081. How to Save Hours, and Save Money, on Meal Prep — The Choosy Organizer Way

Save hours every week with Zee’s simple meal prep tips—learn how to shop smarter, keep produce fresher, and make weeknight dinners calm and easy.

You don’t need to spend your whole Sunday batch-cooking to have calm weeknights. In this episode, I’ll show you how to simplify your weekly meal prep so you can save hours every week—and a surprising amount of money too.

✨ You’ll learn how to master one cooking method per protein,

✨ Create a five-minute Friday dinner plan,

✨ Keep your produce fresher and actually eat it, and

✨ Shop in a way that saves you both time and brainpower.

Beautiful Living isn’t about perfection—it’s about making everyday systems lighter, calmer, and choosier. Let’s make your weeknight dinners practically run themselves.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• A paper on home washing methods for produce - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16496573/
• A "Guide to Washing Fresh Produce" from the Colorado State University Extension - https://www.nifa.usda.gov/sites/default/files/resource/Guide%20to%20Washing%20Fresh%20Produce508.pdf?
• Another paper on the efficacy of consumer-friendly produce washing methods - https://www.foodprotection.org/files/food-protection-trends/Aug-12-Fishburn.pdf?

Enjoy your beautifully organized week—and follow the podcast so you don’t miss weekly organizing tips for Beautiful Living.

#MealPrepTips #HomeOrganization #BeautifulLiving #IntentionalLiving #ClutterFreeKitchen

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Transcript

In this episode, I’m going to tell you how you can save hours on meal prep each week, and save money while doing it. This is how I do it, in the Choosy Organizer way.
Meal prep shouldn’t take over your weekend. It should make your week lighter.
So, by the end of today’s episode, you’ll know how to:
simplify your weeknight dinners with less effort,
keep your produce fresher and easier to use, and
shop in a way that saves you  time and money.
And stay with me to the end, because I’ll share with you a quick re-frame that might change the way that you buy fruits and vegetables.
Welcome to Organizing for Beautiful Living with me, Zee Siman,  The Choosy Organizer.
This podcast is for women who are done organizing everything and ready to be choosy — about what matters, what’s enough, and what can wait.
Because Beautiful Living starts with a little less stress and a lot more intention.
Ready to get beautifully organized? Let’s make it happen!
I have a love-hate relationship with cooking. Sometimes it’s a joy, sometimes it’s a chore. 
My client, Ana, told me that she used to spend every Sunday afternoon batch-cooking for the week. She would make her grandma’s chicken recipe, she’d do quinoa, roasted vegetables, she’d have the little labeled containers, the whole thing. But by Wednesday, her family was tired of everything and half of it went uneaten. Well, she ended up eating it ‘cause she couldn’t let it go to waste, but like, the same thing, for lunch and dinner just to finish it up. That batch cooking phase didn’t last very long for her. She went back to cooking on weeknights, and she just felt rushed again every evening.
I mean, I think we all go through these ups and downs, right? But if you’ve been struggling with making meals, nutritious meals, for your family, then this episode can help you.
For me, and for Ana, and I think for you, when we let go of doing more and instead we focus on doing things a little differently, our weeks change, and weeknight meals are not a heavy burden anymore.
Maybe you’ve tried a lot of the meal plans you’ve found online, but those feel like more recipes, more containers, more pressure.
Or maybe you’ve tried the meal-in-a-box delivery services, where they ship you the ingredients and they give you the recipe and you cook it at home. If that works for you, that’s awesome, but those can get expensive really fast. I just didn’t find that to be sustainable for my family.
The Choosy Organizer way, as always, starts with less: fewer decisions, lighter systems, and meals that can pretty much build themselves.
So let’s start with the first tip, which is going to set the tone for calm, predictable dinners.

