Does anyone cook/prep for the week?

Xislandgirl · Post by **Xislandgirl** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 8:42 pm

We bring our lunches to work every day to save money and to make sure that we stay on track calorie wise. Normally it is just leftovers from the night before.

Today I made a pot of turkey chili with a ton of beans. I made some brown rice to go with it and packed up 4 lunches.

Then I made a tortellini casserole with a low fat roasted red pepper parmesan cream sauce. Half was divided into 2 lunches and the other half we will have for dinner with chicken tomorrow night.

I made a small batch of hummus and packed it into containers and bagged up some carrot and celery sticks to go with it. 3 days worth for the both if us.

I prepped some veggies for salad tomorrow night and made a dijon vinagrette for the salad and the remainder I will use to marinate some pork chops that we will have on Tuesday.

I feel so far ahead of the game already and the week hasn't even started. I think I may do this every week.

Does anyone else do this?

sailorgirl · Post by **sailorgirl** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:34 pm

In the winter I tend to make a real sunday dinner which serves as leftovers. I also try to put up something else for the week, like a big pot of soup, some "gravey" for pasta later in the week or a roast chicken. Come the warmer months its seems easier to just throw something on the grill.

Sun4MySoul · Post by **Sun4MySoul** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 8:17 am

X- can I come live at your house??

Seriously, though I don't take the time to prep food that far in advance unless I'm going to STJ. I like to prep everything I can in advance of vacation so I don't have to worry about it while I'm there!

sea-nile · Post by **sea-nile** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 8:23 am

I always make "planned overs". I make enough of whatever to eat 2 times at least or freeze some. I do the big cooking on Sundays. Then if we have a big weekend and can't cook, there are plenty of things in the freezer. I have done this since I have been married. When we gril out I will make a few extra steaks or chicken breasts or whatever and then use that meat for a different meal a few days later like stir fry or fajitas or someting. The grilled flavor is tasty. I take my lunch every day too. We rarely eat out.

mbw1024 · Post by **mbw1024** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 9:13 am

I try to cook more than I need so I can stretch it in to some lunches during the week. Charlie takes a lumch and I'm home every day. Charlie would prefer to take left overs than a sandwich and I use an extra half chicken breast in a salad or something.
I had time on my hands Friday night so I made cole slaw for a weekend side and an egg dish for saturday brunch and made 2 different viniagrettes for the week.
Most times I feel like I just went grocery shopping and still have nothing to eat!

liamsaunt · Post by **liamsaunt** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:23 am

I'll do some prep work on the weekends for the upcoming week. John likes to take soup for lunch so I usually make a pot of something on Sunday. I send it with him two times and then freeze the rest in individual portions so I have variety to choose from to reheat for him. Yesterday I made butternut squash-apple soup. So, right now I have that one, a red bean chili, a black bean soup and a curried sweet potato one to pick from.

Yesterday I also spatchcocked and salted a chicken that I will probably roast tonight. It cooks in only 40 minutes when it's spatchcocked. There will definitely be leftovers, which I think I will make into curried chicken salad for lunch later in the week.

Sometimes I plan my menus out a week in advance, but I don't do much more advance prep than what I listed here.

KPlumm · Post by **KPlumm** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 12:33 pm

I used to do that when my kids were little. That way I was sure there'd be something decent/nutritious for them to eat, even if it meant I spent most of my Sunday cooking. Now I think about that sometimes, but that's about as far as I get

I do usually cook big batches of whatever on the weekend, hoping for leftovers during the week, however the leftovers seem to always get snatched up by my son for his lunch.

PA Girl · Post by **PA Girl** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 12:46 pm

I do the menu ahead of time (on Friday for the following week) but never seem to have the time to cook ahead.

Maggy · Post by **Maggy** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 1:15 pm

I do that sometimes. Not for the entire week, but for an extra day or two. I seem to do this in periods, I'm good at it for a while, but then I lose the inspiration. Often it has to do with, if I decide to eat healthy, I want to prepare the meal by myself.

Lately our staff restaurant, has started a new concept called Vitality. It's healthy food, a little GI inspired, fish, chicken etc and lots of beans/lenses etc instead of potatoes/pasta and it's usually very tasty. You take how much you want, and pay by the weight of the food.

Since they started this, I have not have lunch with me more than a couple of times.

b-as-u-r · Post by **b-as-u-r** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 1:58 pm

You ladies are outstanding! All I can say is thank god my husband doesn't read the forum, or I'd be in big trouble. My kids eat lunch at their schools and my husband eats from the cafeteria at work. All the food services (schools and work) are fantastic. I usually bring lunch to work (i.e. salad & boca burger, soup), nothing fancy. As to dinner, now that my kids are older, things have definitely changed. I usually just "wing" dinner since my kids and husband usually wander in at all different times. Anyway, I'm impressed. Ali~

canucknyc · Post by **canucknyc** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 2:03 pm

The most I do is to plan the menu for the week. I put a list on the fridge of the various meals and I pick from that, depending what I feel like making that particular day. If I didn't do that, it would be take-out every other night

Jo Ann - VA · Post by **Jo Ann - VA** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 2:55 pm

I try to cook extra on Saturdays and Sundays so we have leftovers to heat up. A lot of times I will grill twice the amount of chicken breasts I need for one meal and use the leftovers for fiata(sp), soup, add it to a salad etc.
It makes fixing dinner so much nicer if you have part of it already fixed.
I also love my crockpot. Nothing better than to walk in the door and smell dinner cooking.

We should start a crockpot recipe thread !!

mbw1024 · Post by **mbw1024** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:19 pm

Jo Ann - VA wrote:
We should start a crockpot recipe thread !!

good idea! i don't have any so you start

Bug · Post by **Bug** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 5:25 pm

b-as-u-r wrote:You ladies are outstanding! All I can say is thank god my husband doesn't read the forum, or I'd be in big trouble. My kids eat lunch at their schools and my husband eats from the cafeteria at work. All the food services (schools and work) are fantastic. I usually bring lunch to work (i.e. salad & boca burger, soup), nothing fancy. As to dinner, now that my kids are older, things have definitely changed. I usually just "wing" dinner since my kids and husband usually wander in at all different times. Anyway, I'm impressed. Ali~

I am the exact same way Ali!!! I'll say it again, thank God our husband's don't read this forum

XOXO
Bug

Xislandgirl · Post by **Xislandgirl** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 6:39 pm

I am the only one out of all my friends that cooks every night. They all think I am strange.

I went out with a friend a few weeks ago and made sure there was something already prepared and other ingredients in case Chip wanted to cook on his own.
She told her husband that there was cereal in the cabinet but he would need to go out and get milk

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Does anyone cook/prep for the week?

Does anyone cook/prep for the week?