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These lazy meal prep ideas are perfect for anyone who doesn’t want or have time to spend meal prepping. Each recipe listed is simple and takes 5 minutes of prep time or less. That means you can probably meal prep your whole week in just a couple of hours.
That may sound like a lot, so we’ll run you through some of our favorite tips to help even further reduce your meal prepping time.
How to Make Meal Prep Easier
Invest in a Crockpot or Instant Pot
Slow cookers are excellent for making hearty meals with minimal prep time. Most slow cooker recipes are what we call ‘dump it, set it, and leave it’, meaning, you place all the ingredients in the slow cooker, turn it on, and carry on with your day. It’s that simple! If you’re undecided, have a look at our slow cooker pro’s and con’s.
On the other hand, Instant pots can also use the slow cooker function and have multiple other functions. One is a pressure cooker, which is an excellent way to reduce cook times for your meal. Pressure cooking can reduce your cooking times by half!
So if you want to cut down on your cooking time, a slow cooker or Instant pot is an excellent investment.
Use Freezer-Friendly Recipes
It’s so much faster to cook the double amount of a single recipe than to make two different recipes. We love to meal prep smart, and double batching your favorite freezer-friendly meal prep recipes is a great way.
Use Frozen Vegetables
Using frozen vegetables will significantly reduce your prep time. It’s because frozen vegetables are already prepped and then frozen. So you have literally cut out all of the prep time. Another great thing is that they last for ages, so you can stock up without worrying about wastage.
21 Delicious Lazy Meal Prep Ideas That Are Under 5 Minutes Prep
Now you’ve read through some of our best lazy meal prep tips, enjoy these 5 minutes prepped recipes!
Lazy Breakfast Meal Prep Ideas
1. Breakfast Couscous Bowl with Banana and Strawberries
This fluffy and tender couscous gets paired with sliced bananas and strawberries, a dash of cinnamon, and a drizzle of honey or maple syrup in a quick and easy summer breakfast couscous bowl.
2. Breakfast Couscous with Oranges
Another fluffy and tender couscous recipe. This time paired with sweet and zesty sliced oranges, a dash of cinnamon, and a drizzle of honey or maple syrup!
3. Easy Chia Seed Pudding
Blend up your favorite flavors of chia seed puddings in minutes. This recipe comes with a bunch of different smaller recipes, including vanilla, chocolate, and peanut butter. You can store them in little mason jars for a grab-and-go breakfast or snack anytime.
4. 5 Ingredient Silken Tofu Scramble
This silken tofu scramble is a power-packed and protein breakfast scramble. The silky soft, eggy, vegan scramble that is easy to make, quick, flavorful, needs few ingredients (5 to be precise) and gets ready in under 15 minutes.
5. Almond Chia Pudding
Chia pudding recipe made with almond milk, chia seeds and liquid sweetener is the perfect creamy consistency and uses only four ingredients. Try it with a high protein, high fiber, omega-3 filling snack! Eat or top with chocolate chips, coconut shreds, granola, or dried fruit. It’s an easy, make-ahead gluten-free, dairy-free breakfast idea for meal prep.
6. Cottage Cheese Breakfast Bowl
This cottage cheese breakfast bowl is made with cottage cheese and the toppings of your choice. You can make this savory or sweet, and both ways are a delicious and healthy way to start the day!
Lunch and Dinner Lazy Meal Prep Ideas
7. Slow Cooker Bolognese
Slow cooker bolognese that’s perfect for getting started in the morning before work, taking just 5 minutes to prep. It’s high in protein, great for meal prepping, and is dirt cheap, costing just $1.65 per portion. This one is also on our list of meal prep ideas for healthcare workers!
8. Crockpot Chipotle Bean Chili
This delicious Crockpot chili takes a couple of minutes to prepare! All you need is a Crockpot and a handful of ingredients. It’s also high in protein, vegan, and low in calories. Perfect for batch cooking, costing just $1.61 per serving.
9. Thai Chicken Wraps
Super simple, healthy, and filling Thai chicken wraps made with chicken, bell peppers, carrots, spinach, and rice noodles. Cook and chop everything ahead of time and have lunch in just minutes for the entire week.
10. Vegan Chickpea Salad
This healthy chickpea “chicken” sandwich has all of the things I love about a chicken salad sandwich…with delicious chickpeas instead of chicken. It’s naturally vegan, easily made gluten-free, and so darn tasty.
11. Pasta al Pesto
Deliciously cheesy and bursting full of flavor, this tasty pesto pasta recipe takes only 5 minutes to prep and will be on your table in 12 minutes. This is the perfect dinner for busy people who like tasty food.
12. Lemon Pepper Salmon (Keto, Whole30, Paleo)
This lemon pepper salmon is a delicious hands-off dinner that fits most diets. All done in 22 minutes with just three ingredients. It fits into a handful of popular health diets, including keto, whole30 and paleo.
13. One-Pot Bean & Pasta Vegetarian Casserole
A dump and bake dish that will please everyone, this bean and pasta vegetarian casserole makes a perfectly healthy dinner.
14. Easy Carne Asada
Learn how to make carne asada at home! This easy Mexican carne asada marinade recipe takes 5 minutes to prep and is perfect for tacos or over a salad.
15. Roasted Shrimp with Lemon and Garlic
Easy + delicious oven-roasted shrimp with lemon & garlic is a fabulous dish; serve it on pasta, salads, or rice for quick and tasty meal prep. It takes just a few minutes of prep!
16. Crockpot Pork Tenderloin Carnitas
This crockpot pork tenderloin carnitas is excellent for meal prep since it only takes 5 minutes to get all of the ingredients into the crockpot! Once cooked, it quickly shreds and you can crisp it up in the oven on broil or eat it as is and freeze the leftovers for future meals.
17. Basil Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner
Basil chicken sheet pan dinner that’s savory and delicious. Made with organic chicken, roasted asparagus, baby potatoes, and topped with a tomato basil sauce that makes for the perfect, healthy dinner!
Snacks and Sides Lazy Meal Prep Ideas
18. Baked Potato Halves
These tasty baked potato halves make for a quick side dish that pairs with a huge selection of proteins like chicken, beef, pork, and fish. They take just a couple of minutes to prep and are perfect for double batching.
19. Instant Pot Brown Rice
Batch cooking brown rice is a super-easy way to meal prep. This Instant Pot brown rice requires no prep and is ready in 20 minutes. It’s an excellent recipe to batch, portion, and store in the fridge or freezer.
20. Avocado Tomato Salad
This avocado tomato salad is healthy and delicious, perfect for adding to a weight loss meal plan, or just as your new favorite go-to lunch!
21. Instant Pot Steamed Potatoes
It’s quick and easy to cook whole potatoes in the Instant Pot. Use the tender, steamed potatoes for mashed potatoes, potato salad, snacking, fries in the air fryer and any recipe that calls for pre-cooked potatoes.
Richmond Howard started Meal Prepify in 2019 and has helped over a million people learn how to meal prep, get better at meal planning, and create a kitchen they love to use. He’s an avid home chef and loves to bbq, grill out, and make awesome food for family and friends. He’s been featured on MSN, Renaissance Periodization, and Good Financial Cents.