15 Big-Batch Instant Pot Recipes That Make Meal Prep So Much Easier

If you’re a busy working person who doesn’t want to spend major $$$ buying breakfast and lunch every single day, meal prep is a godsend. If you’re a very busy person who doesn’t want to spend major time on meal prep, you need to invest in an Instant Pot ($100 at Amazon).

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Basically a slow cooker, pressure cooker and rice cooker in one, the Instant Pot more than pulls its weight and earns its keep as part of your arsenal of kitchen tools. The slow-cook and rice-cook settings are useful, but it’s the pressure-cook setting that sets the Instant Pot apart, because it cooks things in a fraction of the time they’d take on the stove, in the oven or in a slow cooker.

You want pulled pork in less than an hour? The Instant Pot can do that. Quinoa in a minute? Yep, it can do that, too!

MORE: 21 Sunday Meal Prep Recipes That Will Get You Through the Week

All this is great news for anyone who appreciates meal prep but doesn’t want to spend every Sunday afternoon from now until eternity stuck in the kitchen for hours. Instead of roasting, steaming and sautéing food for the week ahead, you can make your Instant Pot do the bulk of the work.

The following big-batch recipes cover all your meal-prep basics—grains, greens, healthy proteins, grab-and-go breakfasts and a few one-and-done soups and stews. Pick one to make each week, or choose a few and piece your meals together as you go.