Paleo Meal Prep Plan
Meal prep is not cooking seven dinners in advance. It is cooking components — protein, roast vegetables, eggs, a sauce — that assemble into different meals all week.
Goal
Duration
Max cooking time
Budget
People
Estimated 1657 kcal and 110 g protein per person per day. Figures are rough planning estimates, not measured values.
Your 7-day Paleo meal plan
| Day | Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner | Snack |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Hard-boiled eggs + fruit | Chicken & roasted sweet potato box | Pork chops & apple slaw | Leftover chicken strips |
| Tuesday | 2-ingredient banana pancakes | Ground beef taco bowl | Paleo meatballs & zucchini noodles | Banana + almond butter |
| Wednesday | Sweet potato & sausage hash | Egg salad plate | Turkey & vegetable chili | Tuna on cucumber rounds |
| Thursday | Make-ahead egg muffins | Chicken & vegetable soup | Beef & roasted vegetables | Celery + almond butter |
| Friday | Eggs & avocado | Beef patties & slaw | Roast chicken & root vegetables | Beef jerky + fruit |
| Saturday | Coconut chia pudding | Chicken salad bowl | Baked white fish & greens | Carrots + guacamole |
| Sunday | Spinach & mushroom omelette | Turkey lettuce wraps | Sheet-pan chicken thighs & broccoli | Olives + walnuts |
Grocery list
Scaled for 2 people across 7 days.
Meat & Protein
- Beef jerky (no added sugar) — 80 g
- Beef steak or stewing beef — 320 g
- Canned tuna — 1 can
- Chicken breast — 1040 g
- Chicken thighs — 4 thighs
- Eggs — 35 eggs
- Ground beef — 900 g
- Ground turkey — 300 g
- Pork chops — 2 chop
- Pork sausage (no additives) — 200 g
- Turkey breast — 280 g
- White fish fillet (cod) — 340 g
- Whole chicken — 0.5 chicken
Vegetables & Fruit
- Apples — 5 apple
- Avocado — 4 avocado
- Banana — 4 banana
- Bell peppers — 4 pepper
- Broccoli — 2 head
- Cabbage — 0.8 head
- Carrots — 6 carrot
- Carrots — 8 carrots
- Celery — 2 stalk
- Celery — 4 stalks
- Cucumber — 1.6 cucumber
- Frozen berries — 1 cup
- Garlic — 4 cloves
- Lemons — 1.5 lemon
- Lettuce (romaine) — 1.2 head
- Mixed salad leaves — 8 handfuls
- Mushrooms — 120 g
- Onion — 1.5 onion
- Spinach — 4 handful
- Spinach — 4 handfuls
- Sweet potatoes — 6 medium
- Tomatoes — 2 tomato
- Zucchini — 3 zucchini
Pantry
- Almond butter — 4 tbsp
- Chia seeds — 6 tbsp
- Chicken broth — 3 cups
- Coconut milk — 1.5 cup
- Coconut oil — 2 tsp
- Crushed tomatoes — 2 can
- Ground cumin — 4 tsp
- Olive oil — 14 tbsp
- Olive oil — 6 tsp
- Walnuts — 50 g
Fridge & Extras
- Olives — 100 g
Sunday 60-minute meal prep
Cook these components once and the rest of the week is assembly.
- 1. Hard-boiled eggs + fruitBoil eggs 9 minutes in a batch on Sunday; grab with a piece of fruit.
- 2. Chicken & roasted sweet potato boxAssemble from Sunday prep: chicken, roast sweet potato, roast broccoli.
- 3. Leftover chicken stripsSliced cold roast chicken from the Sunday batch.
- 4. Ground beef taco bowlBrown ground beef with cumin and paprika, spoon over shredded lettuce and salsa.
- 5. Paleo meatballs & zucchini noodlesBake beef meatballs bound with egg, simmer in crushed tomatoes, serve over zoodles.
- 6. Banana + almond butterSliced banana with a spoon of almond butter.
The 60-minute order of operations
Run these in parallel rather than one after another.
- 0:00 — Oven to 200C. Sweet potatoes and broccoli onto two trays, in they go
- 0:05 — Eggs on to boil, 9 minutes, then into cold water
- 0:10 — Chicken thighs or breasts into the oven on a third tray
- 0:20 — Brown ground beef with cumin and paprika on the hob
- 0:35 — Chop raw salad vegetables and store dry in containers
- 0:45 — Everything out, cooled uncovered for 10 minutes
- 0:55 — Portion into containers, label the day you cooked it
How long prepped food keeps
Cooked chicken and beef: three to four days refrigerated. Boiled eggs in shell: up to a week. Roast vegetables: three to four days. Cut salad: two to three days if kept dry.
Anything you will not eat by Thursday should go in the freezer on Sunday, not on Wednesday when it is already old.
Turning components into meals
Roast chicken plus salad is lunch. The same chicken plus roast sweet potato and broccoli is dinner. Ground beef plus lettuce is a taco bowl; the same beef plus tomatoes and courgette is a skillet dinner. Boiled eggs are breakfast, snack, or an addition to any salad.
Frequently asked questions
- How long does Paleo meal prep take?
- About an hour of active time for a week of components for two people, most of which is oven time you can walk away from.
- What containers should I use?
- Glass containers with sealing lids reheat better and do not stain. Any airtight container works.
- Can you freeze Paleo meals?
- Yes. Chili, meatballs, soups and cooked ground meat freeze well. Salad, avocado and cooked egg white do not.
- Should I prep breakfast too?
- Egg muffins and chia pudding are the two that hold up for several days, which removes the most rushed decision of the day.
Keep planning
- Paleo Meal Plan: A Simple 7-Day Plan for BeginnersBuild a free Paleo meal plan in seconds: 7 days of simple meals, an automatic grocery list, Sunday meal prep and a printable version.
- Paleo Breakfast Meal PrepMake-ahead Paleo breakfasts that keep for days: egg muffins, chia pudding, boiled eggs and hash components.
- Paleo Lunch Meal PrepPrep five Paleo lunches in an hour using batch proteins, roast vegetables and containers that survive the commute.
- Paleo Dinner Meal PrepBatch-cook Paleo dinners that reheat well, freeze cleanly and turn into next-day lunches without tasting like leftovers.
- 7-Day Paleo Meal PlanA full week of Paleo meals — breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack for seven days — with an automatic grocery list and prep sheet.
- Paleo Grocery ListA complete Paleo grocery list by aisle, plus a generated shopping list that matches whatever meal plan you build.