While meal prep does take more effort than ordering delivery every night, it doesn’t have to be akin to learning a new language. Though it may feel like it. If you’ve found yourself hunting for the best meal prep websites but finding yourself screen strained instead, know that you’re in good company.
Meal prep planning overwhelms everyone at the start.
After sifting through our fair share of meal prep websites over the past 3 years, we can include ourselves in the “everyone.” There is a sea of resources available for the meal prep crowd and it can be challenging to discern which will have value for you.
The good news is, we already put in that work, and we’d rather you focus on meeting your meal prep goals, so we’re sharing our top ten meal prep resource list with you. Let’s get started.
What do you really need from meal prep websites?
Long term meal preppers will tell you, twenty to thirty go-to recipes AND access to a connected community have been foundational to their success.
This Top 10 list of our most trusted meal prep websites will provide you with both.
Not only are these websites a place of discussion and encouragement for each site’s readers, but they have incredible recipe collections. For each site we’ll let you know: what we love, the features that are specifically beneficially for a newbie in the meal prep life, and any aspects of the site you should be aware of from the start to make sure you have the best experience while browsing.
We’ve evaluated the sites as a whole but we’ll share at least one favorite recipe from each so you can “get a taste” for what’s cooking on each blog!
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1. Dinner at the Zoo
Sarah Welch’s life is busy. After having 3 daughters in 2 years, her love for multi-course cooking and fine dining turned into a strong love for simply cooking for her family. Her kid-friendly and nutritious recipes are perfect for picky eaters and those without ample time on their hands.
What we Love: KID FRIENDLY! Her meal prep website, Dinner at the Zoo, has a notes section at the top of each recipe that includes tips, such as steps children can assist with, prep you can make ahead of time, and freezer-friendly notations when available.
Dinner at the Zoo is divided into recipe sections of all recipes, dinner, appetizers, dessert, one-pot meals, slow cooker, and Asian food. If you opt not to click through 40+ pages of meal options, a search bar proves helpful to discover exactly what you’re craving.
Welch preps her ingredients and creates her meals early to save her time on busy nights but they can all easily be transferred to meal prep containers for lunches.
Newb Tip: Colorful photographs of each step will help you to know exactly what your own stove-tops should look like. All recipe cards include nutrition facts as well!
Reader Beware: Prep and cook times can range widely throughout her website - be sure to check your schedule before embarking on one of Welch’s delicious meals.
Favorite Recipe: The Zucchini Lasagna. You can stick with zucchini and beef or try eggplant, squash, sausage or chicken in this tasty, golden variation of a family favorite. With way fewer carbs and way less guilt, be sure to pack your meal prep container with a little extra, you’re going to want it.
2. Budget Bytes
Beth Moncel brings a unique background to the meal prep website world; before she started blogging she was a microbiologist. After graduating from college and struggling to pay her bills with a low-paying job, she began to track every cent of her grocery budget. Naturally, she took a scientific approach.
It’s basically the best for budget meal prep.
Though microbiology and meal prep might not seem like a perfect fit, her tactics allowed her to get the most value out of her shopping list; methodically creating multiple recipes with limited ingredients, all of which she shares through Budget Bytes!
What we Love: BEST FOR BUDGETS! Budget Bytes popularity has grown considerably; not only can you benefit from the website but there is also a mobile app and cookbook that you can utilize in the kitchen or on the go.
Budget Bytes isn’t all meal prep - but it does have an entire recipe category devoted to it within the website. Meal prep includes breakfast, beef, chicken, no reheat, and vegetarian options and true to the site’s name, every single one of them is wallet-friendly.
Budget Conscious Newb Tip: The first thing you see on each recipe’s page is the cost of the entire recipe and the cost per serving. Trust us, they’re well within your $0 - $15 prep range. Beth put in the work for you; each of the ingredients and leftovers are priced out by the CENT so if your budget is razor-thin this is your go-to resource.
While the meals are inexpensive - the site quality is RICH. Beautifully plated photographs and simple instructions result in gorgeous meals on Budget Bytes, further helped by the step-by-step photos on the bottom of the page.
Reader Beware: Be prepared to guess on the nutritional value of these recipes. However, ingredients will be relatively common and types of foods you could find at any grocery store, so you can still easily plug them into an online calorie counter if needed.
Favorite Recipe: The Jerk Chicken with Pineapple Black Bean Salsa. At only $2.50 a serving, the pairing of spicy and sweet flavors in this meal cannot be beat. It can be served hot or cold (after cooking - raw chicken will help you lose weight in all the wrong ways) and its colors will give you that year-long-summer feeling.
