If there’s one thing I know about having a busy week, it’s that cooking a nice home-cooked meal is the last thing you want to do.
Even if you love cooking, there are some weeks when you know you’d rather eat cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day of the week than put energy into actually meal prepping for the upcoming days. Obviously, that wouldn’t be very nutritious and it’s not ideal if you have other mouths to feed.
In those moments, convenient meals that are still healthy are exactly what you need. And lucky for you, I pulled some together for you.
This week, we’ll be making five easy but diverse recipes to mix things up throughout the week. A nice rotation of recipes is a godsend when you have picky people in the house or like to have a variety of foods to choose from rather than have the same few things every day.
And trust me, we’re not doing boring steamed broccoli and chicken breasts around here. I have a delicious meal prep round-up for you, including:
These convenient and healthy recipes are perfect for a busy week. Not only are these comforting foods, but they’re also loaded with flavor and healthy ingredients.
With these five recipes, you’ll need a variety of whole foods and healthy ingredients, mainly beans and vegetables! You can find a consolidated list below for your convenience, but you can always reference each individual recipe for exact measurements.
Please note that the grocery list below for weekly meal prep does not include basic spices or kitchen staples, such as milk, eggs, salt, pepper, etc. If you need to get those for your home, stock up! All my individual recipes have a dedicated ingredient list with the spices listed out if you want to double-check that you have everything necessary for the week.
I like to go grocery shopping for my meal prep on Saturday so everything can be squared away and prepared on Sunday. However, do what works best for your schedule!
The great thing about meal prepping is that you can do as much or as little as you want.
If you really want to spend all of Sunday making each of these five meal prep recipes so you just have to heat them up throughout the week, you could absolutely do that! Making everything in one day is a great option for busier families or individuals who have time and energy on Sunday but none throughout the week.
However, if you want a bit of a more balanced approach, I like to prep ingredients for all of my weekly meals so that the “cooking” is a lot more simple throughout the week. I’ll outline how I do things for each recipe below, but meal prepping is super personal, so do what works for you!
This Creamy White Bean Enchilada Soup is one of the easiest and most delicious meal prep recipes on my website. I take a traditional Mexican enchilada soup and lighten it up by swapping kidney or black beans with white beans. With one simple change, you get a soup that’s still hearty and warm but doesn’t make you feel too stuffed when you’re done!
The best part is it only takes 15 minutes to prep the whole recipe and 15 to cook. You could spend some time simply chopping and mincing the onions, garlic, and jalapeños and mixing in the frozen corn, and keeping everything in the fridge. Then, all you have to do is add the veggie broth, milk, beans, and all the seasonings when you want to eat it during the week.
Your other option would be to go ahead and make your soup in about 30 minutes and then store it in the fridge. Unlike a salad, soups can be heated and reheated to your heat
Pav Bhaji is a popular Indian street food. It consists of a thick vegetable curry served with a buttery soft, slightly toasted bread roll. You may honestly want to have this every day of the week (and I wouldn’t blame you!) so don’t be shy with this recipe.
Pav bhaji itself is an extremely simple recipe; what’s most difficult is all the chopping you have to do! With so many nourishing vegetables in this dish, you’ll want to be sure not to skimp out on anything, but chopping everything will save you so much time during the week.
I recommend chopping all your veggies and putting them in smaller Ziploc bags. You can do the same for the spices in this dish as well as the others in this week’s meal prep list. Simply measure out your spices for each recipe and put them in designated, labeled baggies. Then, all you have to do is dump them in when you’re ready to cook!
If you want to make some of this on your meal prep day, you can choose to prepare the cauliflower, potatoes, etc., and mash them. This way, you can put them in the fridge and have the recipe halfway there for when you’re ready to eat this mouthwatering dish up.
Please note that pav bhaji has unique spices that not every household would have, so check the ingredients list for the recipe and your pantry to ensure you have everything you need.
The best part about this pav bhaji recipe is that if you happen to have leftovers throughout the week, you can spruce them up by turning them into Pav Bhaji Puffs.
This is perfect to mix things up and give you another option, but it’s also fantastic on the go. So, if you’re driving around a lot, in a lot of meetings and barely have time to eat, need to send family members out the door fast with food, or something else, pav bhaji puff pastries are where it’s at!
This is arguably the easiest recipe in this week’s meal prep list. My Garlic Teriyaki Noodles barely take 30 minutes and you can easily have every component of the dish made ahead of time and stored in separate containers.
I love this recipe because it’s as easy as those instant ramen packets, but so much healthier and it is truly homemade! That way, if it’s rainy or you’re having a particularly hard day, you can quickly pivot from one of the other recipes to make this super simple one.
While you’re meal-prepping your other recipes for the week, you can use your backburners to boil your noodles and then keep them in the fridge. You can do the same with the other elements of this recipe so you can quickly grab-and-go as needed throughout the week and still make something served hot without reheating!
This Veggie Chimichanga recipe is another super healthy and convenient meal prep dish. Not only is it packed with delicious vegetables, but it’s easy to prep, and still tastes out-of-this-world good.
I like to make my chimichanga filling along with cooking the beans one to three days ahead of serving. Doing this makes it so easy to not have to clean up the stove the same night you want to relax and eat and do nothing else! It’s also easy because you just need to assemble the chimichanga the day of, rather than tediously making everything.
Another time-saving hack for this meal prep recipe is to use beans from a can and/or use the air fryer. Beans are such a great staple and you can always doctor up canned beans in any way you want, so don’t be afraid to stock up on those to make your life easier.
This is another recipe you can pre-cut veggies for. Plus, too many vegetables is never a bad thing! If you make a little extra filling, you can use it in many different ways to keep things fun and exciting throughout the week.
Philly Cheesesteak, but better. This Chicken Cheesesteak recipe is delicious and filling! It’s a great addition to this week’s rotation because it is a twist on a classic and is so much easier to make too.
I like to prep this dish by slicing my mushrooms and onions and storing them in labeled Ziplocs in the fridge. I recommend doing this separately because mushrooms retain a lot of water, and can therefore change the texture of onions and/or cause other ingredients to spoil quickly.
Another hack for this cheesesteak is to put your chicken in a food processor or simply buy pre-ground chicken to avoid a mess during the week!
Meal prep recipes are so helpful if you’re busy or like to make your life easier in simple ways. It saves you time and money if you can plan correctly, which is why I’ll continue to share my roundups with you throughout the month!
That way, you’ll already have someone doing the work for you to select recipes that make sense together, and that will make grocery shopping way more efficient!
Of course, you can always pick your own recipes from my cookbook so you have one source of inspiration and healthy, convenient meals to make right at home! You can order your personalized cookbook today to get started.
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