8, 2021 at 4:21 pm

      Hi Sarah. Yes, leftovers are usually safe in the fridge for 4-5 days.

      Reply

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  • Meet the moms behind the blog.

    Plant-Based Juniors (PBJs), is a community for parents and educators interested in properly implementing plant-based diets for children. Created by Alexandra Caspero MA, RDN and Whitney English MS, RDN – both moms and registered dietitian nutritionists – PBJs is dedicated to filling the gap in credible pediatric nutrition information for plant-based infants and children.

    PBJs promotes an all-inclusive “predominantly plant-based” approach, supporting all families from vegan to vegetarian to flexitarian. Basically, if parents want to get more plants on the plate, PBJs wants to help!

     

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    • About
    • Books
      • The Plant-Based Baby and Toddler Book
      • PBJ’s Nut-Free Plant-Based Lunch Box Book
      • Batch Cook Ebook
      • Plant-Based Juniors: Pregnancy Guide
      • First Bites
    • Resources
      • Recipes
      • Pregnancy & Prenatal Nutrition
      • Infant Feeding
      • Baby Led Weaning
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