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Smart Meal Prep for Beginners: Recipes and Weekly Plans for Healthy, Ready-to-Go Meals

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Easy recipes and weekly meal plans for nourishing, ready-to-go food

Preparing meals ahead of time means you never have to ask what’s for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. In Smart Meal Prep for Beginners, prep expert Toby Amidor makes it easy to start (and stick with) a weekly meal prep routine. With these recipes and beginner plans, you’ll have delicious, healthy meals on hand every day—no takeout required!

6 weekly prep plans—Start simple with two recipes for the week, and work your way up to prepping breakfast, lunch, and dinner for every day. Meal prepping 101—Get the rundown on meal prep dos and don’ts, prep-day guidance, shopping lists, storage and reheating info, and more.Diet-friendly dishes—Find nutrition facts on every recipe, along with handy labels to point you to nut-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan options.

Set yourself up for mealtime success, not stress, with Smart Meal Prep for Beginners.

285 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2018

1312 people are currently reading
290 people want to read

About the author

Toby Amidor

18 books7 followers

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5 stars
67 (33%)
4 stars
46 (22%)
3 stars
58 (28%)
2 stars
23 (11%)
1 star
7 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
Profile Image for Lesley Looper.
2,238 reviews74 followers
October 13, 2018
I enjoyed going through this book, which I picked up through Kindle Unlimited. Many recipes looked good. I should learn how to prep meals for the week.
Profile Image for SOMDReigel.
1,125 reviews
July 31, 2018
Guides you step-by-step through the process of meal prepping
I absolutely love this cookbook. It provides an easy to understand system to prepping meals so regardless of your hectic schedule, you can enjoy home-cooked, healthy meals. This is a big plus for me, especially during sports season when games/practices run late and you need a fast meal on the table. I now have healthy options instead of the unhealthy drive-thru meal. Meal prep is defined as preparing and storing, in advance, several individual servings of one or more weekly meals. They are fully cooked and stored so that it’s ready to heat and eat when you’re ready for it. Written especially for beginners of meal prepping by providing plans in progressive stages, starting with three recipes for the first two plans to ease you in. By the last plan, you up to six recipes. Specific, step-by-step instructions and meal plans (with of course your ability to tweak as desired). You’re given a shopping list for the week, the equipment needed, step-by-step instructions, your weekly menu, and recipes. All recipes are doable with ingredients that are easy to find at your regular grocery store. Book is easy to read and follow. Good layout and size. Another keeper of a cookbook from Toby Amidor.
ARC provided by the publisher
Profile Image for Rachel DeVaughn.
1,090 reviews31 followers
August 11, 2019
The first several pages include what meal prep is, the benefits to meal prepping, dos and donts, meal prep in 5 steps, and food storage guidelines.

There are 6 sections for meal prep recipes and directions. Section 1 includes just 3 recipes that can be used over and over in the same week. The sections progress with more recipes so by section 6 there are 6 total recipes given.

I liked that idea!! Some people get overwhelmed with too may choices and recipes so being able to repeat and do the same couple recipes every week is great! Others need and want variety, which is why there are more recipes included. Tropical Overnight Oats is my favorite recipe!

Part 2 of the book includes bonus meal prep recipes like sauces, snacks, sides and more breakfast, lunch and dinner ideas. There are no pictures included and I like that the recipes are not complicated and are fairly easy to make with alot of variety.

I enjoyed using this book, along with her cookbook this author also wrote. I received a copy of this book complimentary for blog and social media review. All opinions are my own.
Profile Image for Melissa.
162 reviews2 followers
July 24, 2018
Smart Meal Prep for Beginners is a must have for anyone wanting to start meal planning. The cookbook covers the benefits of meal prep, go to ingredients, essential storage containers, and food storage guidelines. The recipes are easy to follow and include nutritional values and Toby's tips for every recipe. The book is broken into six meal plans and each one includes your shopping list, equipment needed, and step by step prep. I loved that the book slowly eases you into meal prep by starting off with breakfast and lunch and then moving on to include dinner and snacks. The recipes are tasty and can easily be used again and again. I highly recommend this cookbook. I received a complimentary review copy from the publisher.
Profile Image for Virginia.
1,219 reviews
May 7, 2020
3.5 stars

gained a star because of the recipes in part two! Most of the main meal plans and recipes just weren't interesting, appropriate or feasible. But then, in the "bonus" part, there were lots. I even found BBQ sauce I like and am not allergic to (b/c I can omit the things I can't eat and it still tastes good).
Profile Image for AnnieM.
1,706 reviews11 followers
April 25, 2020
It was good. Excellent layout and information. Lots of good exchanges or swaps for each recipe. It has good instructions on storage and prep. The amount easy recipes with minimal tweaking was pretty low. Good to borrow, but not to own.
Profile Image for Joan.
397 reviews28 followers
January 26, 2021
This book is filled with good recipes that sounds delicious and looks easy enough to follow. I really want to give some of these recipes a try. This book also has good tips about meal prepping and as promised her menus look very doable for a novice like me who want to get into meal prep.
Profile Image for Mary Beth.
14 reviews
January 25, 2019
Easy Recipes

Loved the recipes. Easy recipes and ingredients you might actually already have on hand. If you are a first time meal-prepper, this is the book for you.
Profile Image for Sheryl VerWey.
66 reviews
May 7, 2019
Really good, healthy menu plans. The preparation plans were very helpful.
Profile Image for Kristen Barenthaler.
Author 64 books11 followers
February 19, 2023
Lots of recipes, but not many that would be good for the whole family. More sophisticated palates will enjoy the range of recipes presented.
Profile Image for Karlene Gould.
170 reviews
March 23, 2024
Smart meal prep

Very helpful book to use as a tool. Enjoying the recipes and ideas for meal prep. Happy cooking and shopping
Profile Image for Rosetea.
6 reviews1 follower
April 8, 2024
Really good recipes!

I was not familiar with Toby Amidor until I got this as a Kindle Unlimited book. I want to check out all her books as I like her style a lot.
9 reviews
August 7, 2025
Too many salads. Too few recipes with carbs. Useful tips to how to begin, prepare and food validity
Profile Image for Tandra.
4 reviews1 follower
October 2, 2018
Good Information

This was a good read, very informative. This book also has great recipes for all of the family. Try it
Profile Image for Jenny Thompson.
1,492 reviews40 followers
July 26, 2019
I could have used a few more pictures, but I definitely appreciated that Amidor included the nutrition information for each recipe. I am very excited to try some of these!

Updated to add: This weekend, I tried one of the meal plan guides. I don't know whether it was because I am such a novice, or perhaps Amidor gets her veggies pre-sliced, but these recipes took substantially longer than indicated. I ended up only having time for 3/4. Also, the provided grocery list was missing an ingredient.
117 reviews
October 1, 2018
Not really interested in many recipes
in this book, which makes the nice organization of his tasks moot for me.
Profile Image for Yvonne Kimbler.
23 reviews3 followers
January 22, 2020
This has great ways to get yourself to do meal prep. I was having issues setting up meals. Not only do you get great recipes like; Deconstructed Chicken Burritos and Tropical Parfait. The author also gives you a list of items to buy each week. To help you get started she also gives you a weekly meal list. This is to help you get started and keep you on track. I did find this book very helpful. If you want to start meal prep this is the book to have.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews

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