meal prep

mybigfat

Do you guys prep your meals in advance? What kind of things do you make? How many days do you do?

distinctlybeautiful

I cook tofu in advance because it take a long time when you factor in draining it. I cook rice ahead of time sometimes. Otherwise I just make breakfast and lunch the night before. I was chopping veggies ahead of time too, but I don't really need to anymore. I suppose I don't really meal prep then, other than packing my breakfast and lunch. It's more food prep to have a few things readily available to make meals.

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livingleanlivingclean

We do

Rice - cooked, portioned, frozen
Roast vegies - portioned, frozen
Other vegies chopped to cook fresh.
Meat - some cooked, portioned, frozen. Usually eaten cold in salad etc as we don't like reheating. Other meats portioned and frozen raw to cook fresh.
Yoghurt /protein and fruit in containers, frozen (slightly defrosted it's like icecream)
Eggs hard boiled
Sandwiches for toasting made and frozen

I'll leave 1-2 days in the fridge...

mybigfat

Neat ty

Rowan09

I try not to prep more than 4 or 5 days in advance. This way I don't get sick of food and if something comes up (dinner at a friends house, stuck at work late) and I miss a day or two of that meal, I'm not stuck eating/throwing away really old food.

smiles6428

When the weather is bad and I have a long day at home I'll prep food to go in the freezer that I can pull out anytime. Right now I have about 80 meatballs to make spaghetti with zucchini and my spiralizer, pulled chicken, butternut squash, mini calzones, chicken mole, butternut squash Rizzuto, and much more. When I'm in a rush I just grab one.

I also prep fresh each week. I try to do 1 salad with lettuce (4-6 meals), 1 non lettuce salad (quinoa, beans, etc- 4-6 meals), and something with meat (4-6 meals).

nutmegoreo

I prelogged and packed tomorrow's breakfast and lunch because I'm on early shift.

Every couple weeks I will pick 4-6 recipes, cook and log them, and freeze them in single serving containers. That makes grab and go lunches really easy (I already know their calorie count), just add some fresh fruit/veg and yogurt.

JohnnyPenso

Dramatically so. I do my own canning and usually have between 15-30 litres canned at any one time. Just finished making some rabbit stew tonight and I've got a half dozen other concoctions in the fridge like lamb stew with rosemary, chili, spaghetti sauce and salmon with dill soup. I also cook and freeze seasonal vegetables like butternut squash, kale, collards etc. They are much cheaper in harvest season and freeze really well. I make and freeze nut/banana breads, brownies, pies and whole grain breads. It's a lot of work up front but, when things get hectic, I can literally go for days without cooking a scratch meal but still eating healthy and delicious foods.

Queenmunchy

Yep, I cook batches, portion, and freeze. I have a ton of single serving meals in my freezer to choose from.

EmmaCaz4

I prep the night before or the morning of each day. There may be days I have leftovers but most of my days are either meat and veg or meat and salad, eggs etc are all cooked on the day, evening meals are freshly cooked each day!
I work better this way rather than prepping a full week in advance.

ritzvin

Yes. I batch cook rice/beans/veggies/meat and portion out into containers. I make large batches of soup for evenings. I pre-portion out cottage cheese, and yogurt-fruit mix, tuna/chicken salad, and jam/fruit spread for cottage cheese/yogurt.

lucys1225

Queenmunchy wrote: »

Yep, I cook batches, portion, and freeze. I have a ton of single serving meals in my freezer to choose from.

I do the same.

buffinlovin

I'm finding that meal prep is the backbone of my new lifestyle change. I had gotten 3-compartment reusable meal containers (it was about $20 on amazon, and I got 20 containers), and I'm sure I'll be getting more just to prep even further.

My issue is convenience...I get home and I don't feel like cooking, or I feel like cooking but don't want to go to the store. I know I'll have days like this at times, but my goal is to make that as rare as possible.

I meal prep on sundays for the week. I start by doing my grocery shopping on Saturday so that I don't have to do anything except make my coffee and get started first thing Sunday.

