FYI: Hefty makes TV dinner trays (= convenient bodybuilding meal containers!)

[tcG]

This is all nonsense. The true bachelor way to do it is to make huge pots of food and only use one plate, bowl, fork, which you wash with hot water and a sponge. That's the quickest, fastest, cheapest.

EDIT: My posts are always on the new page lately. I'm so cutting edge.

 

[Kaido]

Thats a pretty good idea. I'm trying to think of a cheap way to avoid the plastic containers though. What I think I might do is cook the meats/veggies/starches and then portion each of them out and heavily/tightly plastic wrap each portion and put into the freezer. Freezer bags could get pricey and more wasteful than simple plastic wrap, which you can buy in huge amounts at costo or other bulk places.

Then, grab one of each and use a glass container to carry/reheat them daily.

Yeah, but you're still saving money, even with freezer bags - I just checked out Amazon and it runs just under 15 cents per bag, vs. 38 cents per plastic container. And I'd imagine the freezer bags would do a better job avoiding freezer burn if you were to store stuff longer. So freezer bags + reusable daily containers would be a great combo. Or you could just skip the container and only do the bag:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXjNx9siNwI

:biggrin:

 

[Kaido]

This is all nonsense. The true bachelor way to do it is to make huge pots of food and only use one plate, bowl, fork, which you wash with hot water and a sponge. That's the quickest, fastest, cheapest.

EDIT: My posts are always on the new page lately. I'm so cutting edge.

Yeah, but how do you take that with you to work & school?

I do have a buddy who does something similar to what I do, except that he lumps it all into one of those transparent plastic soup containers you get at take-out places with a lid. But those are huge, so it's harder to fit 6 of those in your lunchbox. That's what makes the TV trays handy - they are thin plastic, so they stack pretty easily. I eat the first one at home and put the remaining 5 in my picnic-sized lunchbox, along with an icepack on top & on the side to keep it all cold.

 

[Kaido]

Arg, Bodybuilding.com has stolen my idea & is profiting massively off it!

http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/b-elite-fuel.html

At least mine has portion cutouts:

http://store.bbcomcdn.com/deploy/im...dybuilding/b-elite-fuel/goodbye-meal-prep.png

 

[Saint Nick]

I would buy these if they were Pyrex or something similar. I hate reheating food in plastic containers.

 

[Blackjack200]

This is all nonsense. The true bachelor way to do it is to make huge pots of food and only use one plate, bowl, fork, which you wash with hot water and a sponge. That's the quickest, fastest, cheapest.

You lost me at "wash".

 

[Eureka]

I have no idea why you're posting all this in such great detail, but thank you for it! I'm about ready to turn my kitchen into a tv-dinner sweatshop.

I always cook in a little bulk (for a week) but never thought about doing enough for freezer work.

 

[Kaido]

I have no idea why you're posting all this in such great detail, but thank you for it! I'm about ready to turn my kitchen into a tv-dinner sweatshop.

I always cook in a little bulk (for a week) but never thought about doing enough for freezer work.

Partially because it's a developmental thread (I went from randomly coming across the Hefty containers to the lightbulb turning on in my head to buying a 150-bulk pack of meal containers) and partially because I tend to forget stuff easily, so this thread makes a good personal journal. Plus I love you guys :biggrin:

I'm just about 2 months in now and it's been working GREAT. It's so much easier not having to cook during at the week and just having meals ready-to-eat that are already on my meal plan. Right now I'm experimenting with cooking one type of food a day to lesson the Saturday cooking load. For example, Monday would be chicken cooking day, Tuesday would be burger cooking day, etc. I'm also messing around with different meatloafs (ground beef, ground bison, ground turkey, ground chicken, and even salmon meatloaf) because those are really easy to eat with just a plastic fork in a container (no cutting required + tastier than a dry hamburger patty), plus you can mix-in more veggies into the meatloaf if you want.

My buddy at work puts his food in soup containers, which I'm also thinking about trying. Those clear plastic ones with lids. Since I usually do one meat & one veggie, I could in theory just throw everything in one of those bowl-style containers and eat it from there, although since they are round, it's a bit hard to fit a bunch of them in a large lunchbox to tote around. Plus the plastic trays I have now are freezer/microwave/dishwasher-safe, which is awesome.

