Paleo meal planning

[aboltlrhunter]

Ok so I got a question for you all who live the paleo lifestyle. Ive done paleo in the past when i was going to crossfit all the time and had good success with it. Well where im at now, is Ive packed on a few xtra pounds since then and I have decided its time to start eating better again. So I do want to do a Paleoish type diet (does not need to be strict paleo). One of the problems I had in the past was the meal prep time. I spent a lot of my time prepping meals. So for those of you who do this on a regular basis what are some tips/meals that you guys have found to help with the amount of prep time you spend weekly. For example right now I just do a roast with some veggies on sunday which is enough food for me for half the week. And theres very little prep time. Anyways guys Id like to hear some of your thoughts.

Thanks,
Trent

 

[AK-30-.06]

I dont follow a paleo diet but when I was trying to clean up my diet by removing processed foods and sugars I got into cooking every other night. I would get so sick of eating the one meal i cooked on sunday that i would be way more likely to grab something fast and unhealthy. I would cook two meals at once, maybe three if it was sunday. I would eat one for dinner and lunch the next day and then have the other the next dinner and lunch. It really doesn't add too much time to the night that you cook and the variety really helped keep me going.

 

[molliesmaster]

AK does very similar to what I do. I try to always have at least two days worth of meals prepped ahead of time. By two meals I mean my breakfast, lunch and any snacks that I might need during the day. I tend to cook a meal for me and my wife each night for dinner so that's a non issue. Sundays are easy, I usually try to cook two kinds of protein, this past week was chicken and venison burgers. The chicken thighs go in the oven to bake and the venison burgers on the grill with a few extras for dinner that night. Vegetables were sauteed peppers and onions, and organic green beans with a little bacon. Mix and match the proteins with veggies and you've got a few meals. Easy breakfast for me has been egg muffins. Pretty simple really, take a muffin tin and grease with EVOO or bacon grease, crack an egg in the center, maybe some diced bacon, spinach leaves, onion, peppers, etc. whatever you prefer and bake @ 350 for 15-20 minutes. Those store easily in a zip lock and you can pop them in the microwave whenever you are ready to eat.

If you're feeling really creative, smoking whole chickens can make for a killer week of meals.

Hope that helps a little.

 

[aboltlrhunter]

Yeah thanks for the replys. I think making a couple different meals at once will help a lot. Because right now it's just do like a big roast in the crockpot on Sunday and make that last. But it does get boring eating the same thing

 

[307]

Check out emeals.com

My wife and I HATE cooking but this has actually made it tolerable. We've both decided that it was the deciding and planning that we hated more than the cooking. The app sends you a meal list which you can customize, then you have a shopping list on your phone for those meals. We chose the gluten free option but I believe there is a paleo option so that anything it sends you will be paleo, at least by someone's definition.

It's $70/year but has been well worth the investment in the first couple of months. We are eating MUCH better and not hating it.

 

[aboltlrhunter]

Oh wow thanks I'll check that out!

 

[justinspicher]

I'm glad my wife is into healthy and cleaner eating. She cooks and I eat. I usually even do the dishes. Works out for everyone.

 

[AdamW]

The big thing for us for eating better is prepping meals ahead of time. It is the same amount of time (or less really) to do most of it on Sunday night so we always try to do that. When you get home on Wednesday and don't feel like cooking the chances of you ordering a pizza or hitting the local diner go way up. At least it does for us.

Have the food there and at least some stuff always ready to be eaten and that helps a lot!

 

[RockyMtnHigh]

Every Sunday I prep meals for the next 3 to 4 days for my wife and I, and the oven is definitely your friend. Instead of putting together a whole week of complete meals I make a large amount of basic ingredients and use those in different ways throughout the week. 3-4 pounds of chicken or fish go in the oven along with a couple pans of veggies and sweet potatoes. If you aren't going strict paleo the boil in bag rice is an awesome way to go as well, ready in 7-8 minutes.

Once I have all these cooked I can use them in several different combos throughout the week, spicing up and seasoning the meal when I reheat it on the stove in the evening. I also be sure to make extra, so whatever I have lunch the next day. You don't have to spend as much time prepping on the weekend putting together a whole bunch of individual meals, and it allows you to change things up a little bit during the week.

For breakfast I do the egg cup thing as well, or lay a slice of canadian bacon in the muffin tin and crack an egg on top and bake. Surprisingly a lot of canadian bacon is nitrite free if that is something you watch.

Hope that makes sense!

 

[Cant hit em]

I grill a whole flat of chicken breast (9or 10) and use that , i switch up with Crockpot chicken , a whole flat of chicken in the crockpot 5 hrs. It shreds like butter and you can use it for tacos , sandwiches , salad topper just about anything you want. Sweet potatoes in oven are good source of carbs , they dont take a lot of monitoring but take a while to cook. It kind of sucks but so easy , frozen veggies only take 4 minutes to thaw and throw in with your protein and carb sources for the day. I did a pork loin last week in the oven that we all had dinner off of , and still had plenty for my week , its pretty cheap as well

 

[Ray]

I like to build pieces then assemble them differently. A large amount of cooked meat. A bunch of broccoli or cauliflower. Some baked sweet potato or butternut squash.

Meat: a few steaks, tenderloin roast, pulled pork shoulder in an insta-pot, nom-nom cracklin chicken thighs, lemon butter chicken thighs, soon I'll make a batch of lemon grass chicken.

For lunches I make salads or buy salads. Made salads have turkey lunch meat or roast beast. I have also just eaten two boiled eggs and a handful of vegetation.

Carbs: I no longer eat rice as a normal type of food even though the paleo or whole30 folks are bringing white rice back into the system. For me rice is nearly the same as eating raw sugar due to my insulin resistance. You can bake sweet potatoes or cook them quickly in an insta-pot. I prefer to dice them and spice them along with parsnips and bake at 400 for 40 minutes. that way they are not completely cooked and once nuked for a few minutes to reheat are almost perfect.

to build a meal I mix and match the foods and then add salsa or mustard or something else to change the flavor palate somewhat.

 

[VarmintSniper30]

What are y'all s thought on red potatoes. Because I'm not a big fan of sweet potatoes

 

[Cant hit em]

What are y'all s thought on red potatoes. Because I'm not a big fan of sweet potatoes

Eat em after work out meal

 

[3Arrows]

Ok so I got a question for you all who live the paleo lifestyle. Ive done paleo in the past when i was going to crossfit all the time and had good success with it. Well where im at now, is Ive packed on a few xtra pounds since then and I have decided its time to start eating better again. So I do want to do a Paleoish type diet (does not need to be strict paleo). One of the problems I had in the past was the meal prep time. I spent a lot of my time prepping meals. So for those of you who do this on a regular basis what are some tips/meals that you guys have found to help with the amount of prep time you spend weekly. For example right now I just do a roast with some veggies on sunday which is enough food for me for half the week. And theres very little prep time. Anyways guys Id like to hear some of your thoughts.

Thanks,
Trent

We plan our meals prior to shopping every 2 weeks. We cook every night with this...

This has cut our cook/prep time by 3/4. We are pretty busy with kids/kids sports, work fulltime and going to the gym. If we are all not home in time to prep we'll throw it on this a let it cook all day, but we also have cooked a whole chicken in 40mins.
I'm just saying if prep time is your biggest worry with this diet you need one of these.

 

[aboltlrhunter]

Wow thanks for all the great ideas guys. Yeah I think I'm gonna try to cook up some food on Sunday and make different dishes with it throughout the week!