#134: How to Decide if Meal Prep Is Right for You

In this episode, we’re talking about the pros and cons of weekend meal prep vs. weeknight cooking. We’re breaking down the different ways people make dinner work for their schedules, energy levels, and preferences. We talk about food fatigue, leftovers, decision fatigue, unpredictable schedules, and why there’s no “right” way to meal plan. Whether you love prepping meals on Sunday, prefer cooking fresh every night, or fall somewhere in between, this episode will help you figure out which approach best fits your real life! Enjoy!

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Transcript

pros and cons meal prep
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[00:00:00] I'm Riley and I'm Roni. And this is the plan to eat podcast, where we have conversations about meal planning, food, and wellness. To help you answer the question what's for dinner. 

Roni: Hello. Welcome back to the podcast. Today, Riley and I are gonna be talking about meal prep, talking about the pros and cons of doing meal prep, like weekend meal prep versus just cooking recipes as the day comes. Weeknight cooking, I guess we could call it. But before we get into that... As the day comes. Before we get into that, Riley's really excited about her meal plan, and she wants to share it with us. So let's, let's go there. Riley, back to you.

Riley: Back to you. Okay.

Roni: sounded like a news correspondent or something, so I

Riley: I'm Riley, and I'm gonna share... I'm here in the wild, and, um, okay, you know that there are [00:01:00] weeks where you just plan it because you have to eat food, but you... It's just because it's like a have to, right? We've talked about this. It's just some w- some weeks are not the most fun. This week I'm excited about it, and I feel like it's worth mentioning being excited about it.

So tonight we're having this creamy spinach and sausage pasta, which is made out of everything I already had at home, which is just the best. Isn't it the best when you just have everything, but you're not eating something boring or something you've had last week?

Roni: And you're, like, looking forward to the recipe, and you're like, "How did this happen? This was all meant to happen together."

Riley: Yes. And then we've got Cajun grilled shrimp and grits, which I'm very excited about also.

Air fryer salmon bites with chili crisp. I've talked about this one on the ep- on the show before. It is so fast. Air fryer salmon, it probably takes maybe 10, maybe 10 minutes. And while that's cooking, you put together the, I don't know, however long it takes you to make rice. so [00:02:00] fast. And then we're making my husband's favorite chicken.

It's like a mango habanero chicken. You fry the chicken. It's a whole... It's actually a Whole30 recipe, and we did Whole30, like, many years ago, and we loved it. And... But it takes forever.

Roni: Well, 'cause you gotta fry the chicken.

Riley: Yes, it takes forever, and the sauce takes a long time to, like, build, and it, it's an hour. It's an hour cook time. We're having that on Saturday.

And then we're having chorizo burgers with, like, a ranch sauce. And then I've also had this recipe, I was just telling Roni before we started recording, that I have this recipe for almond croissant overnight oats that I have literally moved down on my meal plan for weeks, and I'm like, "I'm gonna make this this week. I'm gonna try them, see how it is."

Roni: is this the week?

Riley: It's the week. I ha- have all the ingredients now. I double-checked. Yeah, I've got it. We're gonna do it.

Roni: Okay. Well, you'll have to keep us updated if it was worth the wait.

Riley: You know, it probably won't be [00:03:00] because- I don't, like, love... One, I don't like sweet oatmeal, and two, I typically don't like sweet oatmeal. And two, I, I just don't want it to be mushy. I might... It might not be a meal prep item.

It might be, like, a freshly made item. Um, but for whatever reason, this recipe just looks really good. It's, like, yogurt and oats and almonds, so it's got, like, a lot of, like, texture that are, that are different instead of just, like, one thing being mush. So yeah, I mean, like, it might not be worth the wait, but I'm excited to try it.

We'll see. Yeah.

Roni: My problem with all these overnight oat recipes is they're like Almond Joy overnight oats, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup overnight oats. And by the name, I'm like, "Yeah, I'm gonna be eating candy for breakfast. I'm so excited." And then you get to eating the recipe and you're like, "This is just oatmeal."

Riley: Yeah.

Roni: Like, it's like a trick, and I... And then I'm disappointed that I'm not eating candy for breakfast.

Riley: yeah, because you have a flavor [00:04:00] profile in your mind, and then when it just doesn't meet it. Yeah, I'm with you. That's why I have to... I'm setting my expectations really low for the overnight oats.

Roni: Yeah, really middle of the road there.

Riley: them middle of the road, yeah. What about, what about you? What's on your meal plan?

Roni: Uh, let's see. We've got California burritos,

Riley: Nice. French fries?

Roni: delicious. Yeah, with french fries. Mm-hmm. Um, got some smashed tacos,

Riley: Nice.

Roni: and then we have some bratwurst with onions. It's like a... You just, like, simmer the bratwurst with onions in a skillet kind of thing, and then, you know, eat them however you like to eat a bratwurst.

It's very simple, but it's one of my husband's favorites. He gets so excited about it, so that's always a win. But my little sister's actually getting married this week, so my meal plan is scant because we have other family obligations for...

