5-Day Pescatarian Meal Prep Plan
I batch cook and freeze more or less obsessively, so a meal prep plan was always going to end up on here. This one covers a working week, Monday to Friday, for two of us: breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack, built around one Sunday session of about two hours. The lunches go into Tupperware the night before, which is how I take my lunch to work anyway.
The fish is the part that needs thinking about. It is tempting to cook everything on a Sunday and assume it will all still be fine on Friday, but the FSA’s advice is to eat cooked leftovers within 48 hours or freeze them, and that covers fish as much as anything else. A fillet of white fish is also the last thing I would want to cook on Sunday and reheat on Thursday. So this plan is honest about what happens when. Some things are made on Sunday and eaten early in the week, some go straight into the freezer, and the fresh fish is cooked on the night, in half an hour or less.
Breakfast is split down the middle. Matt won’t eat bread or anything sweet in the mornings, so the overnight oats are mine and he has egg muffins, which is exactly what the smoked salmon ones were invented for. By Thursday I have run out of oats and join him.
What gets cooked on Sunday, and what doesn’t
There are three kinds of food in this plan. The first is made on Sunday for the fridge: the overnight oats, the tuna and white bean pâté, nine of the egg muffins and Monday’s tuna pesto pasta. Each one is eaten inside its own recipe’s keeping time (three days for the oats and the pâté, three to four for the muffins) or, for the pasta, the next day.
The second is made on Sunday for the freezer: the spiced parsnip and apple soup, the roast garlic and butter bean dip and the rest of the egg muffins. Each portion comes out the night before it is needed and thaws in the fridge. The FSA says to use food within 24 hours of it defrosting, so nothing comes out early.
The third is cooked on the night. The salmon fish cakes are the halfway house, shaped on Sunday and baked on Monday, because the recipe says they can sit in the fridge overnight before cooking. The cod, tilapia and sea bass are cooked fresh on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The FSA says you can freeze food right up to midnight on its use-by date, so any fillet you won’t cook by then goes into the freezer when you get it home, and comes out into the fridge the night before. Buying it frozen works just as well. Friday’s dinner has no fish in it at all.
Calories, protein and oily fish
Every calorie and protein figure comes from the recipe card it links to, and those are worked out ingredient by ingredient from the USDA’s FoodData Central database. The extras that are not recipes (bread, rice, fruit, tortillas and carrot sticks) are counted the same way. The days land between about 1,570 and 1,770 calories a person, with 64 to 88g of protein.
That is under the NHS’s average of 2,000 calories a day for women and 2,500 for men, so if you have a big appetite (Matt does), an extra slice of bread with the soup or another piece of fruit is the easy fix. On Monday to Wednesday the breakfast figure is my overnight oats. Matt’s three egg muffins come to 354 calories and 24g of protein, so his day is 15 calories and 12g of protein higher than mine.
The week has about 1.6 portions of oily fish a person, all of it salmon, in the fish cakes and Friday’s egg muffins. The NHS recommends at least two portions of fish a week, one of them oily, and no more than two portions of oily fish for girls and women who are pregnant, breastfeeding or may become pregnant, so the week as written is inside that limit. The one change to avoid if that includes you is putting salmon under the miso glaze on Tuesday instead of cod, which the recipe suggests you can do. That would take the week past two.
The week at a glance
Everything below is per person. The shopping list at the end covers two people for the whole week, including Matt’s egg muffins on the days I have oats.
| Day | Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner | Snack | Calories | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1: Monday | Overnight Oats Three Ways | Tuna and Pesto Pasta | 2x Salmon Fish Cakes | Tuna and White Bean Pâté + Carrot sticks (80g) + an apple | 1,713 | 79g |
| Day 2: Tuesday | Overnight Oats Three Ways | 2x Salmon Fish Cakes | Miso Glazed Cod with Sesame Greens + Basmati rice (150g cooked) | Tuna and White Bean Pâté + Carrot sticks (80g) + a banana | 1,645 | 87g |
| Day 3: Wednesday | Overnight Oats Three Ways | Spiced Parsnip and Apple Soup + 2 slices of wholemeal bread | 2x Tilapia Fish Tacos + 2 small corn tortillas | Tuna and White Bean Pâté + Carrot sticks (80g) + an apple | 1,766 | 88g |
| Day 4: Thursday | 3x Spanish Style Egg Muffins | Greek Chickpea Salad + 2 slices of wholemeal bread | Pan-Fried Sea Bass with Crushed New Potatoes and Samphire | Roast Garlic and Butter Bean Dip + Carrot sticks (80g) + a banana | 1,568 | 79g |
| Day 5: Friday | 3x Smoked Salmon Egg Muffins | Spiced Parsnip and Apple Soup + 2 slices of wholemeal bread | Teriyaki Stir Fry + Basmati rice (150g cooked) | Roast Garlic and Butter Bean Dip + Carrot sticks (80g) + an apple | 1,731 | 64g |
The Sunday prep session
This is the order that fits into about two hours, with one oven at 200C and a four-ring hob. The things that roast go in first, the hob work happens while they roast, and the no-cook jobs fill the gaps at the end. One food processor does the pesto, the pâté and the dip, with a rinse in between.
