Meals for the Week, Made in a day....

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kristensuz
kristensuz Posts: 21 Member
in Recipes
I am a single mom with 2 jobs and then my son has all his activities. I would love to find some great, low cal, easy recipes that I can prep or make on Sunday but eat for the whole week. Kinda like Rachael Ray does. Any ideas???:smile:
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  • ionlyhavesporx
    ionlyhavesporx Posts: 120
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    When I do this, I utilize my steamer and crock pot.

    My steamer/rice cooker will cook rice on the bottom and has a basket at the top to steam whatever else. I'll do a few cups of my favorite healthy rice in the bottom and 4-5 chicken breasts in top. Do this unseasoned and you have a VERY versitile meal starter that keeps VERY well and microwaves decently. Add some quick veggies, lemon juice and salt/pepper for a light and tasty meal. Cut up the chicken breast and put that, the rice and a frozen bag of mixed veggies in some chicken broth for a killer and healthy chicken/rice soup. Experiment with it! It's great!

    In the crockpot, there are entire cooking sites dedicated to healthy cockpot usage. Find a recipe that's best for you and put it in the freezer for later!

    You can EASILY get 6 meals for you and the kids doing this.
  • sarahmaryfearnley
    sarahmaryfearnley Posts: 366 Member
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    Beans! Any kind, red beans 'n rice, lentils, black eye'd peas and ham (for good luck in the new year :smile: )

    You could also do chili, I saw RR do nacho topped chili once, killer! Or stews, saucy chicken dishes. I usually make a BIG pot of whatever (~20 servings) and then freeze it in portions. Great for busy evenings.
  • beckayee
    beckayee Posts: 4 Member
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    BUMP

    I am looking for the exact same thing. I love cooking but as a single mom of 2 boys, if I even have a CHANCE of working out after work dinner has to be already made. I use Tasteofhome.com/recipes and I search 'freezer'...that gives you things that you can make ahead and freeze. But many of them are not all that low-cal. So I make them for my boys and then throw myself together a salad or something. Not ideal, but it works for the most part. Except for those days when the thought of a salad makes me want to punch a puppy!!! LMAO Good luck to you :)
  • StaciO
    StaciO Posts: 998
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    I often do a "cook once eat twice" thing at my house. Say on Monday I make a meatloaf with ground turkey italian sausage and extra lean ground beef. I'll add diced green peppers, onions, garlic and top it with a little marinara sauce (if using sauce from a jar keep the rest for Thursday. Wap up the left over meatloaf then on Thursday make spaghetti. Just cook the noodles (or spaghetti squash) and break up the left over meatloaf and add the rest of the jar of marinara. Easy peasy. My family also likes when I change the meatloaf to a south of the border style by adding black beans, corn, onion garlic, and topping with salsa. Then on Thursday I would break up the left over meatloaf and warm some tortillas with lettuce and lowfat cheese and have tacos.
  • Athena413
    Athena413 Posts: 1,709 Member
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    When I do this, I utilize my steamer and crock pot.

    This.

    I use my steamer/crockpot nearly every weekend to make all my lunches for the following week. Or I make my husband grill me some chicken while he's grilling whatever else. It saves time and money (in that you're not eating out because your food is already prepared) and helps you to make healthier choices since you can plan ahead and don't have to try and find something last minute.
  • Fairysoul
    Fairysoul Posts: 1,361 Member
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    Prep your veggies, meats, and cooked beans/ rice into seperate containers on sunday, and so you can throw it in the crock pot in the morning, or you can pre cook meals to be heated like spaghetti, stir frys...
  • OkieinMinny
    OkieinMinny Posts: 834 Member
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    I take Sundays and get meals ready for lunches or the crockpot etc
    www.skinnytaste.com has some great recipes for all meals with calories figured out etc
  • tamheath
    tamheath Posts: 702 Member
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    I usually make "scrambled egg muffins" - at least 12 or 24. Put them in a huge ziploc and my family eats for breakfast for days. I'll attach a link from allrecipes, but my version is a bit healthier. Half eggs; half egg whites. Turkey sausage instead of real sausage. You get the idea. You can add whatever veggies you like most. I love mushrooms in these.
    :drinker:

    http://allrecipes.com/recipe/scrambled-egg-muffins/
  • gorgeouss9
    gorgeouss9 Posts: 221
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    I am a single mom with 2 jobs and then my son has all his activities. I would love to find some great, low cal, easy recipes that I can prep or make on Sunday but eat for the whole week. Kinda like Rachael Ray does. Any ideas???:smile:


    Actually, I believe its Robin Miller who does the prep ahead meals on Food Network.

    http://www.foodnetwork.com/quick-fix-meals-with-robin-miller/index.html

    http://www.robinrescuesdinner.com/
  • holli_walker
    holli_walker Posts: 109 Member
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    I usually find new and easy recipes here or allrecipes.com has a lot of great ideas. Also that away don't get burnt out with the same old food :)
  • jlowensby
    jlowensby Posts: 142
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    bump
  • dargytaylor
    dargytaylor Posts: 840 Member
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    crockpots are a girls best friend :smile:

    have all of the ingredients ready the night before, then pop into the cooker. Dinner done when you get home!!

