cooking and preplanning

jmv10

I need help on pre-planning my meals and how to get into the habit of doing this. I am single & live alone & i tend to grab on the go stuff or eat out and am not always making the best choices.

does anyone cook their meals in advance in one day? what are your fav tools or storing stuff. I have signed up for a local vegetable delivery service and i know i will have recipe suggestions from them. are there any go to food items i should always have on hand?

i have never really done this in the past and i believe having ready made meals from fresh ingredients should be part of the changes i need to make to reach my goals and to change my lifestyle.

any advice will be appreciated

Queenmunchy

I cook entire dishes on weekends: all different varieties of soup, chili, curry, stuffed peppers, stew, casseroles, meatballs, nuggets, burritos, meatloaves, etc and freeze them in individual portions. On each container, I label the date and calorie count. I've done it for almost 8 years, so in the morning I can grab and go and my family always has a healthy option to warm up in minutes.

It was particularly helpful when I was single. Make one recipe, eat 8 times.

janejellyroll

I plan my menu for the week (on Sundays) and outline what I plan to have for all three meals. I also set aside time to make sure I have everything I need and put what I need on a shopping list. I don't live alone, but my husband and I don't eat the same things, so I'm usually just cooking for myself. He does his own menu planning. When I do my menu planning, I match the recipe to what I know I have planned for the day (big day at work where I'll probably work late -- that night gets an easy dinner. Working from home or non-busy weekend day -- that's a night where I will probably try something that takes more time).

When I make a meal, I will put one portion on my plate and then use individually-sized containers to portion up the rest. I then eat these for lunch and breakfast on subsequent days. Since I know how many servings each recipe will make, I'm able to account for this in the planning for the week.

My go-to list is pretty subjective, but I always have some type of grain/potatoes/pasta, salad greens, vegetables suitable for roasting (broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts), and some kind of easy sauce base (chili paste, curry paste, crushed tomatoes), bags of frozen vegetables, and canned beans.

I personally find a plan is the most important part of establishing a home-cooking routine. I know from experience that if I tell myself I am going to eat "whatever," there is a high chance that I'll end up eating microwave popcorn for dinner. But if I have a plan, I'm going to follow through.

I know tonight that I'm going to have a green smoothie and black bean burgers. I got all my smoothie ingredients at the grocery store yesterday and they're ready to throw in the blender. I've got all the burger ingredients as well and I took the frozen buns out of the freezer this morning. When I get ready to make dinner, I'm just going to have to make a vegetable relish, mix the patties together, cook them, and blend the smoothie. I also pre-logged everything for this meal yesterday so I was able to plan the calories for the rest of my meals to make sure I didn't go over.

TrekkerCynthia

I finally bit the bullet and paid for an online meal planning site - Plan to Eat. I plan on Thursdays for Sat - Fri and grocery shop on Friday. It takes some time, mainly because I'm still in the process of entering my recipes. It does not include nutrition info, so I add that from MFP. It does create my shopping list, and lets me put things in the "freezer" so when I go to plan the next week I know what leftovers I have. There are other menu planning sites you can try, I just really liked the interface with this one even though it has some limitations (does not let me keep track of what is in my freezer/cupboard). The planning has really made a difference with helping me keep to my calorie goal. I don't just grab stuff, and I always have what I need to cook what I planned. The time I take to plan I get back from having to go to the grocery store multiple times a week because I need one or two ingredients to cook a meal.

LLT38

I have found allrecipes.com or Spark recipes to be great resources for recipe ideas. Many of the recipes are simple - I'm not a fancy cook so I want recipes with less than 10 ingredients. With allrecipes.com, you can read other people's reviews and suggested improvements on the recipe. You could try out 1 new recipe every week or two until you find some recipes that you enjoy. Then you can do what the others have suggested about batch cooking and portioning everything out.

ejbronte

Saturday or Sunday I prep cuts of chicken and beef (3 or 4 oz each). Freeze the pieces. Also on the weekend, I make oat flour breakfast bread-like concoction. Come the morning, I defrost the chosen piece of meat and either use it as sandwich fodder or in a quickie salad. Add some fruit as side dish. Wrap up one or two of my oat flour thingies. Add some fruit as a side dish (I like fruit). Wrap the whole bundle up in a bag and bring it to work, where coffee is free! Total calorie count is between 300 and 400 calories per meal.

Here4Ponies

Planning is key. I cook meats and starches, prep fresh veggies for salads, and pre-pack snacks on the weekend. If I need to make it super easy for the week, I portion everything into single servings over the weekend. If I'm not going to finish a meat or starch in five days, I freeze it in single servings. Makes for a Sunday afternoon but so worth it when I can pack a day's worth of food in less than 15 minutes or when I get home at 9pm and I'm starving.

My crockpot is my favorite appliance. I use it weekly. This week I made poached salmon in it. I keep bulk bags of flash frozen chicken breasts on hand. I like marinating the whole bag then grilling or sauteing them. I always have lowfat string cheese, apples, baby carrots, beef jerky, milk, dark chocolate kisses,and protein powder on hand. Sometimes dinner is a higher protein cereal and milk.

