How do you work 9-5 and meal plan?
Replies
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Do meal prep on Sundays... freeze everything so you can just drop it in a crock pot. Then when you come home, you have a hot healthy meal and you'll have leftovers for lunch the next day.
http://tiphero.com/29-freezable-crock-pot-recipes4 -
I work from 8-6, workout, study and meal prep for 2 with different macro goals.
You sit one weekend and do nothing other than work out a 7 day meal plan until you have something you can live with for a while. After this exercise you don't have to plan for a while, you just copy your meals from one week to the next. When you get tired of it, sit and work out a new weekly plan.
Then you just have to prep the following day's food every evening, or make the week's food ahead and freeze it.
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Alatariel75 wrote: »Alatariel75 wrote: »I just do it. I work 8-6 and go home and cook a meal. It doesn't need to be fancy, many nights are just grilled/simmered meat and sides/vegetables. If I'm organised I'll chuck something in the slow cooker in the morning, but as much as I'd like to I'm not a fan of batch cooking and reheating dinners so I cook nightly.
It doesn't need to be complicated, one of my favs is to stuff laughing cow cheese inside a pocket on a chicken breast, brown it on both sides and pour salsa over, cover and simmer til cooked. While it simmers, I steam some veggies, make some mashed potato or cook some oven fries and done.
I pick quick and easy meals but yeah... I just do it.
It might get a bit boring, but we get fed.
@Alatariel75 do you mean ready-made mashed potatoes? I remember my mom used to make it from scratch and it definitely wasnt quick and east.
Nope, from scratch... If we're having mash they're the first thing I put on. It takes me 2 mins to peel them, chuck water on them and put them on the stove. While they're cooking, I chuck the rest of the veg on to steam and get the meat cooking, 10-15 minutes later the potatoes are done, I drain, throw in some sour cream, milk and some laughing cow cheese and whisk them. throw them on a plate with the meat and the veg and that's dinner in under 30 minutes. For me, that's quick and easy.
I do it a different way.
I ping the potatoes whole in the microwave for 5-7 minutes. Scoop out and mash with any butter etc we like. Keeps the nutrient content better and quicker.
I also have a microwave steamer where I can add other veg to steam at the same time.
I also prep on a Sunday.2 -
You might need some practice to learn how to prepare vegetables quickly after you get home. Start with frozen ones - as a single person I like things like green beans, peas, sweetcorn and spinach frozen since I don't finish a whole packet of fresh ones. I usually buy fresh mushrooms, onions, broccoli, carrots but you can get all of these frozen to start with. Practice chopping with your weekend meals and freeze some for during the week too
1 step at a time - if you try to go from 0 to 7 home cooked dinners a week you'll likely struggle! 2 -
This is what works for me
- I started out with some second hand low calorie cook books from Amazon (you can also use Pinterest, Google, Websites, etc)
- I spend an around an hour mid week writing up my meal planner for a week or 2 ahead - copy of my meal planner here https://1drv.ms/x/s!AkN3G55LlLjJjj0l2DK5JZ8a9NPM, I factor in any social events or travel into the plan to ensure I average my calorie allowance over the week.
- From the meal plan I write out my shopping list on the bottom half of the plan and I buy in only what I need for it so I don't end up just going crazy in the supermarket and throwing a bunch of unused fresh goods out at the end of the week.
- On a Sunday I will make my lunches for Monday - Friday usually Soups/Salads/Pastas that can be refrigerated, and I will normally try and batch cook something that makes about 5 portions so I can use 2-3 on evenings when I don't want to cook from scratch and keep a couple in the freezer for future weeks. A slow cooker and food processor have been my best 2 investments for this. Most of the recipes I use can be reheated in the microwave in a matter of minutes and served with steamed veg or microwave rice if I am totally wiped after work and my workout.
