Vacuum Sealing and Meal prep - Feasible? How??

Kohanai

cw for super brief disordered eating mention.

Hey folks, I live that meal prep life in order to actually eat consistently. I can eat the same meal a couple weeks in a row, but I'd rather not. I don't have a lot of meal prep days available, and cooked food just doesn't last that long.

Meal prepping several more options and vacuum sealing them to freeze then heat later was proposed as an option.

Sooooo... how feasible is vacuum sealing whole meals, and how would I reheat? Is this a thing I should look into/save up for?

I'm fighting my disordered eating *kitten* pretty hard, but I've had an appetite consistently for a bit now! Even with the whole dental debacle. I'm finally feeling great about eating and want to keep up the momentum!!

Sett2023

Why vacuum sealing? Have you got little freezer?

(Asking because I'm the queen of meal prepping, but I store everything in normal disposable plastic boxes for foods, no vacuum. Now, I know I'm lucky, I can use simple boxes 'cause I have two giant freezers - bought specifically for this purpose, I cook two meals/day for 5 persons, and if you like also vary a lot/having multiple choices every day... - but don't know if you have similar... storage capacity?)
PS: I meal prep for your same reasons: don't love eating same thing twice in a row, so I really stuff my freezers with everything and more; do that only in the job-free time, after doing shopping/so healthy and low calories meals, with a lot of vegetables etc.

COGypsy

I don't meal prep, per se. I do have a variety of mix and match ingredients in my freezer that are pre-cooked and just need to be heated up. I have bags of frozen vegetables and proteins like frozen shrimp and grilled chicken. I also keep frozen pasta and those packages of pre-cooked rice and pasta that you heat up for 90 seconds. I brown a few pounds of hamburger and sometimes Italian sausage every few months and freeze those in single serving bags. I also make big batches of eggs and sausage with spinach and bell peppers (a bag each of frozen). I pack those up in single servings as well and have them on toast or as breakfast tacos. When it's time for a meal, I just scoop some of whatever veggies and meat sound good and top with a sauce of some kind (Asian, marinara, etc.) and microwave them. For meat and breakfast stuff, I just defrost the baggies in warm water. I don't cook, so this lets me minimize takeout, have plenty of combinations for variety, and have a meal ready in less than 10 minutes.

Corina1143

Just playin devils advocate, or thinking out loud. Vacuum sealing would be great for soups, casseroles. If you had meat, sauce, veggies, something like Mac and cheese, what would keep it from running all together? Maybe you could freeze them separately and then put them together.
To warm soup, crock pot? Casserole in oven, maybe some kind of topping like bread crumbs or grated cheese to "pretty it up".
I vote you try it in freezer bags for now to see if you like doing it that way, and if it works for you.

Kohanai

Thanks for such quick responses!

I wasn't really worried about items running together. I've done meal services and volunteered at plenty of events where we used vaccum sealed meals. Once placed appropriately, the stuff STAYS. I wasn't really considering putting sauces in them, so the liquids would mostly not be an issue. Buuuuttttt:

I've got a tiny freezer with no room for a standalone. While I can use containers, they take up so much room that it's not practical. I do have fridge space for a few days' worth of meals in containers. Life was much easier with a normal sized freezer I usually only have 1 evening to really work on my food. It doesn't take long to make a week's worth, but I would feel better having prepared meals/macros available as I need throughout the week rather than calculate as I go. I admit my laziness in that I just don't want to weigh and do the math every meal. I suppose there's really no need to go the vacuum sealed route. It was just a suggestion someone offered that made sense.

Back in the day I would freeze proteins in single serve portions, and I'm not sure why I stopped? I think I moved and had a normal person's fridge and freezer space. Veggies and carbs are easy enough that I really shouldn't complain about doing them a couple times a week.

I think the result of all this is that I should go back to portioning out my proteins, and continue with veggies 2x a week since they take so little time. Sauces and fats are as needed, carbs can be a 2x a week as well if I don't use a heat and serve item. Guess I just needed to talk this out haha. Thanks y'all!

COGypsy

There are also a lot of ways to expedite veggies. I eat a lot of frozen, but when I buy fresh, I pretty much only buy the already cleaned and cut ones. Saves SO much time.

Kohanai

COGypsy wrote: »

There are also a lot of ways to expedite veggies. I eat a lot of frozen, but when I buy fresh, I pretty much only buy the already cleaned and cut ones. Saves SO much time.

Amen to that. My local stores always have my go-tos cut and cleaned. As long as I can afford the expense, I get them.

mtaratoot

When I make certain dishes, I make a huge amount and will often put some in vacuum bags and freeze. Pro-tip: freeze first and THEN seal. Your vacuum sealer will thank you because you don't get liquid in there.

I do this mostly for things like soups and stews. I like to cook lots of dried beans in the winter. Vacuum sealing and freezing means they can stay fresh for use in the summer when I really don't cook because it's too hot. Garbanzo ginger stew. Black bean soup. Miso barley vegetable soup. You name it. Works great. You could do this with curries, casseroles, or anything. In the fall if it's a good year for mushroom foraging, I cook up a big batch of mushrooms and vacuum seal them in small packages for use later. The mushrooms on their own aren't a meal, but they are an easy addition to anything else.

When I had a smoker, I'd fill it up with a variety of things and run it on a day when I had time. Smoked tempeh is great.

I don't have a microwave, so I have to pull things out of the freezer a day or two before I want to eat them. I can heat them quickly on the stove. If you're OK with a bowl of some hearty delicious thing as a "meal," this can work great. You can quickly cook some rice, quinoa, barley, or even pasta to accompany.

I also do multi-day river trips. I have a raft now, so I usually don't do self-support kayak trips. I have capacity to carry whatever we need. When I was doing multi-day trips out of a kayak, we had to go backpack style. Several friends would make their own dehydrated meals. The quality wouldn't be as good as frozen, but it's pretty stable and long-lasting. Basically, when they made some meal, they'd make at least twice as much as they would eat. Thai noodles. Beef stew. It's all good as long as there's not too much oil. Weigh the items first, then dehydrate and weigh again. The weight difference is how much water to add back later. Vacuum seal the result. Write the amount of water to add back so it's easy. You can toss those in the freezer to keep 'em longer, or leave 'em out. They don't take long to "thaw" because there's no liquid. You can rehydrate in the bag. Put in the water and wait a half hour. Heat on the stove or microwave. Poof!