Member Reviews
Great book for the beginning wannabe meal prepper. Healthy and filled with lots of tips that will encourage anyone,
This book is full of beautiful pictures and some good recipes. The premise is to prep for basically a week's meals at a time. Awesome, right? Well, no, because the plan is for you to eat the same breakfast the entire week and then alternate through 3 recipes for lunches and dinners. Basically it is like making one meal and eating its leftovers for the rest of the week. Just like Thanksgiving, it only goes so far before it gets really boring. Another problem for me is that the recipes are grouped by theme. You get an entire week of meatless meals and then an entire week of Asian inspired recipes. Again, that goes back to the leftover concept. I did like that shopping lists were included but again, they were based on the themed weeks so if I started mixing my weeks to add some variety, these become useless. The book is best for either a solo person who just doesn't care that they don't have variation in their food, in which case they probably don't care about meal prepping, or a couple who can combine 2 weeks together and add additional variety to the menu. Sure you can use the book to prep for a family of four, but that is no different than just pulling out a cookbook and making a meal each night. And, I will definitely try some of the recipes, and yes if I were to follow their plan I would probably save time, but at what cost?
This cookbook contains a variety of recipes, grocery lists, and tips to make planning ahead not only easier but far, far tastier.
**Received ARC from NetGalley for a fair and honest review**
I'd rate Healthy Meal Prep at 3.5 stars. While there was some good information in here, this didn't feel like it was meant for the average person. Also, there are only a couple meal options for the week and you eat the same thing over and over, which I personally don't care for. I really wish this book would have gone into greater depth for the meal preps, not just the recipes. I was hoping for something that would not only help me eat healthier, but my family, and realistically kids aren't going to eat the same things over and over, no matter how you rotate it.
In order to read this book I had to download a new reading app, which worked ok, but when my phone died and I had to get a new phone I lost the book and didn't get to read the last 15% or so. When I tried to re-download it wouldn't allow so this review is based on approximately 85% of the book. Though I'm not sure if the last 15% would have changed my review much.
I'm not new to meal prep, but I'm always looking for healthier and non-borning ideas. It can be hard to eat the same thing every day of the week but it would be easy to make these recipes and freeze half of each recipe and pull something out each week. This is a great simple and easy book for anyone interested in meal prep
I was really excited to read this book because I have been searching for healthy new recipes to try and meal prep for the week (breakfasts and lunches, primarily). Although there were some tasty-looking recipes here, I wasn't entirely thrilled at the selection. I didn't like the monotony of what a week would feel like - basically rotating three meals between lunch and dinner for the entire week; though I do realize that there are ways to easily adapt this (e.g. make less of one recipe and more variety so it's not as monotonous).
I also would have liked a picture for every recipe - some had them and some didn't - the ones that didn't have an accompanying picture did have a small image on the weekly summary page, but it wasn't enough. The pictures themselves were gorgeous, and I would have liked more.
Overall, not a bad cookbook. There were helpful tips and several intriguing recipes that might be worth a try, but not overly ecstatic it.
This was a great book and I will recommend it to my patients. It contains meal plans (including those with fun themes) and supporting recipes. I love that the meals are nutritious yet also simple to prepare and containing easy-to-find (or already on hand) ingredients. I also love the tips provided (ex: to make paleo).
This was a great healthy meal prep cookbook. I love the easy to prepare recipes that help out with my busy life.
I want to start off my saying that this was the best format for a ARC PDF I have received to date. It was clear, easy to navigate and the photography was stellar.
However, after making several recipes I found them to be very bland. Perhaps it is my palette and I need to take the time to enjoy the simple flavors that Tornatore and Bannon promote but I do not know if I will experiment with any more recipes from this book in the future. The Chicken Parm was okay, but the sauce was awful. The protein pancakes were very difficult to flip without tearing and the flavors just didn't wow me for all the trouble they were worth. I also thought it was weird that the authors suggest eating main dishes like Shrimp Scampi cold, but I guess to each their own.
That said, I think the ideas and tips that the authors offer up at a solid foundation for anyone looking for a healthier diet and I would recommend this book as a starting point for them.
I was initially excited about this book. I was ready for recipes and ideas to prep my lunches for the week. The execution was lacking for me because I don't like to eat the same thing multiple times a week or have much freezer space. The portion control information, shopping lists, and photos are good for planning purposes or prepping for multiple people. I just didn't see too much benefit for my lifestyle and my mostly plant-based diet.
A lot of these recipes look delicious, but I'd much rather have the recipe for a single serving. I'm not sure if I want to make one big collection of small meals and then reheat them every day. Why would you want to plan what you eat in advance anyway? What if you don't feel like eating what you prepared three days ago?
This book was a great start for those who need some help meal prepping. The instructions were easy to follow, well-laid out, and visually appealing. A great read for those wanting to start meal prepping and enjoy the benefits of creating healthy meals for busy weeks.
