Weekly menus that don't do a lot of prep in advance

[RuthintheDesert]

All of the menu plans I have found involve a lot of prep on the weekend. I would rather prepare food right before we eat it. Is anyone cooking this way?

[Tom Denham]

Yep. Every day. I do prepare some meals in my pressure cooker or slow cooker that might include up to 10 servings, so I sometimes do have large batches in the refrigerator for heating up. However, even then, I usually have something prepared on the spot to go with the "leftovers." For example, I make big pots of chili, but usually combine fresh greens with the chili for a meal. I frequently slow cook a large roast and then add servings of the cooked meat to freshly stir-fried veggies when I am preparing a meal. 

[abbyn]

I generally don't prep in advance. I'd rather chop fresh right before I cook. I don't have any menu plans to share but some quick weeknight dinners I like are:

Zucchini noodles/spaghetti squash with Trader Joe's spicy chicken sausage and compliant marinara

Applegate hot dogs with roasted or baked sweet potato and slaw 

Tuna cakes (I mixed oil packed tuna with leftover mashed potatoes, slivered kale, capers and an egg and pan fried in ghee) with salad

BLT lettuce wraps with avocado (if sugar free bacon wasn't so expensive I would make this all the time!)

Butternut squash soup, or cubed and roasted, with aidell's chicken sausage and steamed broccoli or green beans.

Hamburgers served on sweet potato "buns" with slaw or carrot salad

Mini meatloaves with baked potatoes and a veggie side (I do like making a big batch of meatloaves or meatballs and freezing them, that's about the only prep I do in advance...)

[abbyn]

P.S. My last 2 rounds of whole30 were in the summer, grilling is the ultimate quick weeknight dinner! 

[Hannlib]

I do weekend meal prep for breakfast and lunch but I generally cook dinner from scratch every day. Exception is I pre steam some veggies but that's just for speed and ease, its not compulsory! Or sometimes we have leftovers, or an element of leftovers, or something pulled from the freezer (I batch cook and freeze often). But I cook each day too.

So Monday night we had pad Thai, yesterday burgers, today green chicken. Elements prepped in advance, others not.

The idea of weekend meal prep is to make life easier and busy mid week cooking quicker. If it doesn't, don't do it!

[ladyshanny]

I cook every day, breakfast and dinner, lunch is last night's leftovers.  I also do the weekend prep though because it cuts down on the amount of time between getting home and getting dinner on the table.

 

Some of the less prep-intense meals I have served are:

 

baked salmon w/ roasted brusel sprouts & roasted potato (veggies in same pan, same time, same temp)

meat sauce (over roasted veggies for me, noodles for the hubby)

ground pork stirfry (sometimes I make the sunshine sauce and slice the cabbage in advance but just as often I do it as I'm making dinner)

pork burgers with roasted sweet potato & a salad

 

I prefer not to spend more than 3 hours on the weekend prepping food (2 hours on Saturday and 1 hour doing final preps on Sunday).  When I plan my menu for the upcoming week, I also plan at the same time what I will do ahead of time and if it looks like it's going to amount to more prep time than my maximum, I'll change the menu.  If I have a really busy weekend and can't afford the prep time I will try for a large-pot meal (chili, pork shoulder, beef stew etc) that we can mess with as we go during the week.  

 

As you get more efficient and get your core recipes/combos down, you'll find that it makes sense to combine certain meals during the week for ease of ingredient purchasing and preparation.

[MBC]

Yep, grilling meat is fast.

[EmilyK]

While I do bulk-prep my lunches and some "emergency" protein for nights that I just cant, I generally make our dinners start to finish right before we eat, or at most use the crock pot in the mornings.

 

This week, we're having:
Monday was "emergency" protein because the kids wanted mac and cheese and I wanted to get them to the park since the weather was warmish for the first time in months--I had chicken and mayo and greens and mashed sweet potatoes.

Tonight: Burgers--cheese and buns for the rest of the family, on a salad for me; pan fried potatoes.

Tomorrow: Pad Thai (I did prep my Sunshine sauce ahead of time this weekend but everything else will be done right before we eat tomorrow)

Thursday: Slow cooker boneless ribs.

Friday: Barbacoa bowls (done in the slow cooker) and fried plantains.

