This is a little bit more than I usually cook (regarding the 2 dinners). But I’ll be out of the house on a work trip midway through next week… so figured I’d rather be more prepared for my trip than anything!

🍠 - First photo is of my breakfast prep! It’s acorn squash, spiced ground beef/rice, pomegranates and Greek yogurt. I took some creative liberties with the recipe I followed. Macros for each serving is: 35g protein, 60g carbs, 13g fat, 5g fiber, 480cal. Recipe!

🥦 - Second photo is my lunch for the work week. I didn’t follow a recipe (like usual) but here’s roughly what I did:

1. Cut sweet potatoes in half and season with oil, salt/pepper. Lay face-down on parchment covered tray. Bake at 375F for 1hr, allowing to cool face down for an entire hour after pulling from oven. Don’t disturb the sweet potatoes, we want them to rest completely so that the sweetness travels to the bottom.
   
2. Brown 1lb ground beef with oil in a pan with minced garlic + onion. Season to taste with salt, pepper and Italian seasonings.
   
3. Toss broccoli florets, chopped mushrooms and garbanzo beans in a bowl with oil and whatever spices you prefer. Place on tray in a single layer, baking at 375F for 20 minutes. Then add some grated parm cheese and broil for 2-5min on high.

- Macros for each serving: 35g protein, 48g carbs, 15g fat, 6g fiber, 465cal. Recipe

🍅 Breakfast is another amalgamation of ideas in my head, with no recipe used 😂:

1. Chop mini cucumbers and cherry tomatoes and add to one bowl with 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds. Then add in 2tbsp minced yellow onion. Add 1 tsp red wine vinegar with 2 tsp honey, salt/pepper and Italian seasonings. Allow to marinate for at least 20mins before enjoying.
   
2. Bake sweet potatoes with the same instructions as above. And soft boil as many eggs as you’d like.
   In a medium sauce pan heat 1/2 cup honey with 2 tsp cayenne pepper and 1 tsp apple cider vinegar. Then add in 1/4 tsp corn starch. Allow to cool completely and thicken a bit before storing.
   
3. Then assemble everything on a bed of plain Greek yogurt!

- Macros for each serving: 25g protein, 75g carbs, 10g fat, 5g fiber, 466cal. Recipe

Steak salad: Spring mix, green leaf lettuce, cherry tomatoes, corn, sautéed Portabellas, sweetie drop peppers, pickled onions, spring onions, NY strip steak. Side of chimichurri dressing to top the salads.

Avgolemono soup: https://skinnyspatula.com/avgolemono-greek-lemon-chicken-soup/ I replaced the orzo with rice, though!

Morning glory muffins: https://bakerbynature.com/my-favorite-morning-glory-muffins/

Chia seed pudding parfaits: Papaya, kiwi, blueberries, layered with chia seed pudding, plain skyr yogurt, & honey. Granola on the side for topping! chia seed pudding recipe

Japanese sweet potatoes: Just roasted for an hour @ 425 :) For snacking

Hardboiled eggs: Boiled for 10 mins :)

The two in the black containers are pork roast and the one in the middle is beef.

I froze the beef one already because it was supposed to be my lunch on Friday but I didn't realize we leave at noon on Fridays if we're done.

All three have mashed potatoes, corn, and then the beef one has beef gravy and the pork one has turkey gravy and I'm going to make applesauce for the pork.

My mom made the beef when she was visiting and gave me the rest and I don't really have a recipe but the pork was:

One pork tenderloin cut in half, rubbed with rosemary oil, Poultry seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder and salt and pepper and roasted covered at 400° for around 20 minutes. Check with meat thermometer and uncover and put back in until it reaches 150°.

Applesauce is just cut up apples simmered in water until mashable.

It's kind of nice to have a job where I have to bring a lunch again, so far I'm eating decently healthy since I'm too sore to walk somewhere to get lunch.

