Meal prep ideas?

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katieshadoan1984
katieshadoan1984 Posts: 1 Member
in Recipes
Hi! I'm starting my weight loss journey and eating is a challenge for me. I have the worst sweet tooth! I work 2 jobs so meal prepping would be the best option for me so I don't decide to hit up a drive thru in between jobs.... if you have any ideas or recipes please let me know, I would be forever grateful. I'm trying to stay around 1500 calories daily, and I'm pretty active at my jobs, I'm a server. TIA

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  • thelastnightingale
    thelastnightingale Posts: 725 Member
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    I work out what I might want to eat for dinner for the next few days and how many calories I can set aside. I then start inputting the ingredients all into dinner tomorrow (or any other day in the future), bearing in mind the max I am trying to hit is the number of calories I have allowed, multiplied by the number of food containers (portions) I am trying to make. I then ticker with the recipe until I get a good balance between the number I want, and a recipe that won't be a disaster.

    If you do this with, say, a simple pasta in a tomato-based sauce, you'll find yourself adjusting the portion size of the pasta to a more normal amount (about 75g for a main meal is good, but if you eyeball it, you can easily double that!) and also the amount of cheese (it depends what type you use, but just throwing in another handful of, say, cheddar, can really take you over).

    I then do the batch cooking, updating for actual measurements as I go (weighing is important) and when I'm done, I save that dinner as a meal, delete the entries from the future day, and I then add it when I eat it (if I made three portions, I add .333, if I made four portions, I add .25 and so on). There's probably a cleverer way of doing this, but it's how I get by.

    I find this dynamic recipe approach based on what you have in your storecupboard/fridge works really well. If I didn't scan the barcodes of the brands I have in and/or weigh everything, I would end up counting the wrong number of calories for sure.

    What foods do you really enjoy? I would start there and then engineer the recipe to balance. Never mind what stuff other people are mostly cooking, what kind of food makes you happy? You can fit most anything into your diet as long as you keep a handle on portion size, and ideally if you can make it a bit more healthy. For example, I've ditched the oil when I cook and instead use an oil spray. I can easily ditch 100 calories that way.

    Also think about when and what you can eat - if you're a server and active on your feet, you want to be eating before your shift so you don't get hungry/tired, but you also want to make sure you're not eating chocolate/sweets beforehand or you'll crash during your shift as the sugar spike crashes. Save the sweet tooth treats for afterwards when you feel like you've earned it, and also when drifting off to sleep wouldn't be a problem.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,621 Member
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    For people who have no time to cook I would recommend doing this once a month:

    Day1. Buy a rotisserie cooked chicken from the supermarket. Have roast chicken dinner with jacket potatoe (6-9 minutes in the microwave, but prick skins all over first so steam can escape so they don't explode). For veg have salad (lettuce or tomato or cucumber or grated carrot) with commercial salad dressing. Concentrate on eating drumsticks, wings and backbone as breasts and thighs are easier to deal with as leftovers.

    Day2. Chicken caesar. Lettuce, commercial caesar dressing, store bought croutons, leftover chopped chicken.

    Day3. Chicken nicoise. This is my recipe inspiration with leftover chicken replacing tuna steaks, but cut down work by using commercial caesar dressing and blanching green beans for a minute or two in the microwave.
    https://app.ckbk.com/recipe/keep99080c01s001ss005r009/salade-nicoise

    Day4. If there is still chicken left over make avgolemono soup and have that with a greek salad (tomato, cucumber,olive, feta, commercial Italian salad dressing). https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/avgolemono_soup/

    Day5. If there is still chicken leftover make coronation chicken replacing most of the mayo with no fat greek yoghurt as a filling for sandwiches or on jacket potatoes. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/user/896076/recipe/easy-coronation-chicken
  • busyPK
    busyPK Posts: 3,788 Member
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    I make seasoned chicken breasts once a week and it's a staple in many of my meals. I use different store bought seasonings to change it up (using Kick'n Chicken seasoning right now). Follow the steps and you'll have the most tender chicken. https://diethood.com/stove-top-chicken-breasts/

    I use the above on salads, in wraps, and alone with a side of veggie and rice or potato.

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