Kaitie Purssell, from Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, regularly shares snaps of her incredible meal prepping sessions.
The thrifty 26-year-old mother can cook up a week’s worth of food for her family in less than one hour and has lost a staggering 21.6 kilograms since learning to cook healthy meals and snacks in bulk.
And now, the mother-of-two has managed to prepare 51 healthy meals and snacks for just $50 – each meal less than $1 per serve.
Kaitie Purssell, from Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, regularly shares snaps of her incredible meal prepping sessions
And now, the mother-of-two has managed to prepare 51 healthy meals and snacks for just $50 – each meal less than $1 per serve (pictured is the san choy bow and the weetbix balls)
‘Meal prep is my number one tip… always,’ Kaitie told the Healthy Mummy, where she finds her nutritious recipes.
‘If Sunday doesn’t work for you find a time that does! I often spend less than an hour in the kitchen preparing a whole week of food for my family. It’s doesn’t have to be hard or take all day!’
In her latest cook up, Kaitie prepared five servings of beef san choy bow, eight hazelnut and sultana chocolate snacks and 14 weetbix balls.
Pictured are the sultana chocolate snacks and the bliss balls – both healthy alternatives to regular snacks
Pictured are the four black pepper and capsicum dips with veggie sticks
She also made 20 bliss balls and four black pepper and capsicum dips with veggie sticks.
Each of the recipes were low in calories – the highest the san choy bow at 390 calories per serve.
‘It also helps to shift the tummy fat as well as keeping you nice and full when you are following a weight loss plan,’ she explained.
Kaitie portions and freezes some of the meals and snacks and will often pull them out last minute if she needs to throughout the month.
The thrifty mother-of-two has lost a staggering 21.6 kilograms since following regimes on the Healthy Mummy program and following simple yet healthy recipes
Kaitie previously cooked up an incredible 50 winter warming meals for just $125
‘Being prepared and getting organised doesn’t only save time and money it also makes your life so so much easier,’ she said.
‘This lifestyle was made for busy mums like myself.’
In May, Kaitie wowed mums across the country when she cooked up 50 winter warming meals for just $125.
‘After thinking about how I’m going to keep my belly warm this winter, I had a look through the the recipe hub and I was overwhelmed by all the winter friendly food,’ Kaitie told FEMAIL at the time.
‘I wrote my shopping list and headed off to the shops, I was even more surprised when my shopping came to just under $125.
‘I didn’t need some of the dried herbs and spices but I did buy a large majority of the ingredients for all the recipes.’
‘After thinking about how I’m going to keep my belly warm this winter, I had a look through the the recipe hub and I was overwhelmed by all the winter friendly food,’ she said
The organised mum prepared 12 weeks worth of dinners earlier this year
The whole lot cost her under $500
‘After a couple of hours in the kitchen I ended up with 50 very decent sized meals.’
Kaitie’s meals included five slow cooked ragus, nine serves of spaghetti bolognese and four servings of beef and sweet potato curry.
She also made six servings of chilli con carne, six chicken and corn soups, five chicken and chorizo enchiladas, five servings of spanish rice with chorizo, four serves of pumpkin and pine nut pasta and six chicken Pad Thais.
She urges everyone to try meal prepping and insists it makes things both easier and cheaper in the long run.
‘It’s so much cheaper to make most things from scratch, it doesn’t take much longer and you are cutting out a lot of sugar and other nasties by doing so,’ she said.
After six hours of cooking, Kaitie made over 90 meals and 148 serves of snacks
‘Preparation is key to success.
‘It doesn’t have to be this extravagant, start by making a few extra serves each night to pop in the freezer, perfect for those nights you don’t feel like cooking or you are thinking about takeaway.’
The organised mum also prepared 12 weeks worth of dinners earlier this year.
And this time, the whole lot cost her under $500.
‘I cleared my schedule, planned out what I was going to make, ordered my groceries online to be delivered early in the morning and got stuck into it,’ she said
After six hours of cooking, Kaitie made over 90 meals and 148 serves of snacks.
‘I made over 90 meals, individual sides to freeze such as brown rice, wholemeal pasta and Quinoa AND 148 serves of snacks. All for UNDER $500!!’ She told Healthy Mummy.
‘I cleared my schedule, planned out what I was going to make, ordered my groceries online to be delivered early in the morning and got stuck into it.’
The meals included slow cooked chicken, health muffins, lasagna, satay chicken, San Choy Bow, ricotta and sundried tomato chicken and zucchini brownies.
Taking the time to cook up healthy and nourishing food is something the Sydney resident credits to her weight loss success
She then shared her prepped meals with three of her friends to help them, too, save time in the kitchen.
Taking the time to cook up healthy and nourishing food is something the Sydney resident credits to her weight loss success.
‘I love healthy food, I know what is in almost everything I eat, I save money and, believe it or not, in most cases, time by cooking most things from scratch,’ she said.
‘For me, food has 90 per cent contributed to my weight loss. I love food, I always have but I’m very slowly starting to love me too.’