Cool everything that has been cooked in smaller tubs rather than one big pot. The FSA’s advice is to cool cooked food at room temperature and get it into the fridge or freezer within one to two hours, and splitting it up is what makes it cool quickly.
| Time | What to do |
|---|---|
| 0:00 | Oven on at 200C. Toss the parsnips in oil and salt on a tray and wrap the head of garlic for the dip in a foil parcel. Both go in: the parsnips for 25 minutes, the garlic for 40. Put the fish cake potatoes on to boil for about 30 minutes. |
| 0:05 | Poach the salmon in the milk with the butter and half the dill for 10 minutes, then lift it out and keep the milk. Chop the onion and apples for the soup while it cooks. |
| 0:15 | Soften the soup onion over a low heat for 8 minutes, then stir in the cumin and coriander. Chop the vegetables for both kinds of egg muffin. |
| 0:25 | Apples onto the parsnip tray for their last 10 minutes. Sweat the Spanish muffin vegetables in one pan and the onion and mushrooms in another, then take both off the heat to cool. |
| 0:35 | Parsnips and apple into the soup pan with the stock, simmer for 5 minutes and blitz. Leave the cream out, as the recipe suggests for freezing. |
| 0:40 | Garlic out. Drain and mash the potatoes with the poaching milk, mix in the flaked salmon and shape eight fish cakes. Into the fridge for 15 minutes. |
| 0:50 | Beat 24 eggs in two bowls (18 for three batches of Spanish muffins, 6 for one batch of smoked salmon), stir in the vegetables and fill two 12-hole muffin tins. About 15 minutes in the oven. |
| 0:55 | Pasta on, a third of the recipe. Blitz the rocket pesto, then stir the pasta, pesto and tuna together over a low heat. |
| 1:05 | Muffins out to cool on a rack. Crumb the fish cakes and put them in a covered box in the fridge for Monday. |
| 1:10 | Tuna and white bean pâté, then the dip: squeeze the roasted garlic straight into the processor with the butter beans. |
| 1:25 | Overnight oats, three jars. |
| 1:35 | Portion, label and put everything away as in the table below. |
Where everything goes, and when it’s eaten
Label everything that goes into the freezer, which is the FSA’s advice and also the only way to tell parsnip soup from roast garlic dip once both are frozen solid. Store raw fish in its packaging or a sealed container on the bottom shelf of the fridge, so it can’t drip onto anything else.
| What | Where it goes | When it’s eaten | Why that’s fine |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overnight oats, 3 jars | Fridge | My breakfast, Monday to Wednesday | The recipe says they keep for three days |
| Spanish egg muffins, 9 | Fridge | Matt’s breakfast, Monday to Wednesday | The recipe says three to four days in the fridge |
| Tuna pesto pasta, 2 tubs | Fridge | Monday lunch | Eaten the next day, well inside the FSA’s 48 hours |
| Tuna and white bean pâté | Fridge, covered | Snacks, Monday to Wednesday | The recipe says three days, covered |
| Salmon fish cakes, 8, uncooked | Fridge, covered | All baked on Monday: four for dinner, four for Tuesday’s lunch | The recipe says they can be made the night before; Tuesday is within 48 hours of baking |
| Spiced parsnip and apple soup, 4 portions, no cream | Freezer | Wednesday and Friday lunch | The recipe says it freezes for up to three months |
| Spanish egg muffins, 6, and smoked salmon egg muffins, 6 | Freezer | Thursday and Friday breakfast | Both recipes say they freeze |
| Roast garlic and butter bean dip, 3 tubs | Freezer | Thursday and Friday snacks, with a tub to spare | The recipe says it keeps in the freezer for a couple of months |
| Spanish egg muffins, 3 spare | Freezer | Next week | |
| Greek chickpea salad, made Wednesday night | Fridge, in Tupperware | Thursday lunch | Made the night before |
| Cod, tilapia and sea bass | Freezer, unless the use-by date reaches the day you cook it | Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday dinner | The FSA says you can freeze food up to midnight on its use-by date |
The nightly freezer shuffle and the Wednesday top-up
The FSA’s advice is to defrost food in the fridge overnight and use it within 24 hours, so each thing comes out the night before and not a day sooner. Defrost fish in a container that catches any drips. Wednesday evening is the only real top-up, and it takes about 15 minutes: make and pack the Greek chickpea salad for Thursday’s lunch, then do the usual freezer run.
