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A planner or a planner app (or both) ($10-$50) – The first step toward perfecting your meal plan is perfecting your life plan. Planning your days helps you know what days to plan more elaborate meals and what days to keep it simple. Here are my favorite planners! Basic Paper Planner Google Calendar Todoist Evernote FREE CUSTOM PLANNER TEMPLATE A Chest Freezer ($300)– Meal Prepping is addicting and you’ll want plenty of space to keep things organized! Get one on facebook marketplace or craigslist to save money!Chest Freezer A Slow Cooker or Pressure Cooker (or both!) ($25-$100)– Slow cookers and pressure cookers make meal-prepping meat an absolute breeze! Use either to make a big batch of meat to keep in your freezer and add to dishes all week long. If you’re looking for something easy to meal prep, try my meal prep shredded chicken recipe here. Slow Cooker Stovetop Pressure Cooker Instant Pot Containers ($25-50)-I promise you’re going to need to up your tupperware collection when you start meal-prepping. You’ve got to have somewhere to put all of that meal prepped goodness. There are lots of containers designed just for meal prep, and while they are neat…you really don’t need anything fancy! Just a package of regular old tupperware and a few different sizes of ziploc bags will get you started just fine. I will link to my favorite containers below if you’re interested Restaurant Storage Containers Reusable Ziploc bags Chef’s Knife ($40-$150)-If you hate cooking, you’re probably using a terrible knife. A good knife makes cooking SOOOO much easier. If you do have a good knife, make sure you’re getting it sharpened frequently as this can also influence how much you enjoy being in the kitchen. If you’ve already got a good sharp chef’s knife, you may also consider getting a paring knife (my 2nd most used knife) Good Starter Chef’s Knife Paring Knife George Foreman Grill( $25-$50)-Affectionately called George at our house, this is the easiest way to meal prep grilled chicken for salads, pastas, wraps, you name it! Get the biggest one you can to meal prep more at once!George Foreman Grill Organizing Bins ($1-$20)-Organization in the kitchen is key, and organizing bins are perfect for keeping everything in it’s place. The container store or Target have some super cute options…but I usually opt for my local dollar store for the least expensive option!Organization Bins Food Processor ($25)-A Chef’s knife is great, but it’s no match for pureed foods like pestos and salsas. A food processor makes these dishes come together in a matter of seconds.My favorite Food Processor Kitchen Shears ($10)-Some jobs are just better with scissors, get a pair of kitchen shears and you’ll be shocked at how much you use them!Kitchen Shears Thermometer ($10-$40)-Food safety is important, and a thermometer insures you are cooking your meat to a safe temperature. I also love using one to avoid overcooking my meat until i