Meal Prep

dillmilk

Okay so this is more for the chicken and rice and veg kinda guys. Do you cook a week or a months worth of food and then freeze it to reheat later? Or do you only cook a couple of days worth of food and keep it refrigerated? Or do you make everything fresh each meal? Tips for prepping to avoid soggy food and preserve freshness? What's your routine??

cnbbnc

Not a guy, but I do a lot of prepping ahead of time. I do make rice/pasta ahead...enough for a few days. I cook a ton of chicken/turkey burgers/bacon/chili/pancakes, ect... A bit stays in the fridge and the rest goes in freezer bags. Cut up veggies will keep in the fridge for a few days too. I put them in a Tupperware filled with water to keep them crisp.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

vismal

I make very little ahead of time because, IMO, most food sucks after it's a few days old. I also loathe eating the same thing over and over again. I think this problem is exacerbated when one is primarily eating minimally processed, whole foods. Nothing is worse to me then dried chicken and old rice. I will portion out meat ahead of time. I have freezer bags full of pre-weighed chicken, ground beef, pork chops, etc, but none of it is precooked. I do make a bbq pulled chicken recipe in a crock pot that gives me several days worth of chicken that will still taste good after about a week. Most meals consisting of whole foods can be cooked in 20 minutes or less. If time is an issue you can pre portion foods but if it's going to take 5 minutes to warm up, might as well find an extra 15 minutes to just cook it and have a much better tasting meal. All that being said, if eating the same things over and over doesn't bother you, and you're willing to sacrifice some taste for convenience, I can see the value of meal prep.

dillmilk

Since I started weight lifting time hasn't been an issue, but I'll be a student this fall so that will change. I agree, eating whole foods does get boring awfully quick. Luckily, on a bulk it doesn't have to be whole food all the time. But since I will have to prep lunches for school anyway, it might has well be the healthiest meal of the day. It is unfortunate that quality will have to be sacrificed, so hopefully I'll receive some good tips!

psuLemon

vismal wrote: »

I make very little ahead of time because, IMO, most food sucks after it's a few days old. I also loathe eating the same thing over and over again. I think this problem is exacerbated when one is primarily eating minimally processed, whole foods. Nothing is worse to me then dried chicken and old rice. I will portion out meat ahead of time. I have freezer bags full of pre-weighed chicken, ground beef, pork chops, etc, but none of it is precooked. I do make a bbq pulled chicken recipe in a crock pot that gives me several days worth of chicken that will still taste good after about a week. Most meals consisting of whole foods can be cooked in 20 minutes or less. If time is an issue you can pre portion foods but if it's going to take 5 minutes to warm up, might as well find an extra 15 minutes to just cook it and have a much better tasting meal. All that being said, if eating the same things over and over doesn't bother you, and you're willing to sacrifice some taste for convenience, I can see the value of meal prep.

I am with you. And that is the reason I cook every night. The food just taste so much better.

abadvat

nah - meal prepped for quite some time but got sick and tired of it - anything past 1 day goes tasteless and reheated tastless food after a bit hits your nerves.
Prefer to wake up 30 minutes before and cook everything in the AM.
Only thing I cook in advance is rice and i do 1 or 2 days worth of it at the most.

jdscrubs32

Not sure I agree with the posts above about warming up already cooked food not being nice.
@dylan_mazur most Sundays I would eat cook a large amount of chili con carne, spaghetti bol or chicken curry which lasts me for a few days and it works out pretty cheap particularly if you are a student. For the first two, I would cook half a pound of mince which is normally around 400 grams, 3 half peppers, 1 full white onion, 20 small tomatoes, a tin of lentils, a tin of chick peas if its spaghetti bol I'm making or tin of red kidney beans if its chili con carne I'm making and one red chili. You can make your own sauce but I'm too lazy so I normally buy a sauce. For the chicken curry, all the ingredients are the same but this time with two large chicken breasts cut up. I normally would get 4 dishes out of that and mix with rice, spaghetti, pasta, potato, etc. Normally comes to around 1,000 calories. Put it all into a container and then choose how much you want over the next three days. Re-heat in microwave or on the pan. Tastes delicious.

richln

I usually grill once a week. I grill a large variety of proteins and veggies and then refrigerate them. My family and I reheat them as bases for meals throughout the week when we don't feel like or have time for cooking.

rebel_26

on Sunday I make the work weeks meals and hold in fridge (lunch and Dinners) . Since all are eaten in 5 days no need ot freeze. In cases where schedule changes and I cannot consume all within the 5 days I do freeze buy placing in containers that are freezer approved. for breakfast I make a higher calorie shake and protein oatmeal pancakes which freezes beautifully. I simple take one pack out in the Am. Drink my shake and in an hour or so they defrost. either pop in micro for a warm up or eat cold. No syrup needed if made correctly.

_Bro

I usually cook food on Sunday for next week.
Usage of the crock pot for cooking chicken really comes in handy and is pretty tasty (using peppers from my back yard, dried peppers, other spices). Frozen fruits are also preferable as they add a bit of texture to smoothies and actually work really well in my oatmeal (heating up the fruit and oatmeal at the same time )

Caporegiem

I usually cook on Sunday and Wednesday nights so I'm only eating food that's a day or two old vs a week. I've got a large cast iron grill top I cook pretty much everything on with the exception of potatoes. I cook rice my rice in a rice cooker but when it's done I'll throw it on the grill for a few and cook it in a little olive oil.

As far as getting tired of the same food all the time, my recommendation is keeping a wide variety of sauces you like. Doesn't take too much of it and gives me enough variety not to get sick of chicken.