This book was very easy to follow. The tips were really helpful. While I haven’t tried the recipes, I think they sounded delicious! This is a great food prep book!
The authors have come up with a complete package in one extremely easy-to-use volume. This book is for you if you are a young single person, part of a couple and I'd even venture to say--have children. Many of the recipes could easily be doubled or a few ingredients easily omitted for picky eaters. I'd even add that if you have tried one of those home delivery food boxes to save time, you'll find this saves even more time! And can't we all use that ?
I really love that the authors have carefully thought out all the health aspects of food, nutrition and calories making this a perfect plan. They have also thrown in healthy substitutes for the carbs we all love and miss: zucchini noodles; cauliflower rice; quinoa; rice and oatmeal. The book is set up to guide you through every aspect of this plan. You'll find what containers work best; step-by-step instructions for prepping the food and how to put it all together ion the actual day you cook the meal.
Because I like to know what I'm buying here are a few of the recipes: simple shrimp scampi; roasted salmon; beef and sweet potato lasagna ; chicken fajita bowl; mixed vegetable curry; banana protein pancakes; roasted chicken and vegetables; Cincinnati chili; Italian breakfast frittata; chicken souvlaki with Greek salad; fish and chips; bangers and mash; beef burgers with sweet potatoes and green beans; chicken fried rice and sirloin steak.
Am I making you hungry? I highly recommend this book. The recipes in this are for the most part winners and I love the idea that all the nutritional details were carefully thought out.
I received a free electronic copy of Healthy Meal Prep: Time-saving Plans to Prep and Portion Your Weekly Meals) from NetGalley. This is a very informative and helpful book for those trying to eat healthy and plan ahead. Meal Prep is more than just a bunch of recipes. It is a resource about portion control of the foods you should eat for a healthy lifestyle. The book is a great guide to help plan meals each week so that you can save time, money, and your waistline from processed foods. The tips and information provide readers with the support they need to prepare the right kinds of foods for their bodies.
How you can enjoy Frittata for breakfast and Shrimp and Tofu Pad Thai for lunch in the middle of a busy work week without breaking the bank
With my busy work schedule, I do not have time to prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner from scratch every single day of the week. The authors of Healthy Meal Prep, Stephanie and Adam, present a money and time saving method to solve my dilemma with their weekly meal plans. They have made it very easy for the reader with weekly shopping lists and step-by-step instructions on how to time efficiently prepare the food for a whole week in advance. Once the food is portioned, it is stored in the fridge or freezer and can be eaten as is or warmed up in no time.
Every meal looks appetizing and is made from healthy ingredients. I personally like the Chicken Fajita Bowls and the Shrimp and Tofu Pad Thai. The strength of this book lies in Adam's experience as a chef. Food preparation ahead of time and step-by-step planning of the entire cooking process are the basis for success in any chef's kitchen. Stephanie and Adam have ingeniously applied these same working principles for the home cook.
The cookbook was laid out nicely. I didn't care for the pictures thought. They felt very fake and very gross. Some of the foods in the book sound wonderful but there were a quite a few items that I can't find at my local grocery store and if I drive 1/2 hr to get to another one the items are very expensive. This book is for the health conscious not necessarily for the every day person.
If you’re looking for healthy, easy-to-make meals, you might like this book. UNLESS! Well, unless you hate eating the same thing 4 or 5 days in a row. I’m not a fan of meal prepping because most books/blogs tell you to prepare the same dish in a big quantity and then storing it in the fridge all week. And this book is not the exception.
But it also has great tips on how to save time while cooking, what to buy, how many calories are on each dish, etc. It even has a time table with a step-by-step page on how to cook 3 meals at the same time in about 1 hour. I though that was cool but I didn’t try it so I’m not sure how accurate it is.
So even if I'm not going to use it as intended, I liked the information and recipes provided. And I did try a couple of recipes! My favorite was the Garlic Chicken with Broccoli and Rice. I also liked the small section of the book on how to make some healthy sauces and dressings. I already went through all the recipes and would eat all of them (just not 5 days in a row). They don’t have weird or obscure ingredients and they’re simple to make. What I liked the most is that I can confidently make them in advance and store them in the fridge, since I know all the recipes were designed for that.
Stars of YouTube channel, Fit Couple Cooks, Stephanie Tornatore and Adam Bannon complied a fun cookbook to show people how easy it is to prepare healthy well portioned meals throughout their busy week. They have created a series of simple but enticing menus. Each week is then laid out with a "Prep day action plan" showing how to portion and prepare for the week ahead, the recipes with easy to follow steps, and a go-to shopping list to make everything as easy as possible. Although the meals are healthy they are not the run of the mill diet foods. This is a great book for anyone looking to make easy yummy healthy meals regardless of how busy they are.
This is a neat cookbook - lots of color photos, great use of colors to make the pages vibrant. The recipes were varied and I liked that the authors gave substitutions for things to switch it up even more.