MEAL PREP (my last post was worded poorly)

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LahrysaTebo2015
LahrysaTebo2015 Posts: 197 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm great how are you? So I know you know a lot of people eating healthy, and I don't lol. The only way for it to work for me is to have a quick healthy meal that I can cook and eat in like 20 minutes to half an hour, snack I can just grab to go wether they are prepackaged or portioned and in Tupperware on the weekend for me to grab through the week, a lunch that I can just grab and go and a dinner that isn't time consuming to make. My schedule just became CRAZY and I don't want it to hold me back from eating healthy. I have tried salad in a jar for lunch and found it is wilted by Wednesday and reheated chicken is tough after being microwaved ! Precut and portioned celery get flimsy ! If you have any tips, recipes or know someone who might I NEED to figure something out at least to start then I can start trying to throw in substitutions.

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  • thewindandthework
    thewindandthework Posts: 531 Member
    edited July 2017
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    I certainly don't have any recipes, but I can tell you what I'm doing, because it's definitely working for me.

    During the week I come up with a plan, on Friday evening or Saturday morning I shop, and I break the actual cooking up between Saturday and Sunday. Honestly I've never eaten lunches this good on a regular basis. It doesn't take much effort, and it's fun coming up with a new menu each week.

    Breakfast doesn't involve any thought because I do the same thing every week: an egg bake with zucchini, onion, tomato, green chiles, and cheese. Easy to grab in the morning and microwave for a minute. I do slightly undercook them before storing them so the microwave doesn't get them overcooked. By the time they're hot they're perfect.

    My lunch is different every week, but I really make an effort to make it delicious. Usually I pick a part of the world and develop a menu around its flavors. Indian this week, Mexican last week, Southwest USA week before, Thailand before that, etc etc etc.

    I always have a starch (spiced basmati rice this week), a protein (chicken tomato curry), hot vegetables (veg kurma), and I usually also have a cold salad (kachumber salad). I cook each item and store it in the fridge, taking careful note of ingredients and amounts. After all the cooking is done, I enter it all into MFP as recipes, and calculate how big each day's serving should be. Once all the cooking and math is done, I divvy it up into days and I'm done!

    As far as freshness problems, I have a couple of suggestions. Take reheating into consideration when you're cooking. Better to (VERY) slightly undercook the first time and bring it the rest of the way in the reheat, than to cook it all the way through at first and overcook it in the reheat. Mushy veg and tough meat is no fun, but it's avoidable if you plan ahead.

    I don't really make the whole week's worth of salads over the weekend. I don't do any more than a day or two, but it's literally three or four minutes of chopping vegetables and making a quick dressing, so the freshness is worth it. This goes for things like celery sticks, as well. In my opinion, spending a minute cutting them the night before is worth it.

    These tiny night-before things usually take no more than five minutes total, and I do them after dinner before cleaning the kitchen.

    OH that reminds me of an important tip. Make sure you have eaten a full meal BEFORE cooking for the week. Cooking delicious food you can't eat yet is absolutely miserable if you're hungry.
  • kms234
    kms234 Posts: 132 Member
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    First tip for celery...wrap it in foil and it'll stay crunchy :)

    Second, when I don't have time to meal prep from scratch I rely on the grocery store. I love veggie fried rice and Trader Joes makes a good one. I scramble a couple of eggs and add those in as well. I always have cut carrots, peppers and celery in the fridge. It doesn't take much time to portion those out into snack baggies and write the weight on the bag. I aim for 100grams per bag.

    Hardboiled eggs are another good staple. Boil and dozen on the weekends and peel them. Easy to grab and go.
  • Old_Cat_Lady
    Old_Cat_Lady Posts: 1,193 Member
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    A lunch idea: A low carb wrap with some healthy deli meats. This would be easy to make the night before.
  • MTrevis
    MTrevis Posts: 11 Member
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    I make mason jar salads every Sunday... I include cherry tomatoes and olives on the bottom, romaine on the top. I don't put any dressing or wet ingredients in and I haven't had any wilted lettuce by Friday. I also grill chicken on Sundays that I cut up and portion into 2-3 oz servings in snack size bags. I put it cold on my salads each day for lunch.

    I also cut up veggies to eat as a snack during the day. I cut up a 3lb bag of carrots and a large bunch of celery. Split it amongst snack baggies and grab one of those each morning too.

    I do all of my grocery shopping on the weekends with specific meals in mind. It makes it easier for me to come home and cook if everything is handy.

    Looking forward to seeing any other ideas in this thread!

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