Meal prep question

CarobChip108

I'm just wondering about a few things:

Say you want to meal prep for 5 days and you make steamed veggies or a baked sweet potato for example, do you freeze them, or is just refrigeration ok even for 5 days?

Also, what if you work at a place that does not have a microwave, if you had frozen something, would it be ok by lunch time, or do most people that meal prep use something like a microwave when they are at work.

Sorry if the questions are silly, but I really want to try meal prepping more days than just one and am wondering if:
1. frozen precooked foods will still taste good
and
2. if not having a microwave will be a problem for foods that have been previously frozen. I have taken just refrigerated leftovers and it seemed to have been fine come lunch time

Thank you!

CFoust72591

When I meal prep (only been doing it a little over a month now) I refrigerate. It's been fine so far. And as far as no microwave, that might be a problem. I use mine at work. Although, I just hate eating most leftovers cold. If that doesn't bother you, then it's probably fine.

shay5458

I prefer to make weekly crockpot meals and microwave one portion per day. I also like to chop and portion fresh fruit for the week and have easy/accessible snacks like a bag of almonds or grapes that are already counted out.

KitchyWitchy

I prep raw veggies, salads and fruits for the whole week. When I cook something I only leave enough in the fridge for 2 days and freeze the rest. I'm probably overly cautious about how long it is safe to leave things in the fridge for. I would think the frozen food wouldn't be that great after just thawing unless it is something like fruits or bread.

KateTii

I freeze everything. Each morning I grab the day's lunch and go to work. Generally by lunchtime it's 70-100% defrosted then gets nuked in the microwave. I don't know how i'd go eating it cold though

JoshuaMcAllister

I generally do 4 days worth of food and store in the fridge. If I cook meat and rice, there will be times I cook on Sunday evening and have my last meal Friday afternoon, I've never had any problems with quality of the food or any negative effects on my body. That requires a microwave but more recently I've been preparing 1000kg of meat, chicken or beef mince and preparing with a salad every second evening. The salad begins to turn if you prepare to far in advance.

dottiestlottiest2015

Do you have a kettle at work? If yes Google healthy home made noodle pots that you can prepare a few days in advance and you just add hot water to warm them up.
You could also try simpler things such as a salad or a sandwich for lunch.

ziggy2006

This week I made Mason jar salads for work. They were easy to make and have held up surprisingly well over the week. The order in which you layer the ingredients is crucial. There are plenty of great recipes available online and they are easy to tweak to fit your eating plan.

Do you have access to electricity at work? There are cute lunch Crock pots that might work out well for certain frozen recipes. You might have to defrost in the morning to get it to fit into the Crock pot, but then it can just simmer in the pot all morning until lunch time.

CarobChip108

Wow thanks this is all great information! I appreciate it all! As for my work I do henna outside at a booth, but I may have to get a portable device for electricity and the small crock pot idea is a good idea. For summers i'm outside 6 days a week for about 10 hours (I know crazy but worth it) but since I sit most of the day doing henna I want to be really tight on my calories since I tend to gain a bit during the summer months

befittoledo

Preparing meals for up to 5 days is food safe as long as you properly store the food shortly after cooking(not leaving it out for hours)

Queenmunchy

KateTii wrote: »

I freeze everything. Each morning I grab the day's lunch and go to work. Generally by lunchtime it's 70-100% defrosted then gets nuked in the microwave. I don't know how i'd go eating it cold though

Same!

theblsckcatjane

I keep my veggies raw until it's time to eat. That way they don't get over cooked. I prep for 7 days but freeze the last 4 days meals so I'm not eating week old food