Meal plan or not?

Cmachuca39

xtrain321 wrote: »

Thought about you again and wanted to come back and add one more thing--for those really busy weeks when I don't have time to prep, I stock up on stuff that is easy to grab on the run. Yogurt, cottage cheese, frozen or pre-sliced veggies, rotisserie chicken, deli meat, tuna, nuts, whole fruit, canned beans, and sweet potatoes--they cook in the microwave in 7 minutes and are actually good cold.

That is perfect!! I can do that for sure.. thank you again:)😀

Athijade

I plan and I prep.

I used to plan a month at a time, but am now doing a very basic monthly plan and don't finalize it until the week before (my therapist had me change this due to my anxiety with food and being "perfect" with my diet). This now gives me a lot more flexibility to make changes based off of what I am craving which means I stick to it better. It for sure saves me money and time at the store. I also enjoy sitting down with some cookbooks and Pinterest to try and decide what sounds good to me.

Cmachuca39

Athijade wrote: »

I plan and I prep.

I used to plan a month at a time, but am now doing a very basic monthly plan and don't finalize it until the week before (my therapist had me change this due to my anxiety with food and being "perfect" with my diet). This now gives me a lot more flexibility to make changes based off of what I am craving which means I stick to it better. It for sure saves me money and time at the store. I also enjoy sitting down with some cookbooks and Pinterest to try and decide what sounds good to me.

Thank you!

NadNight

We’re in the same boat as you- as a family we want to eat more healthily but meal planning/prepping is time consuming and surprisingly difficult to begin with.

We stick with just tea time for now and plan mon-fri evening meals but leave lunch and breakfast flexible. For me breakfast is usually porridge and I have different additions (fruit, cacao powder, nuts and seeds) so it’s not always plain porridge. Lunches are typically a salad using similar base ingredients but mixing up the protein and grains and playing with dressings.

One thing we’ve found is how repetitive things can get so finding a wide variety of recipes (that don’t need you to buy the whole shop) is the biggest challenge. But it definitely helps to know what I’ll be cooking when I come in from work rather than get in and rifle through the cupboards and try and concoct something

We haven’t tried proper meal prep yet, just a loose plan which seems to work as long as someone else cleans the kitchen!

kshama2001

Cmachuca39 wrote: »

I have a super busy schedule and I am a bit of a picky eater (on healthy foods.. go figure) . Was wondering how people felt about meal planning and do I plan the full week or should I plan half week?

I used to make four lunches and four dinners on Sundays, but that was because I was cooking two packages of chicken thighs and they were four to a pack I would make four using one recipe and the other four with another recipe.

While doing this, I also made five days worth of hard boiled eggs for snacks.

On Fridays I would get Chipotle for lunch, eat half, and have the other half for dinner.

hesn92

I always plan out what I will be eating for the week, otherwise I'd be driving to the grocery store on a daily basis and spending tons of money. I do not prep though. I plan out what I'll eat for breakfast, lunch and snacks every day, and then I choose 3 meals (usually) to make for dinner, and just make enough to last a couple nights each. Works for me.

Sunshine_And_Sand

I do various levels of planning and prepping depending on how busy we are at the time.
I like to chop veggies ahead of time so they can go in the oven as soon as I get home and still have freshly cooked veggies. My favorite thing to do this with is thinly sliced zucchini sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.
Casserole type foods are nice for prepping because I can assemble them ahead of time, pop them in the oven when I get home, and work on other chores while the food cooks.
When I make pancakes, I always make a double batch so the kids have a few breakfasts worth of leftovers, and pancakes reheat well.
Chili in the crockpot is great and can be as complicated or as easy as you want it to be. I chop any veggies, sit out cans, and measure out spices I'm going to use ahead of time and throw it all together in the crockpot before I head out to work in the morning. It also makes several servings so you can use the leftovers for lunches.
I hope some of this helps you. Good luck.