We want to break out of this cycle of ordering delivery but at the same time, cooking everyday has been a challenge. We also have been trying to develop some sort of routine where we meal prep on the weekends but we live in an apartment with a really small kitchen so cooking and storing food for 5 days doesn’t seem doable. Maybe cook for 3 days and then prepare the ingredients to cook again on Wednesday?
I’d appreciate if you could share your strategies and experience. The goal here is to eat healthy and good food.
Edit: Thank you everyone for all your contributions! I am a little overwhelmed by the number of replies so I if I do not reply to you please do now feel bad!!
If I actually wanted to make an event out of it and didn’t have plans for Sunday, then the classic Sunday meal prep strategy applies.
But many times, I also feel lazy or have stuff going on so I try to find one day in the week where I can cook some type of larger effort item that takes more than a couple hours and do the rest on other days. Mind you, I live alone so YMMV. But for example, I could spend one day with the high effort portion of a main dish. This would classically be some type of protein but I don’t always want to limit myself to that mentality. Just anything that I’d be most excited to eat.
If I don’t have the time to make any other sides, I won’t. I’ll have a partial meal that day and do other stuff while I put the rest in the fridge. Then the next day I’ll cook a different side or two. If I do it right, I’ll have a rotating menu of options in the fridge where I cook new dishes to replenish ones that are about to be gone.
This way, I don’t need to dedicate a whole day to cooking, and I can still have fun with cooking in smaller portions and still have the evening to do other things. My meals can also be a mix of various sides which can stagger. This is not always the case as I do find myself just clearing things out frequently to start from a fresh palette of foods. But just a different take on the meal prep that I personally find is manageable.