MEAL PREP FROM NUTRITION COACHES
Just as there is no one size fits all approach when it comes to nutrition, there’s also no one size fits all approach to meal prep. Everyone has different macro targets and every individual can choose how much time is spent in the kitchen in order to hit these targets. However you choose to prep your food should suit your lifestyle and be sustainable for long-term success.
One of our best tools for meal prep is our Everyday Macros Cookbook which you can grab here:
To give you a bit more insight into what meal prep while tracking your macros can look like, we are showing you what a week of meal prep looks like for each of us nutrition coaches. While we all follow the same concept of flexible nutrition, our approaches are very different and are dependent on our personal lifestyles.
WHITNEY
My husband and I are both strength athletes who like to devote a lot of our free time to training (I do powerlifting and he does olympic lifting). We both have full-time day jobs, and he coaches olympic lifting four times per week in addition to the time I spend on nutrition coaching. Our meal prep focuses on making mix-and-match options that allow us to make our nutrition convenient but flexible. We usually make breakfast every morning, but we pre-prepare everything we eat for lunches, snacks, and dinner.
WHAT I MAKE
chopped veggies (cucumber, baby bell pepper, carrot sticks) for snacking
3-4 sweet potatoes, baked in their skins
2 lbs mini red/white potatoes, cooked whole in the air fryer
5 cups white rice
2 lbs 96% lean ground beef meatballs or burger patties (usually meatballs)
2-3lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, marinated and grilled
1 more complete meal (this was instant pot chili for a while, but lately has been a miso-ginger stir fry)
1 meatless meal (this week we are doing protein pasta with kale pesto)
Having plenty of pre-prepared protein and veggies keeps our weeks running smoothly. I do my grocery shopping on Friday nights (yes, we have grocery shopping Date Night) and all of my chopping, prepping and cooking on Sundays. It usually takes me about two hours from start to finish.
HOW I DO IT
I always start with anything that doesn’t need active attention. Marinate the chicken. Put sweet potatoes in the oven, potatoes in the air fryer, and start the rice (I set different timers for the sweet potatoes and rice)
Chop all my veggies. I always chop everything before moving on, which means that sometimes I have several bowls of chopped veggies, which has the added bonus of making me feel like a fancy chef.
Cook meatballs (this is my husband’s specialty) and meal of the week.
Finish up on the grill. Yes, we grill year-round (even in the snow!) in Utah.
I always try to make meal prep a fun time even though there are some weeks that it’s a total drag - despite the fact that I love to cook! I used to set up my laptop or iPad to watch Netflix in the background (now we have a wall-mounted TV that we can point toward the kitchen). Sometimes I listen to podcasts, or pick some music to sing along to at the top of my lungs. Just because meal prep is mostly for Future You doesn’t mean you should have a miserable time while you’re getting it done.
DIANA
Since my husband and I both have very busy schedules, I do most of our meal prep at the end of the week and over the weekend so we’re ready to go at the beginning of each week. I prep everything ahead of time, including breakfast, lunch and dinner and some snacks for both of us. We create our meals using batch prepared foods as a way to keep it simple and streamlined. Having our pre-measured meals in the fridge and ready to grab is essential for helping our week run smoothly.
WHAT I MAKE
2 x baking sheet of sweet potatoes, cubed and seasoned
1 x baking sheet of red potatoes, cubed and seasoned
1 x baking sheet of green veggies, usually broccoli and brussel sprouts
1 bag kale, pan sauteéd
8-10 cups steamed white rice (in the rice cooker)
2 ½ lbs. roasted chicken breast (baked or in the crock pot)
1 ½ lbs. lean ground turkey, pan browned
4 lbs. protein for dinner (usually pork tenderloin, chicken thighs or beef roast in the crock pot)
1 x casserole dish of breakfast bake
Batch of blueberry oat muffins and/or oatmeal bake
HOW I DO IT
WEDNESDAY | Menu planning & grocery list: After dinner on Wednesday nights, I decide what meals we’ll be eating next week and make my grocery list accordingly. A little secret I have is that my husband and I both have a set menu for breakfast, lunch and snacks everyday. Our dinners look very similar week to week (a protein, rice, potatoes and veggies), so there’s not a ton of planning or thinking involved. It can be very boring and monotonous for some people, but it helps keep our grocery bill in check and keeps things very simple. I have a saved grocery list in the notes on my phone and just check or uncheck items I need for the next week.
THURSDAY | Grocery shopping: I do the bulk of our grocery shopping at one store (Kroger) unless I’m grabbing sale items at another store. I like to get the shopping out of the way and try to go when it’s not busy (ie: 7 am on weekdays).