| Night | Freezer to fridge | Anything else |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | Nothing | Monday’s lunch is already in its tub |
| Monday | The cod, if it was frozen | Pack four of tonight’s fish cakes for Tuesday once they have cooled |
| Tuesday | 2 portions of soup, the tilapia | Nothing |
| Wednesday | 6 Spanish egg muffins, 1 tub of dip, the sea bass | Make the Greek chickpea salad |
| Thursday | 6 smoked salmon egg muffins, 2 portions of soup, 1 tub of dip | Nothing |
Meal Prep Day 1: Monday
Tonight: bake all eight fish cakes, pack four for tomorrow once they have cooled, and move the cod to the fridge if it went in the freezer.
Breakfast: Overnight Oats Three Ways, from the Sunday batch (339 calories, 12g protein)
Three jars made on Sunday cover my Monday to Wednesday, which is exactly the three days the recipe says they keep. Matt won’t touch anything sweet first thing, so he has three of the Spanish egg muffins from the fridge instead.
Lunch: Tuna and Pesto Pasta, from the Sunday batch (540 calories, 25g protein)
Fusilli and tinned tuna in a rocket, parsley and lemon pesto. The recipe makes six, so a third of it is plenty for two lunches, and it went into tubs on Sunday afternoon.
Dinner: 2x Salmon Fish Cakes, shaped on Sunday (564 calories, 33g protein)
Poached salmon, mash, dill and spring onions, shaped and crumbed on Sunday and baked tonight at 220C for about 25 minutes. The recipe says they can sit in the fridge overnight before cooking, which is what makes them work here. Bake all eight: four for tonight and four for tomorrow’s lunch.
Snack: Tuna and White Bean Pâté, from the Sunday batch (159 calories, 10g protein)
Tuna and white beans blitzed with lemon, olive oil and a couple of spoonfuls of crème fraîche, with carrot sticks for dipping. It keeps for three days covered, so Sunday’s batch takes the two of us to Wednesday.
Snack: Carrot sticks (80g) (33 calories, 1g protein)
Snack: An apple (78 calories, 0g protein)
Day 1: Monday total: 1,713 calories, 79g protein
Meal Prep Day 2: Tuesday
Tonight: move two portions of soup and the tilapia into the fridge.
Breakfast: Overnight Oats Three Ways, from the Sunday batch (339 calories, 12g protein)
The second jar of three. Matt is on his second set of egg muffins.
Lunch: 2x Salmon Fish Cakes, baked last night (564 calories, 33g protein)
Last night’s fish cakes, packed once they had cooled. The FSA says leftovers can be eaten cold as long as they were cooked properly and in the fridge within two hours, which suits a desk lunch. If you would rather heat them, get them steaming hot all the way through, and only do it once.
Dinner: Miso Glazed Cod with Sesame Greens (248 calories, 27g protein)
Cod brushed with a miso, honey and soy glaze and grilled for six to eight minutes, with tenderstem charred in sesame oil and garlic alongside. It takes about 25 minutes. The recipe serves it on white rice without counting it, so 150g of cooked rice each is added below.
Dinner (side): Basmati rice (150g cooked) (195 calories, 4g protein)
Snack: Tuna and White Bean Pâté, from the Sunday batch (159 calories, 10g protein)
Day two of the pâté.
Snack: Carrot sticks (80g) (33 calories, 1g protein)
Snack: A banana (107 calories, 1g protein)
Day 2: Tuesday total: 1,645 calories, 87g protein
Meal Prep Day 3: Wednesday
Tonight is the top-up: make the Greek chickpea salad and pack it for tomorrow, then move six Spanish egg muffins, a tub of dip and the sea bass into the fridge. About 15 minutes.
Breakfast: Overnight Oats Three Ways, the last of the Sunday batch (339 calories, 12g protein)
Day three and the last jar, which is as long as the recipe says they keep. Tomorrow I am on the egg muffins with Matt.
Lunch: Spiced Parsnip and Apple Soup, from the freezer (359 calories, 6g protein)
Roasted parsnips and apple with cumin and coriander, frozen on Sunday without its cream, as the recipe suggests, and moved to the fridge last night. Stir the cream through as you reheat it, and get it steaming hot. Two slices of wholemeal bread each are counted below.