3. Happy Money Saver
Karrie Truman’s website has a name unique from most meal prep websites and that’s because she simply does it all. Happy Money Saver has sections on farm life, saving money and DIY’s - but you may know her by her cookbook, “Seriously Good Freezer Meals” and trust us, her freezer meal recipes are seriously good.
What we Love: PERFECT FOR PLANNERS! Truman grew up in a big family with little spare time and lots of costs. She started her website as a way to share recipes and money-saving tips and her passions include raising chickens, making things “the old-fashioned way,” and dancing to 80s music. She’s easy to like, and you’ll feel like you’re getting recipe advice from a favorite relative.
Freezer Meals are next-level meal prep
If you’re unfamiliar with freezer meals, their intent is to cook large amounts of food at once and chill it for the week, or up to 90 days. Perfect for those that get only one #mealprepsunday per month.
Newb Tip: You can easily increase or decrease serving sizes right on the recipe!!! Just hover over the serving size till a bar pops open above and adjust as needed.
Recipes include nutritional information, recommended sides, and alternative means of cooking. Each will tell you a recommended cook plan for either serving immediately or freezing it to thaw and cook later, to make it - and life - that much easier.
She even shows you how to store your frozen prepped meals. It’s not always just “open the freezer, insert” so pay attention!
Reader Beware: We love 100% of everything Karrie does, so really - reader enjoy. You’ll likely find Karrie pop on other Best Meal Prep Websites lists; we aren’t the only super fans!
Favorite Recipe: The Homemade Frozen Mini Naan Pizza. It’s pizza - where can you go wrong? Certainly not with this healthier bread option and customizable toppings for all to love. LOVE. WE LOVE YOU KARRIE.
4. Sweet Peas and Saffron
When Denise found herself in both the roles of mother and grad student, she struggled with a lack of time, ideas, and money. It’s a situation that has thrown many of us into meal prep; fortunately for us, it was also the spark that started Denise’s blog, Sweet Peas and Saffron.
What we Love: BEGINNERS BEST FRIEND. Throughout the website, tips on beginning the meal prep lifestyle and Q&A sections are common and oh so helpful. Remember - community helps with commitment!
Denise also has loads of shortcuts to save you time and stress.
Meals with a view?
When you’d rather just watch someone make the meal instead of reading about it, Denise has you covered with her YouTube channel!
We’d tell you all of the meal prep recipe categories on the website, but there are 26 to choose from! Some examples include air fryer, breakfast, eco-friendly, roundups and slow cooker. The search bar and archives drop-down makes it easy to choose what you’re eating for the week. This is real food for real people.
Newb Tip: Each recipe includes nutritional information and notes on assembling in your meal prep containers, healthier options, and how long food will keep.
Reader Beware: The average recipe on Sweet Peas and Saffron will require more ingredients than you might be used to, but trust us - they’re always worth it.
Favorite Recipe: The Honey Chipotle Meatball Meal Prep Bowls. You won’t have any guilt over eating these lean turkey meatballs and their savory sauce out of your meal prep container. Plus, you won’t be able to get enough of the cilantro lime cauliflower rice. Make double.
5. The Girl on Bloor
Taylor Stinson is a blogger who lives in the bustling city of Toronto on - you guessed it - Bloor Street. She always struggled on how to balance healthy eating with single-serving sizes, leftovers, and scheduling crises. A yo-yo diet of eating “whatever, whenever” and then restricting calories and gym guilt put her physical and mental health in the drain.
But then,
She lost 25 lbs. through meal prep.
Taylor’s lived it, and now she’s helping others to rediscover their energy and well-being through The Girl on Bloor.
What we Love: FOR THE FOODIES! She emphasizes both nourishment and enjoyment through food, and her blog shows just that philosophy. Stinson is a freelance writer by heart, and she puts her skills to good use in each recipe’s fun commentary. You’ll feel like you’re reading a story on every post, whether it’s her own experience or her flavorful descriptions. Refrain from hitting that “jump to recipe” link.
Her photography is bright, colorful and stunning. She includes tips and tricks like substitute cooking methods, how to identify the perfect avocados and dividing prepared meals among meal prep containers!
Newb Tip: Recipes include nutritional information and are basically all less than 30 minutes to complete between prep and cook time. Similar to our other favorites, she also has a YouTube channel that shows each unique and tasty recipe in action rather than words!
