Welcome to your weekly meal plan!
A weekly meal plan can either make or break your week. And creating one is always a good idea. Even if it’s just a little planning ahead, you’d be surprised at how much meal planning saves you in time and money if you’ve yet to try it.
It can be easy to try and wing it during the week and whip up whatever comes to mind that night. The problem with that is more often than not you’ll find yourself resorting to greasy foods and unhealthy takeout.
Why?
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Two reasons: It’s easier and you are dead tired after a long day’s work.
BUT, if you simply take a few hours on say, your Sunday night for example, you can do a few things to make sure you are constantly eating healthier and home cooked meals that are better for you than the chow mein joint down the street.
If you want to save real time, you can even meal prep these recipes and stick them in the fridge for when you’re ready to eat each day.
Once you create them, stick them in an aluminum pan with some plastic wrap and you’re ready to take on the whole week hassle free. Can you imagine how stress free that could be for you? Well, the first step is to try and see how your personal meal planning works best.
Related: 35+ Easy And Cheap Meal Ideas You Need To Try
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Here is a complete weekly meal plan you can use to motivate you to get started and take charge of your eating plan for the week.
Monday: Cheesy Enchilada Stacks
Breakfast: Overnight oats and a fruit bowl
Lunch: Chicken salad sandwich
Dinner: If you want something cheesy for a Monday, then these cheesy Enchilada stacks are a great way to start off the week.
Their prep time isn’t too long and you’re sure to have no leftovers! These cheesy enchilada stacks don’t require too many ingredients. And once you pop them in the oven, their melty goodness will be ready to go.
That might mean you dice all the fruits and veggies right after your grocery run. Or you can even set aside a time on Sunday to do some meal prepping for the rest of the week.
Check out the recipe here for the full tutorial on how to put these easy enchiladas together.
Meal Prep Tip 1: The key to making dinners that are tasty, healthy, and don’t take too long to make is prepping as many of the ingredients ahead of time as possible. This might mean dicing all your veggies, fruits, and meats!
Related: 53 Quick And Easy Meal Ideas That Are Perfect For Weeknights
Tuesday: Chicken Fried Rice
Breakfast: Fluffy blueberry pancakes, fruit cup
Lunch: Salad in a jar, homemade chia pudding
Dinner: There’s nothing like some good old chicken fried rice that you can put together in just a few minute’s time. It has all the protein goodness you might need and even a daily serving of veggies if you decide to incorporate a hefty amount in.
You can always pair this chicken fried rice with your favorite Kale salad, or create some homemade cole slaw. Make sure you look at the full recipe for a run down on how to make a tasty pan of chicken fried rice for your weekly meal plan.
Meal Prep Tip 2: If you want a more take-and-go breakfast option, create your own egg frittatas and store for the whole week. You can portion them out and reheat them when you’re ready to grab a big breakfast. The awesome thing about frittatas is that you can personalize them just about any way you want. That means
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Wednesday: Easy Steak Fajitas
Breakfast: Nut butter and banana toast, Avocado slices, Almond Milk
Lunch: Make Ahead Bean and Rice Burrito
Dinner: Tonight it’s easy Steak Fajitas for dinner! This is definitely a family favorite and can be a nice treat if you’re a steak eater. Even if you aren’t, there are plenty of vegan fajita recipes out there worth trying out as well.
Make sure you check out the recipe for a full Fajita rundown.
Meal Prep Tip 3: Try getting used to creating ‘one pan’ meals. This means you take all of your ingredients, stick them in a pan and season them, and cook them in one go. For instance, you can totally do that with this fajita recipe for faster preparation.
Thursday: Spicy Fish Tacos
Breakfast: Spinach Pear And Celery Smoothie, Toast
Lunch: Zucchini Noodles With Garlic, Butter, And Parmesan
Dinner: While these fish tacos might look complicated to make, they really aren’t and can be an absolutely yummy meal plan idea! You don’t need lots of fancy ingredients and it takes almost no time at all to create the garnishes and cream toppings.
Peep the Spicy Fish Taco Recipe for directions!
Meal Prep Tip 4: For fish tacos, you can add some rice as a side for a more filling meal. And you don’t have to cook a new pan of rice every time you need it. A good meal plan tip is to bulk cook all your rice ahead of time, and then portion it out to what you think you’ll be eating each day of the week!
Friday: Grilled Hawaiian Turkey Sliders
Breakfast: Overnight Breakfast Quiche
Lunch: Dump And Bale Meatball Casserole
Dinner: It’s finally Friday! Get a little festive with some Hawaiian Turkey Sliders and get out of the food rut. These tasty bites add a new flair to your original slider with it’s Hawaiian style ingredients. Easy to make, and much easier to eat!
Check out the recipe at Handle The Heat to get the complete recipe.
Meal Prep Tip 5: One of the great things about meal prepping is how much time it can save you. To make your meal prepping even faster, try investing in a pressure cooker. It’ cuts cooking time to almost half for lots of items you cook already, like beans.
Saturday: 5-Ingredient Baked Rotini
Breakfast: Breakfast Sandwich
Lunch: Wild rice and Quinoa Bowl
Dinner: Sometimes making dinner seems like a hassle because we need kid friendly ideas. For Tuesday’s meal plan you can create a simple 5-ingredient Rotini dish that can be tasty and filling for adults and kids alike.
It only takes about 30 minutes to prepare and can be made with a slow cooker. Chances are, the ingredients you need are already in your pantry. And whatever you don’t have or like you can always substitute for something new.
The great thing about pastas is that they make great leftovers. They don’t get soggy like bread and they don’t get stiff like some rice can. If you have Rotini on Tuesday you can definitely have some more on Friday!
Make sure you take a peek at the recipe and full directions for an easy dinner idea you can make tonight.
Meal Prep Tip 6: Ever think about creating your own indoor herb garden? You can successfully do this no matter where you live. Once you have your home grown herbs, its one less thing on your grocery list for a fraction of the price.
Sunday: Leftover Mash Potato Pancakes
Breakfast: Easy Breakfast Burrito
Lunch: Veggie Quesadilla
Dinner: Mashed Potato pancakes are a thing. And they’re a tasty thing. Usually, especially if you love lazy Sundays, you can create all kinds of new foods with your leftovers throughout the week.
This mash potato pancake recipe is a great example of doing just that!
Meal Prep Tip 7: If you eat eggs, get in the habit of cooking a portion of them ahead of time. That way whenever you need a filling addition to a meal, or you want to grab-and-go for breakfast, you already have your eggs ready to go!
A Weekly Meal Plan Means Less Stress
Hands down, a weekly meal plan can mean the difference between a stress filled life week and a better week where you have one less big thing to worry about each day.
Meal planning helps you create a better schedule over all Even if you’re the type that doesn’t like rigid schedules and strict plans, meal planning can still work for you if you just personalize it to your needs.
These awesome recipe ideas are great for motivating you to plan your meals ahead while making sure you’re getting the nutrition you need on a daily basis. It really sucks to run around on an empty stomach because you haven’t had time to make something. Designating a time to plan what you’ll eat each week can seriously work wonders for your lifestyle.
Any meal ideas I missed, feel free to leave a comment below!