Prepping meals for the week? Ideas for make ahead meals

bump - great post! I've been thinking about doing the same Thanks!

Anything my family likes that freezes well gets made at least double so I can freeze a batch, or do smaller containers for lunches. I need to get better at labelling, though, as I took a container of what I thought was beef stew for lunch one day last week only to discover it was beef barley soup! Good thing I had an extra spoon stashed in my desk.

We eat a lot of soup, so I tend to make stock of some kind or another once a week. I tend to freeze half my beef stock just plain, and the other half I add cooked, diced stewing beef for days I have a bit less time. I tend to do the same with chicken stock, as well.

I usually make a monstrous batch of marinara at least twice a year, then freeze for later use. I also make lasagnas ahead, baked ravlioli with meat sauce, shepherd's pie, chili, and several casseroles (including a chile rellenos one that my family just loves). I also make big batches of chicken nuggets to freeze, as this saves me tonnes of prep time on busy school nights.

I even cut up all the veggies for afternoon snacks on the weekends ... otherwise, when I get home from work and the kids get home from school/daycare, I end up giving them granola bars instead, which I don't like doing on a regular basis. Oh, and I usually make a big batch or two of muffins on the weekend for easy breakfasts and lunches. These usually freeze quite well, too, so I can make a mixed box of three kinds of muffins so that we're not eating blueberry muffins all week.

I'd suggest taking a look at what your family likes to eat, then figuring out which things freeze well, and seeing if there are even parts of things that you can freeze or prep ahead that'll save you lots of time.

Wow - some good ideas here.

I roast a whole skinless chicken on a Sunday (cheaper than buying breasts individually), then portion it out for lunches, salads, to add to sauces. I then usually boil the bones up for stock to make stock for soups (been far too warm today to do that!). Granted, if you're veggie then not for you.

I also make "bases" as someone mentioned - tomato sauce is a big one for me that way my husband can add it to pasta and the aforementioned chicken for his tea when I'm not around. I can make pasta free lasagne, add to roasted veg (also usually made ahead), etc for quick veggie packed meals.

Fruit compote - whatever fruit is on offer, or even reduced at the supermarket, I cook up with spices and then freeze in batches. I can add it to my overnight porridge (or oats) and leave it overnight to defost, greek yoghurt, muesli, etc.

I only cook on weekends and we eat leftovers during the week. Pretty much anything can be made ahead and reheated. Most things taste better reheated if you put them in a saute pan and reheat them on the stove rather than in the microwave. This is especially true for meat and poultry.

I definitely do almost all my cooking for the week on the weekend. I grill a variety of proteins (chicken, shrimp, salmon, tilapia). Then I make grains, wild rice or brown rice, and quinoa. I also like to roast a whole butternut squash in the crockpot (about 10 hours on low and slice it open and scoop out the goodness) and I also like to roast beets in the crockpot. Sometimes I make a batch of pulled chicken in the crock pot, I think i found the recipe on skinnytaste.com. I also like to rotate in a recipe of Rotel chicken (chicken, can of rotel,can of black beans,corn and 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese-throw in some jalepenos and red/orange peppers for more flavor), so easy to throw into the crockpot. Then you can eat this over the rice you made, or like a soup or put it in tortillas when it thickens up. My favorite kitchen tool is a FoodSaver vacuum sealer. Keeps food tasting like you just cooked it fresh and you can portion and seal things in bags and throw them in the fridge. Grab and Go! Love it for packing our lunches for work. We love putting grilled salmon or shrimp on a salad for a quick evening meal. I can't wait for soup season! Big pots of veggies and other yummy stuff with lots of leftovers..

Definately gonna try some of these!!!!

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Loving all these Ideas...

My husband and I always sit down on Saturday and plan our our meals for the following week....It is usually determined by what protein we have in our freezer...We try to use our crock pot two or three times on the weekend, once for a weekend meal and the other times to cook ahead a protein to eat later on in the week, such as chicken, a whole turkey breast (yes, in the crockpot, oh so tender), chili, right now he even has some ribs going, yes in the crock pot! Then on Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning we go to the grocery store and get any fresh veggies or fruit we need for the week. We cook ahead or prep anything we can, takes an hour out of our time on the weekend, but makes the week run so smoothly.

As for freezing, like the other said, I always have cooked ground turkey/onion, cooked shredded chicken, chili, in my freezer in portioned bags enough for my husband and myself for dinners.

I eat the same thing every morning for breakfast, so that doesn't take a lot of prepping, I just buy enough of what I need for the month and then it or put it in our extra fridge....Basically every morning I eat sandwich thins with sargento ultra thin provolone slices melted on top with a little spinach/artichoke hummus and an ounce to two ounces of some type of meat (turkey breast or ham) on top. I also have egg quiche "cupcakes" in my freezer for another quick breakfast if I need it. My husband likes to eat those.

For example, this week we are having a light chicken and pea risotto, Pasilla chiles stuffed with chicken and rice, Spaghetti with turkey meatballs and vegetable pasta, grilled tilapia over salad. Right now the chicken is marinating in the fridge, my husband will grill it in a bit, then I will divide it in half...half will be for the risotto, the other half will be chopped up fine to be part of the stuffing for the chiles.... my husband will premake those and have them in the fridge so all we have to do is warm them up the day we need them. Turkey meatballs are already in my freezer( made them for another meal a couple weeks ago), so all we have to do that day add to the sauce and cook......We will cook the noodles the night before..... And as for the tilapia, all we have to do is defrost the fish the night before.....

I am very lucky to have a husband that doesn't mind cooking. In fact he is the cook a majority of the time in our home. We try to plan the meals so both of us help out with it, so it doesn't get put on just one person, as we both have full time jobs....

I hope this helps!

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