How To: Meal Prepping & Instant Pot Pressure Cooker <3 <3

Hello!

So, as the chef and harbinger of the weight loss movement in my household (husband and roommate), I have been desperately trying to find things that work for a busy schedule. With two of the household in the Air Force, and me in a full time job with a 30 min - 1.5 hour commute as well as starting grad school next month, coming home to the cries of "what's for dinner?" is sometimes enough to make me cry.

I've lurked for a long time in both MFP and r/loseit, r/progresspics, r/MealPlanSunday and think I've hit my stride as to what sets me and my family up for success. I've seen people make the same chicken + broccoli for 7 days/week and go crazy - this is NOT that. This is a guide to help you cut your weekly choices to easy grab and go meals, lock in your caloric intake, and save money on food costs and time during the week nights. Go as simple or complex as you feel would best suite you.

Maybe you'll be inspired, too. Gear up - it's a long read

1) Get a scale with good reviews. It seriously helps keep you on track with what you're really putting in your food and takes so little time to weigh and log. It's even faster when you meal prep because you do it once a week instead of every time you eat. I tend to "forget" to weigh if I am in a rush to get dinner on the table.

2) Get an electric pressure cooker. No, seriously. I got the Instant Pot 7 in 1 because of the hype I'm about to spew myself, but there's the 6 in 1 that's $69.99. Only difference is a yogurt feature. A bit pricey, but it saves SO much time and is seriously fool proof. My meals are largely hands off now, and I use 1 pot instead of multiple. Saute, add liquids, screw on the lid, and set your cooking time. No fussing over a stove. No waiting 8 hours on the slow cooker. This contraption alone helped cut down my daily meal-making time in half, but pairing with meal prep? EZ.

3) Write out what you like to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and one or two sides. Write out what you like to eat for snacks. Try to overlap the lunches and dinners by picking meals that create a lot food easily and that can freeze well (soups, chili, lasagna, casseroles). Pick 3 or so easy lunch-to-dinner meals that you can stand eating on repeat cycles for 5 days. Find one breakfast recipe that you'd eat every day (i.e. my breakfast burritos with homemade tortillas) to keep it simple. Go shopping for these ingredients.

4) Dedicate a couple hours on Saturday and Sunday (or just Sunday) to do meal prep. With the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker, it's largely hands off and waiting for items to cool. While it's cooking, relax or do other things.

5) Let them all cool down in the fridge throughout your day and create your recipes in MFP for easy logging before portioning them out in containers. I only prep for 3 days worth in fridge - the rest gets individually wrapped up and goes in freezer to bring out later in the week. I don't want weird funky tasting food on that 5th day, AKA an excuse to go out to eat.


Here's what a weekend of mine looks like:

Saturdays (2 hours max, whenever):
- Chop and weigh veggies and put in bags or bowls labeled like "pot roast veggies", "chili veggies", "chicken pot pie veggies" so you can just throw them in to saute in the pressure cooker quickly.
- Get a notepad to write down ingredient weights as you process to compile tomorrow into recipe creator.

I made 12 breakfast burritos to roll up in cling wrap, shoved them in a ziplock, and tossed in the freezer while I watched my roommate play The Last Guardian. Earlier that day while I snoozed I made my spaghetti sauce for tomorrow's lasagna in the pressure cooker. That's 12 breakfasts + one dinner sauce done. I logged the burritos in recipe creator.

Sundays (3-4 hours): Assembled, cooked, and weighed the following:
- Lasagna (oven ready noodles for quick time) (60 min oven cook time)
- Chili (35 min cook time)
- Pot roast and veggies (60 min cook time)
- Chicken Pot Pie Casserole (15 chicken & veggie cook time + 20 min bake)

Sides:
- 6 cups cooked jasmine rice (for chili side)
- Roast frozen green beans and asparagus (for lasagna and pot pie sides)

Snack:
- 4 oz Greek Gods Greek Yogurt & Honey in mason jars (x12)


Bam! Now I have 5 days of no-hassle, already calorie-counted, breakfasts/lunches/snacks/dinner. For my personal recipes, if I only eat what I've packed, then my days are around 1200-1400 calories depending on any add-ons (sour cream/cheese) - feel free to look at my diary, but no judging my lack of super-incredible weight loss, please. I'm workin' on it.

One or two days of work, minimal dishes to wash a night, and a week of no hassle meals. Give it a try!

Let me know your thoughts!