It’s no secret that meal prepping is something that I promote and is a routine that I follow a meal prep routine each week. There are so many advantages to meal prepping – the time saved, the ease of meal choices throughout the week, the increased healthfulness of the meals. etc.
There is one downside to meal prep that I do hear fairly often – “don’t you get sick of the same meal over and over again?”
The answer is yes, I would – if I was eating the same starch, protein and veggies each day. However, this doesn’t have to be the case with each meal prep routine!
It is possible to enjoy satisfying, flavourful, and filling dishes every day of the week. And thanks to meal prep, you can do this without sacrificing time, money, and energy.
Here are my tips for adding variety while meal prepping:
- Multi-Purpose Veggies
I find veggies the most time-consuming ingredient to prep. Maybe it’s all the chopping and peeling that I dislike? Do you find this?
In this weeks meal prep, I used the same veggies in the stir fry and the pasta. Another bonus: the veggies I used were sheet pan roasted veggies (anything sheet-pan = win!) I simply dumped some broccoli, red pepper and onion on two baking sheets and put them in the oven.
- Toppings Remix
I made a few pasta dishes this week with the same veggies and same protein. However to add that variety in, I used a classic tomato sauce on some and pesto on another! This worked so well in switching up the flavour profile – and was next to no effort on my end.
From sauces, to marinades, dips to spices – there are endless amounts of ways to add a change of flavour to your meal prep creations!
- Mix In Frozen Meals
The next time you are cooking a stir fry, curry or pot of soup, consider doubling it up, portioning out and freezing half. Setting up a freezer stash of lunches means that you can rotate meals in through your week for some variety. You don’t have to worry about shelf life as much, as that changes from days to months!
Check out my favourite freezer-friendly meals here!
- Protein Mash-Up
Change up the protein in your dishes, just like you will be changing up your toppings. I normally recommend having 2-3 different protein sources for each week. I used the edamame in the stir fry and pasta, but for my salad, I’m using both tofu and tempeh. These both have different textures and flavours (tempeh is more of a nutty flavour while tofu doesn’t have a strong flavour) so you will definitely feel like you have some variety.
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