Creating a Simple Meal Plan for the Week

Creating a meal plan for the week is more than just making sure your fridge is full. If you get bored with food easily, then you literally need to create a menu for each day. For others who don’t bore so easily, you can have one or two options for each meal and alternate every day. After you have your menu, you need to meal prep your menu.

Overwhelmed, already?

Stick with me. I’ve got 5 tips to avoid spending the entire weekend in the kitchen. Trust me. In the beginning, I’d be slaving in the kitchen 4-5 hours every Sunday morning when it came time to prep it all. It wasn’t fun at all. So, let me see if I can’t help you shave off a few hours by getting your meal plan simplified.

1. Decide on a menu. For sanity’s sake, keep it simple. You don’t want to be stuck preparing items with dozens of ingredients. Select foods that are tasty with just simple seasonings or super simple to prepare, like hard boiled eggs (perfect for snacks).
2. Find recipes that are easy and versatile. Two examples are egg muffins and turkey muffins. The egg muffins (quiche in a muffin tin) consist of breakfast type ingredients (eggs, tomato, green onions, even cooked ground turkey or chopped up bacon). And the turkey muffins get herb seasoning, salt, and maybe some diced celery. Both get mixed (separately, of course) and a scoop goes into each cup of a muffin tin. Pop them in the oven and you have a breakfast or lunch that’s basically grab and go. I would put an egg muffin with some hot sauce in a container for breakfast and a turkey muffin in my lunch container with a cup of frozen veggies and off I go.
3. Include one ingredient foods that require very little preparation, if any. Hard-boiled eggs, raw almonds, carrot sticks, snap peas, ¼ – ½ of an avocado, etc. These are perfect for a snack.
4. Regardless of whether it’s a meal or a snack, plan for a protein and a healthy carb. Healthy fats should be included throughout the day. In other words, my breakfast might include a 2-egg (protein) quiche with mushrooms, tomatoes, and bell peppers (healthy carbs). My lunch would consist of 4 ounces of roasted chicken breast (protein) and a cup of frozen veggies (healthy carbs) drizzled in refined coconut oil (healthy fat) and sprinkled with sea salt. A snack would look like a hard-boiled egg (protein) and a small handful of raw almonds or a slice of avocado (healthy fat).
5. If you can afford it, use a meal prep company for at least one daily meal. Most have selections for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I have used several in the past and it’s a huge time saver. The companies that I have used, cater primarily to body builders, so they’re menus are usually pretty healthy. Meals come to your door vacuum sealed and frozen. I’ll list two at the end of this page.

Meal plans help to avoid having to go through a drive thru.

I’m assuming that like me, you don’t have a lot of extra time. Part of living a healthy lifestyle is leaving very little to chance. This is why we meal prep and prepare our entire week’s meals and snacks on one day. Finally, your meal plan can include as much as you’re willing to get out of the way on that one meal prep day. In contrast, if you do have time on your hands, by all means cook and prepare every day. However, a meal plan is essential to staying on track as it will leave less to chance in terms of making unhealthy choices.

Meal prep companies that I have used:

Icon Meals (still in business and pretty terrific)

MAW Nutrition (is no longer in business)

 

More food info to make your life easier:

What Are Proteins and What Do They Do?

What Are Carbohydrates – Good vs Bad?

6 Tips for Your Healthy Living Grocery Shopping List

What Are Fats and Why Do I Need Fat to Lose Weight?

Whole vs Processed Foods – What’s the Big Deal?

How Checking Nutrition Labels Helps You Lose Weight