I split up my first 150-container pack with a couple of my family members. My brother has been into bodybuilding since high school and thinks they're awesome because it's no-effort clean food during the week. I still need to make a Sam's Club run to get a month's worth of ingredients; I've mostly been doing week-by-week because I've been pressed for time at work. Okay, I'm just lazy, whatever haha. But overall, these things are a huge blessing for me. No more "what's for dinner" argument, no more eating junk food (or nothing) during the day because healthy food isn't readily available, no more having to cook every day of the week, it's pretty great! :thumbsup:

 

[Kaido]

I'm getting more into the canning side of things now. A company called Ball makes a really common type of glass canning jar (aka mason jars) that you can use for food storage. I only buy the wide-mouth stuff since it's a pain getting food out of the standard-width bottles. They sell them on their website, as well as Amazon, and a lot of places locally: (my local grocery store has a rack full of the stuff)

http://www.freshpreserving.com/home.aspx

They also make screw-on plastic lids, for convenience:

http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Wide-Mout...dp/B000SSN3L2/

I have an ancient FoodSaver (vacuum-sealer) that lets you plug in attachments; I just picked up a vacuum-sealing cap for Ball jars. This lets you preserve stuff in jars in an airless fashion using the stock metal lid that comes with the jar:

http://www.amazon.com/FoodSaver-T03-...dp/B00005TN7H/

The next step up is using a pressure canner, which is where you cook & seal foods in the glass jars. Due to my allergies, my diet is a little more restrictive than most, so I'm finding that the more stuff I can DIY, the better I feel because I'm controlling what goes into the food. There's an excellent DVD training video on canning here:

http://www.amazon.com/Sensible-Food-...dp/1608610896/

One of the big things it covers is how to can raw meat. Basically, you can buy meat in bulk (I'm talking alternator-sized, if you know what I mean ) & then pressure-can it for food storage. It lasts for years (no refridgeration required!) and is pre-cooked, so you can pull it out & use it immediately, sort of like canned tuna. You can't really do stuff like ground beef (because it turns to mush), but different cuts that you can shred work well for things like chicken salad, beef fajitas, and so on.

The glass jars with the screw-on plastic lids are also handy for homemade condiments. Corn is one of my biggest allergies and it's in EVERYTHING, so I've had to resort to making my own sauces & dressings from scratch. I'm working on ketchup & mayo right now per my "Well Fed 2" paleo cookbook (thank goodness people have recipes for this stuff, especially ones that actually taste good) and I also bottle up stuff like homemade ice cream (using coconut milk). So it's a work-in-progress, but having everything be in convenient TV dinner trays & glass bottles has really started to make my life a lot easier in terms of food!

 

[shortylickens]

tupperware is better.

What you are doing there creates an awful lot of waste. Do you have plastic recycling at work?

 

[Kaido]

tupperware is better.

What you are doing there creates an awful lot of waste. Do you have plastic recycling at work?

Tupperware is great, I have some in my kitchen. But it has some problems:

1. It's very thick stuff, so it's hard to fit 6 meals into a jumbo lunchbox like I can with the disposable plastic ones. Also, it's tough to fit that many in my freezer due to the thickness of the good-quality Tupperware containers. The disposable ones in the OP are pretty thin & lets me stack tons on each rack.

2. They're expensive, which is fine if you're only buying enough for a day or two, but if you're making 30 chicken meals for make-ahead meals, you'll need 30 Tupperware containers. I have several 2 & 3-compartment thick Tupperware containers, which can cost between $2 and $5 each for the good-quality models. The disposable containers cost 38 cents each. Granted, you can re-use Tupperware forever, so over time the cost catches up.

3. You are required to do the dishes with Tupperware. The bulk pack that I get can be reused OR thrown away (and yup, I have recycling at work & at home, fortunately). This is really handy if you're stuck at work or school since you can just recycle them if needed, especially if you have plastic utensils & a plastic water bottle & can just dispose of everything and not have to worry about doing the dishes.

It's all about convenience, & it's not without its downsides: the cost does add up over time, it does generate a lot of waste (but most areas have recycling available these days), and eating out of & heating up plastic containers probably isn't super great for you. But, if I have 6 packs of food with me for the day, I'm 110% more likely to eat healthy because they're readily available, so there are tradeoffs there. I do like the glass bottles for longer-term storage, because you can reuse those things forever, but then again, they don't really have any requirement to leave your house or anything.

The bottom line is that my goal is to eat healthy food consistently; disposable trays work really well for that purpose, and I think it's something a lot of people struggle with because not many people like to cook every single day or have a large fridge/freezer handy to store thicker items like Tupperware in, especially for the make-ahead meal programs. It also makes dinnertime really convenient because I can just nuke something in the microwave if I don't feel like cooking.

 

[Kaido]

What you are doing there creates an awful lot of waste. Do you have plastic recycling at work?

