Meal Prepping Sucks

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  • shroodle88
    shroodle88 Posts: 123 Member
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    Making the dinner plan for the week on Saturday & shopping for it.

    It's so much easier to come home from work, pick a dish and know I have all I need, than figuring out each day how to turn what's in the fridge into any kind of coherent meal, or constantly go shopping after work because you're always missing something.

    I spend ca. 40 minutes on cooking dinner incl. a quick kitchen tidy. Often I freeze leftovers, so I always have backups for when I can't be bothered.

    For lunches, I usually make a big batch of low cal soup on the weekend, which I freeze and take to work where I pop them in the microwave. Carrots or apples for snacks.
  • amy19355
    amy19355 Posts: 805 Member
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    When I got an instant pot electric pressure cooker, Meal Prep was no longer the chore it used to be. I can cook up, portion , and freeze 5 pounds of meat in under 90 minutes, and it is seasoned for flavorful reheated enjoyment.

    I typically put up 5 pounds of meat every weekend, portioned into 2 serving per container ( i use mason jars for friendly footprint). I'm usually ahead by a week or so on ready-to-reheat and eat foods.

    Beans and rice I cook up once or twice a week, and freeze half while retaining half to heat that day and the next one or two. (they are daily staples in my meal plan).

    produce I buy one or two days worth at a time, and I use the daily or every other day trips to the market for extra steps on the fitbit.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,912 Member
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    Kandi150 wrote: »
    And I'm only one week in 🤦‍♀️.... Hey all, back at this weight loss journey after a very long hiatus. The diet part isnt bothering so much as the planning and prepping... That's a lot of work! I plan & prep meals for both my husband and myself. I feel like all I think about is what can I cook, what fits our macros, what can be prepared ahead of time and not taste like garbage when reheated. All this while also keeping my one year old fed, entertained and feeling loved 🥰 lol. I'm sure I'll push through. Just needed to rant in a forum where I'm sure some could relate and maybe get some tips on how you've made meal prep suck just a little bit less. We are Keto, which I'm seeing isnt very popular here but it's what works for us so you can save any lectures 😎. I say "I'm seeing" when in reality I've only checked out a couple of individual post so I could be jumping the gun there 🤷‍♀️..... Anywho, how do you get over the meal prepping blues? Or am I just being lazy? .....dont answer that last part 🤣

    A lot of this you learn as you go along. For example, I don't like reheated broccoli, so I always make it fresh, which is no big deal as it only takes a few minutes.

    Are you just a week into keto? That will become second nature after a while and you won't have to think about the macros as much. But sure, going from around 50% carbs to 5% would indeed be a big adjustment initially.

    I love bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, which take me 10 minutes to prep and 60 minutes in the oven - not something I wanted to started after getting home late from work - so I used to make a big batch of them on the weekends. I'd make them two different ways with two different starches and have one style for lunch and one for dinner. I'd also make a batch of hard boiled eggs for snacks while I was at it. I found this very convenient.

    But if your meals are something like meat that can be grilled in minutes - no need to make that ahead of time if you don't want to - send your husband out to grill while you do the veggies.

    If you are perhaps going from a lot of takeout/convenience food to cooking from scratch, sure, the extra effort will be an adjustment as well.
  • Dreamwa1ker
    Dreamwa1ker Posts: 196 Member
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    Make the meal prep easier with some slow cookers (or instant pot as others said). Make a huge batch of something (e.g. we make 2 slowcookers at once when we make chili) like every month, then put in freezer friendly mason jars or ziplocs and stuff it in the deep freeze. Make sure to date the items. I also do this with things like shredded chicken or beef for tacos/bowls, stew, pasta sauce, beef and broccoli (leave out the broccoli to steam when serving), mini meatloaves (made in cupcake tins) etc. With these freezer meals, all you need to do is have one thawed and then before eating on a given night add last minute things like making pasta or rice (easy) or microwaving some veggies to have with it.

    Once you have a few of those freezer meals stocked up you can mix around when you eat them so you aren't having the same thing all the time (they'll last like 6 months), so for a given week you can say meal prep or cook one type of meal for just a couple days of the week and then for the rest pull out that easy freezer meal. You only gotta restock those big batch freezer meals like once a month or so.
  • Athijade
    Athijade Posts: 3,247 Member
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    I meal prep my breakfast and lunch for the week. This is because I take both to work and simply do not have the time to make them at night or in the mornings (I like my sleep). I do my shopping on Saturday mornings (1.5-2 hours depending on stops). I do my prep on Sunday mornings (1.5-2 hours max, depends on what I am making). But it saves me so much time and money the rest of the week.

    It's not for everyone and it took me a few times doing it to find my rhythm.

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