Obviously, there's the wedding meal, but, you know, we have, like, a rehearsal, and then there's, like, a family dinner. So, uh, [00:05:00] I planned very minimal this week just to make sure that I didn't overbuy and then not be a- not use the stuff, because we're gonna be spending time doing other stuff this week. So,

Riley: all right. Now, pros and cons of weekend meal prep versus weeknight cooking. What is meal prep trying to solve for people? I mean, meal prep is so popular. So, so, so, so, so popular.

Roni: It's, uh, it's, like, always a trending topic, I feel like.

Riley: is. I mean, as... I mean, I've worked for Plan to Eat for, what, 13 years? And it's never not been a thing.

Roni: Yeah.

And I do think it's a, it's a little confusing, 'cause we can get into this in a little bit, but, like, there are different types of meal prepping. And so I think sometimes it's confusing what we're talking about when we're talking about meal prepping. We're talking... On this podcast today, we're talking about all kinds of meal prepping.

So- You know, individual ingredients, full recipes, whatever y- whatever you- meal prepping looks like for you and your family. But I think the main thing that meal prepping is trying to solve for people is, like, a lack [00:06:00] of energy on weeknights or, like, maybe the inconsistent energy, like we talked about several episodes ago.

You know, like, having inconsistent schedules, like unpredictable schedules. I think that there's an inconsistency in energy as well. Like, some nights you're just totally smoked by 5:30, and you're just like, "There's no way that I can make the recipe that I had planned for tonight." And then other nights you're just like, "Oh, actually, like, I s- first something got canceled. Maybe I have extra time." And schedules are never what we expect them to be, I feel like.

Riley: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, yeah. I know a lot of people do it for, well, for that reason, right? Like, that they're just so busy on the weeknights that they need to get it done on the weekend. I know people who also do it for health reasons. Like, if the healthy food is prepped and made, I will eat that instead of

Roni: Oh, yeah.

Riley: drive-through, takeout, I don't know.

I'm not, I'm not knocking ramen, but you know, like something fast like ramen. [00:07:00] Um, and it's a way to help them stay on track with whatever their goals might be, which I totally value, and I think that that's a great idea. Like, if that solves that problem for you, awesome.

Roni: Yeah, I mean, there's that saying that's like, "We have food at home," and it's even more compelling when the food at home is already prepped. Yeah.

Riley: Exactly. There's nothing worse than driving home at 5:30 from whatever you were doing, whether you were working or whatever you had going on, and you know you have to go and do more work.

Roni: Yeah.

Especially if you're somebody who doesn't prefer to cook very much, because then cooking does feel like work, right? Like, if you're cooking because you want to, to have homemade meals for your family, you know, for dietary reasons, or, just, like, it's something that you've decided to prioritize but you don't really like to cook, that does feel like work when you get home.

Riley: meal planning or meal prep is a solution too. I'm just, I'm, I'm laughing because I feel like that's our entire podcast, right? The entire Plan to Eat program. B- it's like meal planning and [00:08:00] cooking every single night of your life is exhausting, and so that's what we're all trying to solve. So this is, this is some people's perfect solution, awesome.

But, like, that's... all of us are just trying to solve how do we get dinner on the table without it being the most stressful thing. That's what every method, that's every episode we ever talk about, that's what the, that's what it all boils down to, right? Yeah.

Roni: So, so if we talked about why people would meal prep, what do you think is some of the pushback as to why I don't meal prep?

Riley: It is the same pushback- That people give leftovers, okay?

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: I make food and eat leftovers, and I do not call that meal prep. But that is exactly what meal prepping is, right? It's you make something in a three-hour block on Sunday or whatever, Saturday, whenever you do it, and then you eat that all week, okay?

But a lot of people just don't like that. They don't like the way that it tastes. They don't wanna have to reheat it. One of the reasons why I don't usually do it is because I just don't have that three-hour [00:09:00] block to sit down and, like, crank it all out.

Roni: Right.

Yeah, but I think the, the pushback of, like, I don't like to eat the same food every single day... We've talked about, like, your husband doesn't prefer leftovers because he just wants ver- more variety in the week, right? So I think that's a lot of, I think that's a lot of it for people. And I think there's a, something here, too, where we often hear from people, their pushback against meal planning, I think, is also the pushback against meal prep, which is, like, I'm spontaneous.

I'm not gonna know what I wanna eat on Thursday. And so if you prep things on Sunday, and then you're supposed to eat them on Thursday, like, they're, they might be like, "That doesn't work for me," because that doesn't allow for, like, flexibility, spontaneity.

Riley: But that doesn't sound good. I feel like I can hear that pushback. I just doesn't sound good tonight. I can hear that pushback from my own spouse. Eh, doesn't really sound [00:10:00] that Well, sorry, that's what we got.

Roni: Yeah, sorry.

Riley: Okay, so Sunday, beginning of the week, if you are a meal prepper, what does that typically look like? What... How... What is the process? I mean, there's gonna be a ton of processes, but, like, let's talk through if you are new to meal prepping, if you've never done it and you wanna try it, what are the, all the various things you might prep?

What would it look like?

Roni: Yeah. So I think this is where people fall into, like, two general camps when it comes to meal prep, and one of them is the batch cooking, which is, like, I make full recipes, and either they go in the freezer or, you know, they're in the fridge, and the plan is to, like, eat them throughout the week. A lot of times, I think this involves, like, a pre-portioning for people, right?

