Season six to eight bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs with olive oil, garlic, smoked paprika, and lemon zest. Roast at 200°C for 40 minutes. They’re juicier and more forgiving than breasts, and the fat content keeps them moist when reheated. Use in grain bowls, wraps, salads, or eat cold with a dipping sauce.

Swap regular milk for full-fat Greek yogurt and add a scoop of unflavoured protein powder to your overnight oats. The result is a thick, creamy breakfast that doesn’t feel like diet food. Prep five jars on Sunday — flavour each differently with nut butters, berries, seeds, or cacao nibs.

Sheet-pan meals are the meal-prepper’s best friend. Pair salmon fillets with cubed sweet potato and asparagus on a single tray, drizzle with olive oil and soy-ginger glaze, and roast together. Salmon is one of the most nutrient-dense proteins available — rich in omega-3s, vitamin D, and B12 alongside its impressive protein content.

Mix lean ground turkey with wilted spinach, garlic, egg, and oats as a binder. Roll into golf ball-sized portions and bake at 190°C for 22 minutes. These freeze perfectly and reheat in minutes — serve over courgette noodles, in a wrap with hummus, or straight from a container as a high-protein snack.

Hard-boil twelve eggs and shell them all at once. Portion into small containers alongside a handful of shelled edamame, a few cherry tomatoes, and some rice crackers. These no-cook snack boxes require almost zero effort and deliver a solid protein hit that bridges the gap between meals without spiking your blood sugar.

Cottage cheese has undergone a well-deserved renaissance — and for good reason. A single cup delivers 25g of slow-digesting casein protein. Build a savoury bowl with cucumber, cherry tomatoes, everything bagel seasoning, and a drizzle of olive oil. Or go sweet with sliced peaches and honey. Either way, it takes under three minutes to assemble.

Combine shredded poached chicken with red lentils, diced tomatoes, cumin, turmeric, and spinach in a large pot. This one-pot soup is nutritionally dense, deeply satisfying, and improves with every day it sits in the fridge. The lentils add fibre alongside their own plant protein, making this a genuinely complete meal in a bowl.

Tinned tuna is one of the highest protein-per-pound foods on the planet. Drain and mix with white beans, red onion, capers, parsley, lemon juice, and a little olive oil. This requires zero cooking, lasts four days in the fridge, and packs an extraordinary amount of protein into a light, bright salad that doesn’t feel heavy.

Lean beef mince browned with garlic and ginger, tossed in a simple soy-sesame-honey sauce, and served over brown rice with steamed broccoli. This is one of the most satisfying high-protein prep meals — filling, flavourful, and genuinely enjoyable to eat cold from a container at your desk. Prep four portions in under 30 minutes.

Extra-firm tofu crumbled and cooked with turmeric, nutritional yeast, black salt (for an egg-like flavour), peppers, and onion makes an exceptional plant-based protein prep. Divide into containers alongside roasted sweet potato and sautéed greens. This works for any meal of the day and reheats in two minutes.