Hormone-friendly meal prep isn't a special diet. For me it's two hours on a Sunday afternoon, one hot oven and one big pot, and by the end of it five lunches are sorted for the week. Each one based on foods that may be worth eating more of through perimenopause and menopause: soy, oily fish, legumes, nuts and seeds.

I plan it this way because lunch is the meal that can get missed when a week gets busy. By Wednesday I'm hungry at 2pm, the fridge is empty and a muesli bar starts looking like a reasonable plan. Having a container ready takes that decision away.

All five recipes are below, along with the order I cook them in and  Thursday's and Friday's lunches go in the freezer to keep them fresh till the end of the week.

Why soy, oily fish and fibre earn a place in your lunchbox

Soy foods, legumes and linseed contain phytoestrogens, plant compounds with a structure similar to the oestrogen your body makes less of through menopause. These may help ease menopausal symptoms for some women, though only around one in three has the gut bacteria to convert soy into its more active form, called equol. The advice is to eat phytoestrogen-rich foods daily for at least three to four weeks to find out whether you're one of them.

This turns a vague "eat more soy" into a small experiment with an end date. I aim for 200g of tofu or 100g of tempeh every few days as a rough guide, which is why tofu, tempeh or edamame turns up in three of these five lunches. If you want the wider list of foods, our menopause superfood guide to phytoestrogens covers them.

Omega-3 fats are the second thread. The Heart Foundation recommends two to three serves of fish a week, including oily fish like salmon, with a serve being about 100g cooked. It also suggests a daily source of plant omega-3, such as a handful of walnuts or two to three teaspoons of linseed.

Monday's salmon bowl covers one of those fish serves, and walnuts and linseed show up from Wednesday. There's more on why these fats matter at this stage of life in our post on omega-3s and menopause wellness.

Then there's fibre. most women need around 25g a day, according to the Nutrient Reference Values, and chickpeas, lentils and beans carry most of the load in these recipes. Our guide to fibre and the menopause diet goes deeper if you're curious.

Your Sunday meal prep plan, step by step

The order matters more than the recipes. Rice and noodles are the shortest-lived things in the fridge, so they get eaten first, and anything past the three-day mark goes in the freezer.

That rule comes from the NSW Food Authority, which advises eating fridge leftovers within three days and cooked rice and pasta within two. It also recommends getting cooked food into the fridge or freezer within two hours, and splitting it into smaller portions so it cools faster.

Day	Lunch	Built around	Stored in
Monday	Miso salmon and edamame brown rice bowl	Salmon, edamame, brown rice	Fridge
Tuesday	Sesame tofu soba noodle jar	Tofu, buckwheat noodles, cabbage	Fridge
Wednesday	Roast pumpkin, lentil and chickpea salad	Lentils, chickpeas, walnuts, linseed	Fridge
Thursday	Red lentil, carrot and ginger soup	Red lentils, carrot, linseed	Freezer
Friday	Tempeh and bean chilli	Tempeh, kidney beans, capsicum	Freezer

Here's the order I cook in. It takes about two hours, and the oven and the two pots overlap so you're rarely standing still.

1. Heat the oven to 200°C and put the pumpkin and marinated tofu in on two lined trays.
2. Start the brown rice on the stove or in a rice cooker.
3. Get the soup going in your biggest pot. Once it's simmering, start the chilli in a second pot.
4. When the pumpkin and tofu come out, slide the salmon in for 12 to 15 minutes.
5. Cook the soba noodles and edamame while everything else finishes.
6. Spread everything into shallow containers to cool, then pack, label and get it all into the fridge or freezer within two hours.

Monday to Wednesday: three fridge lunches

Monday: miso salmon and edamame brown rice bowl

Serves 1. Prep 10 minutes. Cook 15 minutes, plus the rice.

Miso glaze stays sticky and savoury even cold, so this is the bowl I look forward to most.

• 1 salmon fillet, about 130 g raw
• 2 tsp white miso paste
• 1 tsp honey
• ¾ cup (about 140 g) cooked brown rice
• ½ cup (75 g) frozen shelled edamame
• ½ Lebanese cucumber, sliced
• 1 small carrot, grated
• 1 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp tamari or soy sauce
• ½ tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp sesame seeds

Tuesday: sesame tofu soba noodle jar

Serves 1. Prep 15 minutes. Cook 25 minutes.

• 150 g firm tofu, cut into 2 cm cubes
• 2 tsp tamari or soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 60 g dried soba noodles
• 1 cup (80 g) finely shredded red cabbage
• ½ red capsicum, thinly sliced
• 1 spring onion, sliced
• A small handful of coriander
• 1 tbsp tahini
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tsp maple syrup

Wednesday: roast pumpkin, lentil and chickpea salad with walnuts

Serves 1. Prep 10 minutes. Cook 30 minutes.

Keep the leaves and dressing separate and it's as good on Wednesday as it was on Sunday.

• 250 g pumpkin, peeled and cut into 2 cm cubes
• 2 tsp olive oil
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• ½ cup (about 85 g) canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• ½ cup (about 90 g) canned brown lentils, drained and rinsed
• 30 g feta, crumbled
• 20 g walnuts, roughly chopped
• 2 tsp ground linseed
• A large handful of baby spinach or rocket
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• ½ tsp Dijon mustard

Thursday and Friday: two lunches from the freezer

Both of these make four serves, and that's deliberate. You eat one of each this week and bank the other three, so next Sunday you only need to make the fridge lunches.

Move the soup from the freezer to the fridge on Wednesday night and the chilli on Thursday night. The recommendation is thawing in the fridge, eating food within 24 hours of defrosting and reheating it until it's steaming hot.

Thursday: red lentil, carrot and ginger soup

Serves 4. Prep 10 minutes. Cook 35 minutes.

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 brown onion, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tbsp finely grated ginger
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• 1 cup (200 g) dried red lentils, rinsed
• 1 L salt-reduced vegetable stock
• 400 g can diced tomatoes
• To serve: natural yoghurt, 1 tsp ground linseed or pepitas per bowl, and a slice of grainy bread

Friday: tempeh and bean chilli

Serves 4. Prep 10 minutes. Cook 35 minutes.

The other halves of Wednesday's chickpea and lentil cans go straight in here, so nothing sits forgotten in the fridge.

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 300 g tempeh, crumbled
• 1 red onion, diced
• 1 red capsicum, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• ½ to 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 2 x 400 g cans diced tomatoes
• 400 g can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• Leftover chickpeas and lentils from Wednesday, or a second 400 g can of beans
• 1 cup (250 ml) water
• To serve: avocado, natural yoghurt, coriander and lime wedges

Swaps, storage and making it work for you

Canned salmon or sardines work in place of the fresh fillet, and they're cheaper. If you don't eat fish, double the edamame in Monday's bowl and lean on the walnuts and linseed for plant omega-3s.

For gluten free, look for soba made with 100% buckwheat and use tamari rather than soy sauce, checking the labels on both. Pepitas can stand in for walnuts if you avoid nuts.

If this is a lot more legumes than you usually eat, build up over a week or two and drink plenty of water. A sudden jump in fibre can leave you feeling bloated, which is the opposite of the point.

Give it three or four Sundays before you judge it. That's about how long it takes for the routine to feel automatic, and it lines up with the three to four weeks Jean Hailes suggests for seeing whether phytoestrogens make a difference for you. Either way, you'll have eaten a lot of good lunches.

This article is general information only and isn't a substitute for personalised medical or dietary advice. If you have a medical condition or food allergy, take regular medication, or your symptoms persist, talk to your doctor or an accredited practising dietitian before making big changes to your diet.