Like, they make a big batch of a recipe, and then maybe they pre-portion it for lunches every day of the week so that way they don't have to worry about, like, their lunch is already packed for the rest of the week. They don't have to worry about it. But it could also be things [00:11:00] like casseroles or stews then I think the other camp is the prepping individual items, right? So this would be, like, rinsing and chopping your vegetables, maybe cooking a big batch of rice or quinoa or whatever grain you like, and then maybe making a sauce or two, and then, uh, cooking proteins. Maybe, like, you grill some meat or- or maybe you, like, air fry, like, a whole bunch of chicken or something. I don't know exactly, what, what people are doing with their proteins these days. I mostly put mine on the grill, so

Riley: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I, I could also see it being things like boiling a bunch of eggs, so you've got... If that's what you have for breakfast, or making a batch of granola. Like, it's like you do the one... It's not necessarily that you're pre-portioning it, it's just there and ready for you whenever you might choose to consume it.

Roni: Yeah, so this could work, I feel like, obviously it can work in multiple ways, but I'm kind of envisioning two different options, which is, like, you've planned your [00:12:00] recipes in Plan to Eat for the week, and then you're kind of looking through and you're like, "Okay, so we're gonna need multiple onions throughout the week," so I'm just gonna, like, go ahead and, like, chop my five onions, and then, you know, they'll be in the fridge, and that way when I go to cook that recipe, that recipe's gonna come together a lot faster because I've already, like, chopped the vegetables for it.

Or you have the other option, one of the other options, which is you have, like, more buildable meals, and so you just have kind of, like, your, your vegetable, your grain, and your protein, and then it's a mix and match throughout the

Riley: Plug and play, yeah,

Roni: yeah, of whatever you decide sounds good or looks good or, you know, by the end of the week w- just what needs to get used up.

Riley: Mm-hmm. I typically am not a meal prepper in the reg- in, like, the... Huh, I don't know. I kind of feel like I, I'm a Venn diagram. I kind of do a little bit of everything. Sometimes I'll look at... Uh, it's, it's not every week. I'll start with that. It's not I don't do this every week. But occasionally I will say, [00:13:00] "Okay, I'm gonna make two quiche.

We're gonna eat those for breakfast every single day this week. Done, check." Or breakfast burritos or something along those lines. Or I'm the, I'm the, I'm the chop all the veggies and wash all the fruit, or I'm the make the granola, broil the eggs. Like, I'm an ingredient prepper and occasionally a recipe prepper.

I do make food for the freezer a lot, but usually it's not for an immediate return, it's for a long, like, long-term return, in that I'm not gonna eat it the week ahead, I'm gonna eat it in, like, a month, um, or something like that. Do you meal prep?

Roni: We mostly meal prep for my husband's lunches. Like, 'cause he takes lunch with him every day, and, uh, I mean, he goes through phases where it's like maybe he'll just only be eating sandwiches for lunch, and in that case, like, that doesn't get prepped. There's no pre-prepping for those. But lately he's been having just, like, um, grilled chicken and salad.

And so at the beginning, like on Sunday evening, usually what I try to do is I, [00:14:00] like, I'll try to plan a recipe that also- Like, uses grilled chicken, and so then I'll just grill a ton of chicken. We can eat some of it that night for dinner, and then the rest of it will just, like, get him through the week with his lunches.

So that's, like, really the only thing that I meal prep. I would say if I have a recipe that calls for rice, like we make stir-fry or something, I'll often make a larger batch of rice than what we need for that night just in preparation for a different recipe during the week. So it- I'm not, like, making rice on Tuesday and then also making rice on Thursday.

I'll just make it all on Tuesday so that we can eat it again later. So yeah, I'm more of an individual, individual recipe kind of a thing, or I mean, individual ingredient kind of a thing. I would say, similar to what you said earlier, if I'm doing, like, a whole recipe prep, it's, it's not that I planned on doing a whole recipe prep, it's that we had, like, massive amount of [00:15:00] leftovers.

Like, I didn't really do it on purpose. It's just like, "Oh, well I guess we're eating enchiladas for three days."

Riley: Yeah. Can you make a small batch of enchiladas? I don't, I don't think that that's possible.

Roni: I mean, I see it in the blog posts, you know? Like, I see their, their little pans of enchiladas, but I'm like, "Why would I only make, like, seven enchiladas if I'm gonna, like... if I'm gonna make all the ingredients for it?" You know?

Riley: I've been... This is, this is a tangent. I'm gonna take us down a rabbit trail, but I have been really, really trying to cook less food because I'm... I don't, I don't really know how to cook for two people. It doesn't even matter if thing, if I set the serving size to two or four. It just seems like I always make way more food than I, like, need.

So I've been really trying to scale it back. Okay, no, we don't need that many things, or we don't need that much. Like, you know, just really trying to scale it back, and kind of testing it to see, like, does this cut in our grocery budget? And what I've decided is that it, it stinks to not have leftovers

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: [00:16:00] that is, like, what I rely on for my lunches or, like, fast dinners.

Like, we have leftovers planned almost every week. Like, I didn't read that in my meal plan at the beginning of the episode, but almost always do I have a dinner night where I'm like, "Leftovers." And when we don't have them, what do you do? Have to make something. Um, but then this leads us to the argument of fresh versus leftover, right?

