An Easy Meal Prep Routine for Runners:

Setting up an easy meal prep routine on the weekend or during the week can completely make your healthy eating dreams for the week come true!

It takes the guess work out, wondering what to eat, eating unhealthy options because you are too tired to make something, feel like you have nothing in the house or just don’t feel like cooking.


Easy Meal Prep Routine

Making the prep work that you have to do every day easy and simple will make you much more likely to eat healthy!

That is the beauty of meal prepping on one day a week!

You are ready for the entire week with minimal cooking!


my notes on this Easy meal Prep plan

Here are a few details to help explain my thought process for when I do meal prepping at my house.

1. I like to meal prep for 6 days during the week.

There is usually at least one day that we are eating outside the house, bringing food home, or just eating leftovers and so I leave that day open for flexibility in my eating.


2. I typically will rotate between a couple of different things.

My husband and I are not picky eaters at all nor are we elaborate so you will probably find this meal plan very simple to follow and even implement!


3. I am currently not training for a marathon or going out on "long" distance runs.

This meal plan would include more brown rice, quinoa, oats, etc. if I was training for a marathon or even half marathon.

You can learn all about how you should be eating while training for a marathon in the EAT LIKE A MARATHONER Course or over on our page on Marathon Nutrition.


Right now, a Typical menu looks something like this:

Here is a small sample of an easy meal prep routine that I am currently using.  Nothing fancy or extravagant here - very simple and easy ideas.

Breakfast

  • A Veggie Egg Scramble - I try to keep this seasonal with tomatoes, onions, peppers, fresh salsa
  • Plain Greek Yogurt sweetened with stevia and frozen berries (love this in the summer especially)
  • Oatmeal with cinnamon, stevia, and raisins


Lunch:

  • Vegetable Salad topped with grilled chicken or
  • Soup

Dinner

  • Since it is summer we usually grill chicken as our main entrée with roasted veggies OR
  • Baked fish (usually salmon) with veggies at least once a week
  • Soup (yes, soup again! It is so hydrating for you and usually contains a lot of veggies which is just what I am looking for as a runner. Plus it's usually easy to make, still tastes amazing when re-heated, and even freezes well!)
  • For sides we typically will do roasted veggies or a salad. Honestly if you are not a vegetable person then you need to try roasting them! It is amazing! I will give you directions on how to do this below.


Snacks:

Desserts

Yes! We have dessert 2-3x a week!



Steps + ideas for healthy meal prep for the week:

Based off of the menu above, here are the steps I take to achieve a healthy meal prep routine for the week.


Step 1:

Figure out what fresh ingredients you need to get for your easy meal prep.

I tend to pick up the same things:

Bananas, apples, oranges, pineapple, berries, broccoli, spinach or kale, onion, tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots.

If you also regularly pick up the same foods you could make up a list of foods that you like to have always on hand to make your planning even easier.


Step 2:

Make a store run or do a curbside pickup.

Walmart pickup can save your life like it saved mine! You don't even get out of your car and it saves you so much time!


Step 3:

Prep as many of your ingredients as possible.

This could be washing your fruits and vegetables, measuring portions, browning meat, cooking chicken for shredding or cutting, cooking rice, steaming or roasting vegetables.

Look at the recipes you will be making and ask yourself what you can do ahead of time to make your cooking for the week easier?

You might find yourself fumbling and taking longer than you thought but after meal prepping even once, you will learn ways that you can become more economical with your time and food.


Step 4:

Do a grocery home delivery shop for non-perishable items that you need to replenish for future weeks and recipes.  

Keep your grocery list out and handy as you meal prep so that you can add ingredients that you have used up to your list.

Then between home delivery services (I use Walmart and have them ship me foods such as oats and raisins) and the store pickup you will have a very fast, easy and efficient shopping system set up and in place. 

This will leave you more time to do your easy meal prep and come up with other easy meal prep ideas for the week!


What my easy meal prep for the week looks like:

Remember, for this specific easy meal prep routine, I am working off of the previous mentioned menu plan.


Easy meal prep breakfasts

Cut veggies for my omelets:

I like to prep bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms. I also enjoy have spinach and tomatoes inside my omelets but have found that prepping these ahead of time causes sliminess and so I add these on the day I am heating my omelet up.

Store all of the vegetables layered in paper towels in an airtight container in the fridge.


Make sure i have all of the eggs i need

I usually put 3 eggs in my omelet so I would need to make sure that I have at least 18 eggs on hand for the week.

Sometimes I will simply scramble up all of my eggs at once for the week.

