Meal Prep Advice.

The_Kew_Tour

Not sure where is begin. I have been getting results in gym lately again and im losing weight. I like lose stone and half more though. My diet still could be better and im still sucker for fast food during break. Maybe only twice a week but would love cut it out.

Now that I have no college to worry about I would like to start making more healthy food and bringing more healthy food to work.

I dont have the " i have no time" excuse anymore.

Im not afraid try new things in kitchen but im novice in meal prep side.

Any advice on where to begin? Short do and donts? Or any good Youtubers or apps out there to maybe help?

Any help would be appeciated.

Alf Veedersane

What is it about meal prep you want advice on? Just ideas for what to do?

If thats the case you could make extra for your dinner so you have a lunch portion left over?

You could also spend an hour or two at the weekend making up a batch of food to portion put and freeze to bring in for lunches across the week.

I do the latter. Having lunch with me makes it easier to avoid a lot of the temptation that there is near where I work.

The_Kew_Tour

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

What is it about meal prep you want advice on? Just ideas for what to do?

If thats the case you could make extra for your dinner so you have a lunch portion left over?

You could also spend an hour or two at the weekend making up a batch of food to portion put and freeze to bring in for lunches across the week.

I do the latter. Having lunch with me makes it easier to avoid a lot of the temptation that there is near where I work.

Cheers Alf
Ya just ideas and maybe try vary it from week to week.

If I were to make chicken for week is it safe to put in fridge for the week once contained? Like mix up chicken meat with veg.

Just looking where start. Should i just work on meal prep for few days or best just go right in for week?

I hope im being bit clear not sure if I am

Alf Veedersane

Its really more what you want to have amd how long it would keep.

Id give chicken a max of 3 days if you just wanted to have a fillet and a plate of veg. But thats no problem because doing a couple of chicken fillets, for example, is easy and not time consuming. Try different spices to season.

Things like casseroles, chillis, etc (one-pot wonders) are handy and freeze well if you want to go down that route

The_Kew_Tour

Cheers Alf appreciate feedback

Alf Veedersane

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Cheers Alf appreciate feedback

No bother. There's probably more culinary expertise here to offer advice but it's a start.

Oh yeah...stew. Stew weather is a-comin'.

s7ryf3925pivug

Test any containers you're using to store food, as most advertised as air tight are clearly not. The smaller ones are generally the least reliable. There's little correlation between price and quality too.

I tested ours by seeing if they'd leak water while closed tightly. Most did and were binned.

The Tupperware style lid seems to be the most reliable. I was surprised to find a couple of cheap and cheap looking containers of this style were perfect. The ones with the snap latches were almost all bad, including big brands.

For v small size, only screw tops worked in a fairly wide range that I checked. Crap really considering these are largely for spices which are typically stored a long time. Replaced all spice jars with cheap effective ratjan jars from IKEA.

Most larger containers were replaced with whitefurze, which are also cheap but were 100% reliable when I tested them. Available in a good range of sizes and shapes too.

Really all good stored for any length of time should in proper airtight containers. Weird that this is not the norm given the high risk of contamination and spoilage of improperly stored food.

Cooked chicken in an airtight container in a fridge will last several days I find. I cook a whole chicken and store the meat like that as a matter of course and it's always used up before any sign of being past it's best.

Mellor

I'd be surprised if airtightness of a food container lid made a significant difference to the freshness of highly perishable food.
Pantry items sure, but hey go stale in air. Chicken isn't going stale.



As for meal prep advice. The easiest option to to make double portions at dinner and throw have in a lunch box.
Or you could make a large batch of chilli, curry, stew, lasagne, etc. And thing with a sauce to keep it moist keep well.
I find it easier to eat well for the week if I take 30 mins on sunday to plan out my food. I'm doing mine as I type

s7ryf3925pivug

Mellor wrote: »

I'd be surprised if airtightness of a food container lid made a significant difference to the freshness of highly perishable food.
Pantry items sure, but hey go stale in air. Chicken isn't going stale.

Cured meats have a tendency to become rancid when exposed to air. Therefore, rewrap cured meats after opening the package. Expect approximately a 1-week shelf-life for cured meats. Vacuum-packaging (absence of air) and modified atmospheric packaging (partial removal of air) extends shelf-life of meats and meat products (i.e. luncheon meats).

Don't think it's a huge leap to think that air-tightness is beneficial from that.

Specifically about poultry:

Leftovers stored in the refrigerator should be consumed within 3 days and reheated to 165°F prior to consumption

As mentioned I do not do that myself. I might reduce how long I store cooked chicken for.

About raw meat:

Generally, fresh cuts of meat contain spoilage bacteria on the surface that will grow, produce slime, and cause spoilage after 3 days of refrigerator storage in oxygen-permeable packaging film.

https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/50156/348-960.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

I wouldn't be too bothered about staleness. Mould and rancidity are much greater concerns, and are both more likely when there is not airtight storage.

Parasites are also more likely to be active in food where there is not airtight storage. Slightly off-topic example is that flour often contains mite eggs, which are harmless in themselves. However if they hatch they cause food spoilage and will spread to other grains they can access.

Mellor

Regarding the first point. Cured meats aren't fresh food.
As for the rest, an airtight lid doesn't create a vacuum. If you put cooked chicken in a lunchbox, there's enough oxygen inside to feed the bacteria for the 3 days until it goes bad. If the lid isn't airtight, chances are gas will be leaking out, not in.
Hence why I said I don't think it matters.

s7ryf3925pivug

The first point is not only talking about cured meats and the rest isn't talking about vacuums.

Didn't find anything more clear one way or another than this.

Air-tightness reduces risk of mould or air-tightness. The argument that it will spoil before mould or parasites are likely to affect it makes sense. [Likewise the mechanism of its protection is partially to do with keeping moisture out, but meat is moist already.]

Might be redundant outside of stopping it from drying out and keeping odours in.

Mellor

Westley Shy Fern wrote: »

The first point is not only talking about cured meats and the rest isn't talking about vacuums.

It literally said vacuum keep meat fresher.
Air tight lids do t prevent air coming into contact with the food. Already air inside the lunchbox.

Didn't find anything more clear one way or another than this.

Air-tightness reduces risk of mould or air-tightness. The argument that it will spoil before mould or parasites are likely to affect it makes sense.

Typo? air tightness reduces air tightness. A good but not airtight lid would prevent mould/air spoilage almost as well.
Regardless, as above. It's not mould getting at meat it's the bactetia on the food already.

evolving_doors

The videos here are pretty quick. slow cooker ones are good if you have the time to prep. so its all done when you get in the door.
https://youtu.be/N4jF6nF7N40
Some of the stuff can be very unhealthy (like the desserts) but it'll give great ideas to make your own versions.

Dixie Chick

If you don't own a slow cooker then I would advise you get one.

At the weekend then put it to work. I make a huge batch of chilli meat one day and some kind of chicken casserole the next and freeze in portions and take them out the night before I use them

Another handy thing is to boil up chicken breasts at the start of the week (maybe for 4 days). Also I boil eggs at the start of the week too.

If you have any kilner jars you can chop and store salad ingredients in them but really anything over 4 days can be a bit gross.

Another thing to pre make is a rice or pasta bake and freeze in portions and you are flying!

Every saturday I make a lasagne and either a chilli con carne or a beef vindaloo. Then I put portions into microwaveable containers(8 for 1.50 in Dealz). Either with rice for the vindaloo/chilli or with nothing for the lasagne. It makes doing lunch very cheap, and you can estimate reasonably accurately the calorie count.