Y’all are making Meal Prep way harder than it needs to be

I’ve never posted here but I’ve been lurking for a few years, I’m getting my Health Science degree and I work at a hospital, so I see a lot of posts asking about meal prepping for weight loss and tips for meal prepping and this is my take on it all… <br><br>Just cook your food y’all… <br><br>I feel like there are so many posts of people asking about meal prepping for the first time, and it seems like the chambers consensus is to go all out on air fryers and instant pots and rice cookers and slow cookers and meal prep containers and it’s just too much in my opinion. <br><br>My advice: Start small, keep it simple. Especially if you’ve never cooked before. Rice and chicken or rice and beans or veggies is a simple and healthy meal that can be made in 20 minutes on the stovetop or in the oven, and it’s filling and nutritious, and you can easily make large batches of it. <br><br>I swear every other post is like “I made meal prep for a week and it took 10 hours of my Sunday” like…. Why? You guys are over complicating things. If you’re making 3-4 different meals, and sides for each, it’s gonna take a long time. I can make 5 days worth of rice and chicken or rice and beans in under an hour. If I wanna make 2-3 different meals, it might take a couple hours and some multi-tasking, but meal prep shouldn’t be taking an entire day. If it is, you’re doing it wrong, or you’re spending way too much money on food, or you’re making wayyyyyyyy too much food. <br><br>I see people saying they’re spending $80/week on meal prep for 5 days, that’s way too much money and I think people are being way too picky when it comes to what they’re eating. Having your own personal chef for the week shouldn’t be that expensive. Idk maybe I’m just cheap… I can eat for 5 days on $30 and that’s with buying fresh fruits and veggies and lean proteins. <br><br>I’ve seen people talk about freezing their meals for up to 4 months… I’ve seen people say they meal prep for 14 days… I’ve never meal prepped for more than 5 days and I throw my frozen meals away after a month. I just think that there’s no reason to have frozen meals for 4 months…. Especially because your meals are gonna sit in the fridge for 5 days before you even start freezing them. Idk, maybe I’m just picky but after 5 days in the fridge you can tell the quality of the food is lower. I also don’t see the point in meal prepping for 2 weeks when you can make large batches of rice and chicken and freeze it and it’s good to go. <br><br>The extravagance of meal prep is insane to me. So many people have these crazy meal prep Sunday’s and they’re making 8 different meals and sides and spending 10-12 hours doing it all and I just can’t fathom it. I don’t think it’s worth it. I don’t think it’s worth it at all. I have better things to do than sit in the kitchen for 12 hours once a week. <br><br>I guess this is just my take on meal prep, and it might be controversial but I feel like people need to see it. If you’re just starting out with meal prep, start small, keep it simple, don’t over complicate it. <br><br>My meal prep consists of steamed veggies and a protein, rice and beans, and roasted chicken with potatoes and carrots. It’s simple and easy and nutritious and cheap and I make it in under 2 hours once or twice a week and I have all my meals for the week. <br><br>Try different things, keep it simple and I promise you’ll be happier and less overwhelmed and more successful with meal prep<br><br>Edit: Since this post is very popular, I just want to reiterate that the point of my post wasn’t to bash anyone else’s methods or make anyone else feel bad or that they’re doing it “wrong”. It’s simply my take on meal prep and what works for me and I was just sharing my opinion on it. I think there’s a lot of over-complication around meal prep and I feel like the simpler you make it the easier it will be and the more likely you will be to continue doing it. This is also all just from personal experience. I do believe that having an air fryer and instant pot can be very useful, and they’re actually really good for you and they’re easy to clean and they’re good methods to cook a lot of food, but in my personal opinion they’re not necessary. I find that the stove and oven work just fine and I can make all of my meals with those two appliances plus a microwave. Thanks for reading :)