- I have started collecting some of my favourite recipes on my website (not selling anything it's just a personal blog) https://www.exercisenotextrafries.com/
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This is what is working for me for the past 8 months and I've lost 26lbs. I spend my weekend , usually Sundays cooking a meal or two that will last me the entire week. I change my lunch and breakfast every weekend. I make my own meals log it on MFP so that I know my servings and calories. if you can't cook use YouTube and Pinterest for great tutorials.
Once in a while I'm feeling too lazy to cook. My back up is tortilla wraps. I buy the small, 90 calories wraps and save it at home. I take it to work and just buy a low calorie filling at my cafeteria, for breakfast and or lunch, to make a nice wrap. For example I can buy 1 bacon or sausage and 1 scrambled egg or boiled egg and add to a wrap to make a breakfast wrap. 250-300 calories and it works for me.
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Just wake up an hour earlier everyday.
Breakfast shake - 5 to 10mins, drink while prepping the rest
Nuts and fruit for morning tea - 5mins
Microwave rice and frozen vege. Cook a piece of chicken for lunch - 30mins
Yoghurt and cereal or crackers and tuna for afternoon tea. 10mins
Stare at the wall. 10mins
The onky thing you need to cook in the morninf is rhe chicken and that just leaves dinner for when your get home.
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Honestly everything that has been said here...I cook for me and my husband for the week on Sundays (lunches typically) and throw together something for dinner almost every night. Typically it's steak or chicken different ways, since chicken is very cheap in Ohio. I love throwing chicken thighs or breasts in a crockpot with salsa and using them for burritos/tacos or salads. Honestly, cook what you won't get sick of when you can and heat when you need to.0
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I meal prep slightly differently, I always make sure there is something easy to eat in the fridge - something that can be prepared in a few minutes, with little effort - it takes me less than 10minutes to pack my salads each night.
I have pretty much the same breakfast and lunch each M-F during the week and I leave calories for dinner (between 500-700).
Breakfasts ranges from french toast, wheetbix & milk, Oats, smoothies, fruit, cottage cheese and rice cakes, yogurts etc.
Lunches are made each night (salad) or once a week (Sunday), they're usually the following;
Salad with Feta and some sort of protein - smoked chicken/ roast chicken/ fish fillets/ tuna/ ham/ sausage/ bacon etc.
Roast Mediterranean veggies with chicken breast
Some days I'll make something different or have leftovers from dinner (usually when a meal has been bulked up with lots of veggies).
For snacks I make sure that I always have something easy and yummy to grab from the cupboard or fridge, popcorn, mini cheeses, crackers with PB, fruits, ham/ viennas, veggies and dip/ hummus etc.
Dinners are usually something different each night, and either myself or my mother will cook (we get home anytime from 4-6pm). Every-now-and-then I will also cook a big batch of something for the freezer, pulled pork, spaghetti, lasagna, marinated chicken, soups, stews, curries etc. It makes life a lot easier when there is something nutritious that you can quickly and easily heat for dinner with some extra veg.1 -
If you don't want to meal prep, there are many blogs and cookbooks that specialize in 15 or 20 minute recipes. Find some and start practicing.2
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I don't work outside the home but have some ideas that might help you.
Try making a limited rotating menu. Plan for a week, 2 weeks or a month and then reuse the same menu. I would reuse the same monthly menu for 2-3 months before making a new one. You probably have some favorite meals.
When making a meal plan think about themes for each day and find things that fit. Examples of categories could be meatless meals, breakfast for dinner, Mexican food, soup.
Don't make new recipes every night. Only once a week or once a month.
Try cooking double and putting the extra in the freezer for another day. Be sure to label and date containers. Look up once a month cooking or feeding the freezer. You can pre-cook or prepare some ingredients and freeze them to add to recipes.
Use a slow cooker. Usually very quick easy prep, you walk away and 8-10 hours later it is ready.
Some foods are quick cooking like eggs, fish, pasta, grilled sandwiches. Look up quick cooking recipes. You can make a quick bean burrito using canned beans or a pizza using a tortilla, garlic bread or bagel for the crust.