Like, a lot of people don't like leftovers. They have issues. We've talked about this so often on the podcast. My spouse will eat them, but he just really would prefer not to. And so, the... I... And like, like I've said before, I definitely am the one who just eats that for lunches. I, I'm all about leftovers, which I suppose is meal prep, which I talked about earlier.

Are you a fresh or a leftover, or what's your house like over there?

Roni: Both me and my husband like leftovers quite a bit. I'm very grateful that my husband doesn't... He's just happy that he didn't have to cook any of the food, you know? And so I'm not saying that your husband's ungrateful,

it's 

Riley: no, he, he'll eat them. He just doesn't, like, do it with, like, a lot of, like, [00:17:00] enthusiasm.

Roni: yeah. But, uh, yeah, so he... And honestly, sometimes he prefers leftovers because then, like, he of- he will often come home from work and immediately be hungry, but it's only like 5:15, and I'm like, "I barely even thought about getting started cooking dinner."

And so leftovers are kind of nice because then I'm like, "Cool, just heat it up, and I'll eat whenever I'm ready to eat." Not really a romantic way to eat dinner, but it gets everybody fed when they wanna eat. Yeah.

Riley: Yeah. I think both of us, we've kind of admitted this now, we're kind of, like, coming back around to the, you know, prep versus weeknight cooking. You and I've kind of both admitted to be more of a weeknight cook, right? But the pros for prepping, and even prepping the little bit that we do prep, right, is, like, it's already done. I'm so much more likely to go grab some veggies as a snack if they're pre-chopped. Yeah, if I have... Always.

Roni: If I have to cut the carrots? No.

No. [00:18:00] 

Riley: I just can't be bothered with that. Uh, fewer dishes, right? Like, the weeknight when it rolls around, like, that's one of the nice things about leftovers is there's nothing to really clean up. You know, there's not, like, you know, there's the what you ever ate on, what you maybe heated up, but there's not, like, the spatula and the saucepan and the skillet and the sheet pan and the pot for the boiling noodles and, like, the whole shebang.

Roni: Yes.

Riley: Yeah.

Roni: On la- last week's meal plan, I had this, it's like a bang bang chicken and rice bowl. I sent you a picture of it, Riley. It's so good. It's so, so good. I love that. I love that bang bang sauce. I need to just make it all the time because it's so good. But it is one of those recipes that uses every single thing I have in my kitchen,

Riley: Yeah.

Roni: I get done making it, and I...

it's like the kitchen is a whirlwind.

Riley: that recipe that I'm making that I told you takes an hour, it's also the same way,

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: and you're just like, "Oh, this is wh- this is why it takes so long is because [00:19:00] you've got to cook the meal, which takes a long time, plus the 45 minutes of dishes afterwards."

Roni: Yeah. So I mean, yeah, I'm all about leftovers for no dishes, for sure.

Riley: If you are someone who can- who does not need your dinner to be spontaneous, weekend prep reduces decision fatigue, right? You do not have to decide because you already did it. Your whole week is just blessed by your Sunday motivation.

Roni: That's awesome. Batch cooking also saves time, just like we talked about if you have chopped your onion ahead of time, right? Less time spent on your weekday nights actually doing the prep, cooking the meal, or again, if you're just heating something up, obviously that's a huge time saver. And I, I think this is a little bit of a maybe, but for some people it can be easier to stick with your meal plan during the week because you've already prepped the stuff. So there's like a little bit of obligation to make sure you use the stuff that you've prepped. So [00:20:00] that... I say this is a maybe because for some people it could just lead to more food waste because you're like, "Well, I prepped the stuff and I didn't get to the meal plan, so we're just throwing that away."

But for others, they might feel a little bit more of an obligation to actually cook the recipes they planned since the stuff is already ready.

Riley: I'm trying to think where I would know this, like, where I would've heard this being talked about. But, like, when you put barriers in your way, you don't, you can't, you don't, aren't as likely to do the thing. Uh,

Roni: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Riley: And maybe it was when we talked to Amy about going, like, her food drive-through situation. Wasn't that Amy? Yeah. Because, like, if you put these barriers in the way, like, buying the groceries to me is, like, a reason to stick to the meal plan. I do not want to throw them away. I have already paid the money.

If we go out to dinner, then the money I spend on the groceries tonight, sure, I can move it maybe to tomorrow night, but, like, there's a, there's a chance I'm just gonna spend double money, right? If I have to throw something away. And then if you prep it, then you're, like, it's, like, another [00:21:00] barrier to, like, going back to an old routine, right?

Which might be the drive-through or it might be throwing of all the food away or, um, sp- you know, like, going to the grocery store without a meal plan and then you're kinda, it's chaos still in the kitchen. Like, if you're trying to stick to a new pattern, then these little things are barriers in the way,

Roadblocks to keep you from going off track might be a better way to put it.

Roni: be... I don't think... You haven't read Atomic Habits, right?

Riley: I have not, but we've talked about it a lot.

Roni: Yeah, well, uh, it's so applicable to like so many of the things that we talk about, I feel like. But I think that that is actually one of the things that, that might be talked about in that book because while the book is about- Creating new habits, like you can't talk about creating new habits without talking about getting rid of the habits that aren't serving you anymore.

