The Fit Foodie Meal Prep Plan

by Sally O'Neil

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Fit Foodie Meal Prep Plan is a tutorial and recipe guide for meal-prep with recipes developed by Sally O'Neil. Released 14th Jan 2020 by Simon & Schuster on their Tiller Press imprint, it's 208 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats.

There have been a lot of times when I've come home from work and literally had no plan for dinner and a not-inspiring collection of ingredients and no idea what to cook for my family (we usually wind up with takeout food in those cases). I've been familiar for ages with the concept of meal planning and prep, but it always seemed to take a lot more organizational skills than I honestly have. I'm sort of an extreme case of course, but I wanted to read this book and see if I could get some tips I could use to be more food prep organized.

This book is certainly organized. The first section covers the introduction, definitions and concepts involved in meal prep, along with very basic explanations (colorful pie graphs!) for how to build up a nutritionally sound meal (fresh base + protein + complex carbs + healthy fats). There are also lists of staples with quantities to have on hand for maximum efficiency and how to prep and use them.

My main interest personally in food prep is to take care of my 5 day work-week lunchtimes. I work in a hospital lab and it's just so convenient to eat at the cafeteria which is generally full of high fat, calorie dense, carbohydrate laden food with almost zero plant based options (and let's face it...hospital cafeteria food is hella bland and ridiculously expensive). This book contains 75+ meal prep menus with mix and match options which are -perfect- for my lunch-box problem. There's also a good cross referenced index with ingredients included.

The recipes are well illustrated and appealing. This is a huge bonus for me. Ingredient measurements are supplied in American and standard (metric) measurements. The nutritional information is not included in these recipes. Extra tips or recipe alternatives are listed in sidebars with the recipes. The recipes themselves are fairly straightforward and are made with easily sourced ingredients. Many are very simple, none of them are overly complex.

This is a beautifully presented very well organized book. I would definitely recommend it to any of my friends who are looking to make their food prep even more efficient. Once a week cooking can be made family friendly, and the author has included mix-and-match recipes so that these meals can be incorporated into a family style meal environment. These would also work very well for singles or for one person (or whole family); it's very very versatile.

Five stars. I also love the author's irreverent, chatty, friendly voice which comes through very clearly in the text.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.