Simple meal prep ideas?

madwells1

Imagine a weeks worth of food:

Don't have to prep:
• Bagged lettuce
• Avocados
• Hard boiled eggs
• Black beans
• fruit (any kind, but if you have melon you have to prep)
• Nuts
• chicken stock
• Wraps or bread
• Ham or tuna
• Sliced red peppers/green peppers
• Sweet potatoes
• Spinach
• regular eggs
• Peanut butter
  
  Have to prep:
• Chicken thighs or chicken breast (skinless, boneless)
• Chopped tomatoes
• Chopped cucumbers
• Brown rice or other type of grain
• Broccoli/cauliflower
  

Now imagine how many different meals you can have that week given the list (sandwiches, burrito bowls, chicken and vegetables, chicken vegetable soup, the list goes on with vegetarian options and egg dishes. The prep work (chopping) can be done altogether when you have 15 minutes (when the chicken is cooking).

Change protein weekly to what you find that is on sale or what is fresh and looks good.

ritzvin

I usually cook up an entire batch of meat at once, let cool slightly, toss into baggie(s) and refrigerate and/or freeze for later. Same with frozen bags of vegetables.

• Slice (if in whole roast form) and pan sear whatever you can fit in 1 or 2 skillets. Don't overcook. Cool and bag. (pork sirloin roasts slice up for some tasty pork chops and were on special for $2/lb last week at Aldi). Above also applies for fish.
• Frozen pre-cooked shrimp. (microwave for like 30 seconds and toss on top/to side of veggies).
• Throw whole pork roast or package of boneless/skinless chicken into crock pot/instapot/etc. Shred. Make chicken/pork salad (add mayo) or pulled pork/chicken (add BBQ sauce). Bag.
• Dump 1-2 bags of frozen veggies into skillet. When thawed, add some seasonings, drizzle some oil, cook a bit more. Cool a bit and bag.
• Chili/Soups/stew

When you're hungry, then just grab something out of a bag of meat and weigh onto plate, repeat with some vegetable, repeat with some filler carbs (if desired), and microwave (~2 minutes if from fridge rather than freezer). done.

ritzvin

Note: if I don't have time to pre-prep.. it'll be a bit more bland (which can be made up for with seasonings, balsamic glaze, grated parmesan), but the frozen bagged vegetables can just be microwaved as is, and even the frozen salmon comes out surprisingly well when just microwaved from the bag.

pessxx

Some ideas, also there are a lot of instagram ideas, if you want i will post them

victorious4ever

Here's one of my lazy healthy meals:
Open a Heinz lentil soup can, pour contents into a glass bowl, and throw in a can of tuna. You can add onions, cheese and chilli if you have time. You can squeeze a lemon into it as well. Mix it all up. Microwave for 3-4 minutes.
Eat with Oatcakes or just on its own. You can add any seasoning to it you like.

Weestevie

My breakfast every day consists of:
1

shinycrazy

I do my lunches for work in a batch on sunday using a food scale.

Prep boston lettuce for wraps. (pull apart, rinse, stack with paper towels)
Roll deli meat into 3oz portions.
Plop cottage cheese and jam/apple butter/pom arils(whatever I have) into portion containers.
Cut bell peppers into slivers and portion in to snack baggies.
Portion pork rinds.
It's about 30 minutes total if I focus. There aren't many carbs here as I'm diabetic, but maybe there is inspiration here somewhere. Good luck!

ETA: My husband usually preps protein for weeknight dinners Sunday too. He'll grind a top round into ground beef and bake in the oven. He drains it well and it keeps in the fridge all week. Same with ground pork. We always have a container of cut salad at the ready for dinners too.

Mjones23456

Buy the premade salads, there is microwave brown rice and most grocery stores have rotisserie chicken. Take off the skin and cut it up. Ready to go.

Link2Life

This is simple (although all meal prepping takes time). I make enough for both my husband and myself to last M-F.

* 5 large similarly shaped sweet potatoes and bake them, then peel the skin off and put 1/2 potato in each container.
* 3 broccoli crowns (fresh) and 1 bag of baby carrots and steam cook them.
* boneless chicken thighs bulk pack and make this recipe. It calls for 4 thighs but I have more like 18! (I cram all chicken thighs into a 9x13 pan - I want to try them in a crock pot next week).

Been making this each weeks since Jan 2 and we haven't gotten sick of it yet!

Breakfast is a crustless broccoli quiche with some protein (ham, bacon, or sausage) baked in a 9x13 pan. I double the eggs and use more broccoli than the recipe calls for. My hubby eats this and I have a protein shake for breakfast.