Lunch (side): 2 slices of wholemeal bread (181 calories, 9g protein)
Dinner: 2x Tilapia Fish Tacos (504 calories, 48g protein)
Tilapia rubbed with chilli powder and cumin, fried for six minutes with onion and garlic and piled into tortillas with salsa and avocado. Eighteen minutes from start to finish, and the recipe says any firm white fish works if you can’t find tilapia. The card does not list the tortillas, so two small corn tortillas each are counted separately.
Dinner (side): 2 small corn tortillas (113 calories, 3g protein)
Snack: Tuna and White Bean Pâté, the last of the Sunday batch (159 calories, 10g protein)
Day three of three for the pâté, which is as far as the recipe says it goes.
Snack: Carrot sticks (80g) (33 calories, 1g protein)
Snack: An apple (78 calories, 0g protein)
Day 3: Wednesday total: 1,766 calories, 88g protein
Meal Prep Day 4: Thursday
Tonight: six smoked salmon egg muffins, two portions of soup and a tub of dip into the fridge. That is the last freezer run of the week.
Breakfast: 3x Spanish Style Egg Muffins, from the freezer (354 calories, 24g protein)
Peppers, tomatoes and a little paprika baked into eggs. These thawed in the fridge overnight and only need a short blast in the microwave, as the recipe says, until they are steaming hot all the way through.
Lunch: Greek Chickpea Salad, made last night (312 calories, 13g protein)
Chickpeas, feta, grape tomatoes and a generous amount of garlic, made last night and packed straight into Tupperware. It takes ten minutes and needs no reheating. Two slices of wholemeal bread each are counted with it.
Lunch (side): 2 slices of wholemeal bread (181 calories, 9g protein)
Dinner: Pan-Fried Sea Bass with Crushed New Potatoes and Samphire (433 calories, 27g protein)
Crisp-skinned sea bass on crushed new potatoes with samphire, about 30 minutes in all. Pat the skin completely dry and press the fillets flat for the first few seconds so they don’t curl. If there’s no samphire, the recipe suggests green beans or asparagus with a little more seasoning.
Snack: Roast Garlic and Butter Bean Dip, from the freezer (148 calories, 4g protein)
Butter beans blitzed with a whole head of roasted garlic, tahini and lemon. The garlic roasted alongside the parsnips on Sunday, so it cost about five minutes of work, and the recipe says a batch keeps in the freezer for a couple of months, so the spare tub can wait.
Snack: Carrot sticks (80g) (33 calories, 1g protein)
Snack: A banana (107 calories, 1g protein)
Day 4: Thursday total: 1,568 calories, 79g protein
Meal Prep Day 5: Friday
Nothing to do tonight. The freezer still has three Spanish egg muffins and a tub of dip in it for next week.
Breakfast: 3x Smoked Salmon Egg Muffins, from the freezer (351 calories, 26g protein)
Smoked salmon, spinach and mushroom, the egg muffins I first made to get Matt through his weekday mornings. They went straight into the freezer on Sunday, so they are the last of the prep.
Lunch: Spiced Parsnip and Apple Soup, from the freezer (359 calories, 6g protein)
The second half of Sunday’s soup, out of the freezer last night, with the cream stirred in as it reheats.
Lunch (side): 2 slices of wholemeal bread (181 calories, 9g protein)
Dinner: Teriyaki Stir Fry (386 calories, 14g protein)
My fallback for one of those days: crunchy vegetables and cashews in teriyaki sauce, ready in under 20 minutes. There is no fish to defrost and nothing to remember the night before, which by Friday is the point. The card does not include rice, so 150g each is counted below.
Dinner (side): Basmati rice (150g cooked) (195 calories, 4g protein)
Snack: Roast Garlic and Butter Bean Dip, from the freezer (148 calories, 4g protein)
The second tub of dip, out of the freezer last night.
