Doing weekend food prep feels SO GOOD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I wake up at 5:15am to work out before work, so I’m also exhausted by the end of the day. But I have gotten good at planning easy, reasonably healthy meals my family likes, and which I can prep in 30 minutes or less. I still have enough energy at 6pm or whatever to do that.

But yeah, once the kids are down, I’m done!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Exactly what I struggle with. I feel like I have to choose between staying at home and prepping and going out with the family. I think the solution is waking up at 5am on weekends but not ready for that yet!

[Anonymous]

I like doing food prep, but I HATE the cleanup. It feels like I'm in the kitchen for hours when I do it.

[Anonymous]

I prep on the weekend too. Tonight was so nice. Had a very healthy Crain bowl dinner (assembly 10min) we all ate together and played a competitive game of can jam. DH even left at 8pm with my older son to go to the movies… yes in a Monday night.

We’d eat like trash if I didn’t plan and prep. Plus we’re both done with work my 5pm and really love having a solid 4hrs of relaxation time. Furthermore, I won’t eat past 630, so I gotta plan to make that happen, or else I bet we wouldn’t sit down as a family until 8pm

[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.

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.

Would you share your granola recipe?

[Anonymous]

I love it when I plan and prep on the weekend. Ideally, I’ll get a casserole and a soup going on Sunday so we can alternate leftovers through the week.

Sometimes I cook up a big batch of beans and a big batch of grains and then use them in different meals through the week.

Now that weather is warmer, I’ll have to make a switch to warmer weather recipes. this is harder because I find casseroles and soup easier to make but I don’t feel like eating those in the warm weather. Guess I’ll move to cold salads with grains and beans.

It can be fun to make a bunch of stuff to do a mock Chipotle or Cava night. A lot of work, but once done, if you make enough, it should last.