Meal prepping, doesnt the food say on day 7 go off?

[Eggybreadwithnuts]

So keep seeing people going on about food prepping meals for the week ahead. 7 lunches, 7 dinners - 14 containers but surely wouldnt the ones on day 6 or 7 be a bit...well...not quite nice?

I wouldn’t ever prep more than 4 days ahead! Maybe the last few should go in the freezer?

I freeze my meal prep stuff.

I prep a maximum of three days at a time to suit DS’s shift pattern so for example today I made cottage pie for tonight, creamy Cajun chicken to add to pasta tomorrow and a pot of beef chilli is slow cooking in the oven for Saturday night.

Have you heard of a freezer??

🤭 silly me, of course rice salad, avocado etc you freeze them

Yes, silly you! Have your rice salad and avocados in day 1-3 then plan to prep some freezable meals for the later days. It doesn’t take a genius to work that out 🤭

Maybe you eat those at the beginning of the week and for the end of the week make something you can freeze … it’s really not that hard, use some common sense!

You can freeze rice, I usually have a bag of the frozen stuff in my freezer for small portions.

Most people would just add the avo when serving.

Echoing other posters, most people seem to prep 3 or 4 days at a time.

I wonder this as well. And for those saying haven't you heard of a freezer, some of the week long meal prep I have seen wouldn't be suitable for a freezer (well not stuff I would freeze anyway).

My auntie does meal prep and use a vacuum sealer, she says that everything stays fresh for much longer.

You can freeze rice, I usually put the other ingredients in a screw top glass jar in the fridge and add them when I take the rice out. Avocado freezes really well, if I buy them on offer I freeze. Cole slaw freezes nicely as does cauliflower or broccoli salad. I am not keen on frozen cold tomato and you cannot freeze green leaves. Hard boiled eggs keep in the fridge for a week. Hummus and taramasalata freeze as does smoked salmon. Cooked chicken will freeze and be nice in a salad. Fruit I leave whole rather than chop. Most other meals freeze

This is why I just don’t get meal breaks prep. I want food freshly made not a weeks worth of fridge or freezer reheats. Each to their own I suppose !

I think OP means meal prepping (as she said), not meal planning.

I agree with OP, most meals can't be prepared 7 days in advance. Things on Insta are mostly just for clicks, they don't translate into real life.

Loads of food can be prepped and frozen, I freeze lasagna, moussaka, cooked chicken, sausages mash, quiche, pasta sauces (but cook the pasta on the day), rice, cooked fish, soup, the rest you eat the first few days and then start taking things out of freezer. I do quick salads while they defrost. They are not exactly as good as freshly done, but healthier than supermarket prepped meals that are full of salt, sugar, preservatives and mostly ultra processed .

I do four days at a time.

Same and this is what I take it to mean. Not really sure what else it could mean. I suppose a shep pie might be ok in fridge for a day

Completely agree OP. My neighbour meal preps on a Sunday and it’s all in the fridge…she must have a stomach of steel to handle the day 7 chicken 🤢. (I have checked - it’s not in the freezer…)

Do you mean people producing fresh meals on one day and expecting them to last for 7 days in the fridge without adding anything on another day ? @Eggybreadwithnuts

I batch cook which is different, so I will make a massive Bolognaise or Dhal and portion it up to be used for lunches or evening meals, but I freeze most of it.

Yes this...not food planning or batch cooking but cooking meals and portioning up for the whole week and puttong in fridge.

The idea of meal prep gives me the boak 🤢. Even if it wasn't off the food would be way passed it's best, either mushy or slimey. 🤢🤢. I don't do reheating food either so freezing it is not an option.

I do our grocery shopping on a Sunday and meal prep all breakfasts and lunches for myself and DH for M-F. As long as the ingredients are in date, it’s all fine. We buy cooked chicken with a date of at least a week on it, and husband has chicken, rice and frozen veg with hot sauce for lunches. I have cooked chicken that I turn into a variety of things - wraps, poke bowls etc - in the summer and things like chilli in the winter (I like some variety!). For breakfasts, I usually make myself chia puddings for protein and fibre, and husband has yoghurt, fruit and protein powder. For the weekends, we don’t prep anything. We also boil around 12 eggs for snacks.

For dinners, I also cook some vegetables and sides to have with evening meals. We cook the meat fresh on an evening, but none of our meals take longer than 20 mins as we are time poor!

ETA - we don’t freeze any meal prep, if it ends up in our freezer it doesn’t get eaten! We freeze any meat etc bought on the reduced shelf though.

I’m on slimming world and do meal prep, but only for a few days at a time. Interesting reading about vacuum packing though to make food last longer.

To everyone saying “haven’t you heard of a freezer”. Yes- but if they’re anything like me, my freezer is rammed with food I forget to remove and defrost in time to use! So end up making more!

But on a plus- should I survive an apocalypse I’ll still have enough Dahl and chickpea curry to keep me going for months! 😂

Most cooked meats, soft cheeses, pates, coleslaws etc clearly have "eat within 3 days of opening" marked on the packet. I'm not particularly fussy, but I wouldn't be eating precooked meat from a packet that had been opened for a week.

We buy cooked chicken from the supermarket, it always has a date of at least a week on it - often longer around 8 days - so why would it be bad on day 7? (We do this as it’s only 50p more than an uncooked whole chicken in our local supermarket before anyone questions this)

They do, but we put it into airtight containers. Have been doing this around 6+ years now and no issues! Realistically I’d say our containers are better than flimsy supermarket plastic