FRIDAY | Chop and prep: We have a tendency to get real wild on Friday nights and like to watch a movie or a game while prepping and making dinner (#lifeat30). I made a deal with my husband that I would put a TV in the kitchen if he chopped all of our veggies every week. I highly recommend it. I also defrost and/or marinate any proteins on this day.
SATURDAY | Cook and assemble: Since everything is already chopped and ready to go, cooking is the easy part. I use the oven to roast potatoes and other veggies and I try to use the crock pot/pressure cooker as much as possible for proteins. We have a rice cooker, too, which is great for making a big batch of rice for the whole week. As things come out of the oven, we weigh/measure our meals into containers and fill up the fridge.
SUNDAY | Eat and have fun: If all goes well, all of our prep gets finished on Saturday and we have all of Sunday free for activities.
You’re probably thinking, “Man, this is a 5-day process every single week?!” But over the years, I have learned that this is what works best for our lifestyle and our current schedules. By spreading out our meal prep across several days, it makes it feel less daunting. I found that taking 6-8 hours (which is what it realistically takes to prepare a week of meals for 2 people from start to finish, including grocery shopping) on Meal Prep Sunday was not how I wanted to spend one of my precious weekend days. A little bit each day is what I prefer.
KATE
I really don’t enjoy cooking and find rigid meal prep stressful, so spending less time in the kitchen preparing food is always a big goal. A big difference for me is that Kenny and I don’t really eat the same. He really only eats two big meals a day, and I like to stick to more frequent, smaller meals and snacks throughout the day. For that reason, purchasing and preparing foods that work for both of us and our preferences is the main objective in our house.
GROCERY SHOPPING
We both have flexible but incredibly busy schedules. We don’t have any set grocery shopping day but generally go once or twice a week whenever either of us can make it happen. Usually it’s a quick grocery run after the gym or on the way home. We keep a shared note in our notes app for the grocery list and update it as needed.
PRODUCE | I buy a lot of fresh veggies (mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, spring mix, kale, onions, cabbage), some fruit (bananas, apples, berries), and whatever squash and potatoes are available.
PROTEIN | We try to purchase all of our protein locally (we love Bailey Family Farm!) and actually have it delivered home. We mostly eat meat but will occasionally also buy fish (usually frozen), lean ground turkey, or a pork tenderloin every now and then. We also always stay stocked up on plain greek yogurt and eggs.
BULK | Rice, beans, chickpeas, lentils, soup mix, quinoa, oatmeal, split peas, or any other carb source thats moderately high in protein and can be cooked in the pressure cooker.
PACKAGED FOODS | Banza pasta, canned veggies (green beans, lentils, chickpeas), peanut butter and powdered peanut butter, kodiak cakes, almond milk, and usually a box or two of cereal (we love Cinnamon Toast Crunch!)
FROZEN | Because quick and easy is our goal, we lean on a lot of frozen foods. I love anything I can throw in my airfryer, Kenny loves frozen veggies, and we buy most of our fruit frozen to add to shakes or greek yogurt. Other frozen foods include frozen burgers or latkes from Trader Joe’s, frozen veggies and rice mixes, and frozen shrimp.
WHAT I MAKE
Basically nothing. I don’t do any “official” meal prep, but focus on mostly batch prep. On Sundays I will:
Chop all veggies
Bake squash and potatoes
Cook rice, beans, or lentils in the pressure cooker
Prep chicken in the oven, crockpot, or pressure cooker
With all of these batch prepped foods, it’s easy for me to throw together a meal I want when I want it, and equally easy for Kenny to cook something up for himself when he wants it. We try to stick to minimizing waste in our shopping and food prep while also making sure that the easy to grab foods at home are also healthy ones.
For me, batch prep is not the key to a successful week, pre-tracking my meals is. I know what foods I have on hand and I take a few minutes at the beginning of the day to throw together some meals in MFP with the foods available. A few typical meals:
Shredded chicken + sauteed veggies + squash or potatoes, all seasoned, with Bolthouse Ranch on the side
Chopped veggies + Trader Joe’s Cauliflower Stirfry + eggs + sesame oil
A sandwich on homemade bread + salad using greens + chopped veggies
Squash or lentil soup using stock and chopped veggies and grains + chicken
Banza pasta + sauce + sauteed veggies
Roasted sweet potatoes + chopped veggies + eggs in a hash
Total prep time is probably an hour at the grocery store each week and a cumulative 1-2 hours in the kitchen batch prepping (not including time in the oven, crockpot, or Instant Pot). I take 10 or so minutes to pre-track each day and either throw some of my meals together in the morning within 30 minutes or take 10-15 minutes to piece them together before my meal. It’s simple and far from fancy, but effective for me.
Check out A Full Day of Eating From Our Coaches for more on how our coaches approach tracking and meal prep. And learn more about each of our coaches’ stories by visiting our about us page.
For more on meal prepping, check out these resources: