Looking for easy meal prep ideas to get you through the week? The truth is, as a blogger, I get so caught up in work and creating awesome content for this blog from the time I wake up, that I sometimes completely forget to eat.
And to make matters worse I’m always too lazy to get my butt up, into the kitchen, prepare lunch, or cook something to eat. This is the story of my life, don’t judge.
I’ve found the solution for the lazy girl who would rather be in any room but the kitchen, to be quite simple. Having my meals prepped and ready to eat would make my life so much easier.
And if you’re going to take the time to pre-prepare meals for the entire week, you might as well make it healthy meals, right? Here are 27 delicious easy meal prep ideas for beginners and meal prep pros alike.
1. Spicy Chicken Meal Prep with Rice and Beans
Okay, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise that I find it really helpful to use an Instant Pot for this recipe and/or meal prep in general. Here’s why: you can go HANDS-FREE and actually clean out your fridge for the week or get your dishes done while the food cooks itself in a matter of minutes.
See the recipe on Pinch of Yum
2. Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas
When it comes to crowd pleasing dinners, can you really beat chicken fajitas? Sheet pan chicken fajitas with juicy strips of chicken, bell peppers and onions tossed in a delicious homemade fajita seasoning. Works great for meal prep or for a simple weeknight dinner.
See the recipe on Sweet Peas and Saffron
3. Italian Cous Cous Salad
It’s fresh and light tasting while still being filling and satisfying. The dressing is the perfect amount of tangy, it’s packed with spice/dried herbs and has a bit of sweet tied in as well.
Even if you aren’t into meal prepping you can still use this recipe for a day-to-day healthy lunch or dinner recipe. This recipe makes 4 generous (adult) dinner servings and perfectly fills up 6 meal prepping containers for 6 meals throughout the week.
4. Sesame Noodle Bowls
This is an incredibly easy meal prep idea, which as you know, is kind of the best way to do meal prep.
The sauce can shake up in a jar and the noodles can cook in 2 minutes (serious).
And just like that, you have sesame noodles.
And said sesame noodles are, in fact, the base of the sesame noodle bowls, so basically you’re done. Now it’s just up to you how extra you want to get with your bowl-ing.
5. Roasted Cauliflower Tacos with Chipotle Romesco
This is an easy meal prep idea, 30-minute recipe with smoky, roasted cauliflower and a spicy romesco-inspired sauce. It’s also plant-based, gluten-free, and oil-free optional and grain-free optional. I do a lot for you people! I must like you a lot (wink, wink).
6. Hawaiian BBQ Chicken Bowl
This recipe initially just began as a quick stir-fry to use up some leftover homemade bbq sauce I had in the fridge. But then it was so tasty — and so ridiculously simple to make — that I’ve been occasionally meal prepping this recipe for quick lunches during the week. Because as it turns out, when you’re a KC girl missing home, a simple bbq stir-fry has a way of hitting the spot every time. 😉
7. One Pan Baked Pasta Primavera
This no-boil pasta bake saves on time by baking noodles in milk instead of boiling. Pasta sauce and veggies are combined in a zip-top bag then dumped over pasta then baked until mozzarella is golden and bubbly.
8. Salmon and Asparagus in Garlic Lemon Butter Sauce
his easy garlic butter salmon meal prep with asparagus is a great way to guide yourself into a healthier lifestyle. Flaky salmon cooked in a garlic butter sauce and served with asparagus is an easy low carb dish that is ready in about 15 minutes, perfect for your weekly meal prep. If you’re new to meal prepping, please check out our meal-prep archives to see a whole bunch of our other delicious meal-prep recipe ideas.
9. African Stew Chicken Meal Prep
Note that, this is an African approach to meal prep so you will find meals that lean more toward the West African way of cooking. But you will also find “fusion” meals like pan-grilled fish (yum!!)
10. Chicken Mafe, Collard Greens, Brown Rice: African Meal Prep
11. Shrimp Fajita Bowls
These shrimp fajita bowls are packed with flavor and such an easy meal prep recipe. Flavorful shrimp, colorful bell peppers, black beans and cilantro-lime rice in a convenient grab and go box.
