Last updated on December 4th, 2022 at 02:41 pm
I’m about to do something I said I will never, ever, do: share a meal prep meal plan. I know, I never expected it either, but today I will show you how to meal prep for the week, in a better way. In a way that you can eat healthy, but also something different every day, without spending most of your time in the kitchen. All the easy meal prep recipes you will find here are gluten-free and with few adjustments dairy-free. The meal plan includes healthy meal prep ideas for breakfast, lunch and dinner and it’s your choice how you put them together.
Whether you’re meal prepping for weight loss or because you’re busy and don’t want to think about food at all, I’m pretty sure you’ll find this healthy plan and the easy food prep tips and ideas super helpful and delicious.
Leftover Makeover
Few meals can make me eat the same thing over and over again. I always need to heat, spice up and reinvent. Years ago I came up with a great solution for this: Leftover Makeover. I even wrote an entire blog post about it. I was so excited about it. Might not be a many things, but I AM a genius. Just gimme that Nobel prize, right now.
So this meal prep meal plan is a kinda like that, but more sophisticated. More planned.
After some serious back and forth on meal prep, I am now wiser. Because now I know, that cooked food in the fridge is actually better than no cooked food in the fridge. You can either:
- eat it as it is
- leftover makeover it
- or give it to my neighbor’s cat
Before you judge me on the last one: that monster has been eating the few cucumbers we grow in the backyard like there’s no tomorrow. And not even until the end. She eats the cucumber halfway and then leaves a small part as if to say: “Here I left some for you, what are you complaining about? Sharing is caaaring”. Sometimes there are even chewed bits everywhere. I told you, a monster. She also loves to use our backyard as a giant toilet and will love the leftovers too. End of story.
Good Reasons To Meal Prep For The Week
So, I started making some food ahead for the week because otherwise, I eat what is easiest at the moment. And somehow it’s never a smoothie. I’ve been eating more fried food than ever and it just doesn’t make me feel good. With some food already cooked in the fridge, life is easier.
In about 5 minutes, I can make a GREAT salad, I can make a smoothie, I can eat a healthy power bowl, heat up some soup or whenever I need something sweet – I can just enjoy a no-bake cookie. Life is a lot better. Some meal prep can:
- save you money
- save you time
- keep the stress away
- help you to make better choices more often than not
I usually make a little bit of everything – breakfasts, snacks and ingredients for lunch/dinner. It’s enough for 3-4 days to have during the workweek.
Friday through Sunday, I usually cook something or eat out (although it’s really not my favorite). This way, if I have a lot of work during the week and forget to eat and end up super hungry, I will still have healthy food ready and waiting for me. That’s the dream!
Meal Prep Meal Plan For The Week
Here’s a meal plan for the workweek I recently made. With some ingredient prep, all the meals were ready in 5-10 minutes, versatile, and all just delicious.
1st Day:
- Breakfast: Apple Breakfast Cake
- Lunch: Anti-Inflammatory Chicken Soup
- Dinner: Roasted Vegetable Chickpea Bowls
2nd Day:
- Breakfast: Granola with berries and your favorite milk
- Lunch: Vegetarian Hummus Wraps (here use hummus and cashew or tahini sauce for a dairy-free version)
- Dinner: Anti-Inflammatory Chicken Soup
3rd Day:
- Breakfast: Granola with berries and your favorite milk
- Lunch: Anti-Inflammatory Chicken Soup
- Dinner: Mediterranean Salmon Wraps (bake the salmon that day)
4th Day:
- Breakfast: Apple Breakfast Cake
- Lunch: Salmon Lettuce Wraps – with salmon, tahini sauce, vegetables and zucchini (no asparagus)
- Dinner: Anti-Inflammatory Chicken Soup
5th Day:
- Breakfast: Apple Breakfast Cake
- Lunch: Mediterranean Salmon Salad (no pepper, with zucchini)
- Dinner: Vegetarian Hummus Wraps (here use hummus and tahini sauce for a dairy-free version)
Ingredients To Meal Prep For The Week
To get everything we need from food and stay healthy, we need variety. What one food lacks, another one has enough of. So, we’re going to prepare a variety of foods! Here’s what to make ahead for this meal prep menu (it’s for one):
- A Soup. Choose between this anti-inflammatory chicken soup, this lentil soup or this chickpea soup.
