Meal prepping - Any suggestions?

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niicolenicole
niicolenicole Posts: 12 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi! I have recently started my fitness journey and have been meal prepping as much as possible. I bring lunch to work and have dinner already made for myself. No reason to cheat if it’s premade!
Week 1: brown rice, chicken, roasted veggies. I loved them for the first few days.. lol. I froze the rest so the chicken doesn’t go bad but I quickly got sick of the food (I still ate it all).
Week 2: sweet potatoes or zoodles for my carb, chicken or ground turkey for my protein, and roasted veggies again. I mixed it so I only repeat meals twice. I hope I won’t get bored of these.
Does anyone have any suggestions for great meal prep recipes I won’t get sick of? Planning for next week!

Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    You can prep just about anything you like to eat.

    In order to mix things up, I'll often freeze individual portions of meals that freeze well (curries, chili, etc) and then I don't have to rush to eat them. I can mix them up over a few weeks and have something different each day.
  • fitoverfortymom
    fitoverfortymom Posts: 3,452 Member
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    I use my slow cooker to make soups and chilis and portion those for the week. Using a slow cooker liner and the recipe builder makes it extra, extra easy. I'll round those out with maybe some crackers and a piece of fresh fruit for lunch.

  • amgreenwell
    amgreenwell Posts: 1,268 Member
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    Crock pot and instant pot are your friends. There are a Million healthy recipes on line and ways to use them to your advantage. I can make a pot of soup and eat it all week for lunch. I usually make supper every night for the family but I make sure it is something I can fit into my calories.
  • niicolenicole
    niicolenicole Posts: 12 Member
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    Unfortunately I don’t have a slow cooker! I also don’t mind cooking! When I meal prep I’m usually in the kitchen for about 2-3 hours.
  • fitoverfortymom
    fitoverfortymom Posts: 3,452 Member
    edited February 2018
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    niicolenicole wrote: »
    Unfortunately I don’t have a slow cooker! I also don’t mind cooking! When I meal prep I’m usually in the kitchen for about 2-3 hours.

    You could easily do on the stove what I do in a slow cooker. Soups and chilis are great for meal prep (and make your kitchen smell yummy).
  • ZRunner5Lulaica
    ZRunner5Lulaica Posts: 168 Member
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    As others have said, you can prep any meal. I generally plan to make 3 meals a week that total out to 16 servings (8 servings for lunches and dinners for hubby and myself). I'll premeasure the ingredients and either freeze the rest (in the case of meats) or use them for snacks (fruits or vegetables).

    I generally have all my snacks premade and meals are logged before the week even starts. Doing this limits the amount of time after work I'm cooking, since I currently get home later than I would like for cooking and packing lunches for each day.

    By doing multiple meals, it also keeps me from being bored.
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,241 Member
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    I do weekend prep all of the meals I eat at either work or home, largely for the same reason you do--it makes it that much easier to stick to my overall plan. The key I've found is a little variety. I usually prep two entrees and switch between having them for lunch or dinner as I feel like it. Even having that little bit of choice makes it easier to eat all of them by the end of the week. if for some reason plans change and I don't finish them all, I can usually freeze the leftovers to have again later. I'm pretty good about using up food in my freezer, but every month or month and a half or so, I plan a week of freezer meals to make cure I cycle things out.

    Then I have two snacks a day prepped as well. These tend to be a little more repetitive. I usually do one snack with cheese (I love cheese!) and whatever that is, I tend to eat for a few weeks and then move on to something else. The other snack is typically a mix of two vegetables. I like carrots sliced into chips and then some other veg like red bell pepper, cucumber, snap peas. Those get paired with some kind of dip. Last week was salsa, this week it's hummus, sometimes it's ranch...just depends on what sounds good.

    Building in a couple of choices like I described is what made meal prep finally work reliably for me. Plus it's not much more effort to make 5 servings of two things than it is to make 10 servings of one thing.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    I’ve been following an old fashioned pattern of Roast on Sunday, stew on Monday, casserole on Tuesday, soup on Wednesday, stir fry on Thursday. Or a variation thereof. Parts of the roast is sliced for sandwich meat. Roast a different meat for four weeks and you have variety. Variety is what is going to save you.

    Try pulled pork or slow roasted ribs, a tray of chicken breasts or a whole chicken, roast beef, or a salmon.

    Chillies and stews are better the second day and don’t take much minding. Try also a meatless or pulse based main meal.
  • GoldinaGrace7036
    GoldinaGrace7036 Posts: 2 Member
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    They have a great blog on here for Mason Jar salads, if you like salads. I thought those were great for a break in a normal week. and you can make them ahead.
  • niicolenicole
    niicolenicole Posts: 12 Member
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    GoldinaGrace7036 wrote: »
    They have a great blog on here for Mason Jar salads, if you like salads. I thought those were great for a break in a normal week. and you can make them ahead.

    Love this idea! I actually thought about it but didn’t have any mason jars handy!
  • niicolenicole
    niicolenicole Posts: 12 Member
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    jgnatca wrote: »
    I’ve been following an old fashioned pattern of Roast on Sunday, stew on Monday, casserole on Tuesday, soup on Wednesday, stir fry on Thursday. Or a variation thereof. Parts of the roast is sliced for sandwich meat. Roast a different meat for four weeks and you have variety. Variety is what is going to save you.

    Try pulled pork or slow roasted ribs, a tray of chicken breasts or a whole chicken, roast beef, or a salmon.

    Chillies and stews are better the second day and don’t take much minding. Try also a meatless or pulse based main meal.

    I like to cook weekends only (Sunday) so unfortunately this plan is not ideal for me!

  • Jakerileyw78
    Jakerileyw78 Posts: 3 Member
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    My biggest suggestion is make the crockpot your best friend. I like to take chicken and salsa put in there for a few hours and when I get back too it i strain it and have a topping for a salad or grab some corn tortillas and make tacos with it. I’d say that’s a very versatile and easy meal. I usually do like 2-3 pounds of meat per batch and that last a good amount of meals.
  • melissa6771
    melissa6771 Posts: 894 Member
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    For me what works is to have a few choices of each in the fridge and then mix and match. For instance, I
    Will cook rice, roasted potatoes and pasta; chicken, steak and pork. Proteins are very easy to marinate and then cooking them all at once on the grill is pretty quick. I'm not a big veggie eater, but different roasted veggies. Then choose a protein a starch and a veggie, whichever you're feeling like for that meal. Put it on the plate and heat it up. Then it's not exactly the same each meal.
  • busyPK
    busyPK Posts: 3,788 Member
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    To change it up maybe try a breakfast style casserole? Can put as much, or as little, in it as you want. Some have potatoes/hashbrown in them, crust or no crust, eggs, veggies, sausage/bacon, cheese, milk, etc.. Check out Pinterest for some great options. I do this every couple weeks and love the taste of the leftovers.

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