How To Meal Prep for the Week
*Thank you to Walmart+ for sponsoring today’s post and helping make my life so much easier!Â
Hi friends, how’s your week going? It’s really feeling like back to real life after the holidays and now that we’re well into January. This time of year, it’s common to reevaluate things in our life. We think about ways we can be happier and healthier, how we can live less stressed and with more intention. I’ve been pondering these things in my own life too. Some things I’m already doing really well with (after years of trial and error); other things could use improvement. Luckily I’ve found a way to use my Walmart+ membership to help make my routines a little easier.
If you’ve been here for awhile, you know that one of the ways I stay healthy and save time and energy is by prepping healthy meals each week. It doesn’t have to be a big, overwhelming thing. You simply pick a few meals to prepare, and cook them in bulk. Then, put them in individual grab and go containers that you can easily reheat when you’re ready to eat.
This is especially great if you go to work at an office, and want to save money by eating in at lunch.
Meal prep for me is pretty automatic, just like working out. It’s just part of my life, like brushing my teeth or getting ready for the day. If you want t omake this a habit in your own life, just start doing it. It gets easier with practice and, in the end, saves you so much time. I have more time-saving tips below too!
HOW TO MEAL PREP FOR THE WEEK
Meal prep makes life so much easier. You don’t have to wonder each day or each meal what you’re going to eat, and you don’t have to cook from scratch each time you need to eat. There’s also the added benefit of eating healthier since that’s what you already made! This saves you from heading to the drive-thru at the last minute because you already took the time to meal prep those healthy meals.
I’m going to share a few of my favorite meal prep recipes with you and they’re so easy to assemble!
But first, to make things even easier, I highly recommend using the Walmart+ membership to order your groceries online and have them delivered to your door.
With Walmart+, you can: (1) shop online and get Walmart+ FREE shipping, with no order minimum on items from Walmart.com (excludes oversized/freight & Marketplace items); (2) get items delivered from your store to your door for FREE ($35 minimum, restrictions apply); (3) shop inside the store with the mobile scan & go functionality in the Walmart app for a contact free checkout; and (4) get member prices on fuel.
You can sign up for Walmart+ HERE.
I’ve been ordering my groceries online and it keeps me from making those impulse purchases that tend to happen when you’re inside the store. How did those Dots pretzels jump into my online cart though??!!
If you do head to the store, you can take advantage of the mobile scan & go feature you can access with your Walmart+ membership. It’s a contact-free checkout process that saves you so much time!
You can shop in the store, open the Walmart app, go to the menu and select your Walmart+ account. You tap “mobile scan & go” to get started.
Then, as you’re shopping, you scan each item, and when you’re ready to pay, scan the code at self-checkout and pay with your phone.
CHICKEN FAJITA BOWL
INGREDIENTS
- 4 oz chicken
- 1/2 cup rice
- 1/4 cup refried beans
- cherry tomatoes
- sliced yellow bell pepper
- sliced white onion
- cilantro
- jalapeno
TO PREPARE
TACO BOWL
INGREDIENTS
- Lean ground beef, turkey or chicken
- Taco seasoning packet
- Black beans
- Bell peppers
- Onions
- Quinoa (optional)
TO PREPARE
Cook the meat over medium-high heat until cooked through. Add a seasoning packet at 2/3 cup water. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the liquid is absorbed.
Cook the quinoa according to package instructions.
Simply warm the beans in a skillet or you can skip this step since when you microwave to reheat, they will cook enough.
Slice the peppers and onions.
For me, a portion would be about 4 oz meat, 1/3 cup beans, 1/3 cup quinoa and a handful of peppers and onions.
GRILLED CHICKEN SALAD WITH CHICKPEAS
INGREDIENTS
- Chicken
- Chickpeas
- Romaine lettuce
- Cranberries
- Sliced almonds
- Carrots
- Feta
- Fat Free Raspberry Viniagrette Dressing
TO PREPARE
Season the chicken with salt and pepper and grill in a skillet over medium high heat, flipping once, until cooked through. Let rest for about 10 minutes before slicing into cubes.
The rest of the meal is just assembled into the container. If you’re taking this to work, I’d put the dressing in a small, separate container.
I add 1 tablespoon of the goat cheese, cranberries and sliced almonds. 2 tablespoons of dressing.
PROTEIN PASTA WITH CHICKEN AND BROCCOLI
INGREDIENTS
TO PREPARE
Season the chicken with salt and pepper and grill in a skillet over medium high heat, flipping once, until cooked through. Let rest for about 10 minutes before slicing into cubes.
Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Drain, then add a marinara sauce.
Steam the broccoli.
Portion size- 4 oz. chicken, 1 cup broccoli, 1/2 cup pasta
Do you meal prep at your house? If so, I’d love to hear what your go-to recipes are. Let me know in the comments! And, have you signed up for the Walmart+ membership yet? If not, I bet you’ll find it so useful! If you want to give it a try, you can sign up HERE.
Have a fantastic day friends!
*affiliate links used in collaboration with Walmart
Where are your pretty blue bowls from?
I have the same question!
Those are from At Home – they have great, inexpensive pieces and decor there!
I started back with meal prep last week when I went back to work. If I don’t bring my own food, I’ll eat what my students do & of course it’s not the healthiest food. I have been prepping soup ahead of time. I feel like soup is the easiest for me cuz I can put it in a thermos & it’s still pretty warm at lunchtime. I also like to take a sandwich if I get tired of soup. Obviously, that’s not something to make ahead of time but it’s another easy food at lunchtime since I won’t have to leave my classroom to warm it up. I teach preschool & we don’t get any breaks. We are with our class the entire day…9am-1:30pm. We eat snack & lunch in our classrooms, so I try not to take something that needs heated up. Thank you for all your awesome meal ideas!!!!!!
We appreciate our teachers so much! Thank you for what you do! Preschool teachers are a special type of human! 🙂
I’ve been trying to do better at meal prepping…a goal for 2021! Each week I do hard boiled eggs, fruit and veggies ready to eat, salad greens, and something I can warm for my lunches like a soup or chicken burgers to add on top of a salad. This week I made sundried tomato and spinach turkey burgers for my work lunches, so good! For dinners I try to have different taco fillings, casseroles, or crockpot meals ready for my family as they are hungry before I get home. It’s a work in progress…thank you for these meal ideas and tips!
The turkey burgers sound really good! And the crockpot meals are the best! Dump it and forget it!
Thank you for this reminder! I’m going to start doing this !
These recipes all look fantastic! I’m going to bookmark the post for later use.
This is great! Thank you for all your ideas.
Do you mind sharing what day of the week you prep and how long the meals are good for in the fridge? Do you have to freeze any of the meals?
What do you cook and/or prep for James?
Loved this post! Would love to see more food/meal ideas soon!
Thank you for these tips and recipes. I’ve been trying to meal prep so this helps.
How wonderful!!! All the meal prep meals look so fresh and bright and delicious!!!! I have my meal prep containers and ready to start! Thanks so much for sharing all of your recipes.
Hi, this is a good post and I like your recipes.
What I don´t like are your plastic containers. If you do meal prep a lot wouldn´t it be good to go with containers you could reuse? Would be also good for your budget and environement.
Thanks Nicole! I reuse these containers. Most of mine came from take out orders that I kept as opposed to throwing out or recycling. But, I do have and use glass containers for food storage too.
Have you ever tried CorSpice? The seasonings are awesome and they are healthy no preservatives. Great for meal prep.