- Protein. Choose between cooked shredded chicken or baked salmon. For the plan below, you will need around 14oz/400g. Some great recipes you can try are the Mediterranean Salmon Bowls, these Gyros Chicken Bowls and Mediterranean Salmon Wraps. For that week, I went for salmon, as we already had the chicken soup.
- Spiced chickpeas. You can use them in bowls, salads and in wraps.
- Roasted vegetables. You can roast peppers, zucchini, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus or Brussels sprouts. I recommend cutting up the vegetables (mine were zucchini, cauliflower and bell pepper) and pan-roasting them with olive oil and one clove of garlic. Cover with a lid for 3-4 minutes to speed up the cooking, then uncover and cook for another 3-4 minutes or until nicely browned.
- Hummus
- Sauce/Dressing. Choose between: cashew sauce, tzatziki, this spicy cashew sauce or make garlicky tahini sauce: Mix 4 tbsp tahini, 2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice, 2 miced cloves of garlic and 2-3 tbsp water (add gradually).
- Wash & chop vegetables and fruit. Whatever is in season. Aim for green, purple, red or orange foods. Wash and let air dry (important!). Chop (not for juicy plants like tomatoes) and store in the fridge. Examples: berries, spinach, arugula, lettuce, cabbage, cucumbers, radishes, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, carrots and fresh herbs like basil or parsley.
- Tea/breakfast cake or breakfast cookies. Choose between no-bake breakfast cookies, these oatmeal cookies or the apple oatmeal cake (made it dairy-free by leaving out the yogurt and adding a splash of ACV).
- Granola – make a batch, let cool off and leave in an airtight container.
- Olives, pistachios or other nuts – for a quick and easy snack!
- And some gluten-free tortillas!
Optional Ingredients To Make Ahead
If you would like, here are some more foods you can prepare for the week:
- Cut up frozen fruit for smoothies. Wash, air dry and chop wherever it makes sense. You can freeze blueberries, plums, strawberries, apricots, raspberries. I also peel, chop and freeze bananas, peaches, mangoes, kiwis or pineapple. Great for smoothies!
- Whole grains or cauliflower rice. I have been avoiding most grains lately, but in the past I always loved having some cooked quinoa in the fridge. It’s great for salads, to make this quinoa tomato basil risotto and for quinoa fried rice. Now, sometimes, I actually prepare cauliflower rice from scratch to either make cauliflower fried rice or this spicy turkey cauliflower rice.
- Overnight oats (can do instead of granola)
Once you’ve prepared it all, transfer ingredients into airtight containers and store in the fridge. The granola will stay good outside for quite a few days.
Meal Prep Recipes
Breakfast
I usually have a small breakfast, since my appetite in the morning is pretty small. It’s usually something on the sweeter side like:
- Apple Breakfast Cake. And I made the recipe without the yogurt, to keep it dairy-free. Added a tbsp of apple cider vinegar and an extra tbsp of coconut oil and it worked really well. This is a great breakfast or snack cake.
- Granola. Make a batch and serve this homemade granola with seasonal fruit and some dairy-free milk.
- Overnight oats. This is a great base recipe that you can use with your favorite toppings like fruit and nut butter. Either just mix the dried ingredients or make 3 jars, since they don’t keep well in the fridge for longer than 3 days.
For a savory meal prep breakfast you can either hard-boil some eggs, the chickpea filling from these breakfast toasts or make this crustless tuna quiche.
