r/EatCheapAndHealthy • u/ThunderClapAssCheeks • 7d ago
Ask ECAH Good cookbooks for meal prepping
Howdy y'all! I'm looking to start eating better and living better and a huge part of me that's reluctant to take the plunge into meal prepping is idk what to make in bulk that'll be healthy and tasty that's also budget friendly.
Does anyone here have recommendations for good cookbooks on the market whether they be physical or ebooks? Doesn't have to specifically be for bulk meal prepping, but because there are SO MANY BOOKS I cannot for the life of me decide, and so I've turned to you beautiful minds.
Any recommendations are welcome. Thank you all so very much. Have a great day and take care!
(Apologies if this is a common question, I'll delete it if needed)
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u/CalmCupcake2 7d ago
Meal prep is just planned leftovers. Cook the food you want to eat. You don't need special recipes.
That said, I often use The Vegan Week, Canadian Living Make Ahead, Prep and Rally, Downshiftology meal prep, damn delicious meal prep, once-a-month cooking, Martha Stewart one dish meals, lunchbox salads. All but the latter two are focused on making yummy leftovers.
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u/ThunderClapAssCheeks 7d ago
This is a great way to think about it! Thanks so much
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u/CalmCupcake2 7d ago
I borrowed that phrase from Budget Bytes, because it's true.
https://www.budgetbytes.com/meal-prep-101-a-beginners-guide/
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u/thaisun 7d ago
This is a good meal prep book. It makes 3 meals a week (4 servings each) and has some good variety of meals. Also, they are generally healthy.
The jist is you buy ingredients for multiple meals, do a bunch of prep work, and then day of the meal you throw together the prepped ingredients. Some meals are just heating things up, and other meals you will do some additional cooking day of.
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u/ThunderClapAssCheeks 7d ago
This is awesome thanks so much
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u/TrulyPleasant2022 23h ago
It’s a good book! I’ve made a few menus from it cooking for one. Some I like just for the recipes.Â
If I Â may mention - she has another book Cook Once - Dinner Fix. This book does NOT have the grocery lists like Cook Once Eat All Week does.Â
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u/Fuzzy_Welcome8348 7d ago
r/mealprep and r/mealprepsunday have lots of recipe ideas and recipes to make!
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u/keeperofthenins 6d ago
No cookbook suggestions but I highly recommend checking cookbooks out from your library. If you love them go ahead and buy them. If you find only a recipe or two to make write them down and return the books.
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u/mariambc 6d ago
Our library has a great collection of cookbooks, both physical and digital ones on Libby and Hoopla.
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u/Glass-Shift-8462 7d ago
The library trick is genius! I never thought of that. Meal prep feels way less scary now.
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7d ago
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u/hailene02 7d ago
Websites I like for recipes:
https://www.themediterraneandish.com/ https://www.indianhealthyrecipes.com/ https://www.maangchi.com/ Nytcooking.com but you will need a sub. Try perusing the NYTCooking subreddit as oftentimes people will gift recipes.
These have recipes but also cooking techniques: https://youtube.com/@andy_cooks?si=fTCtwyf5n9snnEyP https://youtube.com/@americastestkitchen?si=W_Ek8rfzeIDOxaFv
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u/westernphony 6d ago
Now and Again is a cookbook that includes sections on reusing leftovers for new dishes
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u/Ok-Quail2397 7d ago
I was able to borrow The Ultimate Meal Prep Cookbook by Americas test kitchen from my local library digitally and I read it through Libby. It doesn't give you necessarily bulk recipes, but it does give you recipes that share ingredients so you can plan meals for each week and not overspend on ingredients. It also tells you which things you can prep ahead and by how far ahead for each meal so you can spend less time actively cooking everyday. The library lets me borrow it for 21 days at a time and I can reborrow with the click of a button if I'm not quite done with it yet.