Nutrition How much advanced meal prep do you do?

[steve-in-kville]

I know guys/gals that do an entire workweek at once. Others, it's on the spot meal prep, plus some in between stuff.

I've evolved over the years. I'm kind of a hybrid. I keep cooked/prepared ingredients handy and throw a meal together for my lunch that day. Dinner time, I eat what the family is eating, provided it is within my diet. May add some protein it is not enough.

 

[Grayland]

I don't at all but really want to start. It will probably be as you do (lunch only) as I think it's important to have a family meal.

 

[Boris Bachmann]

Generally, when I cook, I'll make enough that there will be this thing called "leftovers". The "leftovers", depending on quantity, are eaten for lunches, as a side, and impromptu dinners for 5-7 days.

More seriously though, I do occasionally make a big batch of chili, or pulled pork/beef, stew, fried rice, meat curry sauce, etc so that I always have extra food in the fridge and freezer and there's an abundance of (usually protein-stacked) meals ready to go - this saves a lot of $$ over time because we're less likely to go out or get take out when stuff at home is ready and available. AND, since everything is so freaking expensive now, the last thing we need is spending dough on restaurants and take out that isn't even that great.

 

[Luis T. Gonzalez]

I work Tuesday through Friday. So typically I put something in the crockpot at the beginning of the week to last a few days. I usually don’t eat breakfast so lunch and dinner is pretty easy to figure out. I keep bags of frozen veggies so that makes veggies pretty easy and I don’t have to worry about them going bad if I get lazy on vegetables. I always have salad stuff and heads of lettuce so I can quickly make a big salad daily. I’ll usually make a big container of rice too to dip in. This morning when I woke up I knew I was going to lift heavy so I made a big ribeye steak. That will hold me over to dinner.

 

[serjetto]

I only eat dinner, ground beef, eggs and boiled potatoes are always on hand. It's like S&S) With these ingredients you can make a lot of options.

 

[Adachi]

Once a week I buy a big tray of of ground beef and cook it all at once. I have a small fleet of 8 rectangular Pyrex dishes that I divide it up into.

Ground beef ranges between 6-8 lbs per week. 0.75~1.00 lbs per day.

Sometimes one or two of the Pyrex dishes are occupied.

Once a week works for me.

 

[John K]

Mostly do leftovers. The most prep I do is to pressure cook a bunch of chicken once a week. Makes good tacos, burrito bowls, or bbq.

 

[steve-in-kville]

I keep at least a few days worth of cooked rice in the fridge. My whole family likes white rice, so it goes fast. Tomorrow morning (my typical time to make food on ahead) I'll cook up some boneless chicken breast and roast some veggies in the oven. I can do a variety of things with those three alone. My wife hard-boils eggs by the dozen which makes great snacks. Plenty of fruit, normally bananas.

I can fill my lunch menu alone with that. If we have leftovers from dinner that fits me, I'll do that, too.

 

[Boris Bachmann]

I keep bags of frozen veggies so that makes veggies pretty easy and I don’t have to worry about them going bad if I get lazy on vegetables.

I do too. Not to gripe too much about cost of living, but the cost of frozen vegetables is probably 2x what it was a couple years ago.

 

[Luis T. Gonzalez]

I do too. Not to gripe too much about cost of living, but the cost of frozen vegetables is probably 2x what it was a couple years ago.

Yeah I feel you.

 

[Halfakneecap]

I do too. Not to gripe too much about cost of living, but the cost of frozen vegetables is probably 2x what it was a couple years ago.

Still better than forgetting the bag of potatoes in the veggie draw and having to throw them all out haha. I do that occasionally.

I like tinned veg for that as well. Dump them into mince etc.

 

[Boris Bachmann]

Still better than forgetting the bag of potatoes in the veggie draw and having to throw them all out haha. I do that occasionally.

I like tinned veg for that as well. Dump them into mince etc.

Absolutely. I still buy frozen veggies for that very reason.

 

[Ege]

Photo of my breakfast.

Better than Bill Gate’s breakfast…. I bet.

Mushrooms that saw real sun light, real organic eggs, high quality olive oil with aborigine, oat meal and almonds.

P rep time is zero …….

Long story … very long story.

 

[metaldrummer]

None really besides thawing meat out for later or maybe cutting up broccoli and putting it in the pot with water to be steamed later.

 

[silveraw]

I tend to do most cooking on one day. Mainly make meat for the week, then “prep” as we called it when I worked in kitchens.

 

[Hung]

The day before I take my leftover dinner for the next day lunch.
Sometime we cook food for the whole week.
For instance, the main dishes (animal food) would be salty so it can be eaten in multiple days. We only cook new rice and veggie

 

[Halfakneecap]

This morning fried up

2kg beef mince
1x400g can each corn, sliced green beans, black beans, lentils, chickpeas
Mexican seasoning

Got 8 Chinese containers in the fridge. Going to put them in the work freezer. Lunch is done for nearly 2 weeks now.

Such a good idea I should do it more often

 

[Steve Freides]

Mostly do leftovers.

Me, too. Our children are grown and out of the house, but we often make as much of something as we would when they were still here, so we have leftovers.

-S-

 

[wespom9]

My wife and I love cooking, and luckily both have very few foods we won't make. So we always try new things, dinner time is 'our time'. We cook daily, most of the time leftovers for lunch. We have no children so we have time, we love it, so that's what we do.

 

[Neuro-Bob]

This is more effort than I’ve been putting in recently, but I figured it’s relevant to the thread. I’ll be on the road for three days with my airline, and my flight bag is mostly a cooler for storing food that also just happens to carry my pilot gear.