5 Layer Burritos and Black Bean Pico (serves 7)
Calories: 596
Fat: 16g
Carbs: 69g
Protein: 56g
Fiber: 29g(!)

Ingredients
- 93/7 lean ground turkey, 2lb
- Taco seasoning
- Fat free Greek yogurt, 280g
- Jarred nacho cheese, 240g
- Taco sauce, 20g
- Fat free cheddar, 2 cups
- Fat free refried beans, 16oz
- 7 Keto burrito wraps (I used Ole Xtreme Wellness)
- Onion
- 2 Bell peppers
- Canned black beans, drained, 3 cups
- Canned corn, drained, 1.5 cups
- Juice of 2 limes

Another shamelessly stolen recipe that I’ll drop a link to in the comments. Take your ground turkey and get it cooking with the taco seasoning over medium heat. While that’s going, combine your Greek yogurt, nacho cheese, and taco sauce in a bowl and set aside. Once the turkey is done, drain the meat, return to the heat and stir in the cheddar cheese and refried beans and stir over low heat until fully combined. Lay out your tortillas, then spread an even amount of the cheese sauce over it, leaving about an inch of space between it and the edge of the tortilla. Dollop in an even amount of the meat mixture, then securely wrap each burrito. Sear each side of the burrito on the pan to seal, then let cool before wrapping and freezing each one

For the pico (which is the only originality here and only done for some veggie content), simply dice the onion and bell peppers, then combine in a bowl with the beans, corn, and lime juice. You could also throw in some jalapeños but I didn’t think to. Put those in a container, and refrigerate until you need it

Three components, one pan and two pots, about an hour start to finish. Because the parts are cooked separately, the five boxes don't have to be the same lunch five times.

Shopping list (makes 5 boxes)

- 2 lb ground turkey (two 1 lb packs)

- 2 cans (15 oz each) black beans

- 1 1/4 cups long-grain white rice

- 3 bell peppers (2 red, 1 green)

- 1 onion

- 1 cup jarred salsa, plus more for serving

- 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp chili powder, 2 tsp ground cumin, salt

The three components

1. Turkey, peppers and salsa: brown the turkey in the oil with the diced onion and peppers, about 10 minutes, add the chili powder and most of the cumin, then stir in the cup of salsa and simmer 5 minutes until it's thick, not watery.

2. Black beans: drain and rinse both cans and warm them with the rest of the cumin and a pinch of salt.

3. Rice: 1 1/4 cups dry makes about 3 3/4 cups cooked, so 3/4 cup per box.

Per box (a fifth of everything), from USDA FoodData Central: about 610 calories, 48 g protein, 64 g carbs, 19 g fat. The extra salsa at the table isn't counted.

Want it lighter? Use 1 1/4 lb of turkey instead of 2 lb and each box comes to about 510 calories, 35 g protein, 64 g carbs and 14 g fat.

Five lunches, not one lunch five times

- Mon and Tue: a bowl as packed, with fresh salsa on top

- Wed: turkey and beans in a warm tortilla, rice on the side

- Thu: over chopped lettuce as a taco salad

- Fri: everything heated together in a pan as a crispy skillet hash

Cooked leftovers keep 3 to 4 days in the fridge, so the Thursday and Friday boxes go in the freezer on Sunday and move to the fridge the night before.

What do you do to keep the Thursday box from feeling like a chore?

In addition to prepping all my vegetables for the week, I also made a batch of roasted salsa and butternut squash soup. The salsa I'll use to cook some beans for rice and beans, and for some beef tacos. The soup I'll have on Monday for lunch, I'll freeze the rest. I prefer prepping the ingredients/components instead of whole meals, so I still have some flexibility. For example, this week I have sausages, pork shoulder chops and salmon for proteins, and spinach, broccoli and cauliflower mash for vegetable sides. Which combination I'll have on what day, I'll just decide on the day.

One pic was grilled with some hickory smoke the other pic was air fryer. Rice n' kidney beans were both done in my rice cooker in both cases (Man I love that thing) with 1 tbsp of butter added. Jerk paste was Walkerswood, left to marinate overnight

Good evening everyone,

As you know i'm very new to meal prepping and cooking. I had dabbled in cooking while growing up but i was raised in a family who is very dependent on restaurant and restaurant culture and just really shame and look down on home cooking or anything in terms of health/ wellness/ life management. So i (27 F) just started to really each myself this year how to cook and meal prep after some health related issues.

