A couple newbie Meal Prep questions

ehk33

I think on Sunday I want to try to do a week worths of Meal Prep food. I have three kids (none of whom want to eat plain chicken, some lettuce and a side of broccoli for dinner) not to mention my hubby who would murder me if I served him that. So I am struggling with time, cooking a ton of different food for my family of 5. I thought maybe if I did meal prep for me, i could just grab a container out for me. So my questions:

If I were to make all my breakfasts, lunches and dinners for the week on Sunday, do they all go in the fridge for keep or do you freeze half,like the ones for say Thursday-Saturday?

If you freeze some of the later in the week meals, how do you defrost them?

Any tips? Is there certain things that dont keep well for a whole week after you cook it?

TIA!!

erockem

All of ours goes into the fridge for the week. Cook up some noodles for spaghetti or buttered noodles but leave the 'topping' seperate (sauce, etc). Bake a lasagna and/or meatloaf. Brown some ground beef or chicken in taco seasoning. Just take what you would make daily if you had the time.

But again, don't combine ingredients if you can wait like the spaghetti. My wife has also prepared something like lasagna (she doesn't bake it), then later in the week, she gives me instructions to put it in the oven at nnn for nnn minutes.

Sometimes we even pre-weigh and package items for everyone in the house to grab and go.

This past Sunday was chicken made several ways, beef cubes, swiss steak, and veggies.

colleenmconnor

I personally put about half in the fridge and half in the freezer depending on what I'm making, and just cut up vegetables and pack/eat fruit alongside it. I'll make stews ( a lot, like 5 servings) because they freeze well, or pasta that i'll cook al dente (i freeze them in the sauce but i really like the above mentioned comment of keeping the noodles and sauce separate), chicken nuggets with ground almonds as breading, etc
All of my dinners go straight in the microwave. Everything I meal prep I cook about 85% of the way so that it's not horrifying when I microwave it. My freezer always has a couple of 'emergency meals' which are extra meal preps, just incase. I don't meal prep every meal, I have time to cook and I like it.
Even if you just make a couple of freezer-friendly dinners to store in your microwave for when you don't have time to make something healthy, it's a huge help

Francl27

I'd put half in the freezer, I wouldn't be comfortable eating something that was made 5 days ago I think.

Lizzy622

I would freeze the latter part of the week. I don't recommend cooking separate meals though. That is a lot of work and really unsustainable. I agree with an early post simply add sauces or butter or other later after you have taken your portion or on the table so they can serve themselves.
My children and to some extent my husband have gotten accustom to my healthy cooking and often eat the same thing I am eating. My daughters are actually starting to like quinoa which I thought would never happen.

ehk33

thanks! So it looks like freezing half is a good idea. I think ill try that! I was thinking of making salad mason jars for lunches and chicken/sweet potato/veggie something or other for my dinners. Does that sound easy enough for my first go at it?

ehk33

can you freeze sweet potato?