[cayenne]

I usually make my breakfasts and lunch on the weekend for the 4 days at work the following week. i grill butternut squash, add that to spinach and 3 egs for Bfast. Ground beef/turkey and veggies for lunch. Boring, I know, but really dont care during the week at work. We always grill chicken over the weekend enough for the week for salads etc. I need to get out the crock pot as that is under utilized.

[Andor Zensko]

I do most of my cooking once a day during the week because of work.  When I cook my first meal I will then cook a second one and pack my lunch and a third meal will either be something quick and easy or leftovers (i eat 2 meals at work and 1 at home most days because I have a weird eating and schedule).  Then on the weekends I cook as we eat because I prefer my food cooked fresh when I am eating.  I have a friend that this is hard for her so she cooks bigger quantities and has lots of leftovers.  Just do what works for you, it just may take a little tweaking of whatever recipe that you have if it is a prepare ahead recipe.

[rhiannon.gale]

I have been cooking every day and I am a little tired of it! I think next week will have several more freezer meals or make ahead meals. I'm only on day 3, so I'm still trying to find the correct balance. But often times, I'm super hungry while preparing the meals and I'm not a fan of that.

[JenX]

I do a bit of extra cooking on the weekend (boil eggs, make mayo put something in the crockpot like Kahlua Pig), but mostly I try to plan ahead while I'm cooking dinner on week nights. Monday night I was cooking a pork roast, so I also cut up and roasted a chicken, threw in a sheet pan with Brussels sprouts and cut up potatoes and a couple of yams to bake. Now I can alternate my proteins for a few days, or add some of that to my lunches for the week and I have carbs for my post work-out snacks.  Every time that oven goes on, extra things go in (bonus, it saves energy too!). When I make a veggie hash for breakfast, I make enough for 2-3 days. Then in the morning I just need to reheat protein or cook eggs and I'm ready to eat.  Lunches are usually salads which I prefer to prep fresh every morning, but sometimes I'll make 2-3 days' worth ahead of time. Stick with it and you'll get into a groove that works for you.

[SpinSpin]

For batch cooking, I like to do the egg bakes--really great and I typically do 1 in a 9x13 baking dish (pyrex type) with a pound or so of meat, seasonings, various veggies--I always include a defrosted 1 lb bag of some sort of chopped up green--my local market has spinach, collard greens and kale. I bake it up and cut it into 8 pieces, that I will have with additional veggies and fat, like olives or avocado. You can wrap them up and grab one a day during the week for breakfast and have a few nights dinner (are you cooking for yourself or a family?) you could also wrap them up really well and freeze them and pull them out as needed. You could also halve that amount and make it in an 8x8 pan, using 10 eggs, cutting it into 4 squares. 

 

I make up meatballs, soups, chili, stew and sometimes curries and freeze them, leaving out the potatoes from the soups and stews, and adding them (if I do) when I reheat and I add the coconut milk to the curry when I reheat it. I like to roast 2 pans of veg--one with potatoes and other root veggies, the other with broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, mushrooms and the like, and I keep them in tubs in the fridge. Sometimes, I will roast additional veg and keep it in serving size containers for hubby to grab to have with his lunch or breakfast--he eats both meals away from home and it is easier for him to grab n go if I have everything pre-packaged for him. During the winter, I season up boneless, skinless thighs and bake them up, and during the summer, I grill them. If I have the grill going, I will do up grilled veggies that i have marinated in olive oil, citrus zest, garlic, salt and pepper, and sometimes I will keep them in the left over marinade and add them as an additional veg or as part of a salad, using the marinade as part of the dressing. I will steam 12-18 eggs at a time, and i usually make a double batch of mayo. Sometimes I will go ahead and make up a batch of tuna salad (2-3 cans worth) or chicken salad if I have roasted or crockpotted a couple chickens, turning the bones into bone broth. Just takes a little planning... What is nice, is when you have the tubs of protein, roasted veg, salad fixings, items you can make a quick breakfast, lunch or dinner from, everything just kinda falls into place and it just becomes part of your routine.   

[MeGA"gardener"]

Ruthie in the desert

I do cook each day however I try to cook more than one dinner or add a large Protien item too because we go through so much food

I totally agree with these ladies above This is doable with a day or so of prep or double up like some do you'll get there

There's prepared frozen foods like veggies cut up and cleaned prepared no additives

There's burgers make a head and freeze

Sausage make ahead etc Rotissarie chickens plain I've seen individually freshly frozen fish in sealed paks in my area

Might be a bit more expensive yet it may help you stay organized too