Use frozen vegetables.
Cut vegetables or meats smaller to cook them faster.2 -
If you have one, make your crock pot your best friend. Throw everything in, turn it on, walk away, hours later you have a delicious meal as healthy as you make it.2
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My mom used to cook dinner in our home. Now that i am on my own and working 9-5 at a desk job with a long train commute, i have no time and am so tired by the end of the day. How am i supposed to plan and prep my dinners so they are healthy? No one taught me how to do this. I need help. What's your best advice for staying on top of this necessary aspect of life?
Lots of good suggestions already.
No offense, but you may want to look at how you spend your time. You don't mention anything about children or other responsibilities. Most adults work 8+ hours a day, commute and many have family responsibilities including shopping/meal prep. If you are truly too tired, you may have medical issues that should be checked by a medical professional.
Best of luck.6 -
Get a Foreman Grill (or similar). Preheat the grill and grill the meat (usually takes no longer than 10 minutes, although thick cuts of meat may take longer) while cooking some veggies. Rice or potato (if you want a starch) in the microwave while grilling. ~15 minutes later? Dinner. If you make enough, you'll have some leftovers for the next day's lunch.1
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Use your long train commute to to your menu planning. Look for meals you can throw in the crock pot before leaving in the morning and last for several meals. There are other meals that can be made in 15-30 min when you get home. Get a Foreman grill, throw a protein on it (chicken, fish, steak), toss some veggies in the microwave, and make a small salad. A lot of people like sheet pan dinners too. Pop them in the oven when you get home, change clothes or relax for a few minute, then dinner will be ready. In the summer, I make a main dish salad that lasts for several meals, I just add the greens at meal time so they don't get soggy. In the winter I make a lot of soup, eat it for a few days, and freeze half in smaller batches for later use. It doesn't half to be complicated or time consuming.4
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^^^ Plan on your commute.
Knowing what country you're in may help us recommend favourite brands or shops etc.
And seek out quick things. Here are some of my UK-based favourites...
- thin cut turkey breast steaks with Maggi flavour papers - pan fry with no oil in about 2 minutes
- chicken thighs in the oven in a Maggi seasoning bag - easy but not super fast
- omelettes with all sorts of fun things thrown in
- simmer up a tin of chopped tomatoes, a handful of olives and maybe some onion, pop in a fillet or two of fish for 5 mins, done
- make easy chilli by frying some onion, browning some lean beef mince, adding a can of chopped tomatoes and a can of kidney beans in spicy sauce (Tesco do them) and some chilli flakes, and simmering for as long as you can be bothered to wait
- steak - the thinner it is, the quicker it is to cook! Can be a matter of seconds for the really thin stuff.
- frozen pre-prepped veg - sliced peppers and mushrooms, diced onions, spinach etc
- salad instead of veg - peppers, tomatoes, spring onions etc
- super quick carbs like couscous rather than slow ones
- get a supermarket to deliver your shopping once you've drawn up a sensible, quick and healthy list so your fridge and cupboards are full of the right sorts of things when you get home
I've tried batch cooking and I can't hack it, so I do feel your pain with nightly cooking.
The best I can do is things like that chilli recipe that feeds two people, and saving the other half for the next day.0 -
Check to see what meat is on sale at the grocery store. Buy that and steamable frozen veggies....cook the meat, nuke the veggies, and you have dinner. You can look on Pinterest for more creative recipes, but the meat and veggie approach is maybe ten minutes from prep to table.0
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Thirding using your commute to plan.
Rachel Ray and tons of other have 15-30 minute recipes. You'll find that until your prep skills improve, it will often take longer than advertised, but not by much. I like the New York Times cooking website - tons of "staple food" recipes (starting simple with mashed potatoes, green beans, roast chicken) and loads of crazy Weekend Projects. They have a "weeknight" filter, and those recipes are simpler and faster to put together. Pair with rice or salad to fill your plate.