Lunch And Dinner
With some tweaks here and there, you can make a variety of dishes using the meal prep ingredients mentioned. Here are some great options for lunch and dinner:
- Spicy Mediterranean Lunch Bowls (using chickpeas, hummus and vegetables)
- Roasted Vegetable Chickpea Bowls (using the chickpeas, cashew or tahini sauce and roasted and fresh vegetables).
- Avocado Chicken Salad (make with cooked chicken or sub for salmon, add fresh and roasted vegetables, olives)
- Chicken Gyros Bowls (make with cooked chicken or sub for salmon/ chickpeas, add vegetables)
- Vegetarian Hummus Wraps (using tortillas, chickpeas, hummus, cashew or tahini sauce and roasted and fresh vegetables)
- Homemade Anti-Inflammatory Chicken Soup
- Best Mediterranean Chickpea Salad (use the chickpeas and vegetables)
- Mediterranean Salmon Salad (can also make it with the chicken)
- Mediterranean Salmon Wraps (salmon + sauces + vegetables)
- Mediterranean Chicken Wraps (chicken + vegetables + hummus + sauces)
Not Enough Food, Or Too Much?
Please customize the meal plan to your own needs. I didn’t live the most active lifestyle that week (it was raining a lot), so I didn’t need too much food. I’ve also started eating smaller portions because I gained some weight during the p*****ic and added a smoothie here and there. (yes, p******ic, is for picnic haha)
Make sure to adjust the plan to your own needs, your goals and to eat as much as you need – add a snack here and there, and go for seconds if you need to.
How To Meal Plan
Start by making a plan for the week. Before you start thinking about what to eat, you need to know what’s on the agenda. What are you doing Mo-Fri?
Then, depending on how much time you will have – pick some meals that you enjoy and would like to have during the week.
Write down a menu for each day of the week and you’re ready!
Grocery List
I made a grocery list for the work week meal plan and you can download it here.
What Meal Prep Containers To Use?
Honestly, use whatever type of containers you have. I love to recycle glass jars of all shapes and sizes, so I use those for most things. They’re great for sauces, chickpeas, oats, soups, salad jars, chia pudding…most things.
I also recently got some stainless steel containers from IKEA and I use those for vegetables, breakfast cake, fish or chicken.
Don’t overcomplicate this, it doesn’t need to look incredible, just use what you have.
Make Your Recipe Binder
If you’d like to get organized and need more healthy recipes, meal prep tips and printables to make your own recipe binder, make sure to check out my clean eating binder here. You can get 20% off your purchase by using the code NTB20 at checkout.
Other Healthy Meal Plans
I hope you enjoy this meal prep meal plan and the recipes during your workweek!
Make sure to check out these meal plans as well:
Meal Prep Meal Plan
Meal prep meal plan for the work week, including a grocery list and healthy meal prep recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner..
Ingredients
Recipes To Prepare:
Roasted vegetables
- 1 zucchini, in circles
- 2 peppers, in bite-sized pieces
Vegetables and Fruit To Wash And Dry
- blueberries
- cherry tomatoes
- basil
- lettuce/salad greens (spinach, arugula), chopped
- cabbage (optional), chopped
- peppers, chopped
- scallions or onions, chopped
- cucumber, chopped
Salmon
- 14oz/400g salmon fillet
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- pinch of salt
Additionally
- olives
- tortillas
- pistachios
Instructions
- For Salmon: Cut fillets in smaller pieces, mix gently with salt, lemon juice and olive oil and bake at 180C/350F for 10-15 minutes, flipping once.
- For The Roasted Vegetables: Cut the vegetables you chose into bite-sized pieces, spread in a single layer in a nonstick pan and pan roast with olive oil and one garlic clove. Cover with a lid for 3-4 minutes to speed up the cooking, then uncover and cook for another 3-4 minutes or until nicely browned. Repeat until you run out of cut up vegetables.
- Store everything in airtight containers in the fridge and assemble according to the recipes mentioned in the meal plan.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
2Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 437Total Fat: 18gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 40mgSodium: 277mgCarbohydrates: 52gFiber: 11gSugar: 10gProtein: 22g