So I think he might talk about that idea in that book too, which is like if you're trying to rid yourself of your unsavory habits, one of the things that you can do is to like create friction between you and, and that

Riley: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah,

Roni: place. [00:22:00] And so like I think that's kind of that idea is like, yeah, you're creating friction from like going down maybe the old path, which was to just get takeout, by spending money on things, spending energy on something.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Riley: of for meal prep, um, is just protecting... It, it's that idea that we always talk about, doing your future self a favor. You have protected your future time. Like, w- so if you do that chunk on Sunday of cooking or prepping, then you do get back roughly 30 to 45 to an hour every night that you could be cooking and doing dishes.

And so I understand that being a huge draw to this kind of meal planning.

Roni: the amount of time spent overall could be really similar, right? You might spend two hours on Sunday, which cumulatively would add up to two hours over the week, but if your weekday time is more valuable because it's m- more pressed, you know, you're busier during the week, then I think that's totally worth it.

Riley: Yeah, for sure. Let's talk cons. [00:23:00] Cons.

Roni: Yep, yep. Well, what we... I mean, similar to what we talked about with, with leftover versus fresh, which is a con of, of meal prepping and food prepping is this like fatigue, food fatigue. Yeah, a lot of people just get tired. I mean, even if you're somebody who's like, "I'm totally fine with leftovers," if you're prepping the same things week after week after week, I don't know how you couldn't get fatigued by that.

Riley: Yeah, you'd still have to build in that variety. You... Uh, it'd be really hard. It'd be easy to get stuck in that rut, just like any rut. Everybody gets stuck in one, like, but I think that it'd be easy to get stuck in, like, a, "That was so easy, and it was good," and then you hate it because for seven months you had the same thing for lunch every day.

Roni: Right.

Riley: and, and the hard thing about that is that not everything holds up well

Roni: Right.

Riley: like, you do have to be more particular with what you select, and so then, what then is your meal prepping becoming a rut [00:24:00] because it's not very much variety because this is what works well. I don't know. I just feel like there's, uh, there's a lot of roads you could take that, like, I made this soup and I had it every day, but then, okay, I made a salad, but the salad wilts.

Okay, uh, okay, you have to, like, kind of pivot all the time on, like, what you're, what you're prepping.

Roni: Yeah, and so I'm gonna go back on the protecting your future time situation and say a con is that maybe you wanna protect your time on the weekend. Maybe it's the only time during the week that you, like, actually get to rest and relax, and you don't wanna spend time on the weekend thinking about meal prep.

And so maybe ju- maybe it's just part of it where you're just like, "I want a rest day, and I don't wanna do this on Sundays." So I will sacri- you know, quote, unquote, "sacrifice" and do this on the week.

Riley: Yeah. I know we're in the cons section, but it just occurred to me that, like, there's a chance that a lot of people meal prep because their whole team is home. Like, the team can tackle, uh, and whatever that means, [00:25:00] your, your husband, your roommate, your kids. Like, the whole team can tackle the meal prep, which might be more of a shared load, which I would say is a pro. But, like, if you are somebody who has no time on a weeknight, like, I mean, I guess that's another pro. Okay, we're talking about cons. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I would say it feels very overwhelming to think about meal prepping. And the only reason I say that for myself, 'cause I do do... I do a little bit of it, right?

But the reason is, for me, is because it feels like I have to change my entire set of circumstances

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: to pivot to this thing and do it every single da- or every weekend for the week ahead. Um, if possible, not i- it's not impossible, it just feels like a little bit of... It's such a shift for me that it would take a lot of work, just like anybody starting a new habit, right?

It would take a lot of, lot of planning.

Roni: Absolutely, yeah. I think particularly what feels overwhelming is that idea of how can I m- how can I prep things [00:26:00] for recipes that I have during the week, and making sure that you are doing it right. You know? Like, like, they... Take the idea, like, say you have five onions that you're gonna use during the week.

Well, then you have to be pretty meticulous about going through your recipes and being like, "Well, these ones are only sliced onions, and these ones are diced onions, and these ones are..." You know, like, there's a, there's an element of, like, I guess you could just put them all in, like, you could all... just, like, slice them all into bigger sizes, and then when a, a recipe came around, you could, you know, quickly do a little extra prep to get them diced or something.

But I think there's an element of it that there's like, I feel uncertain about my ability to make sure I did all the right things.

Riley: Yes, which is where something like Plan to Eat comes into play with meal prep, for sure, is like you would just have to be diligent, you know, to look at every ingredient and make a list and... But it is helpful in a tool like Plan to Eat because you can do it and it's digital. You're

Roni: Yeah. Well, or you

Riley: looking for that, like, list you made or...

Roni: Yeah, or you could [00:27:00] make prep notes in your recipe, right? Like, I could go through and make a prep note in each recipe that says, "Dice your onion," right?

Riley: And then, yeah, and you

Roni: the onion." And then,

Riley: your prep notes to all show up on Sunday.

Roni: Exactly

Riley: Perfect. Yeah, that's a good idea.

Roni: So I think a final, a final con is potential storage limitations. If you already have a really packed fridge, and then, like, adding prepped ingredients into it, in Tupperware containers or something, that can be a little challenging.

