Home Made lean Cuisine

Nightnurse33

Good day everyone. I have had great time with MFP and logging in my food. Partly because I have been eating alot of Lean Cuising meals. While they are a great TOOL, they are costly. I look at them and they cant be too hard to make. My question is, has anyone made their own diet meals and frozen them with any good results? What do you use? tupper wear? eat them fresh? Any info would be great

Thanks In advance
Ted

Alatariel75

I have about 25 of the food storage containers from IKEA, they're $2.50 a piece and have rubber seals. They're BPA free and have a little steamer vent. I make a huge variety of things, casseroles, soups, chilli, stir fry with rice, meatballs and veg with gravy, chicken and veg with gravy, savoury pies, cottage pie.... It all freezes and reheats really well, and if I put in a Sunday afternoon putting a few different things together, I have a couple weeks worth of lunches and have variety. I'm a huge fan of batch cooking and freezing!

arditarose

I make meals that are similar in calories to lean cuisine but just a lot BIGGER because I cannot eat that tiny little thing and be satisfied. And I eat them fresh. But many people on here freeze/meal prep for the week.

Kalikel

I use Tupperware for things I cannot just wrap and for my bowls of berries. The berries I just dump in bowls and seal. The other stuff, I put plastic wrap over it and then seal. I don't know if the plastic wrap helps of not.

Stuff I can wrap, I wrap in plastic and then foil.

Some liquid stuff, like stock or stew, I put into baggies and store it flat. Saves space.

Queenmunchy

Alatariel75 wrote: »

I have about 25 of the food storage containers from IKEA, they're $2.50 a piece and have rubber seals. They're BPA free and have a little steamer vent. I make a huge variety of things, casseroles, soups, chilli, stir fry with rice, meatballs and veg with gravy, chicken and veg with gravy, savoury pies, cottage pie.... It all freezes and reheats really well, and if I put in a Sunday afternoon putting a few different things together, I have a couple weeks worth of lunches and have variety. I'm a huge fan of batch cooking and freezing!

This. I freeze nearly everything. I cook a lot of one pot meals, but also flash freeze other things like casseroles, nuggets, meatballs, burritos, muffin tin meals, frittatas/egg bakes, etc. I have so many details if you're interested!

justrollme

Alatariel75 wrote: »

I have about 25 of the food storage containers from IKEA, they're $2.50 a piece and have rubber seals. They're BPA free and have a little steamer vent. I make a huge variety of things, casseroles, soups, chilli, stir fry with rice, meatballs and veg with gravy, chicken and veg with gravy, savoury pies, cottage pie.... It all freezes and reheats really well, and if I put in a Sunday afternoon putting a few different things together, I have a couple weeks worth of lunches and have variety. I'm a huge fan of batch cooking and freezing!

Me too! It also helps a lot to prep veggies & fruit as soon as you get it home (which would probably work for a lot of meats, too.) Pre-clean and cut as much as possible, makes throwing things together super quick. When I make a soup, salad or casserole, I make it massive, portion it out and either frig or freeze it, depending on how soon I know I'll eat it. If you like pastas or rice, etc., that is another thing you can make ahead in a bigger quantity and have at-the-ready, with various sauces, too.

Liftng4Lis

I make enough dinner, so that I have left overs for lunch the next day. Healthy, low sodium and easier to log!

Monklady123

I bought some containers on Amazon that are more or less the size of a frozen meal, maybe a tad bigger. There are three compartments, one bigger and two smaller. I often put leftovers in there and take it for lunch the next day. I haven't tried freezing them yet, but that's a good idea. Hadn't thought of making my own frozen meals, although I do freeze things like soup or stew in individual containers.

RaeBeeBaby

I've done batch cooking and freezing for years using individual plastic containers, but I'd neglect to eat it all and end up tossing some due to freezer burn. This year I invested in a vacuum sealer and have been having fun with it. You can portion out meals into the vacuum bags, seal and freeze. Liquids like soup or chili you can freeze first, then vacuum seal the frozen block. These will literally keep in the freezer for years with no danger of freezer burn or loss of quality.

Nightnurse33

Great feed back guys! ! I guess with football around the corrner I will make Sundays my "Cooking" day

Thanks Again
Ted