Opinions needed: Meal preppers

RockingWithLJ

Hi everyone!
I'm going to start meal prepping tomorrow for the first time and i need some opinions:
How many days do you meal prep for?
Do you store meals differently that are farther in your timeline?
How do you store them?
Any additional advice is welcome!

asthesoapturns

I make work lunches for the week. I cook big batches in my Instant Pot and portion everything out in glass lunch containers. Since I'm a solo act, I make one meal every few days, and eat the leftovers before I cook again. For breakfast I bake muffins, amount a month's worth at a time.

However many meals you make ahead, I recommend glass dishes for storage and reheating.

gallicinvasion

How many days do you meal prep for?
I usually prep for a lot of weekday meals, since I can't take time out of work to cook or prepare much. I prep breakfasts (usually a little personalized trail mix) either on Sunday night (5 total), or the night before (for the next day). On Sundays, I also cook one batch meal with at least 5 portions for my lunches. If it has more than five portions, I might freeze the extra or my bf might eat them. I also pack my afternoon snacks to take with me to work. My bf and I will EACH make a batch meal, so we will likely have some extra portions for dinners, which is nice.

Do you store meals differently that are farther in your timeline?
I don't really prep anything more than 5 days in advance. If i think something is going to take me more than 5 or 6 days to finish up, I will try to anticipate that, and freeze the extra individual portions right after I make them (and stick the rest in the fridge). For baked goods that I whip up for fun, I try to half the recipe so I'm not tempted to eat a ton before it goes stale. I also try to find freezer-friendly recipes, wrap up individual portions in saran wrap and tin foil, and freeze in ziplocks with the air sucked out of them.

Advice:
1. Every so often, make freezer-friendly recipes so you can save portions for future weeks (without risking your health by eating food that's been in the fridge for more than a week). It's nice to have a delicious throw-back meal with no cooking required sometimes.
2. When freezing meals (I usually do this with chilis, soups, stews, curries, etc), put a portion in a tupperware container, freeze it for an hour or two, then take the frozen block out of the tupperware, stick it in labelled ziplock with the date, and suck all the air out. Then you can be more efficient with your freezer space and not take up room with big tupperwares that aren't airtight and that waste valuable space.