Last updated on October 24th, 2023
Inside: Come take a look at what meal prep looks like in our house each week as I share easy meal prep ideas for you every Monday. Each post includes recipes used and plated examples. This week: Carrot Cake Breakfast Muffins, Green Bean Edamame Salad, Cheeseburger Mac, and Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip.
Meal Prep Monday
Happy Monday friends! I’m super excited to share our first ever Meal Prep Monday post!
Each Monday, I’ll be posting the details about my weekly meal prep day. Links to all recipes used will be provided so you can recreate these meals at your own home. I’ll share photos of the prepared meal plates utilizing the recipes for inspiration as well!
Meal Prep Basics
Whenever I meal prep, I begin with breakfast, then lunch, then dinner, and if time permits, I might add a snack. I never want to spend an entire morning or afternoon in the kitchen; my goal is always an hour or hour and a half between set up, cooking, and clean up.
You may be wondering what in the world my toddler does while I’m meal prepping for 60-90 minutes each Monday and the answer is simple, helping me!
He doesn’t help with every single recipe or even every step of a recipe. But I like to get him involved in small ways so that we can bond over cooking. Plus, helping with food preparation is a great way to develop skills and to mitigate picky eating. Check out my Homemade Pizza post where I break down exactly how my toddler helps in the kitchen.
So in this week’s line up we have:
- Carrot Cake Muffins (no sugar added)
- Bacon
- Green Bean Edamame Salad
- PB Yogurt Dip (recipe listed below)
- Hard Boiled Eggs (not pictured)
- Cheeseburger Mac
As I mentioned, I always start with preparing the breakfast item and work my way through to lunch, dinner and snack. I do it in this way, because I figure that I’ll need the breakfast first thing the following morning.
Worst case scenario, if life gets in the way, I can always prep lunch and dinner the following morning and still have it on time and snacks can just be whatever is in the pantry.
Breakfast:
These Carrot Cake Muffins from FoodWithFeeling.com are awesome! They don’t have any granulated sugars added in; the banana, peanut butter, and pure maple syrup that is mixed into the batter adds all the sweetness you need.
A bonus in making these is that you can shred some extra carrots in your food processor and refrigerate them to use as snacks or side dishes for meals throughout the week.
I whipped up a whole package of bacon too. My dinner recipe required some cooked bacon, so I figured I’d serve whatever was left with our breakfast.
If you aren’t cooking bacon in the oven, you’re totally missing out on a game changing kitchen habit! I cook bacon in the oven every single time. There is no clean up involved and no standing in front of the stove getting splattered in grease. It cooks each piece evenly so you aren’t left with any mushy parts.
I pretty much always make an entire package of bacon at once and either refrigerate or freeze the leftovers. Frozen bacon can be used for dinner recipes and the refrigerated bacon just needs microwaved for 30 seconds before serving in the morning. Tastes just like the day you made it!
This is how our breakfast turned out:
All I had to do the following morning was peel the clementine’s and microwave the bacon for 30 seconds. Voila! A filling and satisfying breakfast in less than 5 minutes.
This meal follows my healthy breakfast formula, which I detail the importance of in this post. In that same post, I share a few easy breakfast ideas perfect for mom and toddler too!
Lunch + Snack:
This Green Bean Edamame Salad from StuckOnSweet.com you will see featured a lot on my blog. It is one of my go-to salads. It’s filled with fiber (which let’s face it, is a pregnant woman’s best friend, haha!) and it’s super tasty and filling. *I use 1/2 cup of reduced sugar Craisins instead of 1 cup of regular ones to save on calories*
I absolutely love adult lunches that can just be scooped out and served without any fuss, so I make a lot of these refrigerated salads.
This is how our lunch turned out:
I don’t feed my toddler edamame yet (the shape can be a choking hazard), so I had to prepare him his own meal. But I did use the extra shredded carrots we had from preparing our Carrot Cake Muffins as a side.
I didn’t get photos, but I also had made a batch of hard boiled eggs Monday morning to be used as snacks and alongside meals throughout the week.
Hard boiled eggs are often part of our weekly meal prep. They are fast, easy, and an awesome protein-filled addition to any meal or snack. I served Henry’s HBE with Everything But The Bagel Seasoning. If you haven’t tried it yet, you really have to. It’s so good!
You’ll also see my PB Yogurt Dip on my toddler’s tray. We are most definitely obsessed with this dip in our house. It’s so easy to make: simply mix 2/3 cup PB with 2 cups vanilla Greek yogurt. That’s it!
It tastes very sweet with a nice PB flavor. It seems like a sinful little treat, but is filled with protein to keep tummies nice and full. I didn’t photo it, but I had an apple and the yogurt dip as my midday snack this week.
Dinner:
I’m definitely not winning any awards for being healthy with this one! But I wanted something super quick (hello Instant Pot!), filling, and a huge amount of it. Well this Instant Pot Bacon Cheeseburger Pasta from ThisIsNotDietFood.com checked off all of those boxes.
I like to make dinners that produce a couple days worth of leftovers for the nights that I work outside of the home. I usually will choose recipes that make 3 days worth of leftovers so that I don’t have to focus on cooking before my afternoon shift starts. It can be stressful getting dinner cooked before 1pm each day , so cooking in bulk really helps my family out.
This Cheeseburger Mac kind of reminds me of Hamburger Helper that we used to eat as kids, but with a bacon twist. It’s made in the Instant Pot and has real crumbled cooked bacon mixed in for a yummy bacon flavor. It reheats well and can last for all 3 of my working days, which is perfect for our house.
Wrap It Up
There you have it. These recipes were created on a Monday and were made to last Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. (B, L & D). The HBE and the PB Yogurt Dip will last for longer and will be used primarily as snacks but for side dishes too. I won’t have to meal prep or cook again until Thursday!
As mentioned in my Meal Prep For Beginners post, I typically will meal prep on Mondays and serve those foods Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I will meal prep again on Thursdays and serve those foods Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
On Mondays we have quick meals as it’s our in between day. I don’t always meal prep dinner foods – those are typically cooked at actual dinner time, but I pretty much always have premade breakfasts and lunches.
I’m looking forward to sharing next week’s meal prep post with you! Let me know if you have any questions or comments by leaving a comment below.
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