If you have ever opened the fridge at 6pm, stared at a block of cheese and some leftover rice, and ordered a takeaway anyway, this is for you. The Lazy Prep method is the system from my free starter kit, published here in full: one relaxed batch-cooking session, a handful of UK supermarket staples, and a week of high-protein meals you assemble in minutes rather than cook from scratch. If you would rather have it as a printable kit with a tick-off shopping list, it's free here.

The method in one paragraph

Batch cook two proteins and two or three vegetables once a week. Cook a pot of rice or bulgur at the same time, and boil some eggs while the oven does the work. Then, all week, you mix and match those ingredients into bowls, salads and wraps, changing the sauce so the same food never tastes the same twice. No complicated recipes, no obscure ingredients, and no spending your whole Sunday trapped in the kitchen.

Why high protein, and how much

Protein is the part of your plate that works hardest for you. Eat enough of it at every meal and you stop snacking mindlessly, your muscles recover properly from training, and you feel in control of your eating without counting a single calorie. That is the whole reason this method is built around it.

The target I give my clients is simple: 25 to 40g of protein per meal. Every meal in this guide gets you into that range without tracking anything.

The formula: build-your-own bowl

Every Lazy Prep meal follows one formula:

1 protein + 1 carb + 1 or 2 veg + a sauce or seasoning

Choose one from each and combine. Roast chicken with rice, broccoli and tahini-lemon is a completely different dinner from roast chicken with rice, broccoli and soy-sesame-garlic, and neither takes more than five minutes to put together.

The one prep session that sets up your week

Set aside about an hour, most of which is the oven working while you do something else. Here is the exact session:

  • Preheat the oven to 200°C. One tray of chicken (about 700g of breasts or thighs), one tray of veg: butternut, sweet potato and broccoli, or a mix of peppers, courgette and red onion. Roast for 25 to 35 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the veg has some colour.
  • While that roasts, brown about 500g of beef or turkey mince on the hob. Keep it plainly seasoned, then season it differently each time you use it.
  • Cook a pot of rice or bulgur wheat.
  • Boil six eggs.
  • Cool everything, portion it into containers, and refrigerate.
  • Keep tinned tuna, wraps, Greek yoghurt and snacks stocked for the zero-prep days.

Cooked food keeps for three to four days in the fridge, which is why I run this as one main session on a Sunday plus a 20-minute top-up around Wednesday: boil a few more eggs, restock yoghurt, and cook the back half of the week's fish fresh, straight from the freezer into the air fryer. Cool rice quickly, keep it cold, and reheat it until piping hot, once only.

The 7-day Lazy Prep plan

This is the week straight out of the kit. Notice how the same batch ingredients keep reappearing dressed as different meals.

  • Monday: eggs and avocado · chicken salad bowl with leaves, roast veg and tahini · beef mince with sweet potato and broccoli · snack: protein smoothie
  • Tuesday: yoghurt with berries and nuts · beef and rice bowl with roast veg · air-fryer fish with butternut and salad · snack: biltong
  • Wednesday: scrambled eggs and tomatoes · chicken wrap with slaw and avocado · tuna with bulgur, roast veg and lemon · snack: cheese and ham
  • Thursday: overnight oats with berries · beef with sweet potato and broccoli · chicken with mixed roast veg and tahini · snack: hummus and cucumber
  • Friday: yoghurt and a boiled egg · tuna salad with leaves, cucumber, tomato and egg · beef chilli bowl with rice and veg · snack: cottage cheese and crackers
  • Saturday: eggs with a roast-veg hash · chicken and roast veg bowl · air-fryer fish with butternut and broccoli · snack: nuts
  • Sunday: yoghurt and berries · leftover chicken wrap or bowl · rest day: eggs and veg, or eat out and enjoy it · snack: fruit and nut butter

Five bowls to start with

Each of these comes together from the batch session in about five minutes. A portion of roast chicken is roughly a quarter of the 700g batch; a portion of mince is about a quarter of the 500g.

The chicken salad bowl

A big handful of salad leaves, a portion of roast chicken, a scoop of roast veg, and tahini let down with lemon juice drizzled over the lot. Add a boiled egg if you trained that day.

The beef chilli bowl

Reheat a portion of mince with garlic, chilli flakes and a splash of water until piping hot. Serve it on rice with roast veg, and cool it down with a spoonful of Greek yoghurt stirred with garlic.