Snack: Carrot sticks (80g) (33 calories, 1g protein)
Snack: An apple (78 calories, 0g protein)
Day 5: Friday total: 1,731 calories, 64g protein
Meal Prep Plan Shopping List
This covers two people for the whole week, including Matt’s egg muffins on Monday to Wednesday, so the eggs and muffin vegetables are for three batches of the Spanish muffins and one of the smoked salmon. Shop on the Saturday, or on Sunday morning before you start. It assumes you already have the storecupboard basics: oils, salt and pepper, dried spices, stock cubes, honey and soy sauce. Any fish you won’t cook by its use-by date goes into the freezer when you get home.
| Item | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Salmon fillets, skinless | 400g |
| Cod fillets | 2 (about 140g each) |
| Tilapia fillets (or any firm white fish) | 450g |
| Sea bass fillets, skin on | 2 (about 120g each) |
| Smoked salmon | 1 small pack (you need 40g) |
| Tuna in spring water | 3 x 145g tins |
| Large eggs | 24 |
| Whole milk | 2 pints |
| Butter | 1 small block |
| Single cream | 1 small pot (you need 100ml) |
| Crème fraîche | 1 small pot |
| Mature cheddar | 1 small block (you need 50g) |
| Feta | 1 small block (you need 30g) |
| Vegetarian Italian-style hard cheese | 1 small wedge |
| Wholemeal bread | 1 x 800g loaf |
| Small corn tortillas | 1 pack (you need 4) |
| Basmati rice | 200g uncooked |
| Fusilli | 200g |
| Rolled oats | 150g |
| Dried breadcrumbs | 150g |
| Cannellini beans | 1 x 400g tin |
| Butter beans | 1 x 400g tin |
| Chickpeas | 1 x 400g tin |
| Tomato salsa | 1 small jar |
| White miso paste | 1 small tub |
| Teriyaki sauce | 1 bottle |
| Tahini | 1 jar |
| Cashews | 1 small bag |
| Sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds | 1 small bag of each |
| Cocoa powder | 1 small tub (you need 1 tsp) |
| Desiccated coconut | 1 small bag |
| Avocado | 1 |
| Lemons | 4 |
| Lime | 1 |
| Eating apples | 8 |
| Bananas | 5 (one of them small, for the oats) |
| Blueberries | 1 small punnet |
| Parsnips | 700g |
| Floury potatoes | 650g |
| New potatoes | 400g |
| Carrots | 1kg bag |
| Onions | 3 (two of them large) |
| Shallots | 3 |
| Spring onions | 2 bunches |
| Garlic | 3 bulbs |
| Fresh ginger | 1 small piece |
| Green chilli | 1 |
| Peppers | 2 red, 2 green |
| Cherry or grape tomatoes | 300g |
| Mushrooms | 1 x 250g punnet |
| Spinach | 1 small bag |
| Rocket | 1 small bag (you need 50g) |
| Pea shoots | 1 small bag |
| Tenderstem broccoli | 200g |
| Broccoli | 1 head |
| Celery | 1 head (you need 2 sticks) |
| Green beans | 1 small pack |
| Samphire | 100g (or more green beans) |
| Fresh coriander | 1 bunch |
| Fresh flat-leaf parsley | 2 bunches |
| Fresh dill | 1 small pack |
Frequently asked questions
How long does cooked fish last in the fridge?
The FSA’s advice doesn’t single out fish. Eat cooked leftovers within 48 hours, or freeze them if you won’t get to them in time, and get them cooled and into the fridge within one to two hours of cooking. That is why the two cooked fish dishes that sit in the fridge in this plan, Monday’s tuna pasta and the fish cakes baked on Monday night, are both eaten the next day. A few recipes give their own keeping times, like three days for the tuna and white bean pâté, and the plan sticks to those too.
Can you meal prep fish for the week?
Some of it, if you are choosy about which. Tinned and smoked fish are the easy ones, which is why Sunday’s session has tuna in the pasta and the pâté and smoked salmon in the egg muffins. Fish cakes are the halfway house, since the recipe says you can shape them the night before and cook them the next day. Fresh fillets are better frozen by their use-by date if you won’t cook them in time, defrosted in the fridge the night before, and cooked on the day. Everything fresh in this plan takes half an hour or less.
What pescatarian meals freeze well?
From this plan, the egg muffins (both recipes say they freeze), the spiced parsnip and apple soup, which keeps for up to three months if you leave the cream out until you reheat it, and the roast garlic and butter bean dip, which is fine in the freezer for a couple of months. The FSA suggests freezing in individual portions so you only defrost what you need, labelling everything, and using food within 24 hours once it has defrosted.
How do you reheat meal prep safely?
The FSA’s advice is to reheat food until it is steaming hot all the way through, not just warm, and to reheat it only once. In a microwave, stir it as it heats, because the edges can be very hot while the middle is still cold. Rice needs more care: the FSA says to keep cooked rice in the fridge for no more than a day and never reheat it more than once, which is why the rice in this plan is cooked on the night it is eaten.
If you would rather have a full seven days without the Sunday session, our original 7-day pescatarian meal plan is the place to start, and the high protein meal plan uses a lot of the same recipes at a higher calorie level.
