For those who meal prep...

[sunshine204]

When you have finished cooking etc, how do you weight out the portions equally to have the next day / week / freeze?

I live by myself but I want to start calorie counting and cooking meals that serve 4 (maybe 6) people, then divide it out equally between 4/6 portions which will save me cooking at another time and hopefully help me stick to my healthy eating too.

Do you just weigh out the total amount of food you have made and then split up the portions before the food has a chance to cool down? Does it matter if you weigh out the food when it is hot?

Thanks in advance!

I don't weigh anything, I just estimate.

Let it cool first in the saucepan. I.leave in my garage overnight. Don't put a hot saucepan in the fridge as it will raise the internal temp.
Divide into.plastic containers (tesco ones are the best and cheapest)
Label with name of food and date made in perm marker pen (it comes off after a few washes)

If the recipe says serves 4 I just dish up into 4 trays, cool, pop some in fridge and some in freezer.

A spoon for you, a spoon for you and a spoon for me... I don't cook very scientifically!

I don't worry about weighing, I just try to put equal spoonfuls into each bag.

I highly recommend the Wilko food bags. They have the press-close tops. Let all of the air out and then flatten the bag. It takes up soooo much less space than plastic containers do. I make chilli, curries, bolognese, fajita chicken, stews etc and they all fit perfectly in the medium sized bags.

I have a scoopy thing from lakeland which I use to put equal portions into square lakeland boxes. They come in 250, 500, and 1l sizes. They all stack, and the lids all fit them . They all go nicely in the freezer.

I usually just estimate

Just as an example, this was 9 meals. It took up the same amount of space that two of my plastic containers would have.

I just estimate and split it roughly into same size portions.

Usually it’s a meal that we eat, so I leave it in the pan while we eat and then divide it up after. Mostly leave the containers to cool for a bit more while I wash up and then put in fridge/freezer

Guesstimate. Serve it onto my plate and the rest into containers/tupperware for storing, stick a bit of masking tape on the container lid and write on that what the meal is, date and how many servings, then freeze.