Also a little bit off-topic: I have a family member who works in post-recycling design in the education market, i.e. they recycle plastics into stuff that kids can use. It's a pretty big market, check out some of the stuff that different companies make from recycled bottles & whatnot:

http://www.playmart.com/

http://rec-creations.com/recycling/

http://www.playland-inc.com/products/play-structures/recycled-playground-equipment

So the recycling situation has improved quite a bit - whereas in the past, it could end up in a landfill or dumped out at sea, it's now become a valuable commodity, sort of like e-waste recycling.

 

[momeNt]

I wish I had seen this thread when it first started. I've bought at webstaurantstore and noticed that they had those the few times I've bought from them.

 

[Kaido]

I wish I had seen this thread when it first started. I've bought at webstaurantstore and noticed that they had those the few times I've bought from them.

Yeah, I'm kind of surprised Amazon doesn't have a larger restaurant supply section or better prices:

http://www.amazon.com/b?node=6054382011

But I'd imagine the deals are little more business-to-business with better deals in bulk or for more orders when you're dealing with a supply company, kind of like how Grainger works with businesses.

 

[chimaxi83]

Great info here, thanks! I just bought a portable oven/hot plate gizmo so I wouldn't be eating cheap all the time at work, seeing as I'm always in the field. Got this one, http://www.amazon.com/HotLogic-Mini-...d_rhf_sc_p_d_6, along with a Pyrex glass dish, but these plastic containers would fit perfectly. Going to look into planning some healthier eating so thanks for the few pointers in OP.

 

[Kaido]

Great info here, thanks! I just bought a portable oven/hot plate gizmo so I wouldn't be eating cheap all the time at work, seeing as I'm always in the field. Got this one, http://www.amazon.com/HotLogic-Mini-...d_rhf_sc_p_d_6, along with a Pyrex glass dish, but these plastic containers would fit perfectly. Going to look into planning some healthier eating so thanks for the few pointers in OP.

Nice! I know a lot of people who have a lunchbox model that plugs into the car's 12V jack & goes up to like 300 degrees, I think it's this one: (really reasonable price too)

http://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-124...dp/B0066COBK6/

There's a zillion sites for homemade TV dinners, make-ahead meals, once-a-month-cooking, etc. Here's some to start out with:

http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2014...-control-with-freezer-cooking-65-recipes.html

http://happymoneysaver.com/making-50-freezer-meals-in-one-day/

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=762&page=2

http://www.thekitchn.com/10-freezer-meals-for-busy-weeknights-193608

http://www.pinterest.com/2stinkingcute/oamc-freezer-meals-once-a-month-cooking/

Crockpots & ziploc bags are your friends! Casserole-type stuff works well, including things like meatloaf. You kind of have to experiment with freezing & reheating meals because you'll find little tricks like adding sauce on top of chicken to prevent it from getting rubbery.

 

[SP33Demon]

Are they BPA free? Didn't see that on the site.

 

[Kaido]

Are they BPA free? Didn't see that on the site.

Don't know - I'd assume they'd label it if it was, but it's more of a B2B product instead of a business-to-consumer product, so maybe the labeling is elsewhere. Although on the subject, I've recently learned that some of the plastics they're using to replace BPA are even worse, haha!

 

[Kaido]

My brother has been into bodybuilding since high school. I gave him half a box of my containers to get started on, he loves it - super convenient. He actually does breakfast TV dinners too, with eggs and stuff:

http://i.imgur.com/5IdK3TT.jpg

 

[chimaxi83]

That's awesome ^^^

I forgot about this thread (thanks to Tapatalk broken participated threads function). The portable heater I bought has been great, and it gets the food very hot. I measured it around 180°. I've only used a glass dish with it, not sure if that's too hot for the plastic dishes linked here.

I've been experimenting with just chicken and fish right now. Cook a weeks worth over the weekend and refrigerate it. Throw some chicken breast in the dish/heater with some thawed vegetables and about 1/4 cup water with some seasoning. After 2 hours in the warmer, chicken comes out hot and juicy, and the veggies are to a steam cooked consistency.

Thinking of getting another dish so I can do the same for breakfast, since I never seem to have time at home.

After checking out those plastic containers, I see no reason why they wouldn't be fine in the warmer I have. They're microwave safe after all. Think I'm going to grab a box. It'd be more convenient to store the portions in containers, ready to go, rather than a big container and portioning myself everyday.

 

[Kaido]

That's awesome ^^^

I forgot about this thread (thanks to Tapatalk broken participated threads function). The portable heater I bought has been great, and it gets the food very hot. I measured it around 180°. I've only used a glass dish with it, not sure if that's too hot for the plastic dishes linked here.

