Step by step directions for "healthy" meal prep.

Nothing super innovative or exciting, but gets the job done, and helps if you are brand new to the concept

Healthy Meal Prep provides the overwhelmed novice home cook with lessons about the basics and benefits of meal prep. Each meal plan consists of 4 meals and includes a shopping list, action plan schedule, and step-by-step instructions. Tips for storage and reheating are also included as well as any final preparations to take it from prep to plated meal.
The meal plans include recipes that are healthier comfort foods, fake-away options, and some classics. Along the way Tornatore and Bannon share benefits to portion control and mindful ingredients -- without needing esoteric ones. They include a few basic suggestions for swaps (cauliflower for lower-carb; eggplant for meats); however, if you are vegetarian, you may prefer their Plant-Based Meal Prep (2019) instead.
This reviewer feels the layout is best geared to reading in print, your mileage may vary when viewing digitally. It is a book published in 2017 and portions may feel dated a mere five years later. Overall, Healthy Meal Prep is a good introduction for cooks unsure where to begin to learn about meal prep over just-in-time cooking.

Half of the recipes are not healthy if you know your daily allowed calories and they aren't in the range of 2,000 to 2,200 you will not lose any weight!

I briefly skimmed it, but from what I saw it wasn't really anything new as far as meal prep ideas. I wanted it to work for our family but a lot of the recipes I also didn't think were too kid friendly.

I read this as a way to try and food prep which has always been a struggle for me. Overall, I think that it is helpful, but I am not sure it gave me "the key" that I needed. It might be super helpful for some people, however.

This book is wonderful. It has come in super handy. The step-by-step directions were perfect. I highly recommend for all.

I would like to thank DK Alpha for providing me with a free ARC of this book, via Netgalley, in exchange for an open and honest review.

I loved the concept of ‘Healthy Meal Prep’ as I feel a good, routine meal prep is the best way to ensure a healthy, wholefood diet where your energy intake meets your energy output. This is something I am really trying to get back into the habit of right now as do find it the best way to maintain a happy, healthy body/ weight.

So, the actual meal planning information was great. The “how to’s” are very good for all skill sets from the beginner to the expert wanting to brush up on their eating. You can tell both authors are totally passionate about healthy meal prep. It really does shine through that they’re not just writing a book to make money; they have created ‘Healthy Meal Prep’ as a way to help others learn how easy and fun it can be to create well balanced, healthy, whole food meals in advance to save us all time and money. I loved their passion, dedication and plain speaking sharing.

However, the formatting, layout and actual meal contents were a letdown for me, sorry. I think, as a paper copy of the book, the size and level of graphics would work really well, but when trying to thumb through an electronic copy it just make the whole experience rather clunky and hard to read. Especially as sentences were cut off mid-way and not caught back up on until after a few pages of graphics. Basic rules of formatting is to not leave sentences hanging like that. It’s as bad as having the first sentence of a paragraph at the bottom of one page and the rest on the next page. So the formatting/ layout needs some work.

But, on a more personal note, the foods used in the meal plans were not ones suited to me and this isn’t the fault of the authors or publishers at all. I can’t eat a lot of things due to allergies and intolerances, including seafood, allium, brassicas and dairy – to name a few. And so the diets shown in these meal plans were not suited to the likes of me. This does not mean it is a terrible meal planning cook book, it isn’t! It is a great, simple and easy to follow (despite the formatting) meal prep book. It just means I was the wrong reader and, due to the foods being unappealing to me, I marked it down. I am such a stinker, I know.

So, the concept and information given was great… but how it was delivered, not so good. And I was also not the best audience for the types of foods listed. The foods are good, please let me emphasise this! I am wrong for the foods, but the foods are not wrong! Yeah, that makes it soooo much clearer, I know! ;-)

Would I recommend this book to others?

I might. I mean, I liked what it covered, felt ‘Healthy Meal Prep’ covered the topic well… but that layout. Hmmmmm, maybe as a paper book the layout would work better? Loved the authors, I strongly recommend people into healthy meal prep looking them up via social media and following them as they have so much to offer… But this book? Really doesn’t work in the electronic format.

Would I buy this book for myself?

