
Easy Meal Planning for Healthy, On-the-Go Eating
Ah, Tupperware. Our best friend.
I have written previously about meal planning and grocery shopping here.
This post is a bit different. This post will take the basic building block formula of a healthy meal:
- COMPLEX CARBS + PROTEIN + VEGETABLES
and show you how to achieve this when you’re a busy, on-the-go professional, often living alone or at least making vegetarian/vegan food for just yourself (those of you with meat-eating partners, I’m talking to you!).
Meal planning sounds like such a drag, especially when you’re not an organized person by nature. So the best way to take the fear out of it is to make it really simple. Don’t fuss about coming up with several fancy meals for the week. Just make sure each meal follows the formula above and you’ve got a great dinner. How does that work?
You make:
- a couple of ‘carb’ dishes (grains, bread etc) at the weekend
- a couple of protein dishes
- and have veg on hand
Then each day you just throw ’em together and voila!
Here are some examples:
One weekend, I might make:
- 1 1/2 cups quinoa
- 1 1/2 cups rice pasta (toss it with olive oil so it doesn’t stick together too much in the fridge)
- Fry up some caramelized tofu strips (I LOVE these ones by Kate)
- Hard boil some eggs
- salad greens
- and maybe some steamed peas and carrots
Each day, I can throw into a Tupperware container (to take to work), or to throw together when I get home from work:
- 1/2 cup quinoa
- a few tofu strips
- some salad greens
Another alternative meal with these ingredients?
- A serving of pasta
- tossed with some tomato sauce, peas and carrots and microwaved
- topped with some crumbled feta cheese and a hard boiled egg, chopped
Bingo. Another instant meal.
These might not be the most gourmet meals, but if you choose components that you LIKE (if tofu isn’t your thing, sprinkle nutritional yeast on your pasta instead, or use canned chickpeas or cooked lentils!), then they are tasty and healthy balanced meals that will keep your energy going so that when you DO have time, you can cook up something really special.
THE LIST
Here is my list of possible protein/grain/vegetable options I go for each week. If you have any suggestions for me to add to this, please let me know!
CARBS:
- wholewheat or gluten-free pita breads
- rice or quinoa pasta
- quinoa
- basmati rice
- potatoes (for baked potatoes or mashed)
PROTEIN:
- hard or soft boiled eggs (or fried, scrambled etc)
- nutritional yeast
- tofu strips (I only like my tofu in strips and crispy! Make however you like)
- veggie burgers
- chickpeas
- cooked lentils
- beans
- Greek yogurt
- feta cheese, lowfat
- halloumi cheese, grilled in strips
- protein powder
- hemp hearts
- falafel patties
- miso soup with tofu pieces
- healthy deviled eggs (a great lighter deviled egg recipe is here)
- edamame
VEGETABLES:
- salad greens
- avocados
- mushrooms and cherry tomatoes, roasted
- roasted veg such as parsnips, squash, mushrooms, asparagus etc (depending on season)
- peas and carrots (my favourite steamed veg)
- Portobello mushroom caps (fantastic grilled)
- tomato sauce, canned
- spinach leaves (great for throwing into smoothies)
Here’s a printout if you want!
Obviously if you’re cooking for one you don’t need to get all of these every week, which is why it’s great to have a long list you can rotate through so you never get bored!
More on meal planning:
- My original grocery list meal planning post
- Angela at Oh She Glows! posted a fabulous vegan pantry post last week to help make sure your kitchen is fully stocked
- Elise at Hungry Hungry Hippie has many posts on meal planning and this post includes more suggestions on forming meals out of your pre-made grains/proteins/veg etc.
QUESTIONS:
- Do you make bulk items at the weekend? It’s recent for me but it has helped tons with saving money on lunches and ensuring I’m getting a good balance of macronutrients.
- Do you find that you intuitively make your meals up of protein + complex carbs + veg? When I first became vegetarian it was carbs, carbs, carbs all the time without my realizing it. Healthy ones, but still! Now I pay much more attention to getting my protein and veg in there too.
April 18, 2012
thehealthyfitdiva
Great list anna! planning ahead is so important. I like cooking up some protein and carbs like rice on the weekend to be prepared during the week when I’m in a rush. Your suggestions are great and I’ll def be using a few 🙂
April 18, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
Thank you! It so helps to be prepared. I don’t manage it every week but when I do I feel so much more relaxed :).
April 18, 2012
Sara @my less serious life
LOVE this list especially the list of protein sources. i’m always looking for different choices. i need to be better about prepping on the weekend like you. prepping some carbs ahead of time would go a long way during my busy week.
April 18, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
Aw thanks Sara! The grains definitely help as they take the most time. Some of the proteins do – like marinating and frying tofu if that’s what you’re using – but so many of them are so quick and easy, like edamame or sprinkling nooch on something – that it’s really just the grains are the key to prepping in advance!
