How Meal Prep Delivery Can Save You 10+ Hours Every Week From Cooking
Most people think cooking simply means making food.
In reality, preparing meals involves much more than that. From meal planning and grocery shopping to ingredient prep, cooking, and cleaning, the entire process can take up a surprising amount of time each week. For many households, making meals from scratch can easily add up to more than 10 hours every week. This is one reason why meal prep delivery services have become increasingly popular, helping people save time while still enjoying balanced, ready-to-eat meals.
How Can Meal Prep Delivery Save 10+ Hours Every Week?
Meal prep delivery services save time by removing several of the most time-consuming steps involved in preparing meals at home.
These services simplify the cooking process by eliminating:
- Meal planning
- Grocery shopping
- Ingredient preparation
- Cooking from scratch
- Kitchen cleanup
By removing these steps, many people can save 8–12 hours every week, making it easier to enjoy balanced meals without spending hours in the kitchen.
How Meal Planning Can Take 1–2 Hours Every Week
Before you even start cooking, there’s the question everyone asks themselves: What should I eat this week?
Most people end up scrolling through recipes, trying to figure out what meals they want to make, checking what ingredients they already have at home, and then building a grocery list. It doesn’t seem like a big task at first, but it can easily take an hour or two every week.
When meals are already planned out ahead of time, that whole process becomes much simpler. Instead of researching recipes and organizing ingredients, what if you could just choose what you want from a weekly menu?
Estimated time saved: 1–2 hours per week
How Grocery Shopping Adds Several Hours
A grocery run rarely takes “just a few minutes.” Even if you know exactly what you need, there’s still the drive to the store, navigating crowded aisles, searching for ingredients, and waiting in checkout lines.
Studies suggest the average grocery trip takes around 40–46 minutes, and that’s not even counting travel time. And let’s be honest, most people end up going more than once a week when they forget something.
When meals are already prepared or delivered, this step becomes much smaller. Instead of spending time at the store, your meals are ready and waiting in your fridge.
Estimated time saved: 2–3 hours per week
Cooking From Scratch Takes More Time Than You Expect
Cooking can be enjoyable, but it definitely isn’t quick. Before the cooking even starts, there’s usually a lot of prep work involved. Vegetables need to be washed and chopped, ingredients measured, and different parts of the meal often cook at different times.
For many households, dinner alone can take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes each day.
Meals that are already prepared remove a lot of that work. Instead of starting from scratch, you can heat a meal and have dinner ready in just a few minutes.
Estimated time saved: 3–4 hours per week
Don’t Forget the Kitchen Cleanup After Cooking
After the meal is finished, the kitchen often looks like a disaster zone. Pots, pans, cutting boards, knives, mixing bowls, everything needs to be washed and put away.
Cleaning up after cooking can sometimes feel like it takes almost as long as making the meal itself.
When fewer cooking tools are used, cleanup becomes much faster. With less prep and fewer dishes involved, the kitchen stays cleaner, and the entire process becomes simpler.
Estimated time saved: 1–2 hours per week
How It All Adds Up
When you combine the time spent planning meals, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, and deciding what to eat, the total can easily reach 8–12 hours every week.
That’s more than an entire workday spent just on making meals.
By simplifying a few parts of the process, it’s possible to reclaim a surprising amount of time.
Making Meals Simpler
More people are starting to rethink how they handle meals during the week. Instead of doing every step themselves, they’re looking for ways to simplify the process.
Prepared meal services have become one-popular option because they remove several of the most time-consuming steps while still providing balanced meals. Many meal prep delivery services provide fully prepared meals that only need to be reheated, helping busy professionals and families save valuable time during the week. Services like Mi BOWL focus on chef-prepared dishes that are ready in minutes, making it easier to eat well without spending hours cooking.
Final Thoughts
Eating well doesn’t have to mean spending hours every week planning, cooking, and cleaning.
By simplifying how meals are prepared, it’s possible to save more than 10 hours every week from making meals. That extra time can go toward work, hobbies, spending time with friends and family, exercising, or simply relaxing after a long day.
For many people, finding a simpler approach to meals is one of the easiest ways to create more space in their schedule while still enjoying good food.