Meal Prep for Busy Women: How to Reduce Mental Load, Save Time and Make Fewer Decisions

It's 4pm, do you know what you’re cooking for dinner?

Raise your hand if this is a thought that lives in your brain rent free every day! Every. Single. Day. 

Meal Prep as a Tool to Reduce Decision Fatigue 

As busy women juggling multiple responsibilities, we often put everyone else's needs before our own. The constant mental juggle is exhausting - especially when it comes to planning and preparing meals. But here's a game-changer: meal prep. With just a few hours of planning and preparation, you can eliminate the daily "what's for dinner" stress and free up valuable mental space for the things that matter most.

Meal prepping has dramatically reduced the number of food-related decisions I make throughout the week, giving me back precious time and energy that I can redirect into self-care. No more standing in front of the fridge at 4pm, mentally drained and wondering what to cook. Instead, I have a system that works for both me and my family.

Let's talk about mental load - you know, that endless to-do list running through your head all day long. From scheduling hair appointments to tracking down missing laptop chargers, from ordering dog food to preparing for work trips. Sound familiar? These seemingly small tasks pile up, living rent-free in our minds and taking up precious mental space. And then comes that dreaded daily question: "What's for dinner?"

With a simple meal prep system, I've freed up the mental space that used to be consumed by daily food related decisions. Let me show you how.

Getting Started with Meal Prep

Let me share with you some time-saving meal prep strategies that I do to help make the weeks flow just a bit easier for me. 

My Weekly System:

Sundays are typically my day for meal prepping. Andy will go food shopping in the morning and then I'll spend a couple hours washing all our produce and then batch cooking staples so I have them in the fridge ready for the week. Currently, I will meal prep the following:

• Roasted Sweet Potatoes (and other roasted veggies i.e., broccoli, green beans, brussel sprouts…)
• Chicken (batch cook cutlets or pressure cook shredded chicken, carve a rotisserie chicken)
• Grains (right now I'm in a season of making a big batch of white rice, but you can do brown rice, quinoa, farro, pasta…)
• Dressings (Big batch of vegan ranch and asian dressing)
• Sauces (every other week I'll make a big batch of my mother in laws tomato sauce with meatballs and sausages)
• Oatmeal bake for breakfast

I also always have salad ingredients on hand!

Once I have these items meal prepped, I know I can use them to mix and match throughout the week. Here are my go-to combinations:

With Meatballs:

•  Classic pasta meals
•  Quick sliders

With Shredded Chicken:

•  Fresh salad toppers
•  Quick soups
•  Chicken salad
•  Quesadillas
•  Rice bowls

I also like to make sure my pantry and fridge are stocked with items I can use for quick snacks:

• eggs
• chicken broth
• cottage cheese
• yogurt
• beef jerky sticks
• sliced cheese
• crackers 

Making It Work Long-Term

Here are some other strategies to think about when meal prepping for time management:

• Themed dinner nights: Meatless Mondays, Taco Tuesdays, Pasta Wednesdays, Leftover Thursdays, Pizza Fridays, Takeout Saturdays and Meal Prep Sundays.
• Freezer Meals: Make double batches of stuff and freeze it! OR, freeze portions for yourself to grab for quick lunches throughout the week!

Here are some go to meals I lean into when meal prepping because they are quick, easy, delicious and easy to meal prep in bulk:

Pressure Cooker Shredded Chicken (I usually make about 5 lbs and use both chx breast & thighs)

Sweet Potato Oatmeal Bake (I tend to make 2 batches as this as it’s a favorite in my house)

Chili (I double this recipe, it freezes great!)

Start small - maybe with just shredded chicken like I did - and watch how this one change creates a ripple effect in your life. As your confidence grows, you'll find yourself with more time for self-care, less decision fatigue, and a calmer approach to feeding yourself and your family.

Remember that 4pm dinner panic we talked about? It doesn't have to be your daily reality anymore. Just like my 3-Day Time Management Reset helps you take control of your schedule, meal prepping helps you take control of your kitchen. Ready to transform your relationship with meal planning? Grab those grocery flyers, pick a few staples to prep, and give yourself permission to keep it simple. 

Combine this with the strategies from my 3-Day Time Management Reset, and you'll be amazed at how much mental space you reclaim. When we reduce the mental load of daily decisions, we create room for what truly matters.

With love (and less stress),

Erin