I've been experimenting with just chicken and fish right now. Cook a weeks worth over the weekend and refrigerate it. Throw some chicken breast in the dish/heater with some thawed vegetables and about 1/4 cup water with some seasoning. After 2 hours in the warmer, chicken comes out hot and juicy, and the veggies are to a steam cooked consistency.

Thinking of getting another dish so I can do the same for breakfast, since I never seem to have time at home.

After checking out those plastic containers, I see no reason why they wouldn't be fine in the warmer I have. They're microwave safe after all. Think I'm going to grab a box. It'd be more convenient to store the portions in containers, ready to go, rather than a big container and portioning myself everyday.

Nice! How did your fish turn out?

One answer I read online about microwave heat said that cookware rarely comes out hotter than 212F from a microwave, so I'd imagine 180F would be fine. However, they do sell an oven-compatible TV dinner tray as well, so that may be worth looking into (400F max). The 3-compartment trays are $80 for a 250-pack: (no lids)


http://www.webstaurantstore.com/gen...-5-7-8-x-8-1-2-x-1-1-2-250-case/37455337.html

You can buy them in 1-compartment shallow, 1-compartment, 2-compartment, and 3-compartment. The lids are sold separately: (250 for $49)

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/gen...ray-or-55337-food-tray-250-case/37495357.html

Those look thinner (they're called "Bake & Show" so it seems to be more of a protective cover, post-bake, than one that seals a little better like the microwave-friendly ones I initially got), so I'll have to experiment with them at some point to see how they hold up for freezing. They are advertised as oven, microwave, and freezer safe; I'm not sure about re-usability, especially due to the ability to be baked in the oven (they recommend placing it on a cooking sheet & not putting it too close to the heat source so that it doesn't melt). Gekpak uses PET plastic, which they've said is BPA-free:

http://www.genpak.com/downloads/BPA.pdf

 

[Kaido]

Also, a great recipe to try is Cauliflower Rice (you can pack it in a TV dinner tray easily for a rice-like experience but with a veggie base!). All you need is a head of cauliflower, some coconut oil (the stuff that solidifies at room temperature), and a bit of salt: (just "rice" it in a food processor)

http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2014/03/25/roasted-cauliflower-rice/

Comes out nice & chewy, sort of like brown rice, but super healthy for you. I have also eaten jicama rice (not sure if jicama is available in your area, it's a pretty oddball veggie for the US), which is really good too. So many options for tasty, healthy, non-traditional foods now thanks to shared recipes on the Internet!

 

[Kaido]

Oh also on the topic of cauliflower, Cauliflower Poppers are great. I'm personally not a big fan of cauliflower, but it's a great veggie to eat for healthy, so I like finding creative ways to use it:

http://www.delightedmomma.com/2012/01/baked-cauliflower-poppers.html

The first time I had it was actually with chili powder, which was way good:

http://www.weightwatchers.com/food/rcp/RecipePage.aspx?recipeId=99541

You can also do cauliflower "wings" with blue cheese:

http://healthyaperture.com/blog/pos...about-me-honeyed-blue-cheese-dip-with-spicy-c

Cauliflower is a pretty versatile vegetable, if you're willing to work with it a little. Here's some more awesome recipes to try:

Pizza crust (if you can have dairy, google for more recipes like this one)

Cauliflower tater tots

Cauliflower Alfredo sauce (I'm working on making a dairy-free version per my food allergies, but I've done this with cashews with great success)

Cauliflower soup

Eggs over cauliflower-quinoa cakes

Cauliflower wraps

Oh, and you can make rice out of other stuff too, like butternut squash:

http://againstallgrain.com/2014/02/28/spicy-shrimp-butternut-squash-rice-tomatoes/

And you can get real creative with the cauliflower rice, like Cilantro Lime rice: (you can use a grater if you don't have a food processor, although a food processor works the best & are available for like $40 on Amazon)

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2013/10/cilantro-lime-cauliflower-rice.html

 

[Kaido]

Amazing post on meal prep here:

http://mynutritiousdish.blogspot.com/2013/05/meal-prep-one.html

Scroll...just scroll down. Wow. A+

 

[chimaxi83]

Argh I need to come to this thread more often. Thanks for packing this thread with good info, Kaido :thumbsup:

To answer your previous question, the fish came out great in the portable heater. The heater has been great actually, I just need to use it more. I work as a field tech and am always outside so sometimes it's a little difficult to get my meals prepped ahead of time. I've had hot dog/fries a lot lately lol.

I really just need to take some time to check out meal plans and pick one I like.