Question on meal prepping

Its not what you are asking but here are some strategies that i use.

1. I think of what i'm going to have for meals through the day the night before. I find this easier than on the spot. This may not work so well if you are tired so try to do some meal planning when you are not tired. I hate coming home tired and having to cook. It should be avoided.
2. When i cook, i've always got more than one meal so there's always leftovers. Because i only cook for one, i've always got too many leftovers in fact and i have to make myself cut my recipes in half.
3. I don't believe in the idea of cutting up vegetables before you are ready to cook with them because they start losing their vitamins once cut up. Cook when you are not tired and if you are too tired after a day at work to cook properly, then cook when you are not tired, eg the weekend or in the morning and then there need not be so much to do when you come from home work.

I have a food diary file on my computer. I just write in my ideas as I go along or the night before and then copy at the end of the day and paste ready to work out the next day's meals based on what's in the fridge or what i want to buy/cook. I always try to make sure i've got protein, vegies and finish with fruit. (Note i'm trying to be vegan so balance is more important than ever). apart from when I cook a dish, my meals do not take long to get together. Tonight i had leftover vegan lasagne heated in the microwave, steamed some pumpkin and a couple of asparagus, then tossed it in with some white beans, chopped lettuce and some mayonnaise dressing. It may not sound delicious but it certainly was.

looks like this:

Date
Breakfast

Morning: coffee

Lunch

afternoon: coffee

Predinner wine.
Dinner

later: coffee

pinterest is good for recipes because it has pictures. I have a few traditional bento boxes and some sandwich stacker thingies I found at costco, I like them because they freeze and microwave. I use ice cube trays to freeze cubes of yogurt for smoothies. pop the frozen cubes out, portion them into baggies with berries, flax, etc then when it is time for a smoothie I'm just dumping in one bag and adding some milk. I roast red peppers then puree with garlic and almond milk and freeze in bags. Use it for pasta sauce, soup base, or a sauce to braise meat in.

When my hubby is away, I cook 2 or 3 recipes on my day off - I calculate the calories using the recipe builder as I'm cooking. Then I portion out the recipe into 4 servings. Sometimes I even pre-log my meals for the week since I know what I'll be eating. I use a combo of reusable Chinese takeout containers, Tupperware, and Rubbermaid containers I've collected over the years. I don't worry too much about the containers being microwaveable since I usually dump out the contents onto a plate (or bowl) before reheating.

Some of my go to recipes are pasta salads (with lots of fresh veg and I sub greek yogurt for some of the mayo), meatloaf made with extra lean ground beef, grilled or baked chicken, stuffed peppers... I add a vegetable and a serving of steamed rice to protein dishes to round them out.