Meal prep. What do you do?

Essien

This is something I plan on doing a lot more of in future. Right now I prepare next to nothing, spend too much time cooking and ultimately end up opting for convenience much more than I'd like to.

So I'd like to know what others do.

Do you prepare your meals days in advance?

If so, how much of your diet do you prep?

Do you have any favourite recipes?

Any general tips on what will keep for a while or what can be frozen etc?

Ann Landers

I'm all about preparing in advance and have been for years. For the last seven months, I haven't had a freezer and I've realllly missed it. Will have one again soon

What I freeze:

Bulk homemade meals for my BF and I. Examples:

Meatballs in homemade tomato sauce
Shepherd's pie
Curry
Savoury mince
Chilli
Soup


I also freeze lemon juice in ice cube trays, red wine in ice cube trays, have a good supply of frozen sweetcorn and peas, freeze sliced homemade soda bread as I don't like to eat too much bread so this is a nice way to just small amounts of it, and freeze small portions of stewed rhubarb to have as dessert.

I also have large supplies of raw meat frozen.

gymfreak

I'd prepare a lot of my meals in advance. Generally on a Sunday I cook up a big coconut milk chicken curry and some type of stirfry. I'd leave 2 portions in the fridge for dinner on Monday and Tuesday and I'd put the rest in the freezer to be eaten later in the week.

Then for lunch I mostly have salads. So I'd have spinach in the fridge washed and ready to go and I'd add in cottage cheese, tuna and sweetcorn.

I also make up small bags of almonds and raisins as snacks for during the week and have loads of washed peeled and sliced carrots in the fridge too.

I find the best time to prepare food is when I've already eaten my dinner...that way I have the patience to make something nice or to put the extra effort in

Alf Veedersane

Used to be quite good at making up a lasagne or shepherd's pie to have for evenings when one or both of us would be getting home too late to make anything. But trying to plan meals in advance for a pregnant woman is the definition of pointless But there are plenty of options that can be ready withing 30mins of switching on the oven and we'd both be eating by half 7. Stir-fries are great for that.

But homemade bolognese sauces and the like would always be ready to go from the freezer. Frozen veg is another staple of the freezer.

Typer Monkey

Big fan of the meal prep in advance here. My boyfriend and I both do shift work so it's very tempting to eat rubbish on a late or night so I always bring a dinner with me. I batch cook up spaghetti bolognase (I add wholemeal
penne pasta before freezing. It defrosts fine), salmon stir fry with noodles, Thai chicken curry with some rice and fish pie with veg and always have them in the freezer in ikea lunch boxes. I have chicken fillets in twos in there in freezer bags too. I boil a few eggs and keep them in the fridge. If I'm working days I'll make up some salads with roasted veg and a salmon or chicken fillet so I can just grab them in the morning and head out the door..

It's handy to have dinners in the freezer too for evenings when I'm not working but can't be bothered to cook. It prevents the take away menus coming out!

Also I have frozen veg in the freezer. Very handy and just as nutritious

quaalude

I'm a vegetarian and I like to have beans quite a bit, for the protein. They taste nice, are very satisfying, and have lots of fibre and nutrients.
I don't like canned beans as they have a lot of salt, so I started cooking dried beans, and portioning the cooked beans into 125g servings and freezing them. My lunch for work is one serving of beans zapped in the microwave so they're warm, plus whatever else cold - usually something like 20g feta, 50g baby spinach, a tomato, a couple of dates, a few almonds.
To prep beans, for example these ones: http://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=260261321 it's always the same, the only thing that varies is cooking time.
I mostly use chickpeas, pinto beans, kidney beans, black turtle beans, and organic soya beans. There are heaps of others you can use too.

- Empty the packet of beans into a large bowl, and fill the bowl with water, a couple of inches from the top
- Leave the beans overnight in the fridge, but at least 12 hours (I've left them for longer and it's fine of course)
- Drain the soaked beans, rinse a bit, and empty into a large pot.
- Fill the pot with cold water, cover. Don't put any salt in!
- Bring the pot of water to the boil, then turn it down to a simmer.
- Leave the beans to simmer until they're cooked
- Check occasionally that they haven't run out of water - top up if needed.

It can vary how long they take - chickpeas can be cooked in like 25 mins, but kidney can take 2 hours or more.
The back of the packet will give you a guide.
Cooked is soft, but with a tiny bit of bite in the middle.

Once cooked, drain and let cool.
Write on the side of the little freezer bags which bean it is, and weigh out into 125g servings and bag up. I buy the Tesco Value freezer bags, like 70 cents.
500g usually makes 8 or 9 servings of 125g - enough for lunch for almost 2 weeks.