And like, this is like a minor con, but look, we're just trying to look... We're trying to think of all the realistic situations here that might deter somebody from being like, "Yeah, well, meal prep doesn't work for me because, like, where am I gonna put it?"

Riley: Yeah, it's a real concern

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: because, I, I mean, most people are probably not prepping every meal of every day, which means you still have to have other things in the fridge. It's not like... I would love to have an Instagrammable fridge that's, like, perfectly organized, and everyone's stacks are everywhere, and it's all [00:28:00] perfect.

But, like, we have other food to eat and other meals to eat, I mean. Like, yeah.

Roni: And you also have to maintain that, which just, you know, doing it once is like, wow, look at it, it's so beautiful and neat and perfect, but then you have to maintain it week after week, and it's like, ugh. That's the part

that's 

Riley: and other people live here. You know, it's

Roni: Absolutely, other people live here. Yeah.

Riley: The storage concern is real, and I think, like, kind of a sub point to that is the containers you use also need storage, but also you need a variety depending on what you're making, which means you need more containers. U- unless you're prepping, like, I made t- an enchilada, a pot pie, and spaghetti, and it's just in big con- it's in big containers.

Like, uh, our family of seven is eating this tonight. Well, that is... Then that, that... Like, I'm thinking, like, I'm thinking small meal prep. Like, you know, like Instagram bodybuilder meal prep, which is, like, a little [00:29:00] thing with the rice, and the chicken, and the fajita veggies, and the salsa. Snip, snip, snip, snip.

It's all snapped in the fridge. It's all in the perfect stack, right? You know, like

Roni: Snip snap, snap

Riley: for everybody. But, like, a lot of people are not meal prepping like that. They're, they're meal prepping... Like, they... We got the individual serving size versus the, like, sheet pan of lasagna, right? And so I think that, that just plays into how, how you do it, plays into where you're gonna put all that food.

Roni: Yep, for sure.

All right, since this is a versus episode, we gotta talk about the pros and cons of week night cooking too. So obviously you guys know that this is what Riley and I do, so we might have more, more pros for week

Riley: We're trying to be open-minded and fair to

Roni: Oh, trying to be open-minded, yeah. It's true. But I think that a pro for week night cooking is the daily flexibility, because as we kind of talked about earlier with the spontaneity idea, it's not necessarily spontaneity, it's just that, that schedules can be [00:30:00] unpredictable. And some nights, well, a lot of nights I switch around what meals I originally have on the meal plan. And so you don't need to specifically eat something if it's not already prepped, right?

Like, we talked about a, a con of, of meal prepping is that, like, not everything holds up well for multiple days at a time. So, like, if you prep something and you're like, "Well, we have to eat this by Wednesday," and then Wednesday comes around and you're like, "Well, our friends invited us over to have burgers at their house or

Riley: that sounds so much better.

Roni: that sounds better, and we wanna spend time with our friends, but that means we have to throw this away."

So I think there's just the opportunity for a little bit more flexibility. I think that you can have a little more variety potentially because you're not just like, "Well, we're having bell peppers with something four nights this week 'cause I prepped all of these bell peppers." And then again, like the spontaneity kind of idea, which is like it's a little easier to follow your cravings if you are switching things around in your meal plan.

Riley: Yeah, and related, I would say [00:31:00] fresher. Like, there's like a, there's... I mean, a fresh, yes, okay, weeknight cooking, yes, it's fresh because you cooked it. But I'm thinking, um, reheating, um, whatever I'm reheating. Let's just, let's just keep going with the enchiladas. Like,

Roni: Mm-hmm.

Riley: okay, but do I then... I've, I've prepped this, but then do I also, like, go find...

Like, do I add a salad? Do I add a, do I add some veggies on top of this for, like, some fresh... I just, I like fresh food. I like the way, like f- like a fresh, crisp salad with whatever my main is. I love that. Or grilling some fresh veggies or fruit on the side. Like, I guess you could prep all of those things, but, like, just there's a freshness to cooking, like, day of that I think I tend to prefer.

And we all know, I mean, it's like, it's reheating leftovers doesn't taste exa- I mean, sometimes they're better, right? Like, give me a soup that, like, I cooked, sat overnight, it's way better. Zuppa Toscana, always so much better the next day. But a lot of the things you meal prep, just, like, there's just a freshness about them when you cook them the same day that it's [00:32:00] really enjoyable.

Yeah.

Roni: and I think there's a little more opportunity for what... Like, like, s- we're in springtime, right? So I'm thinking about like the like del- more delicate spring vegetables like the asparagus and leafy greens and, like, peas. And, Like, those things just don't reheat as well. Um, similar, kind

Riley: 'Cause it'll hold up as well, for

Roni: Yeah, they just don't hold up as well, and so there's... I think there's the potential for maybe a little more, like, seasonality if you're, if you're cooking on a weeknight.

Riley: Yeah. I tend to prefer the smaller chunks of work- Every night? And I don't... I mean, I told you guys my meal plan, like mo- every meal I planned is a 30-minuter except for the crazy one on Saturday, because I've got more time on a Saturday. But I think I pr- just prefer that, like, shorter, I don't know.

