30+ Healthy Meal Prep Ideas For Lunch & Dinner
A roundup of 30+ dietitian-approved easy, healthy meal prep recipe ideas for lunch and dinner. These recipes are nutritious, tasty, and perfect for making in advance – helping you save time, money, and stick to your healthy eating habits. You’ll find everything from entrée salads, pasta salads, grain bowls, stir-fries, soups, and more!
Having lunch and dinner made in advance for the week can help save you valuable time as well as money – eating out every day can really add up! Having these meals prepared can also help reduce the stress and mental burden of wondering what to make or where to get takeout after a long day at work. Of course, it also helps you stick to your health and nutrition goals in the long run.
Not sure what meals work well for meal prep? I’ve rounded up 30+ of my favourite healthy meal prep ideas for lunch and dinner in this post. These meals store easily, reheat well, and are great for packing with you to work or school.
As a dietitian, I’ve kept your nutrition in mind and ensured that these meals provide a balance of protein, healthy fats, complex carbs, and fibre-rich veggies, while still tasting absolutely delicious. These recipes are a mix of vegetarian, vegan, and pescatarian options, but many can be modified to suit your dietary needs. I hope this roundup gives you plenty of healthy meal prep ideas for lunch and dinner!
Keep scrolling to explore all the recipes, or click to get to the following sections:
Healthy Salad Recipes
Salads are a popular meal to pack for lunch, but there are always a few things I take into consideration when I’m making or packing them:
- Make sure your salad is filling + balanced, or else it’ll leave you unsatisfied and hungry an hour later. Aim to include a source of protein, healthy fat, and fibre-rich carbohydrates in your salad to make it a complete meal. I’ve made sure that the salads below are nutritionally balanced, but if you’d like to add an extra protein source to them – feel free!
- For meal prep, the number one thing is to make sure that your salad doesn’t go soggy! This might mean choosing heartier greens (like kale), having salads made with chopped vegetables + grains only (no leafy greens), or simply keeping the dressing on the side until you’re ready to eat it.
- Dressings can easily be stored in a small airtight container or glass jar. I LOVE washing out old spice jars + using them to pack salad dressings – they’re the perfect size!
- Salads can also be packed in large mason jars, with the dressing on the bottom layer. This helps to prevent the other ingredients from getting soggy, and you can shake things together when ready to eat.
- If you salad calls for avocado, add it in the morning before work or right before eating. A squeeze of lemon will also help prevent it from browning.
1) Crispy Tofu Salad With Miso Tahini Dressing
2) Broccoli, Cauliflower & Salmon Salad With CurryTahini Dressing
3) Kale Butternut Squash Salad With Farro
4) Warm Mushroom Salad With Miso Dressing
5) Roasted Broccoli Salad With Cranberry, Farro & Feta
6) Massaged Kale Salad With Roasted Sweet Potatoes
7) Cold Chopped Quinoa Salad With Eggs
8) Shrimp Taco Salad Bowl
9) Cold Soba Noodle Salad With Tempeh
Healthy Pasta Salad Recipes
One of my FAVOURITE healthy meal prep ideas = pasta salad! Pasta salads almost always hold up well and even seem to taste better the next day. They’re also meant to be enjoyed cold, which is always a plus.
Like the salads above, I’ve made sure that each of these pasta salads have a source of healthy fat and quality protein to make them a complete and satisfying meal.
To up the protein and fibre content even more, you can even choose bean- or lentil-based pastas. They’re now widely available in grocery stores! For gluten-free versions, be sure to choose gluten-free pasta noodles.
10) Roasted Vegetable Pasta Salad With Shrimp
11) No-Mayo Tuna Pasta Salad
12) Refreshing Caprese Pasta Salad
13) Tuna Pasta Salad With Pesto
14) Canned Mackerel Pasta Salad
15) Winter Pasta Salad With Roasted Vegetables
Healthy Grain Bowl Recipes
Grain bowls are awesome for lunch and dinner meal prep! The individual items can be prepared in advance, and either assembled in Tupperware containers or kept separate until serving.
Again, to make sure these are nutritionally balanced, I’ve chosen grain bowl recipes that combine quality proteins, healthy fats, fibre-rich whole grains, and lots of veggies! Each of these recipes have unique flavour combinations as well.
16) Shrimp & Broccoli With Lemon, Honey & Feta
17) Cheesy Butternut Squash Rice With Shrimp
18) Green Goddess Rice Bowl With Shrimp
19) Chimichurri Grain Bowl With Eggs
20) Pesto Quinoa Bowl
21) Kimchi Quinoa Bowl
22) Shrimp With Tomato Sauce, Feta & Rice
23) Vegan Noodle Bowl With Spicy Peanut Sauce
Make-Ahead Sandwich Fillings
Sometimes there nothing that hits the spot like a good sandwich! Healthy sandwich fillings can be made in advance, kept in the fridge, and then added to your sandwich either in the morning or right before eating.