The tuna, bulgur and lemon bowl

A tin of tuna, a portion of bulgur wheat, roast veg, olive oil and a proper squeeze of lemon. The entire meal is assembly; nothing gets cooked.

The chicken slaw wrap

A wrap, a handful of slaw, a portion of roast chicken, half an avocado and your favourite hot sauce. Lunch in about ninety seconds.

Air-fryer fish with butternut

A fish fillet straight from the freezer into the air fryer while you reheat roast butternut and broccoli. Finish with lemon, olive oil and black pepper. This is the cook-fresh dinner for the back half of the week.

Sauces that stop it ever getting boring

Batch cooking fails when every meal tastes identical by Thursday. The fix is not more cooking, it is more sauces. Keep a few of these within reach:

  • Soy, sesame oil and garlic: works instantly with chicken, beef or rice.
  • Tahini and lemon: drizzle over anything; it makes veg taste luxurious.
  • Olive oil, lemon and herbs: classic, fresh, never wrong.
  • Harissa paste: a teaspoon transforms any bowl, especially chicken or eggs.
  • Hot sauce: Cholula, Tabasco or sriracha, whichever is your favourite.
  • Greek yoghurt and garlic: the cooling sauce for spicy bowls and sweet potato.

The shopping list

This serves one person for a week of mix-and-match meals. Pick two proteins to batch and two or three veg; you do not need everything on the list.

  • Proteins: chicken breast or thighs (about 700g), beef or turkey mince (about 500g), 6 to 8 eggs, 2 to 3 tins of tuna, and 2 to 3 fish fillets for the freezer.
  • Veg: 1 to 2 heads of broccoli, butternut and sweet potato for a roasting tray, mixed roasting veg (peppers, courgette, red onion), 1 to 2 bags of salad leaves or slaw, plus cucumber, tomatoes and avocado.
  • Carbs: rice or bulgur wheat, and wraps or tortillas.
  • Snacks and extras: Greek yoghurt and berries, cottage cheese and crackers, cheese, ham and biltong, nuts and nut butter, hummus, and protein powder and oats.
  • Flavour: olive oil, garlic and lemon, plus tahini, chilli flakes or hot sauce.

Everything here is a normal UK supermarket staple. Nothing on that list needs a health food shop.

Questions, answered

How do I get 25 to 40g of protein into every meal?

Build every meal around one proper protein portion: a quarter of a 700g chicken batch, a quarter of a 500g mince batch, a tin of tuna, a fish fillet, or eggs backed up by yoghurt or cottage cheese. If a meal feels light, add a boiled egg, a spoonful of cottage cheese or a protein smoothie alongside it rather than rebuilding the meal.

How long does meal prep keep in the fridge?

Three to four days is the sensible window for cooked food, which is exactly why this method uses one main session plus a short midweek top-up rather than cooking seven days of food on a Sunday. Freeze anything you want at the end of the week, cool rice quickly and keep it cold, and reheat leftovers until piping hot, once only.

What should I actually batch cook for the week?

Two proteins and two or three vegetables, plus a pot of rice or bulgur and some boiled eggs. That is deliberately modest: batching a small number of flexible ingredients keeps the session to about an hour and stops the food boring you by Thursday.

Is high-protein meal prep expensive in the UK?

It is usually cheaper than the week it replaces. Mince, eggs, tinned tuna and frozen fish fillets are among the cheapest proteins in a UK supermarket, a roasting tray of veg costs a few pounds, and every takeaway the plan quietly deletes pays for a chunk of the shop.

Can I do this as a vegetarian?

Yes, and the formula does not change. Swap the chicken and mince for eggs, Greek yoghurt, cottage cheese, tofu, halloumi or a batch of lentils and beans, and keep the same 25 to 40g target per meal. It takes a little more attention to hit the number, which is exactly what the smoothie and yoghurt snacks are for.

Want the printable version?

This whole system comes from my free Lazy Prep Starter Kit: the 7-day plan, the tick-as-you-shop list, the sauce ideas and the weekly checklist, laid out as a kit you can stick to the fridge. Grab it free here and it lands in your inbox straight away.

And if the food side is sorted but the training side is not, that is literally my job: strength, nutrition and habits coached one to one, fully online across the UK, through my online personal training.