Meal Prep Recipes to Help You Lose Weight

August 27, 2019
Meal prep can help you lose weight by setting you up for success. When you have a healthy plan in place you’re less likely to grab take-out and processed foods on the run. Here are EatingWell’s best meal-prep recipes for weight loss that are rich in veggies, fruits, whole grains, healthy protein and fat to help you reach your weight loss goals in a healthy way.
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Green Veggie Bowl with Chicken & Lemon-Tahini Dressing

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For this healthy 30-minute dinner, treat your veggies like pasta and cook until al dente, or just done. If you have a little extra time, double or triple the lemon-tahini dressing and use it to quickly dress a salad or as a sauce for steak or shrimp.

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Power Greens Salad with Baked Tofu & Honey-Mustard Vinaigrette

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This plant-based main-dish salad packs a powerful punch of greens, nutrients and flavor. Add healthy protein with convenient baked tofu slices, which have a firm texture that is well suited to salads and sandwiches. Sprinkle on a little crunch with slivered almonds, and just a hint of tropical sweetness with unsweetened coconut. The vinaigrette rounds out the dish with tangy-sweet kick.

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Chicken Burrito Bowls with Sweet Potato Rice

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Tired of cauliflower "rice" but looking for a low-carb swap for regular rice for your burrito bowl? Try sweet potato. Creating sweet potato "rice" is a two-step process. First, cut the sweet potatoes into long thin strands using a spiralizer or vegetable peeler. Then, pulse the sweet potato strands into small, ricelike pieces in a food processor.

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Chipotle Chicken Burrito Bowl with Cauliflower Rice

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This easy-to-make and meal-prep burrito bowl is even better than takeout! You'll never miss the carbs in this protein-packed, super-flavorful meal that replaces the cilantro-lime rice with cauliflower rice. We love this with chicken but it would be just as delicious with shrimp.

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Spicy Slaw Bowls with Shrimp & Edamame

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The quick 10-minute Spicy Cabbage Slaw serves as the low-carb base in this veggie-packed lunch recipe. Topped with high-protein edamame and shrimp, this satisfying lunch will help you power through the afternoon.

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Meal-Prep Roasted Vegetable Bowls with Pesto

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Your co-workers will be jealous when you pull out this healthy lunch of roasted veggies and brown rice. Put together 4 lunches when you have time and you will have packable lunches (or ready-to-eat dinners) for several days--just grab a container on your way out the door in the morning.

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Creamy Blueberry-Pecan Overnight Oatmeal

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In this no-cook overnight oatmeal recipe, just quickly reheat the oats in the morning and top with berries, maple syrup and pecans for an easy, on-the-go breakfast.

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Peanut Butter Protein Overnight Oats

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Powdered peanut butter is a handy pantry staple that makes a great vegan protein booster for oatmeal and smoothies. Double or triple this recipe to meal-prep breakfasts for the week or to have breakfast ready for the entire family.

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Edamame & Veggie Rice Bowl

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The ingredients in this vegan grain bowl recipe can be prepped ahead for an easy lunch to pack for work. The tangy citrus dressing is a refreshing flavor with the sweet caramel of the roasted sheet-pan veggies.

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Meal-Prep Falafel Bowls with Tahini Sauce

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These quick Mediterranean-inspired couscous bowls come together in 20 minutes thanks to healthy convenience items like frozen falafel and steam-in-bag fresh green beans. Whisk together the simple tahini sauce while the other ingredients cook.

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Colorful Roasted Sheet-Pan Veggies

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These easy roasted vegetables will give your plate a pop of color. Give the cubes of butternut squash a head start for 10 minutes to soften in the oven before adding in the other veggies. The broccoli, peppers and onion are naturally more tender than the butternut squash and cook more quickly. That way everything ends up finishing at the same time.

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Meal-Prep Cilantro-Lime Chicken Bowls

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Prep all four servings of this easy recipe at once for ready-to-eat dinners or packable lunches for the rest of the week. If you don't like a lot of heat, try using mild chili powder, and leave out the jalapeño from the rice.

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Spring Green Salad with Hard-Boiled Eggs

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This salad capitalizes on fresh spring produce and gets a simple protein boost from hard-boiled eggs. Meal-prep this healthy lunch salad by mixing the salad base together and simmering a batch of hard-boiled eggs on the weekend. Then you'll be ready to just add one or two eggs with a drizzle of tangy vinaigrette for the simplest spring salad-to-go.

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Roasted Salmon Rice Bowl with Beets & Brussels

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Roasting vegetables and salmon together on one sheet pan while the rice cooks makes an easy, satisfying meal packed with protein, whole grains and veggies. To ensure that you're getting 100 percent whole grains, look for a wild rice blend that consists of wild and brown rice.

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Zucchini Noodle Bowls with Chicken Sausage & Pesto

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Cut down on prep time for this meal-prep zoodle recipe by using premade zucchini noodles from the produce section. Canned beans and precooked chicken sausage heat in about 5 minutes and add protein, while store-bought refrigerated pesto serves as a fast and flavorful topping.