Lunches for the week include 3-6oz of protein (chicken breast is most common, pork chops, pork loin...I'm also budget conscious so I try to do whatever is on sale if possible), and 2 sides (usually veggies-I like the large bag of frozen broccoli florets, or fresh green beans, just tried roasted cubed sweet potato and that was a win).

While that is cooking I usually prep something for extra flavor...sautéed mushrooms, caramelized onions, etc. these things don't add a ton of calories, but they add more flavor and can give enough change so it doesn't feel like you're eating the same thing every day.

For breakfast I buy plain oatmeal, almonds, and dried cranberries in bulk and make my own oatmeal bowls (1/2 cup quick oats, 1 tbls brown sugar, crushed almonds and dried cranberries--I take whatever 1serving is and divide it across 5 bowls). Comes out to about 260 calories, and all I need to do is add hot water at work.

For snacks I portion baby carrots into baggies, sometimes also sliced cucumber. I also have a stash of apples and bananas for some sweetness. I also have small snack bags of pretzels, popcorn, and baked chips. I also really like fiber one bars to get me through a long afternoon.

Dinners are still rough for me since I do want fresh cooked meals (even if I'm the one doing the cooking). Like this week I tried a weight watchers recipe for turkey enchiladas, and that got me through yesterday and today for supper. I made extra meat filling and froze it so I can easily grab tortillas and make another batch later. tomorrow I'm going to make a family pack of chicken on a grill pan, top with a balsamic glaze and a caprese salad. I'm hoping that will get me and my fiancé through to Friday night.

I'd definitely like to prep some more dishes that I can just heat up (preferably right from the freezer), just to have for convenience. But having breakfast, lunch and snacks is really what's getting me to stick to my calories.

NanceePants11

buffinlovin wrote: »

I'm finding that meal prep is the backbone of my new lifestyle change. I had gotten 3-compartment reusable meal containers (it was about $20 on amazon, and I got 20 containers), and I'm sure I'll be getting more just to prep even further.

My issue is convenience...I get home and I don't feel like cooking, or I feel like cooking but don't want to go to the store. I know I'll have days like this at times, but my goal is to make that as rare as possible.

I meal prep on sundays for the week. I start by doing my grocery shopping on Saturday so that I don't have to do anything except make my coffee and get started first thing Sunday.

Lunches for the week include 3-6oz of protein (chicken breast is most common, pork chops, pork loin...I'm also budget conscious so I try to do whatever is on sale if possible), and 2 sides (usually veggies-I like the large bag of frozen broccoli florets, or fresh green beans, just tried roasted cubed sweet potato and that was a win).

While that is cooking I usually prep something for extra flavor...sautéed mushrooms, caramelized onions, etc. these things don't add a ton of calories, but they add more flavor and can give enough change so it doesn't feel like you're eating the same thing every day.

For breakfast I buy plain oatmeal, almonds, and dried cranberries in bulk and make my own oatmeal bowls (1/2 cup quick oats, 1 tbls brown sugar, crushed almonds and dried cranberries--I take whatever 1serving is and divide it across 5 bowls). Comes out to about 260 calories, and all I need to do is add hot water at work.

For snacks I portion baby carrots into baggies, sometimes also sliced cucumber. I also have a stash of apples and bananas for some sweetness. I also have small snack bags of pretzels, popcorn, and baked chips. I also really like fiber one bars to get me through a long afternoon.

Dinners are still rough for me since I do want fresh cooked meals (even if I'm the one doing the cooking). Like this week I tried a weight watchers recipe for turkey enchiladas, and that got me through yesterday and today for supper. I made extra meat filling and froze it so I can easily grab tortillas and make another batch later. tomorrow I'm going to make a family pack of chicken on a grill pan, top with a balsamic glaze and a caprese salad. I'm hoping that will get me and my fiancé through to Friday night.

I'd definitely like to prep some more dishes that I can just heat up (preferably right from the freezer), just to have for convenience. But having breakfast, lunch and snacks is really what's getting me to stick to my calories.

