Best Meal Prep Recipes
Updated: 04/08/2025
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These meal prep recipes will make your life so much easier. You’ll find tasty make-ahead breakfast options, meal prep lunches that you’ll be excited to eat, and delicious dinner recipes that you can prep in advance.
Meal Prep Recipes
We get it, life is busy. That’s why we’ve put together a list of all of our favorite meal prep recipes. We want to help take the stress out of meal planning.
With these recipes, you’ll be set to eat delicious meals all week long.
Don’t forget to share this recipe collection with your meal-prepping friends. And make sure to leave a comment letting us know which is your favorite recipe!
Why meal prep
One of the other top bonuses of planning ahead is that you’re more likely to eat well. Most of the time, we won’t order pizza delivery or stop by a fast food joint if we know there’s a delicious meal waiting for us at home.
It’s also a great way to save money. If you know what you’re eating all week, you’ll waste less food. And we all know that it’s much cheaper to eat at home than to eat out!
With these meal prep recipes, you’ll be set for breakfast, lunch, and dinner all week!
Meal Prep Breakfast Recipes
- Coconut Almond Breakfast Muffins are sugar and grain-free, but you’ll never know it. They make great breakfast for when you’re in a hurry.
- Egg and Sausage Breakfast Muffins reheat well for weekday mornings.
- Tropical Sunshine Make Ahead Smoothies are a cinch to make and a perfect grab-and-go breakfast for busy weekday mornings.
- Homemade Breakfast Sausage Patties are easy to make in advance and reheat in the morning.
- Carrot Muffins make a quick grab-and-go breakfast.
Meal prep lunch recipes
- Cranberry Chicken Salad lasts for days in your fridge and is delicious in a sandwich or piled on top of greens.
- Chicken Taco Soup makes a great make-ahead lunch as it reheats well and can be packed in a thermos.
Where to buy food prep containers for lunch
One of the least expensive options is to use reusable, Tupperware-style containers that are sold in most grocery stores. Keep in mind that they don’t have a tight seal so shouldn’t be used to pack things with sauces.
More environmentally friendly glass food storage containers can be found on Amazon. Having a few that have compartments for different foods can be handy if you want to pack a variety for lunch.
And wide-mouth mason jars are excellent for soups, stews, and chili as they’re sturdy, leak-proof, and (without a lid) can be microwaved.
Meal prep dinner recipes
- The Best Steak Chili tastes even better after it’s had the chance to sit in your fridge for a couple of days.
- Mexican Meatball Soup reheats quickly and easily for no-fuss weeknight dinners.
- Tex-Mex Meatballs are cooked in a smoky tomato sauce and taste even better a day or two after they’re cooked.
- Buffalo Chicken Chili has a wonderful, slightly spicy flavor and reheats beautifully.
- Lemon Garlic Chicken Marinade is a great way to add flavor to your favorite cut of chicken. You can even freeze the chicken right in the marinade!
How long do meal prep recipes last in the fridge?
Some recipes keep better than others. Soup, chili, stew, curry, and tomato-based pasta sauces generally taste better a day or two after you make them so they’re ideal for meal prep.
The USDA says that all meat (chicken, fish, pork, and beef) will keep for 3-4 days in your fridge. Make sure to store it at the back of your fridge where it is the coldest.
When meal prepping vegetables, remember that salt draws out moisture and will make uncooked vegetables a limp, soggy mess. If your meal prep includes chopping vegetables, don’t salt them until you cook them.
What’s the best way to reheat meal prep recipes?
How you reheat your prepped food will depend on what it is.
Soup, chili, stew, curry, and sauces reheat best in a pot on medium-low heat. You can also use a microwave.
Things that are crispy (like this pickle brine chicken) reheat best in the oven.
Fish doesn’t typically reheat very well as it can become overcooked and dry very easily. But cold leftover fish on a salad makes an amazing lunch!
A few more meal prep recipes you don’t want to miss!
- Pulled Pork Shepherd’s Pie can be assembled days in advance and cooked when you’re ready for it. Leftovers also reheat well.
- Chicken Feta Spinach Burger Patties freeze excellently for quick dinners.
- Thai Peanut Curry reheats well for lunch or another dinner.
Yay! They all look so delicious!
Oh my lettuce wraps would make such a great meal prep, yum!! Thanks for including my recipe, Jamie 🙂
Definitely! They look amazing!!