12. Instant Pot Moroccan Chicken Meal Prep
We love any opportunity to add global flavors to the MPOF repertoire, and we wanted to try our hand at making something inspired by this beautiful region. So, an easy meal prep recipe featuring these unique and delicious flavors? Yup, this instant pot Moroccan chicken is here to stay!
13. Jamaican Beef Stew
Baby, it’s cold outside! Cold weather is for comforting family dinners, fireplaces, and simple meals that fill your heart & belly. Heat up your household this season with a savory beef stew meal prep recipe. Our gluten-free Jamaican Beef Stew is the perfect way to do that!
14. Garlic Parmesan Kale Pasta Meal Prep
Woohoo! I’m excited about this one! This Garlic Parmesan Kale Pasta Meal Prep might be one of my most favorite meal preps so far. It is a little pricer than most, thanks to the chicken, but OMG it’s SO GOOD. It’s so easy, well rounded, and sooo delicious. BUT this one is definitely for garlic lovers. It had my fridge smelling of garlic for days.
15. Moroccan-Spiced Chickpea Bowls
These saucy, spiced chickpea bowls are all the proof you need that comfort food can also be healthy. Chickpeas are braised in a tomato sauce spiced with a medley of cumin, paprika, and cinnamon, and accented with harissa, a North African chile paste that’s both smoky and spicy.
16. Falafel Salad Bowl
Meatless lunches are a great way to include more vegetarian recipes into your life, and these falafel salad bowls are such an easy meal prep idea and is oh so tasty, you won’t be missing the meat at all!
17. Vegetarian Lo Mein
It’s my favorite lo mein recipe made a little bit skinnier, loaded with even more veggies. And the noodles are swapped out for whole wheat spaghetti.
18. Tomato Quinoa Salad
It’s time to add another tasty quinoa recipe to our meal prep game! This Tomato Quinoa Salad is fast, flavorful, and easily made in advance for speedy lunches and sides for work, school, or home!
19. Butter Chicken Meal Prep
If you’re looking for a way to switch up your meal-prep routine then this is a great way to do so. Butter chicken is my favorite Indian dish and also one of the only dishes we have on a monthly basis. I’ve simplified my favorite butter chicken recipe so that it’s quick and easy to make and packed full of flavor and spice. It’s great for meal-prepping and makes lunchtime 100x better.
20. One Pan Asian Turkey Meatballs
21. Korean Chicken Meal Prep Bowls
The key to making this Korean chicken recipe super quickly is to start making the sides when the chicken is marinating – that way you cut down on the overall cooking time. You can also make the sides ahead of time.
22. Thai Red Curry Meal Prep
You know you’ve found yourself a meal prep-able recipe when you start looking forward to having the leftovers for lunch. As someone who can never be satisfied with a boring sandwich, last night’s dinner is my usual lunch of choice.
23. Vegan Burrito Bowl
These make ahead lunch bowls basically define really tasty clean eating (like, the clean eating you actually crave). Because they’re jam packed with so much flavor. There’s the tempeh taco meat, the Chipotle-inspired herby cauliflower rice, the creamy cashew queso. There’s just so much going for it.
24. Butternut Bowl Meal
Today I’m showing you how to turn one of my personal favorite recipes on the blog into meal prep-able tastiness! The thing is, these Butternut Chickpea Wraps are like, really good. But they got lost in the abyss of the internet (and everyone gravitated towards these Roasted Chickpea Gyros instead) (which is understandable because those are also really good).
25. Mix & Match Meal Prep – 5 Recipes, 10 Healthy Meals
Instead of complete meals, I focused on individual items or “side items” that I could quickly prepare and then pair with other foods to create meals. This is what I call “mix and match” meal prep.
Here’s the premise: prep several side (smaller) items + pair foods together to create a meal + (optional) add sauces or other simple ingredients to complete the meal.
One of the biggest benefits of this, besides the variety, is that you may likely end up cutting down on your overall time in the kitchen.