April 18, 2012
Katie Gagliano (@HealthyDiva31)
What a great post! You put a lot of time into this girl! Love the lists!
I need some quinoa in my life, been a long time!
Happy Wednesday! <3
April 18, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
It’s been a few weeks since I broke out the quinoa too – time for me to take some of my own advice haha. Thanks girl! xx
April 18, 2012
Kristine Fretwell (@KristineFretwel)
Great post!!
April 18, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
Thanks Kristine x
April 18, 2012
Char Star (@chars_kitchen)
This is a great post! I used to be this organized, now I just throw stuff together & wing it 😛 The other day I got a call for work, and had to scramble to put together a lunch. I ended up taking an English muffin w/ pb&j, and some brussels sprouts 😛 No planning, haha. One day I’ll get organized again!
April 18, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
Haha but yet you had a balanced meal! If we can call peanut butter protein… :). Because at some point I think this all becomes pretty intuitive. You have to put in the effort to do some planning initially, and then over time you realize that when you go for a quick meal you are instinctively choosing proteins, fats, vegetables and whole grains. Winner!
April 18, 2012
andrea drugay
Great post. I can’t imagine getting thru a week without having done SOME kind of food prep & meal planning. It takes so much stress away! Roasting up a bunch of chicken or turkey breast and pre-chopping veggies takes only a bit of time and makes life so much easier throughout the rest of the week!
April 18, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
Thanks Andrea! Meal planning definitely helps to remove the stress from everyday life, that’s for sure!
April 18, 2012
Chelsea @ Naturally Sweet Recipes
This is such a great post! I will really need to be aware of stuff like this, especially when I go to college. I love your ideas, thanks for sharing!!
April 18, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
Thanks Chelsea! I wish I had been better with this in college myself – so I hope I helped you get a headstart!
April 18, 2012
Jocelyn @ Peace.Love.Nutrition
I have to tell you- I really look forward to reading your blog everyday!
Love your food planning post- seems so simple- now if only I could get myself to do this…
April 18, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
Oh you’re so kind, thank you Jocelyn! That made my day :).
I know it’s tough at first, and I have to force myself to do it too sometimes, but once you’ve done it for a few months it’s amazing how intuitive it becomes. You just start automatically putting meals together that have this kind of balance and then the planning isn’t as necessary!
April 18, 2012
stephanie
Love this post! So helpful! I have a bento-style lunch box, and it’s so handy because I know I need to have a protein, a source of carbs, and some produce and it’s easy to make sure I have it all because I use one little container for each! They’re from laptoplunches.com. Check them out if you’re interested. I also did a post on them a little while back.
April 18, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
Thank you so much for the recommendation Stephanie! I will have to check them out – I love bento boxes when I hit up a sushi restaurant, so why not one for everyday lunches? You have me all excited now xx
April 18, 2012
stephanie
I’m so in love with mine! It’s almost more exciting to eat lunch!
April 18, 2012
Meg (A Dash of Meg)
I definitely always make a balanced meal without having to think 😀 It’s the RD in me 😉 Great post sweetie!
April 18, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
Ah lucky you! I think over time the stuff we learn does get into our brains enough that we just start eating the way we want to. And I guess studying nutrition would definitely get it in your brain haha! xx
April 18, 2012
simplynutritiouskate
this is awesome thanks for sharing!
April 18, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
You’re welcome, thanks for reading!
April 18, 2012
teenylittlesuperchef
What a fantastic post! Thanks so much for all the ideas and tips for meal planning. I’m a huge list freak and love planning things out ahead of time but I still found a lot of new and useful information. By the way, what halloumi cheese? I’ve never heard of this before but I love all things cheese 🙂
April 18, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
Halloumi cheese is a Greek cheese (some say it’s from Cyprus) that doesn’t melt when heated, so you can grill it and it remains firm. It’s delicious grilled and thrown on top of salads etc. It’s salty and creamy and absolutely delicious! Should be in the foreign cheese section of most supermarkets. Some people spell it with just one ‘l’. Hope that helps!
April 18, 2012
Shira
Awesome post Anna! Totally agree with you about prep. Because I work in the restaurant business I can’t make too much food ahead, I actually end up bringing food to the office as I often can’t finish all that I make (I really enjoy that too!) Great tips!
April 18, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
Oh man if I worked in the restaurant business I would love to bring my dinner home haha!
April 19, 2012
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April 21, 2012
Sarah
This is such a great post! I think sometimes people over complicate things, and don’t realise that balancing meals is pretty easy once you know what you’re doing. Such a great idea!
April 21, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
Yes, very true! It definitely becomes intuitive after a while :).
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