How do you guys prepare meals when you have a tight schedule?

[kris2pe]

How do you guys prepare meals when you have a tight schedule?
I have a tight schedule basically from Monday-Sat I only have 4 hrs of FREE time that's right that free will also occupy a workout at the gym.
Yes on a Sunday I do have an off day after 12 am!
So on that kind of schedule what advice can you give me cause I kinda want to prepare my meals ahead of time and get my diet on track.

[WonderPug]

I eat when I'm hungry and when it's convenient, and I ate at restaurants often.

[Lvisaa2]

When do you go to bed? How early do you get up?

[PBateman2]

Bulk cook on free time. You do what you have to do.

Plan your meals the day before and have them ready.

[Drex906]

Ok so I am in grad school and have the same problem. What I do when I bulk is cook a ton of chicken at night and put it in the fridge and eat it as I need. I make a lot of peanut butter sandwiches, turkey burgers (8 min cook), eggs (quick cook), instant oats, turkey breast (not ideal but quick to put on a wrap or bread), pan veggies in bulk (make a few pounds when I make chicken and stick in fridge. If made with olive oil, lasts like a week), greek yogurt no prep, protein bars if thats your thing, instant brown rice, cheese, whey shakes, fruit, granola, nuts and seeds in general, etc.

[kris2pe]

I eat when I'm hungry and when it's convenient, and I ate at restaurants often.

That's expensive!

When do you go to bed? How early do you get up?

I sleep around 12-1 at night, work starts around 8:30 so I'm usually up around 7!

Bulk cook on free time. You do what you have to do.Plan your meals the day before and have them ready.

How?

Ok so I am in grad school and have the same problem. What I do when I bulk is cook a ton of chicken at night and put it in the fridge and eat it as I need. I make a lot of peanut butter sandwiches, turkey burgers (8 min cook), eggs (quick cook), instant oats, turkey breast (not ideal but quick to put on a wrap or bread), pan veggies in bulk (make a few pounds when I make chicken and stick in fridge. If made with olive oil, lasts like a week), greek yogurt no prep, protein bars if thats your thing, instant brown rice, cheese, whey shakes, fruit, granola, nuts and seeds in general, etc.

You have to reheat the food that you froze right?

I personally just wanna start learning to make my own foods cause I can't really reach my calorie needs. What's an easy high protein meal that I can cook. I don't like whey cause I'm lactose intolerant!
My goal is to at least to able to cook at least two protein meals so that I can reach my calories hopefully.

[Brsboarder]

My go to lately:
1 pound of frozen spinach + two cartons of egg whites +spices

Throw in a pie pan, bake covered for 1 hour or so, when I go to bed- set timer so oven turns off on its own. Wake up with a whole quiche ready to throw in the refrigerator and takes about 3min of my time.

[Lvisaa2]

I sleep around 12-1 at night, work starts around 8:30 so I'm usually up around 7!

I wake up 30-45 minutes early to cook if I have a full day planned. You can also do it the night before. It appears you don't know how to cook from your other responses. There are tons, upon tons of recipes on the internet, just google easy, quick protein meals, etc. For the most part, I just cook ground meat with veggies, spices, oils, flax seeds, etc. for the day and then at night I'll use more variety. But ground meat + veggies is easy to cook in big portions. So you can cook up 5 servings of broccoli and 1-2 lbs of meat in the same pan. You can buy a foreman grill and throw on chicken breasts while your shower. Get a rice cooker. Use a crock pot. There's literally innumerable options.

[Lvisaa2]

My go to lately:
1 pound of frozen spinach + two cartons of egg whites +spices

Throw in a pie pan, bake covered for 1 hour or so, when I go to bed- set timer so oven turns off on its own. Wake up with a whole quiche ready to throw in the refrigerator and takes about 3min of my time.

Interesting. What temperature are you baking it at? This is actually a great idea.

[OxbowSky]

Takes like 1-2 hours to cook for 3-4 days worth of food.
I just cook a ton of eggs, sausage, ground beef, etc. Easy foods that I can throw in whatever. Also I do a lot of deli meat.

[unknowblood25]

Use a crockpot. Chicken breast takes about 5.5 hours in there. Throw it in with seasonings/sauce and leave it in. Make some rice/pasta/carb source on the side with it, which shouldn't take anymore then 1 hour. Do this for the whole week. takes me about 1 hour to make my rice/pasta and then i throw in the cooked chicken.

[Drex906]

That's expensive!

I sleep around 12-1 at night, work starts around 8:30 so I'm usually up around 7!

How?

You have to reheat the food that you froze right?

I personally just wanna start learning to make my own foods cause I can't really reach my calorie needs. What's an easy high protein meal that I can cook. I don't like whey cause I'm lactose intolerant!
My goal is to at least to able to cook at least two protein meals so that I can reach my calories hopefully.

Well I buy frozen stuff in bulk at like a costco because it has a much longer life since I am not going to buy a pack of 8lbs of chicken fresh and cook it all before the expiration or same thing with veggies. There really is no way around time consumption if you want to cook everything fresh ie cooking a lot of a product all at once then puttin it in the fridge to reheat later saves a ton of time. Seal it up right and its like eating it fresh.

[DStanley3]

I also have a very busy schedule. I'm off on Sundays, so it's one of my rituals to grocery shop and prepare food for the week. I'll buy a ton of vegetables and chop them up. Cook plenty of beef, bison, chicken, eggs, etc. Makes it super easy when in a crunch to just heat something up and eat it.

[Opportuniteas1]

Make smoothies in bulk for the next 2-3 days then portion them out to individual servings. You only have to prep and clean up once but you have 5-6 meals.

Use a crockpot. It's easy to throw some veggies and meat in the morning and it's done by dinner without you having to do any work.

[kris2pe]

I'm seeing a theme here! Everyone taking veggies! Not a huge fan of them lol!
I do like carrots and broccoli dip.
How important is it as compared to protein?

[amoroque]

I make all my meals every sunday for the week.

[VmissileX]

I eat when I'm hungry and when it's convenient, and I ate at restaurants often.

goodnight sweet wallet





and grammar



I prepare mostly on sundays and put my meals into either pyrex or tupperware (mostly my lunches).

I usually cook on weeknights and its a good stress relieve aswell as takes minimal time when you get used to it.

[VerdantSF]

I buy nuts and seeds in bulk, then roast them for 15 minutes the night before. I found pumpkin seeds on sale recently and they've got pretty good macros. 200 grams has ~1120 calories and 60g of protein. I often bike commute to work and don't have time for breakfast at home. I eat the pumpkin seeds throughout the day, supplemented with random food like a burrito or mac and cheese from the convenience around the corner from work.

[naturalguy]

Take some time on one day to prepare foods in bulk. I usually prepare a bunch of food on Sundays and put them in tupperware.

[tjwoody]

i trying to cook a couple pounds of steak or hamburger, a few lbs of chicken and maybe some rice so i can quickly make some stir frys if i want.
i am lazy though so my snacks are things like PB sandwiches, cottage cheese, eggwhites with whey
my veggies i use those steamable bags and buy some pre bagged salads.
tuna sandwiches and great too.

My go to lately:
1 pound of frozen spinach + two cartons of egg whites +spices

Throw in a pie pan, bake covered for 1 hour or so, when I go to bed- set timer so oven turns off on its own. Wake up with a whole quiche ready to throw in the refrigerator and takes about 3min of my time.

this sounds great. i also need to get an idea the temp.

[BenD4Me]

I usually make a couple lbs of chicken two different ways, then incorparate that into 3-4 different types of meals.