Earlier this week, we talked about making meal prep work for you and hacks for saving time in the kitchen. With that in mind, this week’s dinner plan includes a component prep guide that supports a simple approach to prepping a few easy staples—proteins, roasted veggies, and grains—that you can pull from your fridge throughout the week to assemble a variety of delicious, nutrient-packed meals.
Whether you don’t have the time to cook or are dealing with decision fatigue, this dinner plan is here to support you with one of my favorite, most realistic strategies: component prep. What is component prep? So glad you asked! Instead of cooking full recipes from start to finish, you prep a few versatile staples like proteins and grains and use them up in different meals throughout the week.
And if component prep isn’t your thing, that’s totally fine! Every recipe in the plan can also be made from start to finish on its own. Each recipe PDF walks you through both methods.
Why does it work? You get all the efficiency of prepping ahead without burning out. Your time is spent on one efficient 60ish-minute prep session, making flexible components. It’s quick and makes weeknight cooking feel more like assembling rather than cooking.
Take the pressure off. Component prep takes the pressure off making the perfect Sunday meal prep! If you’re new to prepping, or just want to try something different, this method is low effort, high reward.
The process is the same: Shop the grocery list, prep for the week using the prep day plan, then assemble dinner throughout the week. You’re setting yourself up with a handful of ready-to-go building blocks that make assembling dinner feel easy all week long.
This week’s prep day plan walks you through making four components
Ground Turkey Two Ways
Lemony Chicken Thighs
Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Lemon Basil Quinoa
Once those are done, your prep day is over! You’ll mix-and-match the components to build five different dinners throughout the week—without starting from scratch every single night. If you like this style of prepping and eating, there’s an entire archive of Ingredient Prep Guides for you to explore. If you just want to make individual recipes, just skip the prep plan!
If you’re a paid subscriber, your dinners AND breakast and lunch prep are handled this week 🤝 If you’re not yet? Try out this week! Plus, with a paid subscription you can access the ENTIRE archive.
