How often do you cook? Have the same few things in rotation? Cook for anyone else too? Prep multiple days at a time or cook every day? I personally work a weird schedule so I prep food 5 days at a time. Also only eat one big meal a day. That could be anything in my dozenish meals rotation. I prep for my girlfriend too but shes simple. For her I cut up some vegetables (bell peppers, cauliflower, celery and carrots usually) then cook up a couple pounds of seasoned meat (chicken breast or 90/10 ground beef). What about you?
13 people live in my house full time. If I didn’t meal prep, I would never be able to leave the kitchen.
We always have “egg McBluffins” in the freezer, just pop em in the microwave for a minute or so (99 seconds if you’re doing 2 at once) and you’ve got breakfast sorted. I make large batches of pulled pork, or shredded beef, and I freeze individual portions in vac seal bags. Pop some in the nuker, and you’re ready to make a sandwich, burrito, taco, whatever. I currently have 40 servings of chili in the freezer, along with 40 servings of Italian Wedding soup. I also make ham and bean soup in big batches to freeze, but we’re currently out of that. I’ve got beef stew coming up in the rotation, we’ll eat about half of it the first night, and freeze the rest in portion sized containers. Pickled eggs (the pink ones, with the beet juice) are a huge hit with my family, and I raise chickens, so we’re never short on eggs. I don’t know an exact number, but I’d say I have somewhere between 80 and 100 pickled eggs in my house right now. 2-3 of those is a nice high protein snack that you can just grab and go. Last time I harvested one of my goats, I cooked the entire thing in a pit I dug in my yard, then shredded the meat for a delicious birria inspired dish. I also like to make huge batches of Bolognese sauce and freeze it in reasonable portions, so that I just have to boil up some pasta, and that’s dinner.
I don’t just “do” meal prep, I live meal prep.
I buy meal kits from HelloFresh. I buy three meals a week, each are two servings. I cook every second day and have leftovers for the next day. One day a week, I either eat fast food or cook something easy like canned food
My rotation only has me working 2 or 3 days at a time(GF is on the same schedule, so I prep her meals at the same time as mine), so typically the night before one of those working periods I’ll make an extra large dinner that also serves as my meal prep.
I have maybe a dozen dishes in the “frequent rotation”, but I regularly cook off menu as it were. This last work period I make is burrito bowls, and we’ve got a 3 day coming up, not sure what I’ll make yet, but I’m currently feeling curry rice.
Love curry rice! Yeah I’m in a similar boat in a 28 day rotational schedule. 14 on 14 off 7 over nights 7 day shifts all 12s. So before a 3 or 4 day on I have a day of cooking. If I’m gonna pick up a few OT shifts I fill the freezer typically. My girl works a normal schedule and works from home semi frequently. So sometimes I set up a crock pot and have her run it for 4-6 hours. That and pasta are about her culinary limits lol.
As someone who had a poorly-paid yet high-stress job for 6 years straight (thanks grad school!) and still recovering, I have a lot to say on this!
I honestly don’t know if what I did could even count as cooking, especially since cooking standards where I grew up is quite high… I just go to the store and buy a bunch of meat + random assorted vegetables and throw them in a pot. Meat is almost always chicken since it’s cheaper, and the local supermarket used to sell massive packs of chicken legs for just $5. Veggies… used to be just some type of cabbage or cauliflower. Recently I’ve been switching things up a bit, but it’s mostly still just these. Usually somewhere between 30-60 minutes is the sweet spot where things don’t cause food poisoning, so within 60-90 minutes of very easy prep, I can get food that would be good for a long time, depending on how big the pot is. Back when I lived in an apartment with a big fridge I sometimes store up to 3-4 weeks of food… Current accommodation only has a mini-fridge, so 4-7 meals max. I cook whenever I run out of food. This is usually the “meal prep” part, which I can then store in the fridge/freezer.
For eating. I’d just make some type of carbs, reheat the mix a bit, and just place them together and eat. Throw in some spices and olive oil (or one of those funny Asian spices if you are into it!) and almost everything would taste just fine. The entire prep almost never exceeds 10 minutes, half of which can be spent showering which cuts down on the morning routine. Probably even faster (1 min?) if one pre-cooks rice, but unfortunately I really don’t like badly cooked rice so it is mainly spaghetti for me…
Recently I did start to cut down on the total number of meals that are prepped though. Recently for breakfast I’ve started to make fried eggs + bread + mayo (which is also 3-5 min cap, although a bit less hands-off), and have been going to the workplace canteen for lunch. But yeah, still pretty much depression meal so to say
I cook every day, I don’t meal prep. Why would I want to spend almost an entire sunday prepping when I can spend half an hour cooking every day?
I exclusively work 12 hour shifts with a 45 minute commute each way. Time on work days is real precious. Knowing I have a good meal a few minutes in the microwave/air fryer away stops me from getting something shitty on the way home. Granted I have a lot of days off (14 a month). So I’m a bit more lax during my 7 straight off.
Yep you really gotta go to bed by 8 to 9 pm after getting home at 6:30pm to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep.