Then, on the day that I will be eating the eggs, I will then add the veggies and re-heat everything together either on the stove or in the microwave.


Mix up a batch of quick oatmeal

I usually will have ½ cup serving size of oatmeal about 3 times a week if I don't want eggs and will therefore combine and mix together:

1.5 cups of oats

3 tablespoons of cinnamon

3 teaspoons of stevia

½ cup of raisins

Store everything in an airtight container.

On the day I have oatmeal, I will heat some water up in my electric kettle (you have one right?), pour it on my oatmeal, let it sit for about 4 minutes and then gobble it up!


Stock up on a couple of individual sized greek Yogurts

Light and Fit as well as Kroger has a great option that has low to almost no added sugar content and high protein (13 grams) making either of them a great choice.

Another healthy option is the Chobani Plain Greek individual yogurt cups.


Wash any fruit that i will be using in the yogurts

Also store away out of sight so it does not go missing during the week. *wink


Tip: store any fruit that you wont be able to eat in a reasonable time in a ziploc bag and freeze it. Here two tips to reuse the frozen fruit:

  • On the mornings that you want a fruit yogurt bowl, dump the berries into your yogurt and mix it up. Let it sit for awhile to help the berries un-thaw and they will release all of their sweet juices into the yogurt making for a delicious breakfast!
  • The night before you will be eating a yogurt fruit bowl, mix your yogurt and the frozen fruit in a container, keep it in the fridge and let the fruit completely thaw in the yogurt overnight. 


My Easy meal prep lunches

  • Grill the chicken, use a rotisserie chicken, or cook in an instant pot(all are fast options!) 
  • Grill enough for salad throughout the week, tortilla wraps, soup (if chicken will be included) and as dinner for at least 2 nights. 
  • Wash any spinach/salad lettuce and any vegetables that you will be putting in your salads.
  • Make sure there are plenty of fresh vegetables in the fridge, washed and ready to go.
  • Make one soup that will serve several lunches throughout the week. I really like doing a vegetable barley soup. It is ready in about 20 minutes and will last for days! This box of barley soup comes with two different recipes on it and both are delicious! 

There are so many soups though that you could find and add on rotation. It's fun to mix it up week after week since you will be eating a lot of it at once during the week.


My Easy meal prep dinners

Cut all the veggies up that you plan to roast

Roasting is such a delicious way to eat vegetables! If you don't like vegetables you just need to find a way that you enjoy them the most and for me that would be roasting them with olive oil and salt and pepper!

Some people choose to cut the veggies up and store them uncooked in the fridge. The day they will be eating them they will them cook them up.

Most of the time I prefer to roast up a big batch of vegetables and then store and reheat them throughout the week as needed.


My Go to Vegetables to roast are:

  • broccoli
  • carrots
  • mushrooms
  • butternut squash
  • onions

Cut veggies for salmon/fish sides

If you want to sauté your vegetables in the pan that you cook your fish then you could simply cut up the vegetables that you will need for that meal.

At this point you can store them separately or cook your fish, sauté your veggies and then store in airtight containers (separately or together) for meals during the week.


Decide how to use the extra chicken you cooked for dinner and prep it!

I love chicken as a lean protein source and how versatile it can be in recipes.

You can make it into:

  • chicken tacos
  • chicken casseroles
  • soups
  • throw a sauce on top
  • throw it in pasta


Therefore, I will usually prep a sauce, make a casserole, soup or chicken taco meat so that I can reheat or just add finishing touches to the meal the night that I will be eating it.


Dessert & snack meal prep ideas

Here's a quick list of some ideas for desserts and snacks that you could make ahead of time

  • Make a batch of these protein poppers. These are great year round but are perfect in the summer as they are a cool treat that can be stored in the freezer.
  • Be sure to have some Halo Top ice cream on hand. Better yet, don't have it on hand if you are don't want to find yourself dipping into it at random points during your day.
  • Keep a nut or almond stash. This is a must! A little goes a long way when it comes to nuts. I like to keep a little container of them in my purse so that I don't become too hungry if I am out and about.
  • Stock up on bananas, apples, and any other seasonal fruit. If they will last, cut them up and store them in containers. You can also leave them out on the counters throughout the day because what you see is what you will eat! 


That’s it!

You may feel as if you have a too many things cooking and simmering at once but I promise once you figure out an easy meal prep routine for yourself and you know how it works, then it will save you so much time and heart break over poor eating choices! 

Easy meal prep routines are where it's at!

What's one food that you like to always have prepped and ready to go each week?


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