3 compartment containers
bowls

adambrown01

Everyone, thank you so much! I'm getting a lot of really good ideas. I'm planning on meal prepping this weekend. I'll try to remember to take some pictures. No promises. I'm usually a whirlwind of productivity while I'm in the kitchen because I want to get done asap, but I'll try.

Thanks again!

ritzvin

I found washing containers (a sizable number of floating plastic items that also readily absorb soap taste if allowed to soak were a dreaded nuisance) and pre-planning exact meals to be a p.i.t.a. personally - and switched over to baggies for individual meal items.

CatchMom11

Pina Colada Green Smoothie
*1 cup pineapple chunks (fresh or canned in 100% juice)
*1 banana
1 cup fresh baby spinach
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1/4 cup ice
2 tsp raw honey (optional)

1. Add * pineapple & banana to ziploc bag (do not add the spinach - the citric acid from the pineapple can take away some of the nutrients from the spinach)
2. Make a week's worth
3. Freeze
4. Pull from freezer when ready to use & place in blender
5. Add remaining ingredients and blend to desired consistency.

NOTE: DOES NOT TASTE AT ALL LIKE SPINACH. My husband HATES spinach and he will drink these.

I usually add a scoop of Isopure Unflavored Protein to mine and sometime a sugarfree red bull.

Slow Cooker Hawaiian Chicken

Ingredients:
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast cut into bite-sized pieces
1 fresh pineapple cut into bite sized pieces (can sub canned in 100% juice)
2 tbsp light brown sugar (I sub splenda brown sugar)
2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce

Add ingredients to freezer bag, adding the chicken last - remove as much air as possible from bag before closing.

The night before cooking, move frozen bag to the refrigerator to thaw.
Pour contents into slow cooker, cook on "LOW" for 3-6 hours, or until chicken is thoroughly cooked.

Crafty_camper123

The idea of spending a day to cook everything for the week overwhelms me. My weekends are busy enough. What I rely on is planning what I want to eat for the week and writing it down to start with. Then I either bulk cook something that I can get multiple meals out of or bulk cook a protein that I can get multiple types of meals from. For example at the beginning of this week I slow roasted a pork shoulder. For my DH and I, we were able to eat pulled pork sandwiches twice, have tacos another night, and get a few lunches of salads and sandwiches from it as well. I rely heavily on my slow cooker and use dump, set and forget recipies frequently. It takes 20m of prep tops to put together a chili I can eat on for a few days. I love recipes that I can turn into a couple different kinds of meals. For example a roasted chicken and veggies one night can turn into chicken fried rice the next. Chili one night can be chili baked potatoes the next. I just picked up an electronic pressure cooker (instant pot) and have a feeling it's going to be a large part of my quick weeknight meals as well.

AudreyJDuke

Great ideas!!!

Evamutt

here's what I do: I make 4.5 oz ground chuck & ground turkey patties, put them in sandwich bags then into a large freezer bag(this way they freeze individually) you can also cook them first then freeze them. I bake chicken breasts in foil with seasoning & a little butter & they keep in fridge for a week. I buy fresh & frozen "steamers" veggies. there's always something to eat in a hurry. For a recipe, I just take out as many patties as needed.Also when I cook, I cook enough for 2-3 days. I made some roasted beet & potato soup yesterday, enough for 3 days. I washed & saved the stalks & sauteed them with kale, onions & garlic & sprinkled some Parmesan cheese on them, tasty

GothicsDarkAngel

I will start this post by stating, I can eat the same thing everyday, and I generally alter my menu week to week, NOT day to day.

SO....breakfast I make fresh every day (2 eggs and 2 slices 45 calorie bread), lunch this week is tuna with low fat ranch and either 8 saltines OR romaine lettuce. I open all my cans of tuna at the beginning of the week, then I separate them into sandwich bags with the ranch dressing. I will also portion the saltines in advance as well. Dinner this week is a filet of salmon, 113g brown rice, and 2 C broccoli. I also pre-portion that in the beginning of the week and pop it into the freezer. My two snacks for the day are a greek yogurt with a whole orange, and almonds with a string cheese. All of that is bagged at the beginning of the week. So then everyday, I just pop everything (except for breakfast) into my lunch bag.

No fuss, no pain....no thinking. I find that if I preplan, I tend NOT to binge or fall of track. I literally spend about 90 minutes TOTAL in my kitchen a week.


There you have it.
1200-1400 cals a day, down 55lbs.

ugenethejeep12

Chicken bourbon bowl
Cooked rice topped with
Thawed frozen broccoli topped with
Chunks of chicken breast cooked however
Topped with sweet baby ray kickin bourbon (make sure and measure this by serving)

Optional top with seeds, trader joe bagel seasons, cilantro , a fried egg, green onion , red pepper flakes