Meal prep usually will get a nasty rap. Visions of limitless chopping, bland containers of rooster and rice, and full Sundays spent within the kitchen could make even essentially the most enthusiastic dwelling cook dinner shrink back. However in keeping with board-certified nutritionist and classically educated chef Mia Rigden, it doesn’t need to be this manner. In truth, Mia Rigden’s meal prep ideas provide a recent strategy to simplify your week, maintain your recipes thrilling, and help your diet objectives with out the stress. For Mia, it’s not simply concerning the meals. As an alternative, it’s about creating rituals that nourish your physique and thoughts whereas retaining your meals vibrant and recent.
Mia Rigden
Mia Rigden is a Los Angeles-based board licensed nutritionist, educated chef, and the writer of The Effectively Journal (2020) and Foodwise. Rigden holds a Masters of Vitamin and Integrative Well being from the Maryland College of Integrative Well being, together with a Holistic Well being Teaching license from the Institute of Integrative Vitamin. She resides in Santa Monica, California together with her household.
Mia Rigden’s Meal Prep Suggestions for a Wholesome, Stress-Free Week
On this information, Mia shares her knowledgeable ideas for mastering meal prep in a means that feels intuitive and galvanizing. From understanding which proteins to prioritize to making a game-changing pantry, these habits are designed that will help you eat nicely with out sacrificing time or taste. Mia’s strategy redefines meal prep, proving it’s attainable to streamline your cooking routine whereas nonetheless having fun with dynamic, joy-sparking meals that go away you feeling energized and supported all through the week.
To deliver these tricks to life, Mia has additionally curated a pattern meal plan that serves as the last word reset for 2025. Suppose comforting but nourishing dishes like Hen & Lentil Soup, Wild Rice & Roasted Vegetable Salad, and Salmon Fusilli with Lemon, Capers, and Broccolini. Every recipe is designed to work in concord with the ideas she shares, providing a basis for meal prep that’s something however boring. Able to revolutionize your kitchen and embrace the facility of considerate preparation? Let’s dive in.
Psychological Prep Is the First Step
“Meal prep often turns people off because they think they’ll be spending their entire Sunday in the kitchen,” Mia tells me. “But smart meal prep shouldn’t take more than an hour or so of physical prep time.” Based on Mia, the important thing to creating it work is definitely the psychological planning. Taking simply 20 minutes to map out your meals for the week and grocery store effectively units the stage for a seamless routine.
“When you’ve planned ahead, you can repurpose proteins, vegetables, grains, and sauces to make new and exciting dishes in minimal time,” she explains. If the considered planning feels daunting, Mia suggests beginning with a framework, like her Sunday Meal Prep collection. “It does the work for you with five weekly dinner recipes and a shopping list, so you’re set up for success.”
Easy Is Nice
One of the crucial liberating items of recommendation Mia shared? Don’t overcomplicate it. “Cooking is a great hobby, but sometimes you just need to eat,” she says with amusing. To keep away from the temptation of ordering takeout, Mia recommends retaining a couple of go-to dishes in your again pocket. “Pasta, scrambled eggs, or ground turkey bowls are easy to throw together and always satisfying,” she shares.
By giving your self permission to simplify, you’ll be able to create meals which can be fast and nourishing with out the stress to whip up one thing elaborate. “Simple is often what we end up craving most anyway,” Mia provides.
Know Your Proteins
Of all of the meal elements, Mia says meal prepping proteins might be the toughest to improvise. “Vegetables can be eaten raw or sautéed, and grains can be cooked quickly,” she explains. “But if you don’t have a plan for your protein, it’ll be hard to put a quick meal together.” Her recommendation? All the time cook dinner additional. “If you’re grilling chicken, roasting salmon, or making meatballs, make enough for lunch or dinner the next day.”
Mia additionally loves the flexibility of straightforward proteins, which may simply be remodeled into utterly completely different meals with dressings and sauces. “For example, roasted salmon works beautifully with brown rice, roasted vegetables, and pesto, but it’s also excellent in a salad with kimchi, cucumber, avocado, and a sesame dressing—or tossed into pasta with broccoli rabe, lemon, and capers.”
For weeks when time is very tight, Mia leans on premade proteins. “Rotisserie chicken, tofu, frozen burger patties, or tin seafood are lifesavers,” she shares.
Preserve an Organized Pantry and Fridge
Mia emphasizes that meal prep begins together with your kitchen setup. “It is immeasurably easier and more enjoyable to cook in an organized kitchen,” she says. Should you’re committing to meal prep, contemplate it the right alternative for a pantry and fridge refresh. “A kitchen reorg is a great way to set yourself up for success and update your pantry staples,” Mia notes.
She additionally suggests entering into the behavior of a weekly fridge clean-out. “Almost-off vegetables are great in a frittata or blended into a soup,” she shares. With a tidy and well-stocked kitchen, meal prep turns into a inventive and pleasurable ritual as an alternative of a chore.
A Pattern Meal Plan to Make Prep a Breeze
You could find all of the recipes from this meal plan in our Substack interview with Mia right here. Every recipe is designed to be vibrant, straightforward to organize, and supportive of your diet objectives. (To not point out, make wholesome consuming accessible and pleasurable.) From hearty dishes to recent choices, Mia’s meal plans provide every week of scrumptious meals that can maintain you glad.
Sunday: Hen & Lentil Soup
Monday: Salmon & Roasted Inexperienced Beans with Pesto and Brown Rice
Tuesday: Wild Rice & Roasted Vegetable Salad with Hen
Wednesday: Salmon Fusilli with Lemon, Capers & Broccolini
Thursday: Grass Fed Ribeye with Fall Harvest Salad
Make forward:
Hen & Lentil Soup lasts as much as every week within the fridge (or freezer for a month!)
Pesto for the salmon
Roasted greens for the salad
Lunch concepts:
Double the soup and eat it for lunch all week.
The salmon and inexperienced beans will yield leftovers—gently reheat for lunch.
The wild rice and roasted veg salad is nice eaten chilly.
By the way in which, I’m obsessive about the meal plans that Mia shares on her Substack, Btwn Meals—they’re all the time so wholesome, easy, and actually get the inventive juices flowing should you’re caught in a dinner rut.
