Meal prep when you're short on time: the two-hour method

Meal prep has a slightly extreme reputation: rows of identical containers, chicken and broccoli for five days. For a family it doesn't work, and it isn't needed. What's needed is a more flexible version: prepare components, not finished dishes, so each evening dinner takes twenty minutes instead of an hour.

The principle: components, not dishes

Instead of cooking five complete dinners, on Sunday you prepare basic ingredients that then combine in different ways:

• a grain base: cooked rice, spelt, barley
• a cooked protein: roast chicken, pulses, meatballs
• vegetables already washed and chopped, some roasted
• a sauce: tomato, pesto, a vegetable purée
• hard-boiled eggs, for quick breakfasts and salads

With these in the fridge, on Tuesday the rice becomes fried rice with vegetables, on Wednesday the chicken goes into a salad, on Thursday the sauce dresses the pasta.

The two Sunday hours

An order that works:

1. Turn on the oven and put vegetables and protein in together (60 minutes that work on their own)
2. Cook the grains on the hob meanwhile
3. Wash and chop the raw vegetables
4. Make the sauce
5. Cool and portion into containers, labelled and dated

Active work is under an hour: the rest is waiting.

What to prep ahead, and what not

Cooked grains, pulses, cooked meat, sauces and roasted vegetables keep well in the fridge for 3-4 days. Fish, dressed salads and cut leafy greens are better made fresh. For the second half of the week, freeze some sauce and protein and defrost them the night before.

For precise storage rules, follow packaging instructions and food safety guidelines: if in doubt, throw it out.

It all starts from the list

Meal prep only works if the ingredients are in the house on Sunday. Shop on Saturday, from the plan: the components you want to prepare give you the shared grocery list, and whoever goes to the supermarket buys exactly that.

Sharing the work

The two Sunday hours shouldn't be one person's job. A typical split:

• one adult at the oven and hob
• the other washing, chopping, portioning
• the children, by age: washing vegetables, peeling eggs, sticking on labels

Written as assigned to-dos, with a reminder on Sunday morning, the tasks don't depend on who remembers. And if a Sunday doesn't work, move the session in the calendar to a day with time, instead of skipping it.

The evenings, then

With components ready, each dinner is a combination: a base, a protein, a vegetable, a sauce. Twenty minutes, usually less. And "what's for dinner tonight?" is answered by opening the fridge — more in what's for dinner tonight.

In short

Prep components not dishes, two hours on Sunday with the oven doing the work, store sensibly and freeze for the second half of the week, shop from the list and share the work. It isn't a diet or a religion: it's a way of buying time for the evenings when there isn't any.