You sound like an expert! I really want to become like this and I just want to know about how much time out of your day does prepping take up? And compared to your prior days without meal prep, is it a significant amount of money you save by doing this? I am on a budget too. One last question, has it helped you reach your fitness goals?

buffinlovin

ngarci11 wrote: »

You sound like an expert! I really want to become like this and I just want to know about how much time out of your day does prepping take up? And compared to your prior days without meal prep, is it a significant amount of money you save by doing this? I am on a budget too. One last question, has it helped you reach your fitness goals?

Thank you!! Not an expert, but really focused on getting results Depending on what I'm making, it takes 2-3 hours generally because I like to cook my chicken/pork chops in a pan on my stovetop, and since I only have one large pan, I have to do it in batches. I'm sure if I cooked the chicken in the oven it would be a lot faster (and probably easier cleanup too lol). I also spend a good 30 minutes trimming and cutting down chicken breasts (my store seems to only sell the ginormous ones, so I cut them down to a smaller size and use extra for dinners during the week).

I make 10 lunches (5 for me, 5 for my fiance), and I find the breakdown comes out to something like this:

-10 chicken breasts: around $20
-2 veggie sides for 10 meals: around $12-$15
-Snacks (apples, bananas, baby carrots, cucumbers): $12-$15
total : $50ish, so about $5 per lunch/snack per day.

The other snacks are hard to calculate off the top of my head because I buy it in bulk stores and I don't remember the cost breakdown.

If I plan meals for dinner ahead of time, it saves a lot because we used to go out to eat about twice a week, and sometimes get takeout on top of that. I like to keep a dinner prep under $20, and I usually get 2-3 nights of dinner out of one meal.

It has helped quite a bit with my goals I believe my diary is open, feel free to browse. Since I started truly counting calories on 1/15/17 I've lost 7.5 lbs mostly with diet change and some extra walking.

ritzvin

It probably takes me 2-3 hours total one day a week (including the portioning into containers, and recipe logging). Definitely saves money - batch meals I make use fairly cheap ingredients for the most part, and once cooked & portioned is more convenient than even fast food. More expensive ingredients are easy to stretch further when cooking in larger batches. I tend to still buy pre-cooked rotisserie chickens though, but I usually strip all the meat off (into bite-sized chunks) in one go and wrap in butcher paper for the next batch of rice&beans, soup, etc (and the boyfriend usually adds some onto pizza - he's a rather muscular futbol player who can get away with eating 2/3 of a pizza).

cross2bear

While I prep a few things, even though there are only two of us at home now, I still make recipes that feed 4,6 or 8 and then freeze the extra portions for those days when I just cant do the kitchen after work.

salemnye

I food prep ALLLLLLL the time. Sundays I usually make a soup for lunches for the week (Last week I made onion soup) and I also make dinners for the week. I would also make overnight oats when I wanted to eat breakfast.

I find it is so much easier to portion control when I food prep because I take a gander at how much I have and adjust from there. It also allows me to be more lazy after work lol.

I am also just cooking for myself. If I were doing it for one or a few other people I would just double the recipe I was following.

hbunting86

Haha I'll be the odd one out and say that I don't meal prep! I always have things in to make healthy meals, but I really don't like knowing too much what I am going to eat specifically. There will always be meat and fish in the freezer so I'll take out what I fancy in the morning and it'll be defrosted by evening. Lunch wise, again it depends what I'm doing and what I fancy. I'm training as a personal trainer at the moment and the gym is close to my house so I can always pop home and make some scrambled eggs, a salad, or sometimes I'll take leftovers from the night before with me, depending what I made. Things I have made I tend to freeze leftovers if I don't intend to use them within a few days so there are always a few 'ready' meals if I have plans or don't fancy cooking or simply don't have time. Breakfast is generally a smoothie for me, so I don't have to do any prep for that - just make sure I've plenty fresh fruit in the house and yoghurt and milk. I make my own yoghurt, so that's some form of prep... but not a meal as such.
I guess it comes down to your lifestyle and your preferences. I know a lot of people at the gym who do meal prep - particularly guys on high protein diets who eat at more regular intervals but a lot of the mums have busy household schedules and/or fussy kids so it's not always possible to do. Much easier if you live alone or with someone doing a similar thing to you. I have a toddler and a busy, changeable job so planning for me ends up being more restrictive than helpful.