When it comes to clean eating, planning is 95% of the game for me. I have to prep for success. Until I started sitting down and actually writing down a meal plan/grocery list, clean eating was always just a “I can always start tomorrow” type of mentality. Sunday night would come and I would say that tomorrow I would start fresh and eating better, then Monday would come and somehow I would end up getting takeout (usually something unhealthy) after a day of running around with no time to think about a healthier alternative.

So here are 5 tips to prep for a week of clean eating!

(1) HAVE HEALTHY, NON (or longer shelf life) PERISHABLE OPTIONS AVAILABLE AT ALL TIMES

To set yourself up for a successful week of clean eating, always have a non perishable option at your house for Monday morning breakfast. I always have steel cut oatmeal in my pantry and smoothie rations in my freezer! If you start the week off with something healthy, chances are WAAAAAY better you will continue down the healthy eating path. For me, Sundays are ALWAYS my meal planning day. Before I go to bed on Sunday, I always have my meal plan game plan locked and loaded for Monday morning. If Sunday doesn’t work for you, having that first healthy meal already at your house for Monday morning makes a world of difference. Then you can plan out the rest of your week Monday morning/afternoon! Here are 5 non-perishable healthy options:

1. Steel cut oatmeal
2. Smoothie rations – frozen berries, frozen bananas, washed and frozen kale, almond milk (lasts FOREVERRRR in the fridge), ground flax seed, protein powder, etc.
3. Nuts – almonds, walnuts, and brazil nuts are great healthy + filling snacks. I love to eat nuts with an orange as a snack
4. Canned beans – one of my favorite easy salads is kidney beans + black beans + onion + balsamic vinegar + olive oil + garlic powder + salt & pepper
5. Ancient grains – I always have some grains/quinoa in the pantry for easy quick meals when I don’t have time to go to the grocery store. I will make a quinoa bowl with some frozen meat/rotisserie chicken and whatever veggies I have laying around the kitchen

(2) PLAN PLAN PLAN

If you are a meal planner or trying to become one, Pinterest is your friend. The first place I start for a week of meal planning is always Pinterest. Every week, I have some idea of the type of meal plan I want to do. Whether it’s a no sugar week (HERE), an anti-inflammatory meal plan (HERE), or a busy week meal plan (HERE). I type it into Pinterest to get some Pinspiration and go from there! See my Pinterest food board HERE for some meal inspiration!

(3) MAKE TIME FOR YOUR GROCERY TRIP

So I feel a little silly adding this into the tips because it seems so obvious, but my meal plan is most likely to fall off the rails at this step. Monday comes and life intervenes and before I know it, it’s dinner time and I have not had time to go to the grocery store. Now, a grocery run is always part of the schedule for Monday. If I know my Monday is packed, it’s added to the Sunday lineup. Which brings me to #4…

(4) MONDAY NIGHT DINNER SHOULD BE EASSSSSSY AF

Let’s be honest, Monday is the worst day of the week. So much to do to catch up from the weekend or plan for the week, so don’t add an elaborate dinner to your to-do list. My Monday night meal takes 20 minutes or less. Here are 5 of my favorite Monday night meals:

1. freezer meals – we always have a couple healthy meals made and ready to go in the freezer (like chili, turkey meatballs, chicken curry, fajitas…)
2. rotisserie chicken salads – I don’t know if there is anything better than a warm + fresh rotisserie chicken! My favorite easy Monday night meal would have to be a big salad with some fresh rotisserie chicken. I also love having the leftover chicken for the rest of the week!
3. tacos – it takes about 10 minutes to brown ground chicken, turkey or beef on the stove. So the Geoffrion house has tacos Mondays all the time.
4. poke bowls – poke bowls are one of my favorite meals of all time. Since they require raw fish, I only like to eat them fresh the day I grocery shop. Which means they are the perfect Monday night meal. My go to poke bowls are salmon or tuna with either shredded cabbage or white rice as the base! Sometime I will even make my rice and marinade before hand, so it is 100% ready to go for a quick 5 minute prep on Monday night.
5. caprese salad – if you follow me on instagram and watch my stories, you know this is one of my favorite meals of all time. I have it for lunch at least once a week. But sometimes it is the perfect quick Monday night meal.

(5) PREP YOUR FOOD FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK BEFORE YOU GO TO SLEEP ON MONDAY

Like I said, Monday kind of sucks. But there is no better feeling in this world than going to sleep on a Monday night feeling like you already accomplished so much. After bb goes to sleep on Monday, I finish meal prepping for the rest of the week. Whether it is washing lettuce or produce, grilling chicken, or freezing a meal for later in the week, I want as much done as possible so the rest of the week feels like a breeze.

I am sitting at the airport in Florida after 10 days of food, wine and more wine, so this week’s meal plan needs to be super clean. But I am also dead tired after the best time at my BFFs bachelorette party, so I know my meal plan needs to be really easy. Most weeks, I know that a full blown meal plan where every single meal is planned is a recipe for failure. I like to plan out healthy options but leave some flexibility. But usually Monday is fully planned, to avoid slipping back into unhealthy habits. Here is my game plan for this week:

MONDAY

breakfast – oatmeal (making a large batch for the entire family for the rest of the week)

lunch – smoothie

snack – orange + nuts

dinner – chopped salad (escarole, frisee,  endive, avocado, radish, chives or scallions + rotisserie chicken)

salad dressing – evoo, champagne vinegar, shallots, drop of honey, dijon mustard, salt + pepper (I will make enough for two other salads throughout the week) 

REST OF THE WEEK…

BREAKFASTS

oatmeal

smoothies

LUNCHES

avocado toast + lemon + red pepper flakes + fried egg

champagne vinaigrette salads

DINNERS

grilled salmon (I love going on vacation, for many reasons, but also because it reminds me of meals I have not made in a while. We have been baking our salmon as of late, but this weekend we grilled the salmon and it was delish. We just rubbed olive oil and herbes de Provence seasoning on the salmon and threw it on the grill!) + oven roasted potatoes + veggies (going to roast a big batch of veggies monday night to eat at later dinners and throughout the week on salads/for snacks!)

a friend made these AMAZING oven roasted fingerling potatoes over the weekend and I am already craving them again, so they are definitely going on this week’s meal plan. Super easy, you just cut fingerling potatoes into bite sized pieces, toss them in olive oil and a packet of lipton’s onion soup spice mix (I am going to see if I can find a comparable spice pack at whole foods) and bake them in a baking or roasting pan at 425 degrees for about 35 minutes or until they are nice and crispy! 

escarole salad + apple + avocado + walnuts + chives

roasted veggie salad (I toss a bunch of roasted veggies with avocado and vinaigrette and it makes the best, hearty + fresh salad)

SNACKS

orange + nuts

grapefruit

strawberries + dark chocolate

GROCERY LIST

frisee

endive

escarole

avocado

radish

scallions

apple

chives

orange

grapefruit

cauliflower

zucchini

brussel sprouts

turnips

onions

fingerling potatoes

beets

blueberries

strawberries

salmon

eggs

rotisserie chicken

lipton’s onion soup mix (or comparable)

ALREADY HAVE IN MY PANTRY

champagne vinegar

dijon mustard

herbes de provence

dark chocolate