Meal prepping – Am I the only one losing it if food ain’t freshly made?

20 comments

1. I rarely ate food stored in the fridge when I had my apartment and made food fresh before each meal. Yes it’s a lot of work, but the upside is that I got real good at cooking.

   Edit: seems like most of the people commenting here are completely mind blocked on what food prep can mean. Watch this video on how to have pad Thai freshly made in 5 minutes and be enlightened. https://youtu.be/F86GfZIph8o

2. So, might seem like much, but make two different meals on Sundays for the week, 3 on 3 off interchangeably.

3. This is the one thing that kept my wife and I away from the practice. I have a bit more tolerance, but she won’t eat anything that was prepared more than a day before.

4. My wife has the novel concept of preparing and washing all the ingredients ahead of time and then combining them all in dishes throughout the week. She has special ways of storing them so they don’t go bad. Its actually kinda ingenious and we arent eating soggy days old food.

5. I tend to prepare stuff that’s highly flavored comfort foods like stews, red beans and rice and other things that have a longer flavor shelf life. Sure, I would probably appreciate fresher food but with a bit of extra salt and maybe a dash of hot sauce we’re close enough it counts. I wouldn’t try it with simpler fare where you have to rely on grilled chicken breast tasting good three days later or whatever.

6. What’s your time restraints? macros?

   I did a hardcore diet for about 10 weeks recently. If you thin slice your chicken breast it won’t take too long to grill up and you’ll still get high protein low calorie.

   Rice can be a pain in the ass, but you can also buy 90 second rice.

   I guess I’m saying, I don’t see the need to make meals 7 days in advance. I’ll grill it up every day, nbd.

   Also, got really into cottage cheese at the time for another low calorie high protein dish.

7. Freeze it shortly after cooking and just reheat longer the day of (and/or thaw the night before).

8. Sunday I will cook my protein for lunches for the week. Everything else is made nightly.

9. Nah I hate food prepping. Tried it for like 2 weeks and decided it wasn’t for me. I’d rather put the effort into cooking fresh because it just tastes better and more importantly has a better texture.

10. If you want really good tasting food, meal prepped will rarely beat out fresh. It’s about the convenience of having food ready to go when needed that can be ready in less time.

    Other option is to ingredient prep so cooking can be done extremely quickly. Broiled veggies, stir fries, etc can all be whipped up extremely quick

11. I’m just here to say you’re not alone – My privilege is I don’t like left overs or reheated food – on rare occasions maybe the second day, and it might be a slice of pizza but even then probably not.

    But the good news is there are many prep meal options at grocery stores these days or niche healthy food outlets near me that I can order or pick up a few times a week.

    So I pay extra for the healthy lifestyle and eating food I enjoy every day. Just be sure it’s not excuse for eating healthy and pay the extra tax if you’re going to be picky like me. It is important to eat right.

12. My fridge is a graveyard of good intentions. You’re not alone.

    P.S. Some of the food has become sentient. Send help!

13. Meal prepping is corporate for eat leftovers you fucking peasants so you have more time to work. It’s a scam. Like if you’re not supposed to enjoy the daily life and eating then why take any enjoyment out of anything? Just go full machine.

14. I mean… make better food?

    I’ve never had a problem with it, as long as it’s tasty. Hell, some days I look forward to it, hoping it was as good as yesterday.

    Some food handles delay better than others. For example: Lasagne is better a day or so later than fresh out of the oven, and you can’t change my mind on that one.

15. No, there is no way around it.

    Most people in Europe have small refrigerators. They prep almost daily.

    My wife (Italian-American), who is considered unanimously a great cook by everyone, preps daily. She goes to the grocery store every day.

16. I’ve discovered my tolerance is typically 3 meals (1 fresh, 2 leftovers for lunch). Anything more than that and I’m over it. To keep it simple, this meal is usually something like chili or stew that’ll taste fine reheated or something like a cold pasta salad.

    Because of that, I primarily just meal prep one meal on Sunday night to get the week started off with and then anything left over during Monday’s and Tuesday’s dinners get eaten for lunch later in the week. This generally works out well and I typically still have 1-2 fresh lunches during the weekdays still. Friday through Sunday, everything is freshly made.

    The one meal prep thing I try to do that lasts the whole week is prepping any fruits or vegetables. I only do it for fruits or vegetables that’ll still taste good and are workable in a sliced state, like celery, onions, peppers, apples, etc and leave things like tomatoes or peaches for when I’m actually preparing the meal. This helps cut done on individual meals cook time. I don’t get into the nitty gritty of whether I’ll need them chopped, diced, or anything like that; I just slice them and it works out fine since I can dice them as needed and something requiring them to be chopped doesn’t really taste different to me if they’re sliced instead. The one major benefit of doing this beforehand is that it’s easy to throw together a quick large salad if I don’t feel like putting a lot fo effort into cooking. I can just throw a piece of meat in the oven while I’m putting the various salad ingredients in a large bowl and basically be done “cooking” in five minutes and only have to wait for the meat to finish in the oven before eating.

17. Good Tupperware, food that keeps well, and food that you can eat a million times and not want to kill your self if you eat it everyday.

    My personal tip is instead of meal prepping for the whole week. Cook Sunday to have meals for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Then cook Wednesday for Thursday and Friday meals. The meals,no matter what they are, tend to not stay that fresh after three days.

    Some may say this is efficient but it is because it doesn’t destroy my taste buds or sanity.

18. I feel the same. I tried it but I am just not a leftovers kind of guy. I like to cook and my food to be fresh on the day, so meal-prepping was just not for me. I also hated spending two hours in the kitchen on Sunday making everything for the week ahead, that time could have been spent doing other things to help me relax for the week ahead.

19. Between soup and chicken/veg/rice meals I don’t see much of a difference from day 1 to day 4, usually they get better.

    I tried to meal prep fajitas recently and that was pretty abysmal the next day, so I dont think I just have a dead palate, I think I actually pick good leftover style meals.

20. Make stuff to be frozen, then youll get a well stocked variety you can pull from and pair with a feshly made easy side.