Food Prep Sunday

i have done this in the past intensely and to a lesser degree now. however, i only did it for lunch. then i realized that my time was worth more than the few extra bucks i would need to spend to make it easier. instead of cutting up two heads of lettuce and carrots for 5 salads for the week, i now use bagged salad and preshredded carrots. two handfuls of bagged salad, half a handful on shredded carrots and my lunch for the day is made in under a minute. i also used to bbq a weeks worth of chicken cutlets and cut them up on sunday for my salads too. then i found purdue shortcuts. kind of expensive, but worth the time of not bbq and cutting up all the chicken. now i think i am going back to bbqing fresh chicken since the shortcuts seem to have a lot of sodium.

all that said, i completely agree with being prepared. it is one of the keys to my success as well. it prevents me from buying lunch out, or grabbing something from fast food for dinner.

good luck to you.

I often bake a whole chicken for Sunday dinner, use that broth to start soup, pick the bones clean and then use that meat for salads at lunch during the week, and usually have leftovers for my husband to have a sandwich or two....and of course the soup is healthy because I put in lots of veggies and spinach, no salt etc.

If the chicken provides more than you can eat in a week, then after you pick if off the bones, package it and freeze the portions you might need next week for a week night meal.

Baked penne pasta is a good, easy dish. If you have a bit of extra carrots, throw it ina

I am just getting started with fitness pal. I like your idea of cooking ahead. what dished do you make ahead? I appreciate the ideas! Thanks

I usually use Sundays for food prep also. Every third Sunday or so I do a huge pot of soup and put my servings into containers and freeze it. I make all of my own frozen grab and go last minute meals. So much better than any WW or Lean Cuisine meal out there!

Me too ... on today's list are two kinds of muffins (oatmeal pumpkin and banana chocolate chip), packing bags of veggies for snacks, and getting things prepped for our two ultra-busy evenings (Monday and Thursday). Supper tomorrow is stir fry with noodles, so I'll cut up the veggies and cut & marinate the pork strips this afternoon. Thursday is chili for the adults and spaghetti for the kids, so I'll prep the base recipe this afternoon as well. I'll also be making a batch of gingersnaps for lunches, and will make a couple loaves of multigrain bread, as well.

Sometimes I'll make chicken tenders, bake them, then put them in the freezer (on a cool, lined cookie sheet) and throw them in a ziplock bag when they're frozen. Freezing them individually prevents "brick of tenders". Then, throughout the week, I'll take some out, and put them in the toaster over (not an upright toaster) and heat them up. Sometimes, I'll keep half of them in the fridge, so that when we get peckish, we can take out a tender or two, depending on how hungry we are.

This is awsome I would like to start doing the same thing (very soon)....we are going to becoming new parents in a few weeks and I really believe organization is the key to....not losing your mind LOL.

Also, if you want to account for the little extra calories of the left over veggies going into a baked penne/chili, add it all up and throw it into the blender. A little extra tomato paste will get you back to the consistency you want. If you're freezing a pasta casserole, don't cook the noodles all the way, make them under-done.

Well, I do all the grocery shopping on Saturday, but I also use Sunday as a food prep day.

I don't need to cook my breakfast and my lunch is either from some restaurants with self service/cafeteria around work, either sandwiches made the night before (when I also go to uni that day).

But I have to prepare my dinners, because I get late home and don't have time. Also, having no choice, mostly gets me to bad choces.
Sometimes I pack snacks also.

I don't prepare veggies (unless I cook them), making salads is a 5 minute job for me and I always want my veggies freshly cut if I eat them raw.
I buy large bags of nuts and put them in 15-20 grams bags.
I make dinners, usually some stew, or recipies like Turkey Chili Taco Soup (found it here on MFP), or hearty soups/sour soups. Meaning foods that fill you, that are loaded with veggies or bean, but also with some meat.
Sometimes I make meatbals or stuffed chicken (I make 4-5 servings on Sunday, but we usually eat 2 of them that day), in which case I serve them with a big salad. If I return very late one evening I would only eat half of serving with salad.