You might also try Blue Apron or HelloFresh or similar. If nothing else, see if you can't look up some of their recipes online - they tend to be relatively quick because the target user of those services is just trying to get dinner on the table on any given weeknight. When I was really learning to cook (ie, transitioning from grilled cheese and frozen food), Blue Apron is what got me started. It was a relief to be paying someone else to do the mental work of:
1) setting a menu
2) shopping
3) coming up with a recipe
for three nights a week. That it turn made it suck less to plan 4 other dinners + weekend lunches each week -
I'd bought myself a partial break. Bonus if it's just you: you'll have a serving left over for lunch or dinner the next day.
Not all the meals are low calorie, but they're almost all better than fast food, both in calories and relative wholeness of ingredients. I learned how to prep veg more quickly, fun flavor combinations, and new ways to do old things - like, I've made lots of tasty green beans with BA and HF because they don't want to have their customers eat "green beans, plain, boiled" week in and week out. Both services allow for customizing the coming menu so you can avoid, say, mushrooms, or seek out dishes that look easier or are lower-cal.0 -
Treehugger_88 wrote: »I do it the whole week's cooking/prep every Sunday. Takes most of the day but I enjoy it and recommend it. I'm not a meat-eater so all my food is fine in the fridge for 6 days. Don't know anything about keeping cooked meat in the fridge for that long though...?
Meals that are awesome for food prep:
-bolognaise/pasta
-curries
-stir fries
-vegetable fried rice
-chili
-soups
-stews
-bean loaf
-shepherd's pie
@Treehugger_88 do you mean you buy frozen veggies for stir frying? Fresh ones would take hours to wash, peel and cut.
No, they don't. Getting in the habit so you realize how fast and easy this stuff can be will be helpful.
I do understand, as I went from not cooking much to cooking almost all meals after I had lived on my own for a few years, and at first I thought it would take forever (since when I cooked it was usually a production) to realizing how easy and fast it can be. Now I generally can whip up a good meal (including fresh vegetables) in 30 minutes (more or less).
I make an omelet with vegetables most mornings and that takes like 15 min.3 -
Alatariel75 wrote: »Alatariel75 wrote: »I just do it. I work 8-6 and go home and cook a meal. It doesn't need to be fancy, many nights are just grilled/simmered meat and sides/vegetables. If I'm organised I'll chuck something in the slow cooker in the morning, but as much as I'd like to I'm not a fan of batch cooking and reheating dinners so I cook nightly.
It doesn't need to be complicated, one of my favs is to stuff laughing cow cheese inside a pocket on a chicken breast, brown it on both sides and pour salsa over, cover and simmer til cooked. While it simmers, I steam some veggies, make some mashed potato or cook some oven fries and done.
I pick quick and easy meals but yeah... I just do it.
It might get a bit boring, but we get fed.
@Alatariel75 do you mean ready-made mashed potatoes? I remember my mom used to make it from scratch and it definitely wasnt quick and east.
Nope, from scratch... If we're having mash they're the first thing I put on. It takes me 2 mins to peel them, chuck water on them and put them on the stove. While they're cooking, I chuck the rest of the veg on to steam and get the meat cooking, 10-15 minutes later the potatoes are done, I drain, throw in some sour cream, milk and some laughing cow cheese and whisk them. throw them on a plate with the meat and the veg and that's dinner in under 30 minutes. For me, that's quick and easy.
That's roughly what I would do, but I mostly just roast them, both because I am lazy and because I like them best that way.
Take out potato, quick scrub and dry, chop chop chop (all this while the oven is heating up -- I normally turn it on the second I walk in the house), and then put in pan, toss with a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper, and put in oven. Use cooking time for other things (maybe meal related, maybe unrelated tasks).
Works for sweet potatoes too, and carrots and other root veg.2
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