The main issue for me with half your commute time is eating ASAP because going to bed directly after eating = GERD risk. So food being ready as soon as I get home is important.
Much more time efficient to cook 12 portions of something at once than cook something individually 12 times.
If you have a big enough freezer you still get lots of verity of meals. (And can still cook stuff ad-hoc)
I can cook a decent meal in half an hour, often less. That’s time efficient enough.
Currently living alone, so pretty much any meal I cook will have leftovers so there isn’t a need to meal prep for a lengthy time period. Instead I plan on mixing an matching leftovers. There are some things I do prep ahead of time to use for multiple things like shredding a block of cheese to use on nachos, eggs, or whatever. Hard boiled eggs, bacon, lettuce for sandwiches or wraps, all of the individual ingredients are what I prep ahead of time for use with other things. If I make spaghetti I set some noodles aside to make breakfast spaghetti or buttered noodles, or something else.
Today I made beanie weenies because that was a camping staple and never gets old for me. I’ll have three portions left over so I will have some as a side with roast chicken or some other protein, some as a primary part of a meal and some fruit or something on the side, and maybe some for a snack or if I’m in a rush.
So I don’t do meal prep like have ready to heat up servings but instead I mainly prep thinks to make stuff out of and plan around that.
I batch cook grains to keep in the freezer. I pick one at the beginning of the week to defrost and use it as a base or side to all my lunches for the week. Scrambles/frittatas, bowls, soups, salads, fritters/cakes etc. Dinners I change up. We do have some favs that show up on nights that we’re feeling lazy but cooking is one of my main hobbies so i’m always trying new dishes. Im a cookbook whore so im routinely on my couch flipping through my books to find my next endeavor. Im very fortunate to work from home 4 days a week, which makes all of this possible. Even if I choose to make an ordeal of a recipe I can slowly work my way through it during the day.
Cook? Never. Unless you count a) putting something ready-made into a microwave or b) pouring hot water on noodles. And both are somewhat rare in my diet due to poor cost to nutrition ratio.
Cold foods don’t seem to have the same repetition problem for me, so for those it’s all the prep I can muster before the despair sets in.
Looks absolutely fantastic bud
Kept it simple, a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the veg, apple cider vinegar on the cheap steak. Salt and pepper over the lot of it. Veg goes on the grill a while before the steak. Fed me 4 meals with some spaghetti on the side.
Every Sunday I cook 3 portions of 2 meals, so I can have every day another meal & on the final day I’m free to cook what I want or eat out / order something nice.
In summer I usually gobwith 2 portions of 2 meals as I don’t truat the food to be good after 5 days in the fridge & I mostly only crave salads.
Yeah one of my major rotations is just ground meat or sliced chicken breast. Then I heat a portion up and make a big salad.
Cook 4-12 portions of something freezable (big pan!) most weekends, eat a portion, freeze the rest.
Cook something simple 2 days a week (burgers/fajitas etc)
I now have a selection of 5 or 6 different frozen meals in the freezer at a time. Most just need rice, pasta or potato added.
I do the same thing pretty often.
Looks in freezer. Groans.
When I’m not working I usually just have the previous night’s leftovers for warmed up cold.
Work put on food so that’s shite like maccies for Greggs for brekkie, a Tesco or Sainos meal deal for dinner and tea in Spoons.
If we’re very lucky we’ll get vegetables at some point over the summer
i can’t meal prep. if i eat the same thing for more than 2 days in a row I want to throw it up.
i cook 3-5 times a week. i enjoy cooking so it’s fun for me.
when i was in my 20s i’d cook 7-12 times a week, including lunches. but it was always just a variation of chicken, veggies, and rice, since i could not afford anything nicer back then nor could i afford to eat out.
I’m a robot, I could eat the same basic thing over and over. I do add variety pretty consistently. But, back when I was in college and poor I ate the same thing for months in a row.
You freeze it so you get more of a mix of stuff.
i grew up eating frozen and canned food for like every meal.
i refuse to ever do that again.
fresh food is amazing. i never had it on a regular basis until i was a college student. it blew my mind that vegetables could taste good if they weren’t a soggy mess.
I freeze home cooked Bolognese, stroganoff, chill con carne, curry, casseroles etc. they all reheat such that you would never know it was frozen.
Some other dishes with rice or pasta in them when frozen lose some of their texture, but taste great still. Some stuff (chicken cassoulet from this weekend for example) is just annoying to defrost but is fine once done.
cool. sounds gross and unhealthy af.
i’m not interested in dying of a heart disease like my father. your food sounds like just the horrible shit my mother cooked. because it keeps well if it’s canned or frozen.
i eat whole grains, lean meats, and vegetables.
I have a veg& lentil curry in there currently if that counts? Not sure why you think my stuff is unhealthy?
because if i ate that stuff i’d die from heart disease.
My work week is Mon-Thur.
I prep breakfast and Lunch for the work week every Sunday. So that “cooking” is done sunday.
For Work Night Dinners I cook, but depending what I am having I may do prep on Sunday for that as well.
For meals Friday-Sunday I will “cook”.
Nice setup.
