Newbies and long timers want to know! What is your "prepare ahead" schedule like on the weekend? Do you cook ahead chicken breasts, how many, what method? Rice, sweet potatoes? Veggies? Share what you do here.

Personally, I'll be stocking up on 2-3 pkgs of chicken breasts and preparing them ahead using Mrs. Jim's foil bake method in the stickies recipe thread. I use the individual serving microwaveable Uncle Ben's brown rice for these kinds of meals, so that doesn't have to be done ahead. Looking for other ideas though.

So what's your weekend food prep routine if you have one?

I do the same thing with chicken breasts, either the foil bake/poach method, or grill them. Stock up on lots of fresh veggies, bagged salads, lots of broccoli, cauliflower, cottage cheese, apples, a can of pumpkin puree. I usually bake at least one batch of protein muffins, and maybe pre-make some of my morning pancakes and freeze individually if I know that I have some very early mornings. Other must haves are a few cans of tuna or salmon, some apples or pears, sweet potato or two (I bake them ahead also), natural peanut butter, and a whole lotta eggs! I cook a pot of brown rice about once a week and freeze half of it in individual servings. Some weekends I'll make a HUGE pot of ground turkey-black bean-chick pea chili and we all eat that for a few days.

Mel

Last weekend I made protein pancakes, one crockpot of brown rice and one of steelcut oats. I put canned fruit into individual containers. Divvied ww crackers into baggies ... I could (should) premeasure my ff cottage cheese into containers too.

I got called in to work a couple of days so it was really nice to have things handy for my lunch bag AND for a quick breakfast.

I've just come back from the market and have oodles of good things. Tonight, we're going to grill a small steak and several chicken breasts. From that, I get 3 ounces of the beef for dinner and all the chicken for several lunches. The oven action will include roasting potatos and a squash, and the stovetop will see a huge pot of spinach. The frig has cottage cheese, homemade applesauce, apples, oranges and grapes and thousands of eggs. My biggest challenge is always my daytime meals. Breakfast is a snap (egggwhite omelets) and DH and I always have a good dinner, but if I don't have a couple of mini-meals per day all ready to go, I'm sunk, especially on days I lift.

Tomorrow night, we're making chicken soup. The big discussion is whether we want to use noodles or potatos, and what kind of herbs we want to add. Can you tell that I have more than a passing interest in food.

And on that topic ... I'm a whole-foods/Mediterranean kind of girl, and I've just seen a book by Nancy Harmon Jenkins called the "Essential Mediterranean." I leafted through it at Borders, and as soon as I finish romping through 3FC, I'm going shopping online. I have one of her earlier books, which I bought because she focuses on fabulous food. Real food. Lots and lots of seafood and veggies. Mouthwatering. And what's great about so much of it is that it makes a wonderful dinner and even better leftovers.

I'm ready to start cooking now, but unfortunately there's laundry to do and bills to be paid. But first, other threads to read.

Lator gators!

OK< I made my seal with foil chicken breast, and well, bleh. They were ok but didn't turn out like I'd hoped. I'm going back to my grilled chicken tenders dunked in bbq sauce overnite (I know, I know, all sugar). My sweet taters cooked for an HOUR on 350 were still hard as rocks. Got a little eatability out of them by microwaving them, but sheesh! Where I got 30 minutes on 350 was just plain wrong (a book I read). Luckily, the brown rice worked out for me, as always!

Finally did a major grocery shopping today so my weekend prep has material to work with! I scored some marked down shrimp, so there's one easy dinner. Other scores included a nice large piece of round steak: most to the freezer and some marinating for dinner; mushrooms marked down - made a lovely hungarian mushroom soup using ff milk and sour cream, lots of mushrooms, onions and paprika. Sooooo good. Plus I got avocados, pomegranate, spinach, red peppers and eggs on sale. Great shopping day!

The oats, can you put them up then reheat?
Is it something I could take to work and zap?
Thanks,
Robyn

Yes, I've zapped mine a couple of times this week.

What time's dinner Pat? And what are you going to do with the pomegranate? I've got one in my frig and I'm flummoxed.

Robin - I put it into a spinach salad - it's esp good with added feta and walnuts (just a few). My DH mixes pomegranate into his plain/vanilla yogurt.

Today I'm making protein pancakes and divvying fruit. And I'll make extra chicken thighs at supper time.

I’ve fallen in love with my foodsaver for weekend, more like monthly, prep. Once I get rolling I typically single serve and freeze everything I can get my hands on. I buy frozen veggies and break them down into single servings and vacuum pack them. I also buy Costco size packages of chicken breast, veggie burgers, etc. whatever looks good, cook and then vacuum pack those and when I leave for work I just grab a package of meat, 2 pkgs of veggie and throw them in my lunch bag along with a yogurt and package of single service regular oatmeal.

I have an electric pot at work that I put water in, bring to a boil, drop my vacuum bags in and let my lunch simmer for about 8 or 9 minutes. Snip the corners, drain excess fluid off and put on a plate for lunch. My boss goes nuts over my meals; they always look so healthy and appetizing and are really satisfying. I mix-up the meat by preparing 4-6 servings at dinner of elk, venison or turkey breast, etc. and vacuum packing the leftovers in 3-4oz packages. It is fun for me to do, makes packing lunch a snap and if I’m in a pinch for supper I can always pull out a couple of servings and heat but typically I cook fresh for my DH and freeze the leftovers for lunch.

Oh, and I’ve gotten on this kick of mixing oatmeal and yogurt together for an afternoon snack.

Okay, I'm convinced by Evangeline and some of my real-life friends that I need a foodsaver. Really, with all the fish, fruit and veggies I freeze every summer, I don't know why I don't have one already! We're going shopping in Anchorage tomorrow, so that's on my list!

I was thinkimg the same thing, Pat! But I'm not off to Anchorage tomorrow

Mmmph. I'm really going there for a doctor's appt, but any scheduled trip evolves into a multi-purpose errand trip! For example, I have to go for a work related meeting in late January, so I took the opportunity to schedule a mileage-paid mammogram. I've been looking at Foodsavers online, but can't really judge the size without seeing one in person, even if I end up ordering it at a better price. I think it says something about my age/excitement level if I'm this thrilled about a kitchen appliance.