Does anyone cook on weekends for the week?

On Sunday night I always boil enough eggs for breakfast for the following week. I also make a large pot of some kind of bean soup or stew. I take that for lunch every day. I make up low fat ranch dressing using nonfat greek yogurt and spices. I use that for dipping veggies as well as putting on potatoes. I have a bag of turkey breasts that I cook for supper with vegetables and potato. Potatoes are the easiest thing to cook. I put them in the microwave at work or at home for 5-6 minutes let them cool a little and eat with salsa or my home made ranch dressing. I also cut up a bunch of veggies to take to work or to use as snacks right after work. I also eat apples and other fruit during the day. They are no prep at all. I also like to have a 100 calorie snack of almonds or walnuts. I do all this on sunday so that when Im feeling lazy I dont have to put a lot of work into making any meals.

I literally fill my fridge to the brim with foods that are ready to eat. I even portion them out so I don't have to spoon out a serving each time either. It takes a few hours out of my Sunday, but it is definitely worth it. Here's just the tip of the iceberg of what I make:

Turkey Meatballs
Avocado, Egg, Tuna Salad (for sandwhiches)
Sweet Potato Bites
Peanut Butter Protein Bars
Baked Vegetables (Brussels Sprouts, Asparagus, Zucchini, Carrots)
Potato Wedges
Protein Pancakes
Zucchini Patties
Lentil and Carrot Salad
Spicy Quinoa
Chocolate Protein Muffins
Bison Burgers
Turkey Burgers
Quinoa Tuna
Black Bean Avocado Salad

Oh the list goes on and on and on...................

^This is what I do. I also cut up all my raw fruits and veggies for snacks and lunches. It makes life so much easier during the week. At first I wasn't good at it. I started small and am building my recipes!

I usually bake chicken (until it is BARELY done-it keeps it from drying out when I microwave it at work) and have it and steamable veggies for lunches throughout the week. I also batch cook for week nights because I am very busy. I cook spaghetti sauce and freeze it in small amounts that are about 1 meal's worth. When I reheat it, I cook the pasta in a separate pan. I also have been known to batch cook dried beans, chili, chicken noodle soup (without the noodles, they can be added when you heat it up).

In theory, I could do raw veggies, but the steamable ones are pretty affordable, and they are easy.

A side note, too. I don't have a microwave at home, so when I reheat frozen meals, it is on the stove or in the oven... there is plenty of time for me to cook pasta or put noodles in the soup, or whatever doesn't freeze well while it reheats.

Breakfasts:
2 fried egg whites
1/2 slice reduced fat cheese
English Muffin
1/2 serving Hormel Deli-ham
(About 217 calories)

Make on Sundays - wrap each separately in parchment paper, freeze in one big bag. Can microwave in a minute or so.

Lunches/Dinners:
I make a ton of meals for the week and freeze them in individual tupperware containers
A few standby meals that microwave quick and easy, are much cheaper, and way less calories than any fast "food":

Black beans with low fat sausage

Frozen Chicken Tenderloins (cooked per directions) - and a serving of brown rice or serving of any kind of pasta (Season the chicken tenderloins differently for each meal, that way there is better variety in your meals)

Tuna Cakes - bread crumbs, flour, egg, tuna. Pan fry.

Dirty rice with 99% fat free ground chicken
Jambalaya with low fat sausage

Corn tortilla with ground chicken, enchilada sauce, Rotel (think tacos/enchiladas - just roll them up, bake them, and freeze)

Yes--Definitely! It makes life so much easier, especially when you're trying to fit in workouts, and when you and your family may all have different schedules.

The cookbook "Well Fed" has a bunch of excellent tips on what she calls a "weekly cookup" (also see www.theclothesmakethegirl.com) Now that cookbook is Paleo, but you could easily adapt the principal to whatever foods you like to eat. I try to set aside 1-2 hours every sunday to prep my veggies (clean, chop, & pre-steam if necessary), precook some meats (usually ground beef/turkey and cubed chicken--fish I only do fresh), boil some eggs, and make a quick salad (tuna or chicken) every sunday. (If you eat rice & pasta boil a few cups of each and they will be ready to go too.) That way no matter how busy I am my day can contain basically no cooking: hb egg & piece of fruit for breakfast, handful of lettuce, other veg, precooked meat=salad packed for lunch in less than a minute, and when I get home the prepped veggies and precooked meat can become stir fry, wraps, a pasta dish or whatever with the addition of whatever sauce/seasoning in less than 5 mintues.

It's quicker that drive thru, I promise!

edited to add: some weekends I make a breakfast casserole (eggs/sausage/veggies--kind of like a crustless quiche) and my husband and I will eat a slice every day for breakfast all week long.

I'm sure someone else said it but I'm not scrolling back to look....

The next time you're desperate and fast food seems like the only option, most grocery stores sell whole cooked chickens. For 5 or 6 bucks you can get a gorgeous roasted chicken that will be delicious (if a bit high in sodium) and last you 5 or 6 meals. Then you can save the carcass (stick it in a freezer baggie and freeze) and you can make amazing chicken vegetable or chicken tortilla soup with it over the weekend(stretching it to 10-12 meals). YUM!