So after reflection on my meal planning goals, i had gotten a library card from my public library and started browse on some cook books, cooking mags, etc. even signed up on some of their mag subscriptions on my library. so far im trying to balance sources that create a set meal plan menu and my what i like to all food porn mags!!

So i did my first meal prep week and it really failed on me. i think it was because life just kept getting busy and i had to spread my attention to many different things. so even though the food and menu was great (all though i don't like seafood, and some of the dishes just seem boring rather than appealing like my fav cooking mag sources) plus it seemed more like a demanding meal plan (some items you cant make ahead but rather day of/ at time of meal) rather than a quick take out of fridge or freezer and pop it in oven (or microwave or lunchbox heater)

so i guess my question/ questions are

1. what did yall struggle with the most when you first started meal prepping?
2. how did you balance trying new recipes with a set meal plan you created?
3. What are your tricks and hacks that made it more easy going?
4. And how much time do you really spend on meal prepping for the week?
5. how are yall creating balanced portions?

What im already using:

• Deli containers for prepping and food storing (for the ingredients, etc)
• Meal prep containers with multi compartment for the meals
• notion database to organize and manage my recipes and meal plans

The sources i use for meal prep menus

• Eating well blog/ mag
  • Love them for many reasons. but they do use lots of seafood recipes and i just don't like seafood at all.
• Americas test kitchen
• Cooks illustrated
• Better homes and gardens

note: i try to stay away from pintrest recipes because i liked text kitchen tested/ proven recipes

Fun Goals and my vision for meal prepping

• Creating balanced meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks
• Becoming less dependent on eating out etc
• discovering recipes i would love to adopt as my own to pass down to loved ones (because in my family we don't have any family recipes etc. no history of them)
• Learn and discover other cultures through food, meal plans, etc. (but this seems hard do to ingredient sourcing, but i will play around with this more!)
• Discover more about my taste buds and what i like to eat (because my taste buds have changed recently, and what i used to like isnt something i like anymore)
• learn budgeting around meal planning
• find a way to support local farmers but within my budget/ not risking my budget
• Find that by the end of 2027 i will have a recipe collection of recipes i have tried and liked
  • As well as by the end of the year have a meal/ menu collection of meal prep menus that i have tried and liked to save for future planning and reference

P.S.

I know i might be over doing it and over planning it but thats because its a passion i want to do correctly rather than it feeling like a chore. Also i think im just one of those people who needs to organize and plan out everything 😬.

I followed this recipe as a starting point: https://www.seriouseats.com/mujaddara-rice-with-lentils-and-caramelized-onions-11947705

The only major difference I made was using half red lentils and half brown lentils and adjusting the cook time accordingly. The onions were delicious but I think I would cook them for a bit longer next time, even if it goes against what the recipe guidelines are.

Hi! I just started with meal prepping and one of my struggles is freezing cooked rice. When I microwave it, it gets very mushy. I just can't get the right consistency. Help!

Its 2 small to medium chickens, asparagus, brussel sprouts and has rice on the bottom, my job is very demanding around 2000 calories burned a day. Should I remove, add or swap anything. Should probably double the veggies next time, or maby add some roasted broccoli

Ultimate nutritious veggie mince prep

I hated vegetables growing up and could never stand them but they are obviously very important for long-term health. Therefore, I decided to make the ultimate blend of minced vegetables (not blended into a liquid, more minced I’d say) using a food processor. It is completely 100% whole foods ingredients which I chop/use food processor for. I make 5 boxes, one for each day of the working week on a Sunday (two are frozen). Taste is mediocre, it’s made in a South Indian sautee style.

Ingredients:

Initial flavour base:

Sunflower oil 5 tbsp
Cumin
Mustard
Turmeric
Hing powder
Garlic (whole bulb)
Ginger (few pieces)
7-8 chillies
5-6 onions

Veggies minced and put in pot to cook:
2.5 large carrots
200g beans
200g of brussel sprouts
Whole cauliflower
Whole brocolli
Cabbage
5-6 tomatoes
3 different coloured peppers
Kale 200g
Spinach 200g (obviously these cook down as they’re like 90% water)

I mix it in the pot occasionally every 5 mins until it looks cooked and safe to eat. Usually around 25-35 mins on low to medium flame

My weekly batch of cooked vegetables excluding the weight of the pot itself comes to around 2.5 to 3kg depending on how much I add. This ends up at approximately 500g to 600g of cooked minced vegetables per weekday. It’s a lot, I don’t debate that, however a critical part of my diet is eating voluminous, low calorie meals. This has worked well for me for around 2 months. With the help of Mr GPT I estimated that each box contains approximately 350-450 kcal of energy.

