I Tried 5 Days Of Meal Prep — & Here's How Much It Cost

The new year always seems to bring a newfound desire to get our lives in order and start "adulting" once and for all. A major goal of mine for 2018: start meal-prepping!

Almost nightly, I leave the office with a growling stomach but little energy to actually cook a meal. And lunchtime isn't any better: some days, I'm so absorbed in my day-to-day work that I forget to eat altogether, or a wind up scraping together a measly lunch of cereal, fruit snacks, or whatever else is in the office pantry.

When I discovered Alyssa Gagarin on Instagram, I was instantly inspired. She's a chef and cooking instructor with a colorful social media feed chock-full of meal prep ideas.

With her help, I spent $107.00 total and took three hours out of my Sunday to meal-prep for the entire week ahead. Five days and five meals per day (breakfast, lunch, a snack, dinner, and dessert), equaling $4.28 per meal. Not bad!

Click ahead to check out my 5-day challenge video — and to see the various recipes I made with Alyssa's pro meal-prep tips.