Everything I meal prep for a week of healthy eating!

Last week we talked about my new weekly work-at-home routine, and I mentioned that I meal prep on Mondays. Today, I’m sharing everything I meal prep each week, in hopes that it gives you some ideas for your own weekly meal prep!

A note: My husband and I are currently eating keto-ish. It is not completely keto, as I can’t have dairy, but basically we are doing no bread, no sugar. So meal prepping for Jon and myself is a little more strict. The kids are light on dairy, but are find with bread and sugar. (lucky them!)

WHY meal prep once a week?

Prepping all our food on Mondays does take a few hours, but then it completely frees up my time for the rest of the week. Breakfasts and lunches are done (which helps me stay on my nutrition plan!), and dinner is ready to be cooked. This is huge for me right now, because with the kids in school, I just don’t get that much time with them anymore. Prepping our food ahead of time lets me spend more time with them in the evenings, instead of spending an hour cooking dinner every night.

WHAT I’m prepping each week:

Breakfasts:

• Breakfast Sandwiches // I get two packs of English muffins from Trader Joe’s (they have the least and best ingredients!), and make breakfast sandwiches to freeze for the kids. This is my sneaky way of getting protein in them each morning. For one kid, I do a thin slice of cheese and chicken sausage patties (also from TJ’s), and for the other, I do egg + bacon. I wrap them, put them in a ziplock bag, and keep them in the freezer!
• Chopped Veggies // I like to make egg scrambles for myself each morning, so I’ll chop a bunch of veggies to throw in + saute. I typically dice bell peppers and onions, but sometimes I throw in whatever leftover veggies need to be used up, too!
• Breakfast Meat // This goes in my scramble too – I either cook up some breakfast chicken sausage, or some grass fed bacon to crumble and throw in.

Lunches:

• Kids // The kids actually pack their lunches for school over the weekend, and we store them in the outside fridge. Sometimes they make snacky lunches, sometimes sandwiches, sometimes taco bowls. They are responsible for these!
• Taco Bowls // I like hot lunches, so I will often try to prep a bowl of some kind. This week, I prepped taco bowls – baked chicken with my favorite taco seasoning over a mix of cauliflower rice. (I get the spicy cauliflower rice and the plain cauliflower rice and mix them together. It’s so flavorful and the perfect amount of spice for me!)
• Salads // Sometimes I’ll get on a salad kick, and buy a few bagged salad mixes, and prep some grilled chicken to throw on top. A bagged salad lasts me for two lunches, and I heat the chicken up before I throw it on top!

Dinners:

This totally depends on what we’re having for the week, but often I stick to a pretty regular Theme Day meal plan. So here’s what my default prep is:

• Baked Chicken // I get 2 packs of chicken thighs, put them in a 9×13 casserole dish, drizzle with olive oil and throw my spices on the top. Then I put the lid on the casserole dish and put it in the fridge till I’m ready to cook it.
• Tacos // If I’m doing ground beef, I’ll cook this up and season it, and then stick it in the fridge to reheat on Taco Night. Ground beef reheats really well, and you really can’t tell the difference between fresh and reheated! If I’m making chicken tacos, I’ll put frozen chicken in a bag with green salsa and a can of Rotel tomatoes poured over the top – ready to dump in a crockpot!
• Sides // I’ll make bread for the kids, or just make sure our sides are in one central spot in the fridge/freezer.

Snacks:

I have learned that fruits and veggies will not get eaten unless they are washed and prepped right away! No more rotting in the fridge, prepping healthy snacks really helps us eat them! Here are a few things I choose from to wash + cut up most weeks:

• Berries
• Carrots
• Celery
• Cucumbers
• Grapes

Favorite Prepping Tools:

I do have a few tools that make prepping go SO MUCH FASTER!! Here are my favorites:

• The MAGIC Chopper // This is hands-down my most-used kitchen appliance. Which is wild to me because I have only had it for a couple of years. But this chopper truly makes all the meal prep go faster – I use it for the bell peppers and onions especially. Also – avocados to top those omelettes, and all kinds of veggies if I’m making a chopped salad. I really love this thing!
• Bag Stands // When I’m prepping things for the freezer, these are a huge help when transferring items into ziplock bags. I use these for things like marinated meat, cooked meat, diced veggies for a one-sheet meal, etc.
• Kids Lunch Containers // We love these three-container boxes. They are so much cheaper than the fancy ones, and they hold up really well. I bought just one pack and they have lasted us the whole year so far.
• Taco Bowl Containers // I like these glass containers with lids for my own taco bowls, because I heat them up in the microwave without taking them out of the container. (One less thing to wash, right?!) They work great and are super stackable.
• Casserole Dish with Lid // This makes prepping dinner so easy, because I can throw everything into the casserole dish and store it in the fridge for a few days if needed. When I’m ready to cook dinner, I just take it out and put it in the oven (not preheated, or the glass can crack!), and it cooks away. It feels a little like buying a pre-made meal, except way better ingredients cause you did it yourself! The lid is what makes this possible for me.

I hope this has been helpful! I’d love to hear what YOU meal prep each week! Share with us in the comments below! ⬇️

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