Let's Plan + Prep
Don’t let a busy schedule derail your nutrition goals. Setting aside a little time each week for meal planning and prep can lower stress and free up time during your busiest days. Discover simple strategies to help you prepare multiple meal options and stay on track.
Important Education Takeaways
Consider your health goals. Meal planning is one of the best ways to help yourself stay on track with your nutritional needs.
When we are hungry, we tend to choose convenience, whether those options are healthy or not.
Meal planning and prepping ahead helps keep healthy meals and snacks readily available, making them quick and easy to enjoy.
Make a plan, a meal plan! Brainstorm potential meal and snack ideas to get you through the week by looking ahead at your work schedule, family calendar of activities, and any other obligations you may have.
Ask yourself and your family “what sounds good to eat this week?”
Get the whole family involved in planning.
Consider the season and even the weather.
Gather recipe inspiration from cookbooks, magazines, blogs, Pinterest, social media, etc.
Get creative and consider common ingredients for multiple recipes.
Take a weekly inventory of your fridge, freezer, and pantry.
Consider any items needing to be used before they spoil.
Be realistic with your time and energy levels.
Choose the fastest, easiest meals for busy weeknights.
Reserve the longer-cooking and more labor-intensive recipes for weekends.
Build your grocery list around your meal plan.
Schedule time for grocery shopping.
Stick to the list!
Plan ahead and don’t go with an empty stomach.
Prep ahead. Designate some time each weekend to give yourself a head start for the busy workweek ahead. Doing some of the washing, chopping, slicing, and even cooking ahead of time allows you to quickly assemble and serve tasty and healthy weeknight dinners.
Prep produce for several meals:
Fruits:
Wash and dry berries
Cut up melons, pineapple, mangos
Portion and freeze your favorite fruits for quick and easy smoothies
Veggies:
Wash and dry salad greens and fresh herbs
Chop onions, carrots, celery, bell peppers, mushrooms
Mince garlic or ginger
Roast veggies on a sheet pan
Steam broccoli, cauliflower, green beans
Cut up veggie sticks and salad toppings
Batch cook by cooking the amount you need of an ingredient for multiple recipes, rather than for one meal:
Whole grains
Oatmeal, brown rice, quinoa, farro, barley
Proteins
Slow-cook, pressure cook, air fry, grill, or roast meats, poultry, seafood, tofu
Soak and simmer beans or lentils
Bake or boil eggs
Assemble tuna salad, chicken salad, egg salad, bean salad
Soups
Make your own broth
Slow simmer soups, stews, chilis
Baked goods
Breads, muffins, granola, sweet treats
Pre-make sauces, marinades, and dressings ahead
Pesto, tomato sauce, hummus, peanut sauce, salad dressings, pickled onions
Cook, portion, store, and pack to-go. Prepare your favorite homecooked meals in larger batches to allow for easy leftovers.
Spend less time in the kitchen by cooking once but eating twice, or even three times!
Portion food leftovers into containers to create convenient and balanced next-day meals.
Utilize your freezer when you have more leftovers than you can reasonably consume before they go bad.
Pack homemade meals and snacks for work, school, family events, and travel.
Keep it simple and interesting. When done effectively, it should alleviate much of the stress around last-minute meal decisions, while providing tasty and nutritious foods that align with your health goals.
Start with keeping your meal plan simple by planning just 2-3 dinners per week. Gradually work your way up to planning breakfasts, lunches, and snacks.
Practice being flexible when plans change or recipes don’t work out as you’d hoped.
Prevent flavor fatigue:
Swap out ingredients
Use different herbs and spices
Combine meal components in new and exciting ways
Trying different cooking methods.
Try new recipes regularly, while also pulling from your tried-and-true favorites.
See below for some meal plan-friendly recipes and ideas.
Breakfast: Overnight oats, chia pudding, yogurt parfaits, egg cups/bake, breakfast burritos/sandwiches, smoothies
Lunch: Veggie salads, grains salads/bowls, sandwiches/wraps, soups, dinner leftovers
Dinners: Sheet pan fajitas, roasted chicken with root vegetables, tofu and veggie stir fry, Greek meatballs with quinoa and herb salad, grilled salmon with Asian-inspired slaw
Snacks: Trail mix, granola bars, protein-energy bites, cottage cheese + fruit cups, veggie sticks + hummus, hard boiled eggs
Recipes
Recipe of the month: Quick and Healthy Breakfast Burritos
As always, this recipe is the showcase of our live taught, virtual cooking class. Our chef and registered dietitian bring the recipe to life as they walk you through food prep, swaps to meet dietary or taste preferences, plus tips and tools to support you being your own healthy chef at home.
Bonus recipe: Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken
From Jamie’s kitchen to yours, our monthly bonus recipes are published on our website and social media the 4th Wednesday of each month. We invite you to browse our recipe collection and come back often to find more flavorful and heart-healthy recipes.
We invite you to join us for the live taught, virtual nutrition classes each month to gather more information on our nutrition topics. This is also an opportunity to ask topic-related questions of our experts as well as connect socially with attendees for idea sharing. As a registered participant for our In the Kitchen program, you receive a few reminders ahead of each scheduled monthly classes, but here’s an easy to remember schedule: Nutrition Education (30-minutes, 2nd Wednesday, 12pm), Cooking Class (up to 60-minutes, 3rd Monday, 12pm).
Contributing authors: Jamie Libera, RD, LD, CCTD, registered dietitian, Providence.