After treating my body like a dumpster since Thanksgiving until the New Year, decided to do meal prep since the beginning of the year. Trying to keep calories under 2000/day. The meals leave ~500 calories/day for healthy snacks during the day which is usually fruit or cheese and nuts for me.

Love to hear some other ideas for meal prep.

Same boat as you. Look up Josh Cortis on YouTube. Super simple recipes by a no nonsense normal dude.

Actually just came out with a new one.




Made the above

Honestly; a lot of stuff I've been trying and tinkering with I find on Instagram reels.

I've been on a lazy ass weight loss journey for about a year where I've actually been trying. I aim for 500-ish cal per meal and tend to go a little heavier at dinner since I'm not much of a morning person and don't really like eating much in the morning. This also gives me a fairly substantial variance for a snack at some point, or if I don't eat a snack, maybe that means I don't fret over eating a ribeye or something more calorie intensive once during the week.

I don't look at macros, just calories. However, I think it winds up being decent macros because the cheapest calories are likely the ones that you don't want/need anyway. Eliminating a lot of potatoes/rice/pasta/bread gives you a lot of flexibility. I've had to add some back just to hit the calorie number.

Are you looking for healthy healthy? Because...I'll be honest, long term I wanted to lose around 100 pounds or more from my all time high. I've got about 20-25 pounds to go to be "just" overweight instead of obese so being this close really makes me want to push even harder. I've been focusing on just calories, with added bonus of ease of prep because I live by myself and don't feel like making a full meal 3 times a day.

Some of my go-tos are burrito bowl type stuff like yours, tuna or hamburger helper (one of those boxes + a bag of veggies, divide the whole pan in 3 servings), a couple of those frozen microwave burritos (air fryer on these) and I've always got some form of frozen fish or chicken I can pop in the air fryer. A protein + a veg is my usual go-to. I really kind of mix and match so i don't get bored.

One of the things I (used to) go to a lot...haven't done it in a while, but doing it this week.

Your favorite squash (yellow, zucchini, "gray", any combo works) + browned ground beef (i have also used diced chicken like the video above) and spice it like you would taco meat, etc. I add in a can of tomato w/green chilies, maybe half an onion if I have it. Makes kind of like a stew or goulash type of thing.

I cant eat the same thing for 5 days straight..

its sometimes a salad, some times a starch, protein and veggie, something a stir fry if i have too many veggies on hand...just depends...

Important to diversify if you dont want to get bored

Do y'all freeze this stuff and thaw every day or just let it sit in the fridge for for almost a week?

TXAG 05 said:

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Do y'all freeze this stuff and thaw every day or just let it sit in the fridge for for almost a week?

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I only do like 2-3 days worth of meal, and i leave it in the fridge..

If I were to do like a grab and go like thing, like a breakfast burrito or a breakfast sandwich, i would mass-produce and freeze

TXAG 05 said:

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Do y'all freeze this stuff and thaw every day or just let it sit in the fridge for for almost a week?

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Since I only do four days worth of meals I keep them in the fridge. The Overnight oats I only do two days at a time thought

I was coming here to start a thread like this to get ideas from each other and stuff.

TXAG 05 said:

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Do y'all freeze this stuff and thaw every day or just let it sit in the fridge for for almost a week?

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I will usually cook enough for 4-7 meals, and freeze 1 or 2 meals. And when you do that over a period of time, you eventually have an assortment of 5+ meals in the freezer that you can pull out to add variety to your weekly meal prep, or supplement if you're busier than expected, and stuff.

Overnight oats has become a staple for me as well, mainly for the time savings. But I do:
40g oats
1 scoop protein powder
10g milled flax seed
1 cup milk
dash of cinnamon
1 banana sliced up before eating
A handful of berries if available, sometimes raisins



Just bought a bunch of chicken tenders on sale, so looking for ideas on what to do with that. Especially since I have some extra time off this week, will be making some to freeze for the following weeks.

Made a "Indian-ish" curry for meal prep today. Should last about 9 meals easily. Each serving about 390 calories, 33g carbs, 37g protein, 15g fat, 7g fiber per serving. Plus some rice.

Fairly easy if you have the spices available. Can post pics later if anyone wants to see. But basically 1000g of chicken tenders (would've been better with boneless thighs), 800g of cooked chickpeas, some canned tomato sauce and fresh chopped tomatoes, 2 large onions, some coconut milk, and then curry powder, garam masala, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and some oil.

I love bibimbap style bowls-

I use quinoa, fresh veggies cooked in garlic and turmeric (usually squash and greens), and a fried egg topped with sriracha. If you're cooking ahead, you could totally boil eggs and throw them in there.



[internet pic for inspiration]
http://whateverpieces.com/2017/01/09/easy-bibimbap-bowls/

Made a couple things tonight.

Mixed veggies
-Sliced a large union and softened it in some oil with garlic paste
-Added a container of mushrooms
-Added a giant 23 serving bag of "Normandy Mix" veggies (zucchini, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli)
-Cooked till soft

Beans and rice
-Softened some diced onion and garlic paste in pot with some oil then added ->
-1 cup brown rice
-One can drained black beans
-1 can of Campbel's condensed cream of mushroom soup WITH roasted garlic
-Cooked till rice was done and extra moisture gone

Orange chicken
-Followed this guy's recipe, but halved the recipe and it didn't turn out as good as hoped. I think I added too much corn starch and used white meat instead of thigh meat which probably made a big difference. Not bad though
-His videos are pretty good
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My wife does this every week. Usually it's about 6 oz of grilled or baked chicken breast, mashed sweet potatoes (or sometimes she does rice), and a veggie. Usually it is roasted zucchini and squash but she's been doing broccolini a lot lately. We probably just eat this 3 times per week but I could probably eat it almost every day and be happy.