Preparing food for the week?

[spirez]

So i'm a little pressed for time at the moment and looking for a few tips.

My main questions are:

1. Which foods do you pre-prepare?

2. How do you store them?

3. How long does it last without spoiling?

4. With meat/rice etc, do you re-heat it or eat it cold?

So far things i've made in bulk are chilli con carne w/quinoa instead of rice, boiled eggs (although i think the yolks taste awful cold..) and rice.

I tend to buy bagged spinach/rocket and frozen peas as my main veg so they dont take long at all to prepare.

How long do things like chicken breast and burgers last in a fridge before they go off?

Any tips welcomed!

PS i'm hoping if we can get some good enough info together then this could be added to the FAQ.

cheers

[Jake Martin]

A couple of my standbys are:

Pre cooking chicken breasts, which I can then eat plain, combined with anything else, or my new favorite is to make a chicken salad wrap. Just put my chicken salad ingredients into a wrap.

A giant pot of meat-heavy chili is always easy (but I get a little sick of chili on day 5 or so...but you can throw it in a wrap for a faux-burrito that helps break the monotony).

I always keep a lot of ground hamburger/turkey/chicken in the fridge. Worse comes to worse, I can throw it between two buns (ezekiel hamburger buns?? it's like they're making products just for me!) and have a burger.

Usually I just store my stuff in tupperware in the fridge, pop it in the microwave and re-heat. I haven't died from this method...yet.

To be honest, I'm very lazy. If I find I'll need some easy-access meals (for example in between two classes, or work break, or whatever) I just blend up a bunch of stuff in advance and take it with me.

[Clint07]

Chicken: I cook alot of my chicken ahead of time. It will last about a week int he fridge and freeze fine. Just be careful reheating it from frozen can make it dry.


Veggies: I clean and cut all of my veggies for the week and then store them in ziplock baggies with a paper towel shoved in to absorb the moisture

Meals: Most meals with freeze fine if you take the care to reheat them appropriately. Chili, stuffed peppers, soups, any of that kind of stuff I make huge batches of and freeze.

[Saith]

I usually make one or two dishes that will last me the week.

For mid-morning meals I just have yogurt and nuts and maybe a piece of fruit, no prep necessary which makes my life easier.

Breakfast I eat oatmeal and eggs which can be prepared on the fly, again easy.

Usually I'll cook something that lasts four days (office goes out to eat on Fridays) and just pack it in a tupperwear container for lunch.

For my midafternoon meal I usually cook a big pot of soup or chili that lasts me usually two weeks, again I just put it in tupperwear. Soup is good because you can just toss in vegetables and meat in the appropriate ratios and scoop it out with a measuring cup.

For dinner lately I've been eating bagged salads, but depending on your goals maybe you might want to cook another meal. If you are at home around dinner time you can make stuff like fish with sweet potatoes and some vegetable that you have to warm up separately. I've found trying to bring in meals with side items to work doesn't work so well since I have to warm up everything at once.

Edit: forgot to mention lunch is usually some casserole type dish that I can heat up all at once.

[spirez]

Thanks for the input, keep it coming!

Clint07, do you cook things directly from frozen then? Whenever i've frozen chilli i tend to let it defrost over night first. Don't know if it's just paranoia but my mum always did it when i was young, guess i just kept the habit.

I suppose really it's no different to heating a processed microwave meal though.

Are chicken breast ok to re-heat straight from frozen too?

[Goth_Judoka]

I go to school, so I don't really have much wiggle room when it comes to making food..

I always keep chicken breasts, and ground beef in the freezer. I just them it out the day before I need it in the morning, and let it thaw out during the day, and cook it when I get back from class.

I also try to keep a re-sealable bags of veggies in my fridge for easy access.

I usually put stuff I just made in a ziploc bagX2 or in a plastic container, I don't like freezer burn. I really don't know how long it lasts, since I'm always going through food.

I carry quite a bit of food on me during school hours, along with 3 large bottles of water.

It's usualy chicken breast/lean burger on whole wheat with olive oil, spinach, tomato, and hummus. A ziploc bag of baby carrots, and almonds/deer jerky for a snack.

And later, two of these...(they also come in salmon, and unflavored and other flavors)
They are life savers, along with a bag of baby spinach.

[Saith]

Originally Posted by Goth_Judoka

I usually put stuff I just made in a ziploc bagX2 or in a plastic container, I don't like freezer burn. I really don't know how long it lasts, since I'm always going through food.

I've had cooked chicken last as long as two weeks, though it does start to taste bad around then.

[John L Sullivan]

Originally Posted by spirez

1. Which foods do you pre-prepare?

Chicken breast in 70-gram bags
Hard-boiled eggs
Precut broccoli
precut celery
pre separated and tupperwared spinach
individual tuna cups

2. How do you store them?

Tupperware, ziploc bags, refrigerator

3. How long does it last without spoiling?

A week. I do it every Sunday.

4. With meat/rice etc, do you re-heat it or eat it cold?

Chicken cold. HB eggs cold.

How long do things like chicken breast and burgers last in a fridge before they go off?

A week to 10 days.

[Clint07]

Originally Posted by spirez

Thanks for the input, keep it coming!

Clint07, do you cook things directly from frozen then? Whenever i've frozen chilli i tend to let it defrost over night first. Don't know if it's just paranoia but my mum always did it when i was young, guess i just kept the habit.

I suppose really it's no different to heating a processed microwave meal though.

Are chicken breast ok to re-heat straight from frozen too?

Stuff like chili or soup, I cook directly from frozen. Chicken I try to avoid cooking from frozen if I can (instead I thaw it in a baggie in some hot water but you can cook withit directly from frozen, it just comes out a bit dry but a little soy sauce or something usually clears that up well enough.

Hell you can actually cook omelets for the week or two and freeze them and they reheat okay in the microwave as well (I eat breakfast at work so it needs to be microwavable). Although I might just start brining some eggs and spinach to work and microwaving them here to cook them. My coworkers are really going to look at me weird then lol.

[ThePitBull32]

1.My two main weekly meals are pasta(only the sauce, I nuke some whole wheat noodles in the morning, only takes a few minutes) and beef stew.

2.I usually store it in separate portioned out tupperware containers, throw 5 in the fridge, and any extra in the freezer.

3. Mine lasts me 5 days in the fridge, and extra in the freezer (but don't thaw it out and re-freeze)

4.I nuke mine

For chicken breasts, I suggest grilling them. The charred flavor really helps maintain some taste when re-heating. Or, its even good cold.