Ask HN: How do you prep for meals?

We keep a pantry full of pretty much all the non-perishables we'd need. We buy in bulk, and order more when we run low. We also have a couple freezers full of meat, which we fill as we or our neighbors harvest livestock, and we add a deer or two in hunting season. Then we see what is ready to come out of the gardens, what we gather in our woods and our fields, what we get from our local CSA. We freeze, can, or dehydrate any fruits and veggies that we aren't going to eat right away.

So our weekly prep is mostly just filling in gaps - we run to the store when we realize we need some cheese or something like that.

So I guess the answer is that weekly meal prep isn't really a concern if you set up your life to just have the raw ingredients always available and know how to cook from scratch.

Considerable effort goes into planning for a meal.

It is the most important daily activity for us.

Almost all of us in present, those in the past and in future, have lived their life doing stuff so that they can earn enough to buy food to keep their stomach filled and to keep themselves alive.

So it should not come as a surprise when I say that planning for your meal is the most important activity that you can do.

For those who can't cook, it is the greatest handicap. You rely on someone else so you can fill your stomach and stay alive.

Cooking, selecting different foods, knowing how to prepare different recipies, knowing how to clean the raw food, meat or veggies, to ensure hygiene and knowing your utensils, and how to keep them clean, and your cooking gas, is essential too.

Knowing when to eat what. All these things should be taught to everyone at school like they do with Math.

I use Paprika to manage my recipes, when I know I what I want to make I use the grocery list feature to ensure I have all the ingredients. I try to plan dinners which will leave leftovers that can be used as components in breakfast and lunch later in the week (e.g. mashed potatoes-> potato pancakes).

There is only two of us and limited pantry space so we can’t really do bulk shopping. Instead we buy groceries to be delivered once per week through Whole Foods / Fresh delivery or equivalent. If we want any extras or snacks go ourselves to the store and buy random stuff, but then it’s not part of “official meals”.

I like online ordering because it can save lists of all the needed foods and remembers recent purchases so you can easily reorder same things without making a separate list each time. Also inventory is likely to be available rather then in person. (I hate crowded weekend grocery shopping so I do anything to avoid it.)

Once food arrives, half goes in fridge and half in freezer for the perishables. Once per month, I get extra non-perishables all at once to stock the pantry - like canned chickpeas, black beans, rice pasta, pasta sauce, Couscous etc.

Then we have “approved meals” list that has a same structure and nutritional value and macro ratio and can be swapped out in any way with any combination. Like chicken/fish/beef + salad/veggies/soup + rice/potato/pasta

Over time by using a food scale and charts I’ve learned the amount of calories, macros in different amounts of food. The serving sizes on packaging have no correlation with actual nutritional needs nor level of satiety you will feel. My plans aim to minimize gut inflammation and to keep steady blood sugar - so no processed foods are used etc.

Now I just remember the amount that goes into each “meal” and can approximate without using scale. Cooking is 1-2 times per week and stored in fridge. Optimized so that you can use the oven + stove + slow cooker at once. If you don’t like one meal you can just take another, and everything I cook lasts 7 days in fridge with no issue. Some Sundays I get tired and so those are leftovers / go out to eat day.

Food budget is no longer a driver for this, as we are both high earners, but it helps that it’s predictable at $800/month for groceries + $500 for restaurants/snacks, etc.

I’ve optimized all I could at this point. Boyfriend never has to cook a single day of his life. Although if I could, I’d rather take a daily nutrition pill and never think about this again.

Most randomly. Different family members contribute to the shopping. Anybody could get milk if they go to town. A few weeks ago I started buying green salad supplies whenever I could, on the way from work or the gym. Sometimes my wife does a more comprehensive run together with one of our tenants but rather than complain when she doesn’t do it, I do it myself.

We never have a ‘food desert’ because there is a stock of less palatable food such as canned beans

I usually make 1-2 large batches of food so we have stuff to heat up for lunch or dinner throughout the week. Then I'll make a few smaller batches for variety or for certain items don't reheat well. I mostly play it by ear and can usually make substitutions for anything that I'm missing.

i thought of using a meal prep service a few times -- usually i couldn't find the exact type of food i wanted -- WFPB SOS-free.

now i'm mainly doing microwaveable costco stuff, like brown rice and veggies, then pho, and costco snack packs and hard seltzers -- all microwaveable or fridge -- so, it's pretty darn close to meal prep in terms of convenience.