Easy Meal Prep Ideas

Making dinner every night can be quite a task. As pretty and appealing as those grab-and-go mason jars of salad might look, carving out extra time to do meal prep isn’t easy. In fact, it’s often downright impossible! So, keep it simple. At Betty Crocker Kitchens, we’ve found a solution that makes prepping ahead not just easy, but realistic too.

The Secret to Getting Ahead in the Kitchen, Without Sacrificing Your Sunday

When it comes down to it, the key is to make food with a higher yield (a.k.a. more servings) and better adaptability. To be clear, we’re not talking about making 10 gallons of chili. Do that and you’re stuck eating the same thing for days on end. Our approach is to make a big batch of a meal-starter recipe, like pulled pork, meatballs, or tomato sauce, and spinning that base recipe into different meals that come together quickly, and flex to fit your flavor craving of the moment.

For instance: Start out with a generously sized pork shoulder. Roast it or slow cook it—whatever you have time for. Set some of the meat aside for that night’s meal and portion out the rest into serving sizes that are commonly called for (e.g. two cups) and store them in the freezer. The next time you need to make a meal without a lot of warning, grab one of those packages of pulled pork and let your imagination run wild - from casseroles to sandwiches.

This method of meal planning leaves room for spontaneity and creativity but eliminates decision fatigue because you know whatever you’re making starts with already-cooked pulled pork. Want to give it a try? Keep reading!

The Strategy

Here are four strategies to employ when shopping, storing, and cooking. They’ll help make this approach to meal prep a seamless part of your regular routine.

1. The first step is to stock a base ingredient that you know your family will enjoy eating. Things like ground beef, chicken thighs, canned tomatoes, or pork and beef roast are all useful and frequently go on sale. If you’re a member of a wholesale store (like Sam’s Club or Costco), take advantage of their good prices on large packages of these ingredients.
2. When you’re in the kitchen, check your supply of food storage containers. Whether you opt for glass or plastic containers or freezer-grade resealable plastic bags is up to you, but you’ll want one or the other to portion out your cooked meal-starter ingredients. Some people prefer plastic bags because they can save space—fill them, lay them flat on a sheet pan and freeze until solid, then remove the pan and make a tidy stack of the filled bags in your freezer.
3. Instead of making your standard dinner, swap in one of our meal-starter recipes. These kitchen-tested recipes—listed below—are designed for flavorful results, versatility, and yields that can be portioned out for future use. For example, when you’re craving spaghetti, use the 40-minute Easy Make-Ahead Pasta Sauce recipe, and you’ll have leftovers to freeze.
4. Let your appliances do the work. When you’ve planned ahead, take advantage of the slow cooker’s set-it-and-forget-it ease. When you haven’t, the quick-cooking Instant Pot® can be a saving grace. Let your own schedule drive the decision to use one appliance over another.

*When in doubt, package your cooked meats in two-cup quantities.

Now that you’ve got a game plan, it’s time to cook!

These six meal-starters were tested in the Betty Crocker Kitchens with the express goal of creating delicious base ingredients that can be adapted for use in any number of different dinners—check out some of our favorites below.

From lasagna to enchiladas and sloppy joes, there are so many places tomato sauce goes. We love both of the recipes above because they’re mildly flavored—which means they go with any number of dishes—and of course, they freeze beautifully. The Easy Make-Ahead Pasta Sauce includes ground beef and canned tomatoes, so you can make it any time of year. Make-Ahead Roasted Roma Tomato Sauce is vegetarian and made with fresh tomatoes, so it's best made during the harvest season when you can buy large quantities of Romas inexpensively. (Want all the details about how to pick out the best tomatoes? Check out our article on How to Choose, Prepare and Enjoy Tomatoes.)

Shredded beef becomes burritos, tacos, casseroles and sandwiches, and more. This recipe above is made with simple seasonings but designed to result in succulent beef flavor so it’ll take to any kind of cuisine and add a savory character. We especially love to serve tender shredded beef with chimichurri, a herby, garlicky sauce from Argentina, where beef is king—so you know it’ll pair well. Shredded beef often works well in recipes where you might otherwise have used ground beef, such as in enchiladas, chili, and pot pies—even pasta!

Rotisserie chicken is good but when it's made at home, it’s even better—especially because your slow cooker can do the job for you. And that’s not the only way to cook this versatile meat; our recipe for oven-roasted chicken thighs turns out tender and juicy every time. So next time you’re in the mood for a chicken dinner, make a big batch and you’ll have enough for Betty’s five-star Chicken Salad Sandwich recipe, a chicken salad, pastas, enchiladas and more.

Spaghetti, lasagna, hoagies, and more are easy when you’ve got meatballs tucked in the freezer. Whether you decide to make our traditional Make-Ahead Italian Meatball recipe or opt for our Easy Sheet-Pan Meatballs recipe, a batch of these combined with a jar of tomato sauce makes dinner a snap!

Pulled pork is made to be forgotten, in the best possible way. It’s perfect for set-it-and-forget-it cooking, whether you make it in the oven, using our Make-Ahead Oven-Roasted Pulled Pork recipe, or in your reliable countertop appliance sidekick using our Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork recipe. If you’re able to shred the meat while it’s still warm, it’ll be easier to separate and pull out the bits you don’t want, like excess fat and cartilage.

It’s true that raw ground beef doesn’t take long to cook, but a big batch of cooked ground beef is a handy way to get ahead of a multi-step recipe. The recipes above call for cooking 3 pounds at a time, so you can grab a pre-portioned serving and throw together a homemade casserole, soup, or stew in practically no time at all!

With a couple of cooked meal-starters stashed away, you only have to reach into the freezer to make a busy-day dinner. Ready for the next step? Frozen casseroles, soups, and other meals will let you wave goodbye to frozen pizza on those days so hectic that the only “cooking” you can manage is reheating! Get the clever tricks and rules of thumb our recipe developers swear by for freezing food and start stocking complete frozen meals—that are guaranteed to turn out—in your freezer.