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Meal-Prep Curried Chicken & Chili-Lime Chicken

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Save time and maximize your efforts by mixing up two separate chicken marinades and cooking multiple recipes at once. This simple but flavorful meal-prep chicken dinner idea lets you cook ahead and not be bored with your choices by mid-week. Both recipes are roasted together on a baking sheet; a foil barrier keeps them separate. Make this base chicken recipe and use it to create the Meal-Prep Chili-Lime Chicken Bowls & Meal-Prep Curried Chicken Bowls (see associated recipes) for lunch or dinner this week.

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Easy Brown Rice

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Here's the only recipe you need to make perfect brown rice every time! This healthy whole grain is great on its own as a side dish, or use it in your favorite recipes calling for cooked brown rice.

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Creamy Vegan Cashew Sauce

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You'll never guess this creamy sauce is completely vegan, and actually made from pureed cashews. To keep it gluten-free, use tamari.

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Make-Ahead Smoothie Freezer Packs

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Smoothies are a great healthy breakfast for kids, but busy parents know there's no time for all that chopping and measuring in the morning rush. Make these easy DIY smoothie packs ahead of time and stash them in your freezer until you're ready to whir up a fruit-filled meal or snack kids will love. This makes enough for a workweek's worth of smoothies!

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Soy-Lime Roasted Tofu

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Here we marinate tofu cubes in soy sauce and lime juice with a touch of toasted sesame oil, then roast them--perfect tofu every time.

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Vegan Freezer Breakfast Burritos

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Having a stash of flavorful bean burritos in your freezer means you'll always have a satisfying plant-based meal ready for a grab-and-go breakfast on a busy morning or to take to the campsite for an easy campfire meal. Our vegan breakfast filling--made with tofu and prepared to mimic scrambled eggs--is tossed with beans, veggies and salsa for a delicious and ultra-satisfying meal.

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Roasted Chickens

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In this easy roast chicken recipe, two whole birds cook side-by-side on one pan, which means you only have to heat the oven once but you'll have enough leftover chicken for days. Rotating the chickens on the pan during roasting ensures all sides are evenly cooked and golden brown.

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Sheet-Pan Roasted Root Vegetables

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One pan is all you need for a heaping pile of nutritious, tender and colorful root vegetables. Whip up this large-batch recipe at the beginning of the week to use in easy, healthy dinners all week long.

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Blueberry Almond Chia Pudding

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Switch up your morning oatmeal routine with this so-easy chia pudding recipe. It's made just like overnight oats--combine chia and your milk of choice, let soak overnight, then top with juicy blueberries and crunchy almonds and dig in!

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Basic Quinoa

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This foolproof recipe for perfectly cooked quinoa is fast and easy! Use cooked quinoa as a simple healthy side dish, in a salad or as a base for a delicious main dish.

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Chopped Cobb Salad

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This single-serving recipe for Cobb salad swaps chicken in for bacon, which makes it a great source of protein for lunch. If you prefer another salad dressing, feel free to use that instead of our honey-mustard vinaigrette.

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Vegan Roasted Vegetable Quinoa Bowl with Creamy Green Sauce

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In a vegan riff on green goddess dressing, cashews provide a creamy base with tons of flavor from herbs and apple-cider vinegar. Drizzle it all over this bowl of quinoa and roasted vegetables to make a satisfying vegan dinner or easy packable lunch that is ready in just 30 minutes.

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Muffin-Tin Quiches with Smoked Cheddar & Potato

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Potatoes, cheese and greens make this mini quiche recipe delicious and satisfying. Bake up a batch over the weekend and you'll have breakfast available in a hurry for the rest of the week.

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Apple Cinnamon Chia Pudding

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Switch up your morning oatmeal routine with this so-easy chia pudding recipe. It's made just like overnight oats: combine chia and your milk of choice, let soak overnight, then top with the classic flavor combo of apples and cinnamon, with pecans for added crunch.

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Meal-Prep Sheet-Pan Chicken Thighs

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Cook up six servings of chicken at once with this quick and easy meal-prep recipe: you'll have recipe-ready cooked chicken in the fridge for throw-together lunches and dinners throughout the week. This simple sheet-pan chicken thigh recipe gets an easy burst of flavor from dried oregano and a clove of garlic.

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Quinoa & Chia Oatmeal Mix

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Make your own hot cereal mix with this healthy recipe. Keep it on hand and just cook up the amount you need when you're ready for a hot breakfast. One serving of the warm cereal contains 6 grams of fiber--almost a quarter of your daily quota-which helps stave off hunger throughout the morning.

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Chickpea & Quinoa Buddha Bowl

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It seems Buddha bowls have as many variations as there are stars in the sky, and there is no wrong way to build one! But we prefer to keep things classic and simple with hummus, quinoa, avocado and loads of veggies!

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Meal-Prep Chili-Lime Chicken Bowls

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Skip takeout and whip up these equally delicious, and easy-to-make burrito bowls at home. They're great for a fast and easy dinner or as meal-prep lunches to pack for work throughout the week.

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Homemade Trail Mix

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Try this with portable mix with any combination of dried fruits and nuts.

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Roasted Root Veggies & Greens over Spiced Lentils