When making a sandwich, I recommend choosing a high-quality, fibre-rich whole grain bread. Some of my favourite brands are Good For Life Bakery and Silver Hills – I always keep a loaf or two of these in my freezer.
If you’d prefer, you can also add these sandwich fillings to a lettuce/collard wrap, whole wheat pita, or as a salad topping. Changing things up can be a great way to combat taste fatigue in meal prep!
24) Avocado Egg Salad Sandwich
25) High Protein Tuna Salad
Healthy Stir Fry Recipes
Stir-fries are the ultimate easy weeknight dinner or lunch idea. The flavour combinations are endless, you can get so many colourful vegetables in, and they are super easy to reheat (the stovetop or microwave often work well).
Like all the recipes in this roundup, I’ve focused on stir-fries that are balanced in nutrition! The two below are vegetarian, but if you prefer meat, you can easily swap out the tempeh or tofu.
26) Tempeh Stir-Fry With Miso Peanut Sauce
27) Tempeh Stir-Fry With Spicy Coconut Sauce
Make-Ahead Soups, Chilis, Casseroles & Curries
If you’re meal prepping in the winter months, you might be craving something cozy and warm! There’s nothing like coming home after a long, cold day to something warming and nutritious.
Soups can easily be prepped in advance and stored in the fridge for a few days, or in the freezer for longer. A great thing about soups is that they reheat great in the microwave or on the stove.
Again, I’ve made sure these soups and chilis are nutritious and filling to make them a complete meal (not all soups are!)
28) No-Bean Vegan Chili
29) Vegan Tofu Coconut Curry
30) Miso Ramen Noodle Soup
31) Vegetarian Spaghetti Squash Casserole
More Meal Prep Ideas
- 35 Dietitian-Approved Healthy Breakfast Meal Prep Ideas
- 27 Healthy Make-Ahead Snack Recipes
- 25 Meal Prep Components To Mix & Match
- How To Meal Prep With Eggs
I hope this post has given you tons of healthy meal prep ideas for lunch and dinner! If you include any of these recipes in your weekly meal prep, let me know in the comments below. Be sure to follow along on Instagram and Pinterest for more nutrition tips and simple, healthy recipe ideas.
Get the Recipe: 30+ Healthy Meal Prep Ideas For Lunch & Dinner, Including Vegan Chili
Ingredients
- 2 packs tempeh (approx. 400g or 14 oz)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 small onion, diced (optional)
- 2 Tbsp chili powder
- 1 Tbsp smoked paprika
- 2 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp oregano
- 1.5 cups carrots, chopped (about 3 large)
- 1.5 cups celery, chopped (about 3 large)
- 2 med-large bell peppers, chopped
- 2 cups cremini mushrooms, quartered
- 1 can corn (approx. 398 ml or 14 fl oz)
- 1 large can crushed or diced tomatoes (approx. 796 ml or 26.9 fl oz)
- 1 + 1/4 cup vegetable broth
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
- Salt + pepper, to taste
- For serving (optional): avocado, limes, yogurt, sour cream, bread, grains, tortilla chips, shredded cheese, etc.
Instructions
- Start this recipe by prepping all your ingredients – crumble the tempeh into small pieces with your hands, chop all the vegetables, and get all your spices ready to go.
- Heat up a LARGE pot on the stove and add the olive oil, garlic, onion, chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, and oregano. Stir for 1-2 minutes before adding crumbled tempeh to the pot. Stir and cook for 5 mins.
- Next, add in all the chopped veggies, along with the canned tomatoes, corn, vegetable broth, and tomato paste. Stir everything together well, adding salt + pepper to taste.
- Bring the liquids to a boil before lowering the heat to a simmer. Allow the chili to simmer (uncovered) for 60 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- When 60 minutes are up, turn off the heat, stir in nutritional yeast, and allow the chili to rest for 5-10 mins before serving. Add toppings as desired!
Notes
- Feel free to swap veggies as desired. Don’t feel like one of those listed here? That’s ok! Just increase the servings of the other vegetables.
- Don’t want to use tempeh? You could try this with crumbled tofu, a vegan meat crumble, or ground meat if you aren’t vegan/vegetarian.
- I didn’t include onion + beans because I can’t digest them. If you tolerate these ingredients – feel free to add them in!
- a starch, like quinoa, farro, rice, toasted bread, cornbread, or tortilla chips
- shredded cheddar cheese or vegan alternative
- a scoop of greek yogurt or vegan alternative
- toppings, like avocado chunks, limes (to squeeze in), cilantro or parsley
Did you make this recipe?
Let me know by leaving a recipe rating below, or by tagging @walderwellness on Instagram. I love seeing your beautiful creations!
