Doing weekend food prep feels SO GOOD

[Anonymous]

It requires more work on a weekend than I care to have - weekends are for relaxing, even if it means my weeknights are more crazy, I just would rather use my weekends to get out of the house or relax or do other things. To each their own, though. On occasions, I do appreciate that I did something like bake some breakfast muffins or whatnot or that I made extra when cooking chicken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like healthy food shouldn’t take long to make so prepping is not necessary.

OP here and that is the opposite of my experience? All that washing and chopping of produce takes a lot of time.

I only manage to do it every other weekend maybe, but as PP said, if I don’t, we eat crap. And I’m a fan of crap occasionally, but too much of it doesn’t feel good.

I made a batch of homemade granola with the kids that they’ve been eating with yogurt and berries for breakfast, plus did a batch of hard-boiled eggs.

Grilled chicken for dinner Saturday night, but doubled to have leftovers to add to salads for lunch all week.

Roasted a bunch of chickpeas, sweet potatoes, beets and broccoli, also to add to salads during the week.

It wasn’t a ton of work, but there’s no way I have time for this during the week, so it’s a lifesaver.

This is brilliant, sounds delicious, and takes very little time -- they just grilled some extra chicken, tossed veggies with olive oil and seasoning and shoved them in the oven for 20 minutes, and made the granola, which takes like 10 minutes. You don't have to plan every meal and prep/cook it in advance, but having some healthy, tasty food on hand makes life more pleasant and much less stressful.

[Anonymous]

Yes! I have a full-time job to kids who are very busy with sports and A husband who travels Monday through Thursday for work. If we do not meal prep on Sundays I crash and burn during the week. I don’t cook anything in advance but I do marinate meats, cut and wash veggies, wash fruit, and portion ingredients out for quick grab and use. Last night I was even able to direct my 15-year-old to grill up the chicken breast and marinated steamed the broccoli and cook the rice so I came home with my younger son from practice to a hot meal cooked by my 15-year-old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Full pass.

This. I’d rather be prepping at 8 pm on a weekday than at any hour of the weekend. Even a working mom deserves a day off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even if I just wash and cut vegetables on Sunday so they are ready to steam for several meals, I like I’ve won the lottery when it comes time to make dinner during the week.

Won't they get all dried out?

[Anonymous]

You should look into the Fresh 20.

[Anonymous]

We're getting ready to move so unfortunately my prepping has gone to hell. I look forward to it in my new house with larger kitchen lol.

But generally speaking these days since I work from home I prep dinner stuff during lunch. Dice a onion, dice some peppers, cube a butternut squash, dice/marinate chicken, etc. It only adds about 5min to lunch, and dinner goes quite a bit faster.

My goal for the new house and the next school year is DD will be able to pack everything herself, I'll be able to prep on Sundays for all food for the week (more or less), and we don't eat out as much lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes! I have a full-time job to kids who are very busy with sports and A husband who travels Monday through Thursday for work. If we do not meal prep on Sundays I crash and burn during the week. I don’t cook anything in advance but I do marinate meats, cut and wash veggies, wash fruit, and portion ingredients out for quick grab and use. Last night I was even able to direct my 15-year-old to grill up the chicken breast and marinated steamed the broccoli and cook the rice so I came home with my younger son from practice to a hot meal cooked by my 15-year-old.

That's awesome!

[Anonymous]

I do a few basic things like hard boiling a dozen eggs, cutting up some celery that I can store in water. Otherwise other fruit and vegetables seem to get dried out or mushy with a day or two.

I prefer to just make extra during the week of any grains or meat and repurpose. Double the rice for Monday's stirfry gets used for taco bowls on Wednesday.

[Anonymous]

Hard pass for me too. I don’t understand why anyone would cut up veggies or cook shrimp (gross!) days in advance. Shrimp in particular take like 8 minutes to cook. Marinating a meat days in advance? Ew. Night before? Fine.

I will do things like marinades for the next day the night before while I am boiling pasta or cooking rice. I also clean as I go so after dinner dishes are done in under 5 minutes.

Roasting veggies days in advance is nasty too. They’ll be limp and soggy. Half the joy of a roasted veggie is the crispness and caramelization.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like healthy food shouldn’t take long to make so prepping is not necessary.

uh ok

[Anonymous]

We cook double amounts of anything so we have leftovers, occasionally we’ll also boil eggs, make tuna or chicken salad, roast vegetables. Most any dinner has leftovers so we only cook a few nights a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full pass.

This. I’d rather be prepping at 8 pm on a weekday than at any hour of the weekend. Even a working mom deserves a day off.

Same. I love meal planning and knowing I have what I need for the week, but prepping like that isn’t my thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full pass.

This. I’d rather be prepping at 8 pm on a weekday than at any hour of the weekend. Even a working mom deserves a day off.

Same. I love meal planning and knowing I have what I need for the week, but prepping like that isn’t my thing.

My day starts at 5, so I’m toast by 8pm. Weekends it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like healthy food shouldn’t take long to make so prepping is not necessary.

OP here and that is the opposite of my experience? All that washing and chopping of produce takes a lot of time.

I only manage to do it every other weekend maybe, but as PP said, if I don’t, we eat crap. And I’m a fan of crap occasionally, but too much of it doesn’t feel good.

I made a batch of homemade granola with the kids that they’ve been eating with yogurt and berries for breakfast, plus did a batch of hard-boiled eggs.

Grilled chicken for dinner Saturday night, but doubled to have leftovers to add to salads for lunch all week.

Roasted a bunch of chickpeas, sweet potatoes, beets and broccoli, also to add to salads during the week.

It wasn’t a ton of work, but there’s no way I have time for this during the week, so it’s a lifesaver.

More importantly, how do you store it all?

NP here. I do a plan, that includes at least one night of takeout (Friday night pizza) and one night of frozen Trader Joe’s meals per week, and then I cook one or 2 things in advance when I make Sunday dinner which is my night to really cook (because I love to cook - making time for it one night per week means I get my hobby time and it doesn’t make weeknights stressful).

I plan a lot of frozen veggies, or easy salads, so that weeknight meals are under 30 minutes. Then because I’m only making one maybe 2 things in advance it doesn’t take a lot of space to store.