Like, I would rather have the three hours of time on Sunday to do some other things and then just have 30 minutes of dinnertime cook. That's just my preference, and I do find that it is smaller chunks of work. I, [00:33:00] I, I... It works for me.

Roni: I mean, I feel the same way, and our weekends are often really flexible, and, and things will just, like, randomly get added on to the weekend. And so then if I had planned to do all this meal prep on a Sunday, but I don't get home until 6:00 then it's like there's a lot of pressure to be like, "Well, now I have to get all this meal prep done because otherwi-," like, I don't know.

And, and so, and so it, obviously there's a way to, to make your schedule work with, around the meal prep, but I don't have my life currently set up that way.

Riley: Yeah. It, it would feel... I just immediately felt stressed for the person that something comes up and steals their meal prep time. It... Ooh, that would change their entire week so dramatically. And that would, that really... I mean, I just got stressed thinking about it for that person. We've covered this last pro pretty strongly, but just, like, you're not wasting prepped food.

I mean, dude, if I've... I hate throwing away leftovers because I worked so [00:34:00] hard for them. So, like the same kind of... Same concept with meal prep versus weeknight cooking, it's like I hate throwing away leftovers, so I would hate throwing away prepped food. To, you know, when you're cooking weeknight, weeknight to every weeknight, you're probably throwing away less, right?

Because you maybe can plan for exactly who's there and, or even how hungry people are. Like, if my family is, like, chomping at the bit to eat dinner at 5:15, I'm like, "Oh, we're starved." Okay? We're starved. Kind of like you said, your husband gets home from work and he's, like, starving at 5:15. But you can, like, make more food if that's the case.

Everyone can have a little bit more. But I also tend to eat it as leftovers, so I have more variety in my leftovers, too, so then I'm not having the same thing every day.

Roni: Right,

what do you think are some cons of weeknight cooking, 

Riley: First one that comes to mind is dishes, because you do have... Yeah, we already talked about that, yeah. A lot of dishes. days just don't always go as planned, and so sometimes the, "And now I have to cook dinner"

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: mental load. And it's not really mental load, it's more of just like, "Dude, I'm [00:35:00] tired, and now I've got to do this, too."

Roni: Well, or if, if you're, part of your weeknight cooking is that you're not a meal planner, 

Riley: Yeah. 

Roni: then yeah, there is a lot of mental load because you're doing the planning and the cooking all at the same time.

Riley: Yeah. As the person who meal plans and as the primary cook at my house, like, I do try to- meal pl- prep food that is pretty. Like, even if I'm tired, like, we can get it, you know? We can get it done. But a con would be, like, if that's how you feel most nights and you are a week night cook, like, you're we- doing week night cooking, the con of this is that you might end up wasting more food and going to purchase more takeout, which I've got nothing against takeout.

It's just that once you've already purchased groceries and then you buy takeout, and then you buy takeout on Wednesday and Thursday, and pizza on Friday, then it just really starts to add up financially, for sure.

Roni: Right. Yeah, and then that also, you know, requires that there are some ingredients ready on a daily [00:36:00] basis, like making sure that your chicken is thawed instead of just it already being pre-cooked. Making sure that you have avocados for the recipe and somebody didn't eat them in a snack during the week, you know?

Riley: or they, like, went bad too fast. Or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, are the, they're, they're hard as a rock.

Roni: Yeah, right. And again, that seems like maybe like a minor thing, but those are... Sometimes those little things can cause the most stress. We talked about last time, if I forget to thaw meat, I'm most likely pivoting to a completely different recipe because I don't want to do the quick thaw methods and use the microwave or whatever.

No. No, thank you.

Riley: No. Weekend meal prep is definitely for people who have fewer weekend obligations, they have a very predictable schedule, I would say the rhythms of their week are very much the same, and people who don't like repetition, and also people who are really trying to set themselves up for [00:37:00] success, to stick to their meal plan, or maybe their health goals, gym goals, et cetera, meal prep is for you.

It's the, it's the game changer in that department.

Roni: Yep. Yeah, and then I would say weeknight cooking is better for people who have busier or more varied schedules, particularly because you can plan those really quick like 15-minute meals or the air fryer meals. counterpoint to yours is, is people who get bored of the same meals and the same food and don't wanna eat the leftovers, so. I don't think either one is better than the other. They just like solve different problems for different types of people.

Riley: Yeah, and just like almost every tip and method we discuss, like, there's seasons for these things. Like,

Roni: Absolutely.

Riley: yeah, I mean, like a lot of people don't meal prep in the summer because they want that freshness and flexibility of doing whatever they wanna do, but then they right- go right back to it when school gets, you know, kicks off or whatever their, you know, whatever their year looks like.

Yeah, they just solve different problems. I agree.

Roni: Yeah

so [00:38:00] I think that there's also a third option here that we haven't talked about, which is sort of like a hybrid approach, which I would say is maybe similar to how I do meal prep. But essentially it's prepping maybe one to two components. So it's not, you're not prepping everything for, that you need for the week or that you need for your recipes.

You're prepping a couple things. Maybe you're prepping things that take the longest, like you're cooking proteins, just like I do, um, with cooking the chicken for my husband's lunches. But then when it comes to making the meals, you're, like, assembling the rest of the fresh ingredients at, the night of.

