8 Meal-Prep Recipes You Can Make in Less Than 2 Hours

Brierley Horton, M.S., RD is a dietitian nutritionist, content creator and strategist, and avid mental health advocate. She is co-host and co-creator of the Happy Eating podcast, which breaks down the connection between food and mental wellness.

We get it, meal prep can be a big lift. But it is totally worth the investment. Here’s why: when I carve out the time to meal plan, shop, and prep, it makes my busy weeks so much smoother and—very importantly—healthier. There are fewer drive-through dinners on the way home from a kid’s sporting event, fewer lunches grabbed from wherever is closest, and fewer decadent baked goods masquerading as breakfast that I pick up on my morning coffee run. Instead, I have protein, produce, fiber—all the good stuff that keeps my body humming through the weekly chaos.

So when we started talking at Cabot about a blog centered around meal prepping, we talked about how we not only wanted to make it as simple as possible to execute, but also that we wanted the recipes to draw from shared ingredients—like a 2-pound bag of Seriously Sharp shredded cheddar or a 2-pound container of Greek yogurt. No one likes a meal plan that leaves them with a bunch of half-used ingredients in the fridge. 

Once we narrowed down the recipes, we took it one step further and created a complete meal-prep game plan so you could actually pull it off in your own kitchen and successfully prepare all eight recipes.

And don't worry: The end goal here isn't to fill your refrigerator with eight containers of food that suddenly need to be eaten before Thursday. Some of these recipes are headed to the fridge, others are going straight to the freezer that you can pull out when you need them. Because, remember, meal prep is supposed to make your life easier.

Even better, while the total start-to-finish time is longer thanks to baking, cooling, and freezing, the actual hands-on work clocks in at about 1 hour and 45 minutes. That’s less time than many of us spend prepping a single holiday meal—and when this cooking marathon is over, you won’t have just one dinner to show for it. You’ll have eight recipes stashed in your fridge and freezer, ready to cover breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners for days to come.

So, here goes. We’re making eight recipes that share a handful of common ingredients, with Cabot cheddar and Greek yogurt doing much of the heavy lifting.

Using a 2-pounds bag of shredded Seriously Sharp Cheddar, you’ll make these recipes: 
Frozen Bean & Cheese Burritos → make now and freeze.
Sheet-Pan Frittata → make now for breakfast/snacks.
Twice-Baked Potatoes → make now and freeze.
Stovetop Mac and Cheese → save the ingredients for later in the week.
Apple Oatmeal Bars → make now for breakfast/snacks. Freeze some if you won’t eat the whole batch.

Using a quart-sized container of plain Greek yogurt, you’ll make these recipes: 
Apple Oatmeal Bars
Greek Yogurt Tzatziki → becomes two recipes with zero wasted tzatziki: The homemade recipe yields about 1½ cups, and your pasta salad and egg salad together call for that amount.
Tzatziki Pasta Salad → make now for lunches or a side at dinner.
Tzatziki Egg Salad → make now for lunches.

Your Meal-Prep Game Plan

Phase 1: Bake and Prep
Start by making the Apple Oatmeal Bars from start to finish. Most of the ingredients in this recipe don’t repeat in the other recipes, so you can put them away. Keep the cheese, butter, yogurt, and eggs out, though.

While the bars bake, tackle all of your chopping at once. Grate the cucumber for the tzatziki; chop the carrots and cucumber for the pasta salad; slice the green onions and dill; and prep the onion, roasted red peppers, and tomatoes for the frittata and burritos.

While the bars cool, increase the oven temperature and add the vegetables for the sheet-pan frittata and the potatoes for the twice-baked potatoes. The lower temperature is fine for the potatoes—they’ll just need about 10 to 15 minutes longer in the oven than the recipe calls for.

Phase 2: Get the Stovetop Going
While the potatoes bake, get your stovetop going. Cook the pasta and rice at the same time, setting a separate timer for each. When the rice is done, remove it from the heat and set aside. Drain the pasta and set it aside to cool.

Next, cook the eggs. Once they’re done, peel and chop them, then set aside for the egg salad.

Make one batch of Greek Yogurt Tzatziki. You’ll use 1 cup for the pasta salad and the remaining ½ cup for the egg salad, so there’s no leftover tzatziki to store.

Prepare the egg mixture for the sheet-pan frittata. When the vegetables are ready, assemble and bake the frittata.

Once the potatoes are tender enough to pierce easily with a fork, remove them from the oven and let them cool just enough to handle. Cut the potatoes in half and scoop out the insides according to the recipe instructions, then return the empty potato skins to the oven for their second bake.

While the potato skins bake, make the potato filling.

Phase 3: Assemble Refrigerator Meals
When the potato skins are ready and while the frittata cools, fill each skin with the prepared potato mixture. Since these are destined for the freezer, there’s no need to bake the filled potatoes again now. Let them cool completely, then transfer them to the freezer until individually frozen.

Once the frittata is cool, transfer it to the refrigerator either whole or cut into individual portions.

Make the bean and pepper mixture for the bean and cheese burritos (steps 2 and 3 of the recipe), then set it aside with the cooked rice.

Next, finish the pasta salad by combining the pasta, tzatziki, and remaining ingredients according to the recipe instructions. Transfer it to the refrigerator as one large batch or portion it into individual servings.

Repeat the process with the egg salad, using the remaining ½ cup of tzatziki, and transfer it to the refrigerator.

Phase 4: Stock the Freezer
Now it’s time to finish your freezer prep. Assemble the bean and cheese burritos according to the recipe instructions. Wrap each burrito, transfer them to a freezer storage bag, and freeze.

Once the twice-baked potatoes are individually frozen, wrap each one according to the recipe instructions, place them together in a freezer storage bag, and return them to the freezer.

If you’re freezing any of the apple oatmeal bars, wrap each bar individually and store them together in a freezer storage bag.Remember, there’s one meal we aren't making today: Set aside the cheddar you'll need for the Stovetop Mac and Cheese. It’s a recipe that is best made when you're ready to eat it and comes together in less than 30 minutes, even faster if you've already portioned the cheese.