Two Weeks of Meals to Try for Weight Loss

By Shaina Eldredge on February 23, 2018

Every two weeks I plan what my meals are going to be for the next 14 days. I plan the meals on Friday, shop for the meals on Saturday, and cook the first week’s meals that same day. I prep meals partly because of weight loss, but also because I’m away from home 14 hours Monday through Friday. I work in a cafe, but prepping my meals helps keep me from eating the high-calorie sandwiches we serve. I’ve been prepping meals for a bit now, and wanted to share some of the recipes I’ve liked and found yummy, though you can change the recipes below to best work for your diet.

The meals for the first half of this month, I’ll be honest, were kind of half-done and they weren’t as great as they should have been. This time, I decided the money would be worth it, I’d pay the extra price to make the meals the way they should have been made so that they could reach their maximum tastiness. As it turned out, I spent the same amount of money as I usually would. It was $100 for all of my meals and snacks for these two weeks, which averages out to $10 a day. Crazy. That, if you’re still doing the math, totals an average of $2 for each of the meals.

via Pixabay.com

Breakfast

“Strawberry Party”

  • 1 cup of plain yogurt
  • 1/2 cup of granola (I used vanilla)
  • 1 cup of strawberries
  • 1/2 cup of pineapple chunks

In this order, layer the ingredients in a jar until you run out: 1/4 cup yogurt, 1/4 cup granola, 1/4 cup strawberries, 1/4 cup pineapple. For me, I ended up only having one layer of pineapple in the center and two total layers of strawberries, which i won’t complain about.

This is a fruit parfait, which is actually a pretty common meal prep idea you will see. It was so good, especially since the granola absorbed some of the yogurt and just…ugh. It was good, and I’m having it again this upcoming week because it was really easy. I’m not usually a fan of pineapple, but I gave it a shot for this recipe and it really gave it a taste that it needed. I need to point out that the ingredients for this are enough for two jars of parfaits, so I suggest tripling them to make a whole week’s worth of this.

  • KCal: 275 per serving (jar). Serves: 2

“Homemade Egg McMuffin”

  • 6 English muffins
  • 6 slices of ham (I used 12 thin slices)
  • 6 eggs
  • 3 slices of swiss cheese

Bake scrambled eggs in a muffin tin at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until they’re done. You simply then assemble the sandwiches in Tupperware or wrap them with plastic wrap. Generally, with meal preps that involve eggs, I freeze them until the morning that I need them, when I let them thaw for a bit before microwaving them for a minute with the lid still on. (If you are not microwaving them in Tupperware, disassemble the sandwich and heat it up for a minute fifteen.) You can also thaw them the night before in the fridge.

The original recipe actually calls for 6 slices of cheese, but cheese is a lot of fat, and a lot of calories from fat, so I figured cutting the cheese slices in half among the sandwiches would save me quite a few calories and fat. But that’s just me, you change the recipe or follow it as you want (although the half slices covered the sandwich perfectly well).

  • KCal: >400. Serves: 6

via Pixabay.com

Lunch

“Chicken Burrito Bowls”

  • 2.5 cups lettuce
  • 1 can of corn
  • 1.25 cups of cauliflower mash (or rice)
  • a case of grape tomatoes
  • 1 can of black beans
  • 3.75 cups of chicken
All you do for this recipe is layer each of the above ingredients in lines in a really aesthetic way. I will say, you need more lettuce than you think you need, and fewer beans than you imagine. The corn is amazing, because there’s no way to mess up corn. The recipe linked mentions dressing this bowl with an avocado lime dressing, but I just used chipotle ranch which complemented the chicken and the beans so well. But use whatever dressing you want. Live your life.
  • KCal: 345. Serves: 5
  • 5 chicken breasts
  • 8 oz tomato sauce
  • 5 oz mozzarella
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • 3 cups of broccoli (for the side)
  • 1 teaspoon garlic

Mix together the tomato sauce, oregano, and garlic to make your pizza sauce (also, congrats, you now know how to make pizza sauce). Place chicken on a cookie sheet and top with the pizza sauce. Bake for about ten minutes at 375 degrees. Place the cheese on top and bake for six minutes. If you have any other toppings, add them after the cheese is cooked and cook for a couple more minutes (varies based on toppings). Serve with broccoli. Heat up for 1 minute in the microwave.

I was super excited about this recipe because I love pizza. However, I hate baked chicken. I thought that my love for pizza would overrule my hate for baked chicken, but alas, it does not. This is actually the first meal prep that I did not like at all. I couldn’t eat it without dousing it in ranch, which I haven’t eaten in years. But don’t let that deter you from trying this, because so many other people like it (I see it on so many fitness Instagrams and all the meal prep blogs have a recipe for it on their page). I just really really really don’t like baked chicken. It tastes sweaty. But if you don’t mind baked chicken, or you’re willing to grill/pan cook the chicken before putting it in the oven, then please please try it.

  • KCal: 245 (including the broccoli). Serves: 5

via Pixabay.com

Dinner

  • 2 lb of ground turkey (or beef)
  • 2 cup water
  • 2 packages of taco seasoning
  • 5 tortillas (or however many you think you need)
  • 2 onion
  • Whatever other veggies and lettuce you like

All I have written down in my recipe thing is “Make tacos!” because I already know how to make taco meat. And I guess it’s pretty obvious how to make taco meat, and then assembling the tacos is pretty self-explanatory. But if you don’t know, brown the meat and then drain the grease. Put it back in the pan at a low-ish heat and add the water, onions, and taco seasoning. And now you have taco meat.

To store these, I folded the tortilla in a triangle and then stored it in a Tupperware with the toppings (I didn’t use cheese, I generally eat cheese as sparingly as possible because of how much fat cheese has), but I very quickly learned early on that tomatoes and tortillas do not react well together stored in a Tupperware. So store those separately. I also stored the meat in a separate container simply so that nothing would get soggy. You are going to have a lot of meat per serving (the original recipe serves 8 but I’m a pig), so be prepared for it to fall apart or whatever. You’ll assemble the taco right before you eat it, after you heat up the meat for 45-60 seconds

  • KCal: ~400 (based on toppings and servings). Serves: 5
  • 3 zucchini (cut in half, so six halves)
  • 1 tbsp taco seasoning
  • 2 sticks of low-fat string cheese  (this is weird and out of place but I actually ran out of mozzarella so…)
  • 1 pound ground turkey (or beef)
  • 1/2 cup mozzarella
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 1/2 cup cream cheese

Scoop out the zucchini halves and save the scraps. Brown the meat and the zucchini remnants in a skillet. Drain and then add the water and taco seasoning. In a bowl, add the cream cheese, mozzarella, and beef. Sample the mixture and be surprised at how good it actually is. Spoon this mixture into each zucchini boat on a cookie sheet, and then bake them at 400 degrees for 30 mins. Chop up the string cheese as tiny as you can and put them on the boats when they are done cooking. Turn off the oven first and then put them back in the oven for 5 minutes to melt the cheese.

Again this is a lot of meat so I don’t really serve it with a side. I actually forget to do sides a lot, but my go-to side is usually broccoli or asparagus. But this already has plenty of veggie in the meal, too, so it just doesn’t feel like it needs much else (you be the judge of your own meals, though.) The original recipe also has onion and bell pepper in the meat mix, but I’m lazy, so I’m sure it’s even better with those things.

  • KCal: 410. Serves: 5 or 6

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