And maybe, or maybe you're only prepping doing the meal prep for the busiest nights of the week. So if you have a recipe that's not naturally a 15-minute recipe, but a little bit of meal prep on the weekend does make it a 15-minute recipe on Wednesday night, that could be something that you're doing too, but you're not meal prepping for, like, the whole week ahead.

Riley: Yeah. And I mean, just to, like... I, I'm just thinking, like, if... You have to look at your life and [00:39:00] your circumstances, and I know a lot of people who meal prep just for lunches, and they're still a weeknight cook because, like your husband, like, they wanna take a lunch fresh every... or not fresh, but they wanna take a lunch prepped so they're not going out to eat.

Awesome. Or maybe, like, the way that I, I think it just occurred to me that, like, the... what I typically do in the meal prep department is breakfast. Because if we're hurrying to leave the house, that's the thing I need accomplished for my future self. I can handle dinner, but, like, I need a breakfast burrito in everyone's hand as we walk out the door , you 

Roni: Yes. 

Riley: And so just looking at your circumstances and, like, doing this hybrid approach, of, like, prepping. You know, like, maybe you prep two nights and you cook two nights, or you always prep breakfast and you just cook dinner every night. There's ways to really, like, customize, which is the beautiful thing about meal planning, but, like, you customize it for you.

And that is the way you should meal plan. Everyone listening , that is the way you should meal plan, customized for you.

Roni: Yes.

Riley: It should never be what somebody... what works for somebody else, because [00:40:00] it probably won't work for you.

Roni: Make it your own.

Riley: Yeah.

Roni: Okay, so let's give a quick rundown of how to get started with any of these different approaches, just to give our listeners, like, quick bullet points of, like, here's how I could get started if I wanna start meal prepping or whatever.

Riley: Mm. You and I just, like, this is our MO, right? Like, you start with one to two meals,

Roni: Yeah, start

Riley: not the whole week. Do not take on seven days of meal prep on a Sunday randomly next week.

Roni: you've never, if you've never meal prepped before, that's not the

Riley: Yes. So don't start with the, the whole week. Start with one to two meals, prep them, package them, see how it goes.

Do we love it? Do we hate it? What can we do better?

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: And prep components, uh, instead of full recipes if that's your jam, like Roni and I have already said. Granola, boiled eggs, chop the chicken, grill the chicken, do the veggies, et cetera. It's there, it's ready for you, but you didn't do everything.

Roni: Right. Yeah, and then I think, if you're not currently somebody who does a lot of weeknight [00:41:00] cooking, but you wanna get better at that, first things first, create a meal plan. Doesn't need to be a fancy meal plan, but you don't wanna be deciding what's for dinner at 5:30,

Riley: No.

Roni: 'cause that doesn't lead to s- a successful evening.

Riley: Never.

Roni: Yeah. And then on top of that, like, when you're creating that meal plan, choose, like, fast recipes that you already know. As we, as, as Riley even said with the last one, but as we always say with meal planning, which is like start small, start simple. Choose maybe just two to three recipes. Choose fast ones.

If you don't have any fast ones that you know, a Google search will find you a lot.

Riley: Mm-hmm. And if you want that hybrid approach, prep a single protein and a single green, and then use them in two different meals in two different ways. Like use that protein in two ways and use that green in two ways. You could, you could do that. But really starting with very simple things, and just do a little bit of them, see how it goes.

Dabble. Dabble, if you will.

Roni: I like it. I, I like that word. I like... That sounds better than saying start [00:42:00] small.

Riley: Start small. Dabble.

Roni: dabble. Just, you know, figure out if it works for you. Just do a little dibble dabble.

Riley: Dibble dabble. Yeah, I, I think that's, I think that's everything, right? Don't you think? I feel like I'm sure someone listening who does any of these approaches is like, "But what about this?" If you'd like to share something we missed, email us,

Roni: Yes. We do.

Riley: and you're an avid meal prepper or an avid weeknight cook or a hybrid, we wanna know.

We wanna know what we missed or what you'd like to add to this, 'cause we love to share your ideas, we love hearing from our customers, and it's helpful to other listeners if you add to what we... Uh, we can't, we don't have everything, right?

Roni: Absolutely, and you and I, in all honesty, meal plan and meal prep in pretty similar ways. And 

Riley: yes. 

Roni: and so it's hard for us to give, like, a, a full perspective if it's just not something that we do, right? If I was a, if I was a full meal prepper and you were a full weeknight cook, [00:43:00] then we would be

Riley: can go head-to-head.

Roni: go head-to-head. It would be Riley versus Roni. Who's gonna win? Showdown. We'll sell you the seat, but you'll only need the edge.

Riley: Okay. Oh, exactly, but we aren't pitted against each other here. Um, this is not a demolition derby. Um, what is wrong with us? We always derail. I love us. Um- And now I don't know how to end this podcast.

Roni: Yeah, that happens. Well, as always, we thank you so much for listening. Like Riley said, reach out to us through our email podcast@plantoeat.com if you have any additional things to add to this episode. And if you enjoyed this episode or any other episode, we would appreciate a share with a friend or a family member to just spread the word about the podcast.

So thanks again. We will talk to you in two [00:44:00] weeks.