Pretty sure we all know what I am going to say here, right? This book is not for me. I am not saying it is a bad book at all. Just that I found it uninspiring as the meals just aren’t things I can eat. Other people will, I’m sure, find it far more useful.

In summary: Loved the author’s passion. For people interested in getting their lives in order through healthy meal prep, there are some good ideas here.

I’m trying to find more healthy, but not too difficult, recipes to try out. I really wish I liked more types of foods because I think it would be easier – but I try to branch out here and there and it just doesn’t always work. I’d read about Healthy Meal Prep in a magazine and was instantly curious, so it was awesome to find a copy on Netgalley for review. I liked that there were a mix of recipes, but honestly, not a lot of them stood out to me. I did note down the ingredients/recipes for a couple that I think I’d like but I still need to try them out. I did, however, see a healthy version of Cincinnati chili and I thought that was awesome since I live right outside the city – and we do love our chili here. I think a physical copy would definitely be the way to go over an e-book version though as it was kind of difficult to search. All in all, this might be good to check out if you’re into meal prepping! It’s something I still need to do more research on – find recipes that will suit my tastes and my needs!

As a way-too-busy mom, my meal-prep aspirations often fall short of my available time. This book has delicious-looking photos, so it is food that I WANT to make, and is organized so that I can actually get it all done! Thanks!

Really good book on meal prep. Not only do they provide healthy meal recipes but explain the differences in container materials, the best way to heat them and what expires faster than the rest. I recommend this book throughly for any health or fitness person out there.

Perfect for busy families or working people. Easy-to-follow instructions and tips on healthy shopping, cooking, and eating. Quantities may need to be adjusted for smaller households.

As a person who is trying to eat healthier and feed a family of five better, I found this book helpful. There were lists included that I'm sure would help a single person or a couple--which, obviously could be easily altered for someone with a family, such as myself.

Language and photographs within the book were appropriate and everything was easy enough that a child could understand without trouble. I'd recommend this book to friends in my health-minded groups!

Thank you to Stephanie Tornatore, Adam Banno, DK, and Alpha for this free honest reviewer copy of "Healthy Meal Prep: Time-saving plans to prep and portion your weekly meals."

I love the concept behind and quick n' easy implementable nature of this book from the first moment you open the front cover. It's deeply helpful for those of us who spend a lot of time thinking, planning, and prepping the meals for a week before we go into it (full of drives, work schedules, extra events, everything you can think of).

The pictures are gorgeous, sparkling compliments to every page, never seeming in the way or lacking in the detailed example of what it is you could make or be doing. This is a great resource and I can't wait to buy a copy!

Clear, consise directions. So much inspiration! Delicious.

Quick & interesting meal prep recipes. I greatly enjoyed this book. I found the shopping lists & step by step instructions very helpful. As a busy workaholic, I sometimes find it hard to fit healthy lunches into my schedule. This book helped me establish healthier lunch time habits...no more peanut butter crackers from the vending machine!

This is a great cookbook. The book is separated into weeks of meal preps with recipes for all 3 meals. The best part is that for each week it tells you step by step on what to prep and how, which makes meal prep novices like me happy! Each recipe has the calorie macros listed and other suggestions for how to eat it (i.e. read cold, heat up, etc). This is a great cookbook for novices and seasoned meal prepper.

Quick and easy to use guide that divides the meals by weekly themes. Each week includes a shopping list and things you can do to prep ahead of time.

Our household just underwent a major shift in dietary choice availability, and this book is super helpful. Being able to prep out a week's worth of meals and not have to really worry about things on the fly is wonderful, particularly given that rarely are we hungry at the same time either. Instead of doubling up the weeks for two people, we're going to make two different weeks and swap off "days"...that way neither of us gets bored with what we're eating.

The tips were useful but I was not a fan of some of their recipes or meal suggestions. But the layout and photos were great. It sparked some ideas.

I absolutely love being able to open a cookbook and find healthy options that will be sustainable for my energy levels and what I am craving at the time!!! This book was perfect for when I needed something quick and on the go as well as just when I am at home! I would definitely recommend this book to everyone who would love to be a little ahead of the game in terms of food prep!