Read the full feature story in the January/February 2026 issue.
Stephanie Clark remembers once lamenting that she has no special talents. Her mother replied, “Of course you do. You are so organized!” Glamorous or not, being organized keeps her life running smoothly, and her talent takes a tasty turn in the kitchen.
On a Sunday afternoon, there’s a good chance you’ll find Stephanie and her daughter Allison at home, chopping vegetables and trading recipes. Stephanie began meal prepping once her children — now ages 31, 28, and 25 — were grown. Despite the empty nest, she and husband Alan, who serves as CEO of Owensboro, Kentucky-based CRS One-Source, still were busy. Acknowledging meal prepping’s ultimate convenience, Clark was attracted to having healthier food options at the ready. “Once you do it and see how much easier your life is and how much healthier you can eat when you have something you can grab, it makes an enormous difference,” Stephanie says. “It’s more about having things on hand so that when we’re going home and hungry from running errands, there’s something we can grab instead of stopping for food on the way home.”
Allison joined her mother a year ago after moving back to Evansville. Every few weeks, the pair swap recipe ideas from social media and cookbooks, devise a weekly meal plan, then spend Sunday afternoon cooking and preparing anything from egg bites and lasagnas — “we always make a double batch and freeze those,” Stephanie says — to cups of overnight oats or chia seeds. The result: They’re eating healthier, reducing food waste, and saving resources, money, and time — the latter, by their estimate, about three hours cooking per week.
“It brings a lot of peace and calmness to spend that time with my mother, plus clarity on what I’m going to be eating. I’ll think, ‘The pasta salad we made sounds delicious. I can’t wait to go home and eat that,’” Allison says. “It brings peace to everyday life where things could be chaotic.”
Their ritual underscores a key ingredient to meal prepping: One does not need to be a culinary expert or invest in intricate equipment to successfully plan their meals. Moreover, they are more present with each other because the chaos of cooking a meal each day is eliminated. “We bond and talk. We get to spend the day together,” Stephanie says.
Tips for Meal Prepping
Customize your plan:
Stephanie and Allison assess how many people they’re feeding and prioritize grab-and-go options for breakfast and lunch. They shop their refrigerator and pantry first and also use the ReciMe app: Upload a picture of a recipe to the app, which populates ideas into a miniature cookbook, grocery list, or even a meal plan.
Start simple:
“An egg bake is so easy,” says Stephanie, who incorporates items about to lose their freshness, like vegetables. “We dump everything in a 9×13 pan and bake it.” If meal prepping alone, stick to 1-2 things so cooking and cleaning don’t eat up too much time. Depending on the time of year, the Clarks break out the crockpot for soups — “set it and forget it!” Stephanie says.
Make only what you need:
At first, “We made too much of too many types of things. It’s a lot to do in one day, and we couldn’t eat it all before it went bad,” Allison says.
Join forces with a friend:
Meal prepping is more fun with company — and dishes and ingredients go further when shared. “Keeping each other accountable has been very good,” Allison says.
Update your recipes:
Stephanie has been on a high-protein kick, and recent meal-prepped dishes have included a hearty salad with beans and yummy sweet potato brownies.
Do it one bite at a time:
Meal prepping “can be overwhelming if you’re cluttered and don’t know where to start,” Stephanie says. “Start with a few things, and grow to what works for you and your family.”
