Meal Prep

[DwnSouthJukin]

After a couple failed attempts at edible meal prep, the only real success I've had is marinated fajita skirt steak and rice.

The ground beef and rice was a bust. (not enough seasoning?...maybe?)

What are some healthy meals we can prepare on a Sunday night for the work week?

*My meal prep didn't look as good as the picture below but did taste great.*

 

[brucered]

Nothing beats a freshly prepared meal just as you are going to eat it. I'm the cook M-F as my wife works longer hours than me (nurse).

To help out, sometimes she will prepare a meal from here. It's a good cookbook. Make Ahead Meals.

Stuffed Peppers come to mind. They reheat perfectly in the oven. We serve them with a homemade sauce.

Cottage pie (shepherds pie) or Tamale Pie (median versions) also regret perfectly.

Fried Rice.

Quesadillas. (Reheat in a cast iron skillet.

Soups.

Chili.

Any stew

Any casserole.

The biggest advise I can give with make ahead meals and reheating them is, bring them to room temp before reheating and reheat in oven/stove, not the microwave.

 

[La Malice]

The biggest advise I can give with make ahead meals and reheating them is, bring them to room temp before reheating and reheat in oven/stove, not the microwave.

That this will make a world of a difference but is not always feasible, all I have at work is a microwave, I stick to soup and salads .

 

[brucered]

That this will make a world of a difference but is not always feasible, all I have at work is a microwave, I stick to soup and salads .

I was recommending that for the OP for workday meals, I assume he is eating at home.

My work only has a microwave and toaster, so I bring to room temp and then microwave at work too.

Make ahead homemade meals we prepare and eat at home, are heated anywhere but the soggy, overcooking,.non crisping, gamma ray infesting, microwave.

 

[TheShaun]

Personal crock pots do a pretty good job of reheating if trying to avoid the microwave but can't access stove/oven.

Amazon.ca

 

[Luc]

On Sunday I prepare my overnight oats. I could easily do a Monday to Friday but I eat it Monday-Wednesday-Friday. No cooking is required, and no heat is required. I was never an Oat fan but since I started eating them, I can't stop. I also tried to make them more savory (and hot) for lunchtime and that worked too. It's fairly easy to replace a piece of bread with oats. It will not look like a 3-star restaurant but the taste should be there!

Oats - Overnight oats that is!

I was able to find a few Oats threads that were quite interesting: Let's Talk Oats! How to get oatmeal to be good..help. How do you like your oatmeal? Crockpot oatmeal I did not find a specific oatmeal thread that discussed the overnight oats. It's a simple and quick (depending on if you plan...

www.badgerandblade.com

 

[Old Hippie]

A trick we use is making soups or casseroles similar to recipes that may take more prep. A couple of examples are Stuffed Pepper Soup and Chili Relleno Casserole. They take some work, but it's less and the taste is there, which is important. Mexican and its cognate cuisines are fairly quick usually. I'll make tamales fairly quickly, but posole needs some hours in the Crock-Pot.

Enchiladas go together pretty quickly if you've prepped the filling ahead of time. I fill mine with picadillo, which means taking some time on a weekend to make and freeze portions for later use. I generally make the sauce ahead, too.

One of our occasional quick suppers is to make a batch of jasmine rice, defrost and brown some ground beef, then whack up some veggies and make a stir-fry. Leftover rice is good for fried rice the next night after it's been in the fridge.

Lasagne, either vegetarian or not, is one of those things you can prep ahead. My dirty little secret is that I never pre-cook lasagne noodles. Just build the darn thing and bake it. They'll cook just fine.

O.H.

 

[Luc]

One more thing that I now do that could help you. When I cook something that we all love, I double the recipe every time. That way I get a leftover that we usually eat 2-3 days later. During the summer, I would cook 2 pork shoulders as Costco sells them in pairs anyway.

When we are done eating I split everything to have enough for the next meal (or meals). That way, I can use the pulled pork to either make sandwiches on Tuesday or tacos.

I used to buy a magazine in Australia named SuperFood Ideas. The idea of that magazine was to give you recipes and use the leftovers to create a new recipe. I often do something like that too. I could make Chicken fajitas one night and the next use the leftover chicken and bell peppers, cook some noodles, and do a stir-fry style dish.

 

[brucered]

One more thing that I now do that could help you. When I cook something that we all love, I double the recipe every time. That way I get a leftover that we usually eat 2-3 days later. During the summer, I would cook 2 pork shoulders as Costco sells them in pairs anyway.

When we are done eating I split everything to have enough for the next meal (or meals). That way, I can use the pulled pork to either make sandwiches on Tuesday or tacos.

I used to buy a magazine in Australia named SuperFood Ideas. The idea of that magazine was to give you recipes and use the leftovers to create a new recipe. I often do something like that too. I could make Chicken fajitas one night and the next use the leftover chicken and bell peppers, cook some noodles, and do a stir-fry style dish.

I find myself using and enjoying left over pulled pork, pulled beef, rib meat, smoked chickens, from the freezer vs eating it directly after cooking. Makes for excellent fried rice, sandwiches, tacos, pizza toppings, pot pies.

We also do double butts, triple chickens or a giant ham on the Kamado. Chopped (vs pulled) pork and freezer wrap in 1LB. Chickens get spatchcocked and quartered or halved, ham get hunked in huge pieces, leftover ribs get cut off the bone. Smoked meat comes out perfect from the freezer for meals and adds humongous flavour.

Not the healthiest use of it, but tonight was Friday night homemade poutine with rib meat from the freezer. I bring it back to life in a pot with some sauce and char it up a bit, like burnt ends.