    I also cook chicken and eat all week. Great way to get in some protein and fill me up!
  • cornfritter22
    cornfritter22 Posts: 230 Member
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    [ Except for those days when the thought of a salad makes me want to punch a puppy!!! LMAO



    HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I hear ya.
  • perdie7
    perdie7 Posts: 278 Member
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    I used to cook a month's worth of meals in one day for my family of 7....check out this web site http://onceamonthmom.com/
  • kodiak1957
    kodiak1957 Posts: 13 Member
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    Soup. I am one of those people who absolutely loves soup, so I make batches of homemade soup on Saturday or Sunday and freeze it for the week. Since I am diabetic, I keep my recipes low carb and low fat, and my carbs are complex carbs. I had a small garden this summer and grew quite a lot of kale and swiss chard. You can only eat so much sauteed kale, so my solution was to add it to soup. I have lost 65lb so far eating soup for most lunches and dinners. You can do a ton of variety, experimenting with whatever is in season. The soup pot is also a handy way to use up that "one serving" of string beans, carrots, or whatever the family leaves behind...just freeze and toss in the pot on the weekend!
  • Goldenwoof
    Goldenwoof Posts: 535 Member
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    I do a lotta my week's preparations on Sundays. Some things are very easy to prepare ahead of time and use through the week. I'll typically prepare a week's worth of salads that I bring to work each day. I also make a bunch of pasta, rice and chicken so I can just pull it outta the refrigerator and heat it up. It saves a LOT of time each evening, when time isn't something I have a lot of to begin with.
  • scapez
    scapez Posts: 2,018 Member
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    ^^^ THIS.

    I do the bulk of my cooking and planning on Sundays and VOILA! Done for the week!
  • becoming_a_new_me
    becoming_a_new_me Posts: 1,860 Member
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    I will often cook up an entire package of chicken then portion them out into individual servings and freeze. Also when I make casseroles, I make more than I need then put them into individual servings. If you take turkey burger and fry it and drain it, then put the meat into muffin cups and freeze, then throw the frozen muffin cups into a big baggie, you can pull out what you need when you need it.
  • Twasney
    Twasney Posts: 186 Member
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    Well I just wrote an awesome post with 6 great links and it all went away....bummer! There are tons of great resources on the web but there are a few that I like...

    Cook once and eat for 5 days, weight watchers version - http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=11731&sc=3022

    If you have a nice size deep freeze I would highly recommend buying the Big Cook Cookbook. I like the particular one because it pairs meals together, gives you the grocery list and also has FULL nutritional info for each recipe. All receipes are given in 2/4/6/8 portions so that you can do it yourself or as its meant to be with 3 of your closest friends.

    I recently participated in one where each woman put in $300 and left with 24 HUGE meals (thats 13 dollars per meal). They are more than enough for a 4 person family with lunch left over. We split up the shopping list and all met up on sunday with our portions of the groceries. It took 4 or 5 hours but my moms freezer was full of meals to get them through her bad days during chemo! If its you alone you can make the smaller version or split your big meals into smaller containers.

    PM me if you want more info on a big cook!
  • CatEyes27
    CatEyes27 Posts: 54
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    After I get the groceries home, I wash/prep all my fruits and veggies. I hardboil eggs and remove the yolks then put them in 5 plastic containers. I portion out 5 1/2 cup servings of ff yogurt, 5 portions of berries, 5 1/2 c portions of oatmeal with a packet of Swiss Miss diet added plus a few walnuts. I fix 5 servings of chicken or salmon and put into a plastic container with 1/2 c brown rice and a large portion of roasted broccoli and cauliflower. In the morning I put a container of everything in my bag. I have oatmeal for breakfast (at work), yogurt and berries for mid morning snack, chicken or salmon with rice and veggies for lunch, then I have an apple and a babybel light for afternoon snack. If my veggies were prepped over the weekend, it is easy to steam some for dinner with baked or broiled protein. I keep a large plastic container in the refrigerator with salad greens so I can pull a handful out every evening. I throw in grape tomatoes and half a sliced cucumber and I'm good to go.

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