Is Meal Prep intimidating to everyone, and is it worth it?

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Meal prepping is amazing and you'll be so happy with what you have to eat all week. The crock pot is your friend and can save you time/money/frustration when you just aren't sure where to start. Look up slow cooker recipes and you'll eating happy and healthy all week. Good luck!

Last night I made an amazing creamy kale veggie soup. It took a long time, measuring every single ingredient and then weighing the finished soup to figure out how many portions to split it into. Was it worth it? YES. because I ended up with 15 portions (270 grams - just over a cup each) of delicious soup, and I get the satisfaction of knowing each serving has exactly (or darn-near exactly) 145 calories. It's so satisfying to do it even though it's time consuming.

I used to do it and although I found it helpful, I hated the day I had to cook so much! I did it for around a year. I would spend a good three hours cooking, then have a kitchen full of dishes to wash and had to weigh everything equally into boxes. Even after all that I wasn't finished, as then I had to add the ingredients onto MFP to calculate the calories per box. Also, frozen food just doesn't taste very nice when defrosted.

Now I cook something every few days, it usually lasts around 3-4 days. That works out much better for me as I can just refrigerate it.

I batch cook and freeze nearly every weekend. I just feel like if I'm making meatballs, should I just make 3 or go ahead and make an entire pan and freeze the rest for easy weeknight meals! I do a lot of soups, stews, chilis and other one pot meals - just portion into individual containers and freeze. That way we can grab and go for lunches or easy dinners. I also make things in muffin tins, nuggets, form burger patties, sauces in ice cube trays or jars, or burritos to freeze, and I make frittatas once so I can eat them all week. I can't imagine making one jar worth of marinara or bolognese! I have to make at least 3 at a time for me to feel like the cooking is worth it. I also make casseroles and cut them into portions before flash freezing so we can grab a portion at a time.

It's really not that hard - and it helps me tremendously so I don't have to cook at all during the week.

I'm also an educator. I find that the biggest difficulty is actually finding the time to eat what I've prepared!

During the school year I also meal prep on Sundays. If I don't cut up fruits and vegetables then, then it probably isn't going to happen. That's just the truth. I have to plan out what we are having for dinner every night to keep our family on track. We have a few crock-pot meals but my husband isn't really the adventurous type so we use those sparingly. We have a few core things we use it for: chili, shredded chicken, shredded pork, and pot roast.

In the fall and winter I'll sometimes make a batch of soup and then portion it out and refrigerate. Depending on the quantity I have to freeze some, which is fine because I can take it out of the freezer and put it in the lunch tote without an ice pack and just heat later.

Dinner is the most difficult meal. By the time I'm home from work and my husband and kids get home, we're beat! We stick to simple meals because my husband and the kids don't get home until 5, and the kids are still young and are in bed by 8. That means that we need something that can be ready to eat by 5:45 or 6 at the very latest to leave time for homework, showers, and all of the other stuff that needs to be done before 8 PM hits! Planning our meals out for the week on Sunday afternoon really helps us to stay on track. I know what each night will be and hubby and I compare late meeting schedules with work to decide when to have those quicker crock-pot meals.

Best wishes!

If it's intimidating to you, it might do you good to pay for a menu planning service for a couple months. I've personally used emeals.com and savingdinner.com Once you get the hang of it, it becomes easier.
Once a month cooking might also be a good option.
If you're ok eating the same thing a few days in a row, batch cooking can be really easy. A mixed vegetable rice or rice and beans, and easy to add some grilled chicken or other protein.

Queenmunchy wrote: »

I just feel like if I'm making meatballs, should I just make 3 or go ahead and make an entire pan and freeze the rest for easy weeknight meals!

I think this is a good way to ease into it for the OP.

Don't feel like you have to plan out a week's worth of food. Just make a few meals and triple the portions and save the leftovers. Do that for a while and it will start seeming easy.

So easy. I have found several recipes that I like, including leave in the morning crockpot ones that are ready to be portioned, frozen, and reheated whenever. I also like chicken salads so I grill up a bunch of breasts, freeze them and I prep three salads at a time. (I find three last well enough but any more is pushing it and the lettuce wilts, etc). sandwiches, turkey burgers, large portions of veggies I can eat for the week. All super easy to do.

I do meals on Wednesdays and Sundays and it works for me. SAves a lot of money and takes the guess work and temptation out of daily eating.

