This left me shocked!
I started Meal Prep Sunday because so many of you expressed your struggle with time when it came to cooking healthy meals.
I hoped that it would be able to give support and make your life easier BUT I never thought it would have such an impact!
The feedback I have received has been amazing, and this particular message completely melted my heart...
"Hey Leah, Just want you to know this is GENIUS! I love cooking and eating healthy but honestly it’s so stressful with a busy job, and I have really bad anxiety too. My anxiety makes it really hard to plan stuff in advance and stay on top of food, so something like this which breaks it down (even suggesting putting on a podcast or music!) is so helpful. Eating better and planning for the week honestly helps my mental health so much, so thank you for making that easier. Keep doing what you’re doing, you’re making our lives more delicious and healthy and full of energy and we love you for it!"
This made my day!
And gave me even more motivation to create delicious healthy recipes and meal prep plans that fit into your life.
Which is why I'm so excited to share Week 7 of Meal Prep Sunday! Yay!
Let's get into it.
MEAL PREP GUIDELINES
Each Meal Prep Sunday Plan contains one daily plan, which you can use from Monday to Wednesday or for the whole week. It's completely up to you.
For each recipe I provide, you'll need to work out how many serves you need. This is determined by how many days you follow the plan and also how many people are following the plan along with you. For instance, if you and you're partner (2 people) decided to follow the plan from Monday to Wednesday (3 days), you would need to make 6 servings of each recipe.
To be clear, each plan isn't a diet or weight loss plan but a guide to easily incorporate balanced and healthy eating into your life. However, because each plan is packed with goodness you may notice a change in your energy, overall wellbeing and potentially your weight over time depending on you normal eating routine.
If there's a recipe you don't like then simply swap it out for one of my many others. Simply look for recipes that you can easily batch cook, keep in the fridge and reheat if you need.
After you've portioned out any warm or hot meals into containers, make sure you give them some time cool on your bench, before putting the lid on or putting them in your fridge. Putting hot into the fridge straight away, can cause bacteria to form and no one wants that.
REGULAR
This Week's Meal Prep Plan:
Breakfast: Baked Beans
Snack 1: Greek Yoghurt and Blueberries (Fresh or Frozen)
Lunch: Grilled Pork and Broccoli
Snack 2: Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles
Dinner: Sesame Chicken Meatballs and Brown Rice Salad
Meal Prep Method:
1. Read through this whole post first - so there's no risk of missing anything - and then work out how many days and how people are following the plan so you know how many serves you need to make of each recipe.
2. Go through each recipe and construct your shopping list for the week. What's great about meal prepping is you don't need a million different ingredients because you're making the same meals.
3. Go food shopping!
4. Once you're home, make sure you're kitchen is clear and ready for cooking, and then get out all the ingredients and containers you need. This is also the time you can put on some music, a podcast or a movie - or maybe you just want silence - whatever you need to enjoy the next couple hours.
5. Let's start cooking! First we're going to prep your yoghurt and blueberries. Now for this you may want to just take a container of yoghurt and a box of fresh or frozen blueberries and put them in the fridge and/or freezer at work (if you have one) - this way you can serve up your snack as you want it. Otherwise, portion out each serving of yoghurt and blueberries into seperate containers, and even sprinkle with cinnamon if you like!
6. Now it's time for your Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles! Yum! Simply follow all the steps of the recipe and then put them in the fridge - we'll come back on how to store them later.
7. With all the simple stuff done, let's make your breakfast - Baked Beans! Simply follow all the steps of the recipe and once the food has cooled down you can pop on the lids and put the containers in the fridge.
8. Time to make your Grilled Pork and Broccoli for lunch. Simple follow all the steps of the recipe and once the food has cooled down you can pop on the lids and put the containers in the fridge.
9. Now for dinner. First follow all the steps to make your Sesame Chicken Meatballs and then follow all the steps for your Brown Rice Salad. Now if you're following this plan for more than 3 days you may want to only make 3 serves of the salad and make a new batch for your remaining days so it's nice and fresh. Once you're done and the food has cooled, store each recipe in seperate containers.
10. By this time your Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles should have set so you can choose to either seperate each serve (2-3 truffles) into individual containers and store in the fridge or put them all in one big container to store in the fridge at work.
11. Time to clean up! Put on your favourite music so you can smash this last step. After you've finished cleaning, all your food should have cooled down so you can now put on the containers' lids and store them in the fridge.
12. You're done! AMAZING!! You just finished another week of Meal Prep Sunday and you should feel so so so proud of yourself. Well done for putting your health and tastebuds first. Now take some time to sit back and relax - you've earned it!
VEGO/VEGAN
This Week's Meal Prep Plan:
Breakfast: Baked Beans (Vegans you may want to add some tofu instead of eggs)
Snack 1: Greek or Coconut Yoghurt and Blueberries (Fresh or Frozen)
Lunch: Brown Rice Salad with black beans (1 can for every 3 serves)
Snack 2: Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles
Dinner: Mediterranean Pasta
Meal Prep Method:
1. Read through this whole post first - so there's no risk of missing anything - and then work out how many days and how people are following the plan so you know how many serves you need to make of each recipe.
2. Go through each recipe and construct your shopping list for the week. What's great about meal prepping is you don't need a million different ingredients because you're making the same meals.
3. Go food shopping!
4. Once you're home, make sure you're kitchen is clear and ready for cooking, and then get out all the ingredients and containers you need. This is also the time you can put on some music, a podcast or a movie - or maybe you just want silence - whatever you need to enjoy the next couple hours.
5. Let's start cooking! First we're going to prep your yoghurt and blueberries. Now for this you may want to just take a container of yoghurt and a box of fresh or frozen blueberries and put them in the fridge and/or freezer at work (if you have one) - this way you can serve up your snack as you want it. Otherwise, portion out each serving of yoghurt and blueberries into seperate containers, and even sprinkle with cinnamon if you like!
6. Now it's time for your Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles! Yum! Simply follow all the steps of the recipe and then put them in the fridge - we'll come back on how to store them later.
7. With all the simple stuff done, let's make your breakfast - Baked Beans! Simple follow all the steps of the recipe and once the food has cooled down you can pop on the lids and put the containers in the fridge.
8. Now for lunch. Follow all the steps to for your Brown Rice Salad and then add your black beans and mix well. Now if you're following this plan for more than 3 days you may want to only make 3 serves of the salad and make a new batch for your remaining days so it's nice and fresh. Once you're done and the food has cooled, store each serve in seperate containers so you can easily grab them in the morning.
9. Time to make your Mediterranean Pasta for dinner. Simple follow all the steps of the recipe and once the food has cooled down you can store it in a big container in the fridge.
10. By this time your Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles should have set so you can choose to either seperate each serve (2-3 truffles) into individual containers and store in the fridge or put them all in one big container to store in the fridge at work.
11. Time to clean up! Put on your favourite music so you can smash this last step. After you've finished cleaning, all your food should have cooled down so you can now put on the containers' lids and store them in the fridge.
12. You're done! AMAZING!! You just finished another week of Meal Prep Sunday and you should feel so so so proud of yourself. Well done for putting your health and tastebuds first. Now take some time to sit back and relax - you've earned it!
Be to let me know your thoughts and what you would like to see more in Meal Prep Sunday.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE hearing your feedback!
Be sure to also share your creations with me on Instagram so I can like, comment and share!
Use the tag @leahitsines and hashtag #leahitsines to reach out.
Leah xx