Reader Beware: The site is best read on a desktop as her mobile site can load painfully slow. You’ll be DYING to see the images and read her descriptions of the recipes so settle in on the big screen when you can.
Favorite Recipe: The Sashimi Tuna Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing. This Asian-inspired meal is gluten-free and downright delicious. Preparation might take a minute, but only because this salad has to taste as good as it looks. The dressing alone will be your new go-to and can be easily paired with most protein and veggies. 1 perfect dressing is worth 10 meal prep recipes.
6. Damn Delicious
For Chungah Rhee, her traditional Korean family had always expected her to become a lawyer, dentist, or doctor - so she went to school for just that. While in grad school though, Rhee created a Tumblr page to showcase her favorite recipes. Years and years later, Damn Delicious had turned into something far beyond its humble Tumblr beginnings.
We’ve got to be honest with you - Damn Delicious isn’t necessarily a “meal prep website” - BUT, her recipe serving sizes are perfect for our meal prep containers!
Not to mention, she wrote a book on meal prep and you can read our review of Damn Delicious Meal Prep (spoiler alert - it’s glowing) in an upcoming post.
What we Love: SIMPLE TO START! It’s easy to sort through her recipes with tabs of category, season, ingredient, and a search bar, to boot. Mouthwatering photography shows every detail of a meal, and a fun little “nutrition facts” card is at the bottom of each page. Almost all of Rhee’s meals are quick to both prep and cook for any on-the-go readers.
Newb Tip: When you first dive in, go directly to Browse Recipes >> Quick & Easy! If her sheet pan beef & broccoli can’t hook you on meal prep, we don’t know what can.
Reader Beware: Damn Delicious recipes not in the quick & easy category can require a few more ingredients than one would typically need for a meal prep recipe. However, all ingredients are those you’ll have in your pantry or fridge anyways - it’ll just take a few extra steps to make sure you can enjoy your delicious meals.
Favorite Recipe: The Sausage and Peppers Foil Packets. Not only are they packed with protein but the flavor is dream-worthy. You will dream about these.
7. Meal Prep on Fleek
Friends, Nick and Sarah met over their mutual love for a cheeseburger and decided to create a decadent “food goals” Instagram account with 3000+ calories per meal, @ieatonfleek.
No, their site is not about 3000+ calorie meal prep.
@IEatOnFleek turned into @MealPrepOnFleek after they realized their feed did not depict what they would ever recommend others feed themselves. Their new meal prep focused Instagram account gained a large following which propelled them to start their site so they could more fully share recipes and how-to's regarding meal prep.
What we Love: FOR THE SPECIALIZED GUYS AND GALS! Meal Prep on Fleek has a general recipe section but they also specialize in plant-based recipes and keto recipes. For those looking to dial in their diets more aggressively, the site includes a macro calculator. We don’t count macros, but if you do or are wanting to this section is a great resource.
Newb Tip: Meal Prep on Fleek intentionally creates recipes to be healthy and affordable while utilizing less than 6 ingredients (4 + seasonings) in each meal. This is PERFECT for anyone who feels like their previous meal prep efforts have been too complicated to sustain. Each recipe also includes nutritional information and simple instructions.
Don’t want to read out the instructions? Meal Prep on Fleek doesn’t have a YouTube channel, but some recipes have 1-minute videos that are fun, easy and minimalist to show you just how each recipe should go.
Reader Beware: Though it’s worthy of its Best meal Prep Websites inclusion the actual desktop site can be challenging to focus on due to multiple ad placements, a cluttered sidebar, and their own videos popping up to play. If you’re easily distracted, stick to the mobile site for smoother surfing.
Favorite Recipe: The BBQ Pulled Mushrooms. These can be plated on tacos, polenta, rice or so many other tasty options! Though shitake mushrooms aren’t usually a fan favorite, Nick and Sarah do a wonderful job of selling you on the nutritional benefits of mushrooms so you can get over it, and start enjoying them!
8. Workweek Lunch
Talia Koren moved to New York after graduating from college. She didn’t realize how expensive and unhealthy consistently eating out would be, but she was terrible at cooking.
Time to hit the micro NYC apartment kitchen.
With practice, she improved her cooking and excelled specifically in prepping work lunches and dinners. With meal prep, Koren had: money, time, clear skin, a consistent weight, and lots of energy - and now we all have Work Week Lunch!
What we Love: FOR THE TAKEOUT QUEENS! Work Week Lunch is all about showing young professionals how easy and affordable cooking can be through meal prep. She has lots of categories for her recipes - 19, to be exact. Some of Koren’s most popular categories include under 30 minutes, wraps & sandwiches, vegan, baked goods, and snacks.
Oh yes, baked goods are allowed.
Newb Tip: Koren makes up for a lack of nutritional information with lots of tips on doubling, reheating and substitutes. Her site will even adjust the amount of ingredients for you if you change the number of servings on each recipe, less math is always good.
Reader Beware: There is a catch. While most of these meal planning websites are free, some of Koren’s site can only be accessed by joining the Workweek Lunch Meal Prep Program, which we highly recommend! It’s a $7.99 monthly fee for grocery lists, recipes, and a community. You’re likely spending triple that on streaming services, sooooo….
If the budget is tight you can still take advantage of her many free recipes so don’t count this site out. We love the “before and after” photography showing all the ingredients laid out or containers prepped. Oh, and don’t worry - prep time is always quick for all Workweek recipes.
Favorite Recipe: The 5-Ingredient Vegetarian Black Bean and Spinach Enchiladas. They’re so simple, yet absolutely delicious and filling! She even has her own recipe for enchilada sauce if you’re looking for something extra homemade and she has ways to change out beans for other satisfying proteins.
9. Project Meal Plan
When Danielle graduated from college with a degree in environmental science, she didn’t find many jobs that were both interesting and well-paying. She “made it work” for a while, but started Project Meal Plan a few years later to blend her love for science and her creative passions.
Her boredom benefited us tremendously as she now spends her days testing and sharing her healthy meal recipes based around Sunday prep!
What we Love: ENDLESS OPTIONS! Project Meal Plan has SO many categories to choose from. However, Danielle makes it easy with both a search bar and filters of type, course, ingredients, and method. We love how some recipes aren’t necessarily made to be prepped for the whole week, but rather with leftovers from other meals!
Her ingredient scales are also adjustable based on how many guests or family members you’ll be serving. She includes nutritional information and beautiful, clean and vibrant pictures to accompany each set of steps!
Newb Tip: The majority of recipes on the website require few ingredients and a small amount of both prep and cook time. Plus, all the ingredients are ones you either have in your pantry or fridge right now, or could pick up in a pinch. No searching specialty grocery stores for expensive ingredients here!
Buyer Beware: There are quite a few affiliate links sprinkled into her posts, but we get it- girls gotta make money and the website is completely open and free to use. She will also let you know when she’s using affiliate links, so she’s not hiding it.
Favorite Recipe: The Rotisserie Chicken Nachos. With this meal, you’ll want to prepare the individual components like chicken, beans, peppers, and jalapenos ahead of time so that they’re perfectly ready to assemble later on. It’s a great fridge clean-out option and they’re fully customizable!
10. Skinnytaste
Gina Homolka started Skinnytaste to combine her two loves: amazing food and stunning photography. Homolka promotes eating: family-friendly, seasonal, clean, using whole foods, and following the rules of portion control. (You know we approve.)
What we Love: SHE MAKES MODERATION EASY! Like many of our favorites, Homolka separates recipes into course, ingredient, and season. Although, if you have a specific meal in mind, feel free to search it on the website or choose from vegetarian, under 30 minutes, paleo, low carb, dairy-free, Whole 30, air fryer, gluten-free, freezer meals, slow cooker, kid-friendly, pressure cooker, keto or our favorite: meal prep.
Each recipe has gorgeous, clean photography accompanied by nutritional information and easy, simple recipes to follow along with.
Newb Tip: There’s even a button where you can create a shopping list and order groceries from each recipe using a relish account. Game Changer.
Q&As on buying, defining and keeping foods fresh are frequent throughout the website and everything is portioned perfectly for our meal prep containers.
Reader Beware: Most recipes don’t require ample ingredients on hand but make sure your spice cabinet is fully prepared for when it’s time to cook, Homolka is BIG on spice and aromatics.
Favorite Recipe: The Kale and Potato Soup with Turkey Sausage. If you’re not a fan of turkey, you could easily swap for Andouille sausage or vegetarian sausage. It’s filling, easy, and flavorful - freeze away in our freezer-safe meal prep containers and you’ll be set for future meals too!
There you have it - our Top 10 Best Meal Prep Websites. These are trusted and tested resources; bookmark them, know them, love them, share them.
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Have you tried any of our favorite meal prep recipe websites listed above? Are there additional blogs or websites you frequent or would like us to review?
Connect and share with us below and be sure to bookmark our post so you always have access to our top meal prep resources list!
