Prepped Not Processed: a smarter way to cook for the week

Most weeks don’t unravel because we don’t enjoy cooking, they unravel because, by midweek, dinner feels like one decision too many. Prepped Not Processed was created to take that pressure off and make meal prep something you can genuinely look forward to.

Curated and designed by Melissa Hemsley, these menus are built around a simple but powerful idea: scratch-cook once at the start of the week, then let those ingredients carry you through five different dinners. Not repeats, not reheats, but thoughtfully planned, well-seasoned components that evolve as the week goes on. A traybake becomes tomorrow’s frittata. Cooked rice turns into a fast, vibrant fried rice. A big pot of chilli comes back later, confidently reinvented into cheesy quesadillas. On top of this, Melissa's recipes use whole foods and minimally processed ingredients.

This is batch cooking with confidence and with real food firmly at the centre. Everything works together, which means less food waste, a shorter ingredients list and far less need to lean on ultra-processed convenience foods. Instead of packets, powders and shortcuts, you’re cooking with ingredients you recognise and use well. You’ll spend around 90 minutes cooking with purpose, then the rest of the week is mostly assembly.

Across the five days you’ll clock up more than 30 plant points, alongside plenty of fibre, protein and gut-loving diversity.

You can feel quietly smug knowing your midweek dinners are already half-done. It frees up your evenings while still delivering food you’re genuinely excited to eat. That’s the heart of Prepped Not Processed on the Good Food App: batch cooking but far better.

How to follow the plan

Melissa's plan is designed to serve two people over a working week – cook once, get five meals.

Use your 90-minute cooking session to make the following base meals:

• Trout, potato & olive traybake with parsley & lemon green sauce
• Bean & beef chilli with jalapeño, coriander & pumpkin seed relish
• Prep-ahead Spanish tortilla

Then make the most of your power 'hour' by serving the recipes throughout the week:

Day one: Trout, potato & olive traybake (1/2 portion)

Day two: Bean & beef chilli with rice (1/2 portion)

Day three: Spanish tortilla

Day four: Rainbow fried rice (made with 1/2 portion of trout traybake)

Day five: Chilli quesadillas (made with 1/2 portion of bean & beef chilli)