Lounmoun

I only eat out once a week. I plan 28 dinners at a time. I just make a list and divide it into groups of 7. It can be easier if you have some themes or categories in mind before looking for recipes... like if you know you want soup once a week, Meatless Monday or Mexican food then you just find something that fits those categories.
If you are single you might find cooking a larger amount than you need and freezing individual portions to be time saving. Eggs are fast cooking and can be good for meals or snacks.

I do not plan breakfast or lunch far in advance because I tend to eat the same foods. I choose low prep or no prep foods for breakfast and lunch most of the time. I use dinner leftovers for lunches pretty often. I pre-log my whole day every morning.

Breakfast- Greek yogurt, granola bars, cereal with milk, sandwich, dinner leftovers, fruit or cottage cheese (about 200-300 calories)
Lunch- sandwich, salad, or dinner leftovers (about 300-500 calories)
Dinner- something different every night of the month. (about 500-600 calories) I have soup once a week usually.
Snacks- things like fruit, chips, popcorn, pretzels, chocolate, cookies, granola bar, carrots, celery, broccoli, trail mix, deviled eggs, pickles (about 100-300 calories)
I post recipes and my monthly meal plans on my blog. https://lounmoun.wordpress.com/

I find food ideas on Pinterest a lot.
http://www.budgetbytes.com
http://www.skinnytaste.com
http://www.allrecipes.com
http://www.ohsheglows.com
http://www.kalynskitchen.com/

jmv10

Wow! great advice - will have to check out some of these websites!

I just signed up with a local company that will drop off on my doorstep every two weeks - all locally produced by nearby farms. there should be a box on my doorstep when i get home with Asparagus, Spinach, Kale, Strawberries, Shiitake Mushrooms, Spring Onion and Romaine Lettuce along with a dozen eggs, cheese & a quart of greek yogurt(about $44) (they also provide recipe ideas)

I also just signed up for HelloFresh which will provide me with 3 - 2 person meals with all needed ingredients (it is kinda pricey so I will see how that goes).

this will get me using food I've never tried before.

Do you all freeze some of your meals? store in plasticwear or ziploc bags? i work a 9-5 job in a small office with a decent kitchen for re-heating items.

shancourcy16

Great tips here!

endlessfall16

Queenmunchy wrote: »

I cook entire dishes on weekends: all different varieties of soup, chili, curry, stuffed peppers, stew, casseroles, meatballs, nuggets, burritos, meatloaves, etc and freeze them in individual portions. On each container, I label the date and calorie count. I've done it for almost 8 years, so in the morning I can grab and go and my family always has a healthy option to warm up in minutes.

It was particularly helpful when I was single. Make one recipe, eat 8 times.

I tried to freeze good left over foods a few times but they did not taste the same reheated. You amaze me that you can eat week old, reheated foods.

I don't like spending a lot of time in the kitchen either. My solution is to learn to cook fast, within 30 minutes.

Here4Ponies

jmv10 wrote: »

Do you all freeze some of your meals? store in plasticwear or ziploc bags? i work a 9-5 job in a small office with a decent kitchen for re-heating items.

I freeze some of my already cooked food. I'm not fond of the taste when it's reheated but it is a very convenient way to make healthy, cost-effective meals. I find ziplock type bags work best for keeping the food palatable and for space-saving. Often I'll put food in a quart size freezer bag then put several of those in a gallon size freezer bag. Plasticware is better if you don't want your food all mixed together stirfry or casserole style.

Queenmunchy

endlessfall16 wrote: »

Queenmunchy wrote: »

I cook entire dishes on weekends: all different varieties of soup, chili, curry, stuffed peppers, stew, casseroles, meatballs, nuggets, burritos, meatloaves, etc and freeze them in individual portions. On each container, I label the date and calorie count. I've done it for almost 8 years, so in the morning I can grab and go and my family always has a healthy option to warm up in minutes.

It was particularly helpful when I was single. Make one recipe, eat 8 times.

I tried to freeze good left over foods a few times but they did not taste the same reheated. You amaze me that you can eat week old, reheated foods.

I don't like spending a lot of time in the kitchen either. My solution is to learn to cook fast, within 30 minutes.

Not even week old, sometimes months old, depending on what it is. I have a food saver, a stand up freezer (that seems to be better at freezing), and I flash freeze many of our foods.

kristysaurus

I have only a handful of meals that I make for each meal and most of them are super straight-forward and require a lot of the same ingredients. I cook a lot of meat on Sunday and leave 1-2 days per week where I will cook from scratch (those are days I have time to do that though!). I put everything separately into individually portioned containers (for lunch/breakfast items) or in big containers for stuff like meat or veggies that I use a lot of (then i just open and grab what I need). I make some stuff fresh every day like rice and some veggies because I prefer to but I have done huge batches of it all and stored everything for one meal in a container. Then you microwave and enjoy.

I make my meat seasoned pretty basic (salt, pepper, cayenne) and then add other things on the day i am re-cooking the food. That way I add variety very easily.

DanaDark

A good start would be to find recipes that sound good to you and try your hand at cooking them. If you are bold enough, invite a friend to join you to try out the foods.

A BIG part of cooking is learning to actually like to cook. If you hate every second of meal prep in the kitchen, you're going to have trouble.

One of my favorite things to do is throw on some 80s music and get to cooking low cal + healthy foods for myself and a friend or two.