So Tip #1 is to Master One Cooking Method per Protein 
Weeknight meals are only low-stress when you’ve mastered one reliable cooking method for each of the proteins that you use the most. 
This is being a Choosy Organizer, right? Let’s keep it simple! 
Think of it like muscle memory.
If you can learn to consistently pan-grill chicken breasts so that you can practically grill chicken breasts in your sleep, and they come out the same every time, then you’re good. Now, I’m saying pan-grilling, but maybe you prefer to roast your chicken, or pressure-cook and shred it, or whatever your method of choice is, that’s what I want you to focus on. 
And maybe an easy and enjoyable way for you to have salmon that turns out consistently good is baking it at 425 for 14 minutes.
Or maybe you prefer ground beef, picadillo-style.
Or you grill tofu, whatever your go-to proteins are in a week, I just want you to have mastered one cooking method for each of those.
Once you can do that, you’re not going to be guessing at the temperature, or the timing or about having the right-sized pan.
So once you’ve locked in that base method, that’s when cooking the weeknight meal can become fun, because you can play with flavor instead of worrying about the process.
Maybe that same chicken breast gets a teriyaki glaze one Monday night and then the next Monday night it gets a Dijon drizzle.
What matters is that the how stays the same. It’s predictable. The confidence of repetition is what's going to save your brainpower to be more creative.
So take a minute to think about this. Think about the protein you cook most often.
Do you already have one no-fail method that you’re really comfortable with, that you can call yourself a master at? 
And now that this foundation is in place, well now the rest of your week practically plans itself in just a few minutes.
Tip #2 is The Five-Minute Friday Prep
My client, Ana, and I, we just don’t enjoy spending our Sundays batch-cooking to stay on top of weeknight dinners, and you don’t need to either.
You just need a five-minute plan.
So, on Friday afternoon, take five minutes.
Pick a protein for each weeknight.
You already know your cooking method, so now you’re just creating an easily assembled meal around it.
As an example, let’s say it’s grilled chicken, you can toss it with pasta and some pesto.
Or make a quick Dijon sauce in the same pan you cooked your chicken in and drizzle it over the top.
Or season it with adobo or other spices and shred it for tacos.
Then you add the veggies and the grain:
What veggies are in season right now?
What are your family’s staples?
If your child only eats roasted broccoli, well that’s automatically on the menu. Yeah?
Maybe you can get a couple of bunches of kale or spinach and make a number of simple salads, or just a tomato salad one night.
A lot of the time in our house, our sides are dictated by just what’s available that week, and that’s fine.
Don’t over-plan. Just flavor the sides to kind of match the main, right?
So this is quick, flexible, and best of all, it just gets rid of the decision fatigue when you’re making dinners.
This five-minute setup becomes a rhythm, and it’s something you can jot down on your calendar or stick on the fridge and you do it each week.
And let’s say it’s a Wednesday night, and no one wants chicken, even though that’s what you had loosely planned for that night, well, hey, switch the protein up for something you all would prefer instead, use your mastered-cooking method for that protein, and it’s all fine! You don’t have to go scramble looking for brand-new recipes or anything.
And the next piece makes it even easier. It’s about what happens before you ever walk into the grocery store.
So Tip #3 is The Choosy Produce Routine
So here’s the routine that ‘s going to keep you from throwing money into the trash. All the wilted greens, moldy berries and mushy cucumbers, you’re not going to have those anymore.
Now first, I just feel that we shouldn’t go grocery shopping when we’re tired, hungry, or emotional, whether that’s angry or sad or any other heightened emotion. 
Because that’s when we buy stuff we just really end up not using, or we buy unhealthy stuff that makes us feel guilty afterwards, you know what I’m talking about, right?
So I won’t go grocery shopping unless my energy is high and my emotions are steady. And so if I’d planned on going on Friday afternoon, but I’m just pooped after a really long week, well, it’s going to wait until the next day. Or I’ll send someone else to go get the basics that we need just to get through the next couple of days, and then when I have time, and energy, I’ll go myself.
And I think that’s true whether you shop in person yourself, or you’re placing your grocery order online. Test it out, see what you think, but for me, it’s one and the same. If I’m tired, I don’t make the best decisions whether I’m in the grocery store or I’m shopping online.
And besides, I prefer to choose my produce myself. So I actually like to go to the store.
So next, do a fridge reset before you shop.
Take a look in your fridge before you go, find the leftovers and the produce and things still in there that need to be eaten up quickly before the new stuff comes in, ok? Move the older stuff towards the front. Wipe up any spills really quickly.
When you can see everything in your fridge, you’ll see what you really need and you’ll avoid buying doubles.
And you’re also making room for the new groceries.
So now you do your shopping, and once you’re home, unload the groceries and wash your produce right away.
OK, let’s talk about washing produce for a minute. When I worked as a research engineer in the food industry, I talked to our microbiologists about this a lot, because there’s just such confusion and some misinformation out there, and we’re just worried about how dirty and full of bacteria our produce might be when we bring it home.
So first off, somebody did a study testing soaking produce for 2 minutes in various solutions. Plain old tap water, a solution with one of those veggie washes that they sell, a vinegar solution, a lemon juice solution, because these are things that are readily available to us as consumers right? And then they rinsed them under cold running water after those 2 minutes, and they looked at the differences between just rinsing under tap water, or brushing the veggies under cold running water where it was possible, cause you really can’t brush a head of broccoli, right? Or wiping the food with a wet or dry paper towel.
And what they found was that presoaking some types of produce in cold water helped to reduce the load of bacteria before rinsing it while brushing it under cold running water, but for other types of produce, wiping with a wet or dry paper towel was what reduced the bacterial load more.
But what’s surprising is that the testing, and not just this one test, but other tests as well, showed that soaking in vinegar, lemon juice or veggie wash solutions didn’t do a much better job than water alone.
And, food safety experts say not to use soap, detergent, and certainly not bleach to clean your produce. All those things leave residue that you end up eating, or feeding your family.
Now if you want to use vinegar or lemon juice, that’s fine, but just watch out for the vinegar aftertaste or that those acids can alter the texture of the produce, ok?
So most food safety experts are recommending rinsing and brushing or really agitating your produce under cold running water to clean it.
And the other question I always had was: well, is it safe for me to wash all my produce as soon as I get home, all at one time, instead of washing it just before using it?
And really, the biggest concern food safety experts have with washing and storing our produce, like, at the start of the week and then using it all week long is the cross-contamination we could be introducing to our food when it touches things like our sinks, our storage containers, our towels, and our countertops.
Because if those things aren’t clean and they’re harboring bacteria, then we’re recontaminating the food, and storing it for presumably a long-ish amount of time before we eat it, which allows that bacteria to grow.
But if we keep the food as-is, like we don’t wash it when we bring it home from the grocery store, we just wash it right before we cook it or we eat it, we lower the chance of allowing recontaminated bacteria to grow on that food.
I mean, what’s the answer then, right? Well, I’m going to say keep your kitchen surfaces clean, especially your kitchen sink, which I’ve been told can harbor more bacteria that our toilets, which is a really disturbing thought! So clean that sink out, the ridges around the drain, the corners, everything! And make sure your food storage containers are fully clean and dry.
And that’s the other thing to avoid: moisture. After you wash your produce, if you plan on storing it to eat during the week or to use it later on, make sure it’s fully dry before you put it away.
After washing berries, for example, I let them dry on a clean kitchen towel fully, then line my glass container with another small clean towel or a paper towel before putting the fruit in there, and then covering it and storing it in the fridge.
Very simply, the more moisture there is, the more mold and bacteria will grow. You’ll never remove all mold spores and all bacteria from produce. It’s just not possible to sanitize our food.
So we just need to take some precautions.
So my take is this: wash, scrub, dry fully, chop if you want, store, and make sure your kitchen is clean.
Now, does all that washing and drying and chopping and storing take time? Oh, yeah. Like, I want to pull my hair out time.
But, think about this. In most of our households where the parents work, while we’d rather just toss the produce into the fridge when we get home from the store and be done with it, and then just wash only what we need just before we use it, the tradeoff is having some of that produce go bad before we get a chance to use it. When something is washed, chopped, ready to eat or cook with, you’re more likely to eat it or cook it! 
The payoff for spending that time cleaning and storing your produce ahead ot time isn’t just, you know, a cleaner fridge.
It’s that you actually eat what you buy, and that saves a ton of money.
And here’s where it gets interesting with this next, last, tip, because even perfectly washed produce can vary wildly in how much nutrition it really delivers.