For me, "Meal prep" is what allows me to stay under my calories. I work right next door to the town's shopping centre and one of my worst habits was to buy lunch every day (sometimes breakfast/morning tea too!). Now that I have lunch ready every day, I don't even feel tempted.

I have come across three really big points that have been essential:

Tip 1: Weigh your meat accurately.
Step 1. Weigh raw meat.
Step 2. Cook.
Step 3. Weigh cooked meat.
Step 4: Use http://www.percentagecalculator.net and use the "Increase/decrease" function to work out the percentage difference. Use this percentage difference to work out how many calories your cooked meat actually is using the raw meat entry.

Tip 2: Cook only what you can freeze
For me, I make about a months worth of meal prep at once and everything needs to be frozen to stay good. Unless you can commit to eating the same thing for four days in a row, only prep what you can freeze.

Tip 3: Mix and match your foods
I like to have veggies, carb and protein combinations for lunch. However, when I was freezing the meals as an "all in one" it got pretty boring. I had days when I wanted chicken, sweet potato and veggies and all I had left was chicken, rice and veggies. I now freeze the individual components in zip lock bags and can mix and match, or even just grab out a bag of chicken for a salad or breakfast omelette.

I always make big batches of soups and sauces and freeze out portions so I have it for the month. I also pre clean and cut most veggies so that when I or my kids are looking for a snack, it's readily available to just eat so it's as easy to grab as the bag of pretzels or anything else. My kids always go to the fridge first for snacks now rather than the pantry! Definitely worth it! I also make bigger batches of brown rice and quinoa so I can throw that into salads, frittata, etc whenever the mood strikes

You don't HAVE to meal prep. The extent of my meal prepping is making a double or triple batch of something so I can have more later, and cooking an extra chicken breast if I'm going to cook one anyway as I can fit two on my grill. But otherwise it's just as fast for me to open a package of chicken and getting one breast out when I feel like having chicken, instead of having to dedicate a big chunk of time for something that would otherwise only take one minute anyway. Plus maybe next time I'll want chicken with another type of marinade and spices anyway.

Besides, I can't imagine eating something that was prepped 5 days earlier. No thanks. I like my food fresh. Plus I find eating more enjoyable if I can have whatever I'm craving today instead of having to eat something specific because I prepared it 3 days before the craving hit and it will go bad if I don't eat it now. I feel more satisfied and more likely to stick to my goal that way.

So I just buy a bunch of proteins, some veggies, then figure out meals as I go (unless I have a specific craving, then I buy the ingredients for that obviously). I also always have lunch meat, pasta, and frozen veggies and shrimp on hand.

You have to do whatever works for you.

aledba wrote: »

Batch cooking is your friend and Mason jars are awesome for storage. Find a protein you like that is going to taste good reheated in the microwave (if you use one). You can cook up chicken breasts, quinoa, beans, steak, tofu etc... and pair these with different grains or cut up vegetables in a burrito bowl style. Add salsa, cheese, yogurt etc...

Cottage cheese is a snack that goes great with fruit. Making steelcut oats on Sunday night, they last a week in the fridge. You can pre-portion these items in mason jars to take in the morning. If you like fish, you can make it for dinner and then mix it with some herbs/yogurt or mayo for sandwiches or wraps.

If you make salad, building this in a jar (from bottom to top) as dressing, protein, fruits/seeds/nuts/veg, cheese or avocado and then adding greens on top stops the greens from becoming wilted. You just empty it into a bowl at lunch and enjoy. You usually can get away with making these 3 days ahead.

Pre-portion PB and cut up apples or nuts to pair with dried fruit. If you like eggs, you can soft or hard boil them ahead of time too. I just draw a little face on them to keep them separate from the raw ones.

i LOVE all these suggestions. I will have to think about using these. I have a sit down desk job, so having pre-portioned food with me will help a lot, with not spending $ mostly.

Is it worth to have a plan for this. Is it ever a disadvantage to have a plan set on what to do for anything.

To answer the OP's original question:

"Is Meal Prep intimidating to everyone, and is it worth it? "

I don't see it "intimidating" insomuch as "sad", "boring" and "chorey".

I consider cooking a pleasure, even more so than eating, and the fact that I can whip up a different thing every day according to my inventory, mood and audience, makes it exciting and fun.

Diff'rent strokes I guess but if I'm armed by thousands of hours of cooking experience, I'm gonna damn well use my tool. I never eat out unless I go to a high end restaurant but that's more of an experience rather than just "eating"...