Meal prepping

jennyavila13

I'm looking for people who meal prep.
I work, go to school, and I am a full time single mom. We're gone about 15+ hours and I really want to try meal prepping because I'm just feeling so tired and I'm mostly just snacking all day long.

brekober

What works best for me is to make up my meals and have them ready for the week. Then prelog that weeks lunches I made. I'm more likely to stick to what I meal prepped if it's already logged for some reason.
I like to cook up ground turkey and season it like you would tacos and put cheese, kidney beans, and salsa in my container with it. I usually have a salad as well so then I just heat it and mix them together for a taco salad. If I don't have salad I will add quinoa to my taco mixture.
I also make meat loaf a lot out of ground turkey and pair it with a veggie. (Broccoli, peas, asparagus, zucchini)
Chicken is a good one to meal prep, I just don't like the taste of reheated chicken.
I have eggs hard boiled in the fridge so I can just grab one.
I also like to weigh out carrots and hummus as a snack that I can just grab or put in with my lunch.

jennyavila13

How do you store the food? In the freeZer or fridge? When do you cook it?
I'm looking to cook Sunday's and just have it all in containers for the rest of the week.
I love all the food you mentioned and the technique because you already know what you want to do and stick to it. I'm Going to try that also.

BoxerBrawler

I food prep every Sunday. Get up, take inventory, go shopping, come home and prep. My prep includes the following: hard boiling eggs, cooking a few different proteins for the week (I leave them plain so we have options), cutting up raw veggies and storing in zip lock bags to be eaten raw as snacks, or steamed in the bag, or thrown into a salad. I make sure there is plenty of fresh spinach, kale and other leafy greens available for salads or whatever. I usually cook up some rice and/or a couple of sweet potatoes, or some pasta (plain) for my husband. He can add it to his meal, eat it plain, add sauce, whatever he wants. I usually have a healthy broth in a container, wicked easy to do a quick soup using some of the protein, greens and cut up veggies. I usually portion out some snacks e.g., almonds, fruit, etc. I usually have things on hand like turkey jerky, string cheese and triscuts on hand along with a couple different types of hummus and/or healthy PB for quick snacks.

bmayes2014

Single mom, full time job here too. I have two easy ways to suggest (I do this a lot of ways, but this is the easiest). I do it on Sundays.

1) buy a rotisserie chicken and prep the veggies and portion it out into Tupperware - easy - 30 mins tops. I also don't really like reheated chicken but the rotisseries taste fine to me reheated
2) place everything in the oven at once on 400 degrees: veggies (broccoli, brussel sprouts, carrots, etc) and fish or even chicken and a sweet potato (you can slice or leave it whole). Cook for about 45 mins. I use foil and a cookie sheet and I separate the meat from the veggies on separate foil so that I can remove the meat if it finishes before the veggies.

As far as breakfast - this is more of a challenge for me. Its been easy for me to toss a sprouted grain cinnamon raisin in the oven for 5 mins right out of the freezer and top it with peanut butter.

When I really feel like spending time in the kitchen, I may make meatloaf or turkey burger patties or meatballs etc. I also keep fruit on hand and nuts and yogurt that I can grab

best of luck!

RedLipsRedDress

Cooking everything together sounds great- saves a lot of time. I'll try that. I prepped meals this week for the first time and I'm curious to read more ideas. I admit I can't wait to get home for dinner when I know I won't have to cook. Plus I spent a lot less money when I knew what I wanted. For snacks I prepared boxes with oat flakes, milk and fruit (banana, strawberry, apple). Now I'm not anxious when I crave something sweet because I can have this

brekober

jennyavila13 wrote: »

How do you store the food? In the freeZer or fridge? When do you cook it?
I'm looking to cook Sunday's and just have it all in containers for the rest of the week.
I love all the food you mentioned and the technique because you already know what you want to do and stick to it. I'm Going to try that also.

I store it in the fridge. Protein gets cooked on Sunday's usually and whatever veggie I had at dinner the night before goes in with my protein. If not my family always ends up with extra veggies that I don't know what to do with lol.
I just use Tupperware and for snacks like carrots and eggs I use ziplock baggies.
Pinterest has some great ideas too. Whenever I get tired of what I usually make I will look up new food ideas!

jennyavila13

Thank you guys! I will definitely start my new cooking on Sunday this week. I'll try the receipies you guys gave me! Thank you so much!

xcalygrl

I cook everything for the week on Sunday or Monday. (I work a compressed work week every other week, so I'm off work every other Monday. On those weeks, I cook on Monday instead of Sunday.)

I cook breakfast (eggs, sausage, with kale, spinach, mushrooms, and garlic) and lunch (protein and a carb) once a week. I portion everything out and put it in containers for the week. Every night, I throw a few servings of broccoli in a container, put the broccoli container plus the lunch and breakfast ones in my lunch box. Every morning before I walk out the door, I grab my lunch box and purse and am ready for the day.

I keep non-perishable food for snacks in my desk drawer as well as 4-5 apples in the office fridge.