So Tip #4 is About Grocery store Produce 
Now, much of the produce that you find in grocery stores today isn’t as nutrient-rich as it once was.
Because modern farming and long transport times dilute some of the vitamins and minerals in our fruits and vegetables.
That’s why frozen produce often holds its nutrients better, because it’s picked and frozen right at harvest. Now, the blanching process right before freezing does leech out some nutrients, but it’s not as much as what is lost during transport and storage times for a lot of fresh produce.
Canned options can be good too. It’s just that the high heat of the canning process changes the texture of some veggies, right, and oftentimes, salt or sugar are added. So choose low-sodium or no-sugar versions of the ones that you like, and you give them a quick rinse.
But fresh is wonderful when it’s seasonal and when it’s eaten quickly.
So the smart strategy is probably a mix:
fresh for texture and flavor, frozen for convenience, and canned for stability.
So whenever you can, buy local or seasonal, cause then it hasn’t spent a week on a truck.
The goal isn’t to only buy fresh, organic, local and so on, although we would all love that. But the goal is to have the foods that you and your family will cook and eat, and that nourish you.
If there’s a week when you know your time is short, and you haven’t been able to do the washing, chopping, storing thing, then go to your freezer or pantry and grab frozen or canned produce. It is still nourishing. No guilt, no pressure.

So just let’s recap for a second.You can save hours of time, and plenty of money, each week with your meal prep if you:
Master one cooking method per protein.
Plan your dinners in five minutes on Friday afternoon.
Do a quick fridge reset before you shop, and wash and dry your produce, and chop it up if you want to, as soon as you get home.
Use a smart mix of fresh, frozen, and canned to stretch both nutrition value and your budget.
You don’t have to change everything at once.
We Choosy Organizers, we know that even one small tweak, like planning five dinners on a sticky note or washing the strawberries the same day so the family will actually eat it before it gets moldy and squishy, that can make your week noticeably smoother.
Hey, if you enjoyed this episode or picked up an idea that’ll make your week easier, I would really appreciate it if you’d take a quick moment to leave a review.
Your feedback helps more listeners find the show and brings more women into this community of Choosy Organizers.
So have a beautifully organized week.
I’m Zee, and I’ll see you on the next episode.