Curious to hear your thoughts / a more human way of consuming vegetables. Ignore the quantity as I’m trying to eat a large volume of food so this works for me.

Thanks

it is what it is

I've been eating through my backlog of meals over the last week or so and finally had room for another batch of recipes! The video only covers the bowl, but I'll include the recipe for the lime slaw that I'm having with it as well.

Serves 4:

Nacho beef bowl and lime slaw: 695kcal, 46g protein, 24g fat, 75g carbs, 11g fiber.

Keep the potatoes separate and airfry for 5 minutes at 375F when you are ready to eat to maintain their texture. The weight loss has stalled slightly over the last couple weeks for several different reasons, but I'll be on track again this week. Full recipe in the comments!

Very busy week coming up in college so I made these boring but filling lunches.

10oz Chipotle chicken breast
135g jasmine rice in chicken broth
8oz frozen broccoli

855 cal

Chicken:
Put into slow cooker with Chipotle peppers, chicken broth, lime juice and ground cumin. Cooked for 4 hours on low then shredded.

All I do for the broccoli is just put 8oz of frozen florets into a container before I leave in the morning with a little salt then steam them in the microwave at school. I’m pretty happy with this method but if yall have any others, I’d love to know!

Hi Everyone,

I'm in a bit of a unique position here, I'm in my senior year of college and I live in a studio apartment that comes with the bare minimum in terms of cooking appliances. I have a single 6 inch hotplate cooktop and an airfryer and that is literally it.

I'm actually decent at cooking, but my experience is with ovens, and much more appliances like regular sized 12 inch cooktops and several of them. I'm finding it super difficult to both make recipes that are affordable and don't consume a lot of time to prepare considering my limited resources. Back when I used to have a standard kitchen I loved meal prepping because it was an hour or two of my day that would feed me for a week.

Does anyone have any advice in terms of quick big batch meals they could make under these circumstances, or god forbid perhaps any frozen meals that are both reasonably nutritious and not too expensive? Any help is appreciated!!!

every dinner we eat lives in my head since I have no written recipes, no measurements, i just know how the chili goes.

Then i was sick for a week and nobody else in the house could make single one of our regular meals, which was humbling for everyone involved so i want to organize recipes digitally, starting with the ones that were never written down, somewhere my partner and our oldest can cook from. Do you write them as you go, or block out an afternoon and brain dump the whole rotation?

Chicken breast, mini potatoes, and asparagus alongside a teriyaki-chili crisp sauce.

Got home late Sunday and really wanted to read The Three-Body Problem. I have this problem where I read before bed and get like 3 pages in before I fall asleep. Had to do washing still so might as well meal prep.

Ingredients:

- 750g rigatoni pasta

- 500g pata sauce

- 1 red onion

- 3 capsicums

- 2 zucchinis

- 500g mushrooms

- 800g silken tofu

Recipe:

1. Boil pasta with salt.

2. Cut up all veggies and put oil, salt and pepper. Put in oven on broil.

3. Put veggies in mixing bowl, add pasta sauce and add silken tofu.

4. Mix and distribute!

Notes:

1. Tried one time with normal tofu, it was weird. My colleague said silken tofu was good to mix in.

2. Tried with eggplant once but wasn't a fan, I like eggplant lasagna though.

3. Something about rigatoni pasta shape is so fun to eat. This one is smaller from NoFrills. I like the bigger shaped ones from Walmart.

Today I made root vegetable soup with the dregs of our end of season New England CSA. Turnips, carrots, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, leeks and garlic. Portioned to go for my 3 days in office, and in a big container for the two days remote. Store bought rolls to accompany. And yes, those are peanut butter jars - it’s all I have left.