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These 3 mums show us how they smash their meal prep each week

Meal prep is all about saving you time, money and stress in the kitchen.

By preparing your meals and snacks from the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge in advance when you have some time, you’ll have more time to spend with the kids or on things you really love doing (or need to do – like folding washing!).

You’ll save money, as you won’t be tempted to order a take away when you’re too tired to cook, and you won’t order a muffin with your coffee, as you’ll have snacks from the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge in your bag ready to go.

Charlie-Food-Collage

Stress levels will plummet as you won’t be facing the dreaded ‘what’s for dinner?’ question at 5.30pm. You’ll know exactly what you have on hand, and you can rest easy knowing your family is going to dig into a healthy meal from the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge in mere minutes.

Three of our 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge members have shared their meal prep photos today to help inspire you to do your own big cook up at home.

Cat Leah has regained kitchen confidence

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Cat Leah joined the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge and has lost 2 stone in four months!

Cat says, “The 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge has taught me and my family a whole new positive healthy view on food and not only have I lost weight but I regained a whole lot of confidence in the kitchen.”

Cat-Leah-before-and-afterCat says “To save money and keep the cost down I found similar recipes from the Challenge App so I could use the same ingredients throughout, and whatever left overs I had I was able to make some pizzas (using the 2 Ingredient Pizza Dough).

All the fresh ingredients came to under £20 as I already had the basics like rice, flour, and tinned tomatoes in my cupboards.”

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What Cat cooked:

Cat made a HUGE pot of Chilli Con Carne to use in the following main meal recipes (all recipes are available to members of the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge):

  1. Easy Chilli Con Carne
  2. Mexican Lasagne
  3. Courgette Noodle Bolognese
  4. Mexican Tacos
  5. 3 pizzas made using leftover chilli
  6. Cauliflower Shepherd’s Pie

These are the snacks that Cat made on her meal prep day:

  1. Banana Bread
  2. Choc Chip Banana Bread
  3. Date and Coconut Loaf

In total Cat made 22 serves of main meals and 22 serves of snacks – all in just under 2.5 hours! All recipes are available from the recipe hub on the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge.

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Cat’s top tips for meal prep: 

  • Choose similar ingredients that you can make a few different meals with, for instance if you make the Mexican Lasagne, make extra of the meat sauce to use for Easy Chilli Con Carne, then use the spare wraps for pizza bases, and use some spare veg from the fridge for toppings.
  • Meal prep, batch cook and freeze…. spend a couple of hours on a day that suits you to prep for the week ahead.
  • Find quick and easy dinners from the 5 ingredients and under filter (in the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge recipe hub) and make double of the meals or snacks. This makes things easier and also keeps the costs within your budget.
  • Shop around, it might be a bit more time consuming, but believe me this way you will save a fortune. Check what’s on offer at a few supermarkets near you, and stock up on items that have a long shelf life (like pasta, chickpeas, rice etc.) when they’re cheap.

Maria O’Rourke loves cooking with her son

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Maria has just started her 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge journey and hopes to lose about 5 stone!

Maria says, “It could easily take hours each day to prepare dinner and snacks as you are constantly washing up or you might get stopped to do other stuff along the way.

Meal prep means that I don’t need to cook each day, and I know I’ve got healthy options from the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge in the fridge or freezer for the whole week.

My 19 month old always sits on the counter next to me when baking or cooking to see what I am doing. I try and get him involved in mixing or adding things to the bowl, so it’s still bonding time for us.”

What Maria cooked:

(all recipes available from the recipe hub on the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge):

Maria’s Top Tips: 

  • Make sure you have enough containers before you start. You can buy cheap disposable ones from the supermarket.
  • Have a good look through the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge recipe hub a day or two before you plan to start so you can set up your week with what you want to try.
  • Get your partner/ family involved in choosing the recipes they would like to try also. This will encourage them to try your meals and get on board with healthy eating.

Charlie Johnson keeps it simple for less stress

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Charlie has being using the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge for 2 months and has lost 15lbs, 14.5 inches and a dress size! She says “I’ve still got a long way to go but I know I can do it with the Healthy Mummy.”

Charlie-before-and-after

It took Charlie about 3 hours (including the cooking time) to do to her snack prep which will last her a few weeks.

These are the snacks that Charlie made from the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge:

Charlie’s top tips for meal prep:

  • If you can double up the recipe to add to your freezer stash, do. It makes life so much easier! We tend to eat things like Spaghetti Bolognese regularly, so to cook 1kg of mince instead of 500g means I can freeze one family-sized portion for another night.
  • To make it easier to portion (and quicker to cook) cook recipes like the Almond Bread or Chocolate Chip Banana Loaf in muffin tins. Reduce the cooking time, as it won’t take as long.
  • Don’t make it too complicated – repeating meals or using the same key ingredients make meal prep a whole lot simpler!

Are you inspired to get into meal prep? Start here with our meal prep guide.

With more than 4,000 delicious (and healthy) recipes, 350 exercises & 24/7 support – the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge is designed (and proven) to help busy mums like you lose weight!

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