In my experience meal prepping leads to greater overall satisfaction with life. There’s something so delicious about having food ready for you when you’re hungry. No scrambling around the figure out what to eat, or ordering subpar delivery. Beautiful! We all know that the time you take to meal prep on a Sunday will save you time throughout the week, but I’m not one to spend my whole day meal prepping. Especially now that I have a baby, I can’t spend all day in the kitchen, even if I wanted to. I’ve finally figured out how to quickly meal prep a bunch of meals that will last me all week. I call it easy meal prep for busy people!
The key to quick meal prepping is to 1. only bother with easy-to-make dishes, 2. supplement with a few pre-made items from the grocery store––nothing major, just things like pasta sauce, pasta, hummus, and possibly other sauces, and 3. don’t make too many (if any) full meals during your meal prep. That way what you do make becomes more versatile, and can be paired in different combinations with the other things you make and items bought from the grocery store.
Below you’ll find recipes to what I’ve been meal prepping these days, plus a breakdown of how you can mix-and-match them so that you don’t get bored eating the same meal everyday. Download a PDF guide of my meal prep for busy people here! (shopping list included) This may be my first official “meal prep for busy people” on the blog, but I do have a few other easy meal prep guides: Buddha Bowl Inspired Meal Plan, Back to School Meal Plan, and Under $30 Meal Plan. I also have a full playlist on YouTube.
Roasted Vegetables
Ingredients
- 2 broccoli crowns chopped
- 4 cups brussels sprouts diced
- 1 large zucchini sliced
- 2-3 cups mushrooms sliced
- 2-3 tablespoons oil
- 1/2-1 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp fresh black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°.
- Place the vegetables into a large mixing bowl.
- Toss with oil, salt, and pepper.
- Spread evenly on a baking sheet, and bake for 30 minutes.
Baked Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
- 4 sweet potatoes
- 2 tsp oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°.
- Use a fork to poke holes in the sweet potato. About 3-4 pokes should do.
- Coat the potato with oil.
- Bake for 45-60 minutes until tender.
Instant Pot Lentils
Ingredients
- 2 cups green lentils sorted and rinsed
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 14- oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 3/4 cup water
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in the Instant Pot. Stir well.
- Pressure cook 6 minutes.
- Allow it to natural pressure release fully, or at least 10 minutes
Curry Bean & Corn Salad
Ingredients
- 1 can kidney beans drained and rinsed
- 2 cups frozen or fresh corn thawed or grilled or quick sautéed if fresh
- ¼ cup red onion diced
- 1 red bell pepper seeded & diced
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes chopped
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro chopped
- juice of 2 limes
- 1 tbsp agave or maple syrup
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp grapeseed or olive oil
Instructions
- Place the kidney beans, corn, onion, pepper, tomatoes, and cilantro in a mixing bowl.
- In a small bowl combine the lime juice, agave, curry powder, pepper, sea salt, and oil, and whisk well.
- Pour the sauce over the veggies, and stir well.
- Season to taste with more lime and salt.
- Allow it to marinate at least 1 hour before serving.
Carrot Chickpea Tuna
Ingredients
- 1 can chickpeas drained & rinsed
- 2 carrots shredded (by hand or food processor)
- ¼ cup vegan mayo
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tsp ume plum vinegar + more to taste
- 1 tsp celery seeds
- 2 tsp dulse seaweed flakes optional
- 1 nori seaweed sheet torn into squares
Instructions
- Place the chickpeas in a bowl, and mash with a fork.
- Stir in the carrots, vegan mayo, mustard, ume vinegar, celery seeds, and dulse. Season with more ume vinegar to taste.
Instant Pot Quinoa & Rice
Ingredients
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1 cup brown rice
- 2 1/2 cups water or vegetable stock
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp oil
Instructions
- Turn the Instant Pot on to the sauté setting and toast the quinoa for about 3 minutes, or until you smell it toasting.
- Add the other ingredients and stir.
- Seal the Instant Pot, and pressure cook for 24 minutes. Let it natural release for 10 minutes then quick release.
M W / December 6, 2021 at 8:49 am /
For the carrot chickpea tuna, what is the nori seaweed sheet used for? Is that incorporated into the mix, or used as a base?
Caroline / October 9, 2019 at 12:18 pm /
Hello! I was just wondering if you could maybe add Gramms in your recipes? I can’t find out how much 4 cups of Brussel sprouts are in Gramms..
And also I don*t have this instand pot thingy.. does a normal pot serve as well or do I need to pay attention to something when I cook it in a normal pot?
I really wanna get vegan but I feel like I need to meal prep to get to that goal because otherwise I get lazy and eat easy and fast non vegan meals or buy some food somewhere else which is not vegan as well.. So I really wanna get on it now and meal prep every week so I can just take the food with me to uni and stay healthy and on track..
Meesh B / September 29, 2019 at 6:19 am /
This is my second time doing this meal prep for busy people and I absolutely LOVE IT! The recipes are so easy and versatile, please do more meal preps like this! I love the shopping list too…so great for busy people!
Jenné @ Sweet Potato Soul / October 9, 2019 at 4:42 am /
Fantastic! I’m going to make more like this. Hoping to make it a weekly regular thing. Stay tuned!
Heather Stimmler-Hall / September 15, 2019 at 8:05 pm /
Wow, this all looks great! Any tips on storing the food during the week? For example, I’d love to cook a few sweet potatos in advance, but what’s the best way to store them if I want to eat the last one five days later? Would hate for all that prep to go to waste because I’m clueless, LOL!
Jenné @ Sweet Potato Soul / September 24, 2019 at 1:08 am /
Thanks! Good question. Stored in airtight containers in the fridge should be perfect. That’s how I do it. All will stay fresh as long as you don’t double dip with spoons. Keep a clean spoon/serving utensil for whenever you take from the bowl 🙂 Otherwise it will all stay fresh! Enjoy 🙂
TRISH / September 6, 2019 at 4:51 pm /
jenne,
Thank you so much for this meal prep video! fast easy delicious recipes are exactly what i need.
Jenné @ Sweet Potato Soul / September 6, 2019 at 10:59 pm /
Fantastic! Thank you so much 🙂
Jenné @ Sweet Potato Soul / September 6, 2019 at 10:59 pm /
Fantastic! Thank you so much 🙂
Sue Erml / September 1, 2019 at 11:34 pm /
How much water do you use in the Instant Pot Quinoa & Rice recipe? Thank you!
Jenné @ Sweet Potato Soul / September 6, 2019 at 10:59 pm /
Thanks for catching that omission. 2 1/2 cups water or broth.
Jenné @ Sweet Potato Soul / September 6, 2019 at 10:59 pm /
Thanks for catching that omission. 2 1/2 cups water or broth.
Sue Erml / September 6, 2019 at 11:44 pm /
Thank you so much! I made all of these recipes this week, and they were all amazing! I loved the variety!