advance meal preparation

thelms77

Hi! Does anyone prepare their meals in advance for the week? If so, do you have any suggestions/advice? It seems overwhelming to me but I have heard that it is helpful in preventing diet sabotage. What kind of meals do you prepare and how long the process take? Thanks in advance.

mjudd1990

Baked chicken breast tenderloins with olive oil and Cajun seasoning, baked sweet potatoes, lentils/quinoa/brown rice, and ground turkey. The sweet potatoes take the longest at about 90 minutes to bake. I'd rather take an hour and a half out of my Saturday or Sunday evening and cook everything for the week than have to deal with cooking each individual meal and as you said, it makes eating healthy much easier.

jamieo70

I don't cook for an entire week, but I do cook a few times a week and make enough to have 2 lunches and 2 suppers. I will go ahead and divide it up into servings, eat one the night I cook and store the other three for the following two days.

Sometimes I will make something like soup or a casserole and freeze it- especially during the summer when vegetables are at their peak.

I don't like leftovers that are more than a couple of days old (and some things just don't store & reheat well at all- like seafood), but that's kind of a personal preference.

JoRocka

I cook Sunday or Monday- gets me through lunch and dinners up till Wed
BF is here Wed/Thurs- we usually go out once- and then cook.

Cooking = more left overs- so I have enough for Friday/Saturday- and then I just wing it if I don't- then back to cooking on Sunday.

I usually cook 2 x of chicken- stove/oven/crockpot- take your pick of cooking options. Then I can rotate food between lunch and dinner and while I'm eating chicken- I'm not eating the same chicken. easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Also- I pre-chop all my veggies for my eggs- so I can cook eggs and bacon super fast and add veggies to make a fake omlette. again easy peasy.

I buy the big tub of plain greek yogurt- preportion 4-8 oz in containers- add my own fruit the day off- and protein powder- so I have "single serving" containers at a fraction of the cost.

hard boiled eggs can be made in 20 minutes so I'll do those Sunday or even Monday while getting ready for work. they keep for forever too- so I make about a dozen or so of them.

FoxyLifter

A typical Sunday for me is making enough salmon for breakfast, boiling eggs for snacks, baking chicken breasts for lunches and maybe a sweet potato or two for dinner. That's not all that I eat of course; just the specific things I bake ahead of time

I used to also make overnight oats for a snack. Chocolate peanut butter was my favorite.

thelms77

How do the sweet potatoes keep? I know you cook them in advance but do you eat them like a baked potato or mash them? I like the idea so I guess I just have to do it!!

meganjcallaghan

i don't do that for all my meals but i do make up a few batches of different kinds of soups and then divvy them all up in single serving tupperware containers and throw them in the deep freeze so i have something easy to take to work for lunch. and i do plan and log everything i'm going to have the day before i have it. makes it much easier to grab my food during the day if i don't have to log as i go or try to remember if i have room for this or that.

FindMyInnerAthlete

I like to cook chicken breast in a crock pot and that will last me the whole week for lunches. Of course that's not all that I eat but one of the time consuming ones.

thelms77

I like to cook chicken breast in a crock pot and that will last me the whole week for lunches. Of course that's not all that I eat but one of the time consuming ones.
[/quote

What type of seasonings do you put in with the chicken? That seems easy enough with the crock pot.

thelms77

i don't do that for all my meals but i do make up a few batches of different kinds of soups and then divvy them all up in single serving tupperware containers and throw them in the deep freeze so i have something easy to take to work for lunch. and i do plan and log everything i'm going to have the day before i have it. makes it much easier to grab my food during the day if i don't have to log as i go or try to remember if i have room for this or that.

That is a good idea, planning ahead what I'm going to eat the next day. I guess that works hand in hand with the meal prep.

sacausillas

My boyfriend and I go to Cosco, Gordon's Food Service, Kroger and sometimes Walmart and buy in bulk as often as we can. This helps with the cost of prepping, which is pretty low anyway. We bought about 10lb of individually frozen cod yestrday for $30, which at 6oz a meal is about 25 meals. I eat a basic 3 meals a day, and some snacks, so I usually prep lunch and dinner the same, I'll make 5-8 meals, and eat them for lunch and dinner til they run out, jazzing it up with a tablespoon of teriyaki or spicy mustard every now and then. I usually try to do a simple marinade and grill it, I usually use half the amount of oil and extra vinegar in the marinades, over night then grill them the next day either outside or on the George Foreman. It's easier for me to not worry about cutting the chicken into portion sizes before cooking but after instead. Use the extra in an omelet or as a snack. I also prep fritattas for the week, 8x8 pan will make six good sized high protein, low carb, low fat breakfasts that I can microwave and eat. I'll also measure out my Special K Protein cereal and Carbmaster milk in tiny tupperwares so I can eat that as well. We need to look into buying a freezer. or possibly a whole extra fridge, but for now this works well for us.