Most meal prep advice online is American, and it tells you to cook on Sunday and eat from the fridge until Thursday. The UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) says something different: eat leftovers within 48 hours, or freeze them.
You can still cook once for the whole week. The freezer just has to do some of the work.
Plan the week around 48 hours
Food cooked on Sunday is good for Monday and Tuesday. Everything for later in the week goes in the freezer on the day you cook it, and comes out the night before you want it.
| Day | What you do |
|---|---|
| Sunday | Cook, portion, chill. Freeze the Wednesday to Friday portions |
| Monday, Tuesday | Eat from the fridge |
| Tuesday night | Move Wednesday's portions to the fridge to defrost |
| Wednesday to Friday | Move one day's food to the fridge each night and eat it the next day |
If you would rather eat fresher food late in the week, cook a second, smaller batch on Wednesday instead.
Cook in the right order
Start with whatever takes longest, and let the oven do the most.
- Put a tray of chicken thighs or a pan of chilli on first. Anything that looks after itself is ideal.
- Roast vegetables or sweet potato on the other shelf.
- Boil eggs, and cook grains last.
Two mains and two sides are enough. Cooking five different dishes is how a Sunday disappears.
Choose food that survives the freezer. Chillies, curries, stews, meatballs and egg muffins all freeze well. Salad leaves, cucumber and anything crisp do not, so add those on the day.
Cool it quickly
The FSA's advice is to cool cooked food at room temperature and get it in the fridge within one to two hours. Hot food should not go straight in, since it warms everything around it.
Portioning helps, because a shallow box cools much faster than a full pan. Split the food into containers while it is still warm, leave the lids off until it stops steaming, then chill or freeze.
Your fridge should sit between 0 and 5°C and your freezer at around −18°C. A cheap fridge thermometer will tell you if yours does.
Take extra care with rice
Rice follows stricter rules than other leftovers, and these catch a lot of people out. Uncooked rice can carry spores of a bacterium called Bacillus cereus, and the longer cooked rice sits at room temperature, the more likely it is to become unsafe.
The FSA says to:
- chill leftover rice as quickly as possible, ideally within an hour
- keep it in the fridge for no more than a day before reheating
- reheat it only once, until steaming hot all the way through
If you want rice later in the week, freeze it within an hour of cooking or cook it fresh on the day. Fresh rice takes about 15 minutes, which is less time than most people spend looking for a lid that fits.
Reheat it properly
Frozen food should defrost in the fridge overnight. Once it has fully defrosted, use it within 24 hours.
Reheat until it is steaming hot throughout, and only reheat it once. If you have a food thermometer, the FSA's benchmark is 70°C in the middle for 2 minutes. Leftovers can also be eaten cold if they were cooked properly and chilled within two hours, which is good news for anyone with no microwave at work.
What to buy
- Containers: glass or plastic that can go in the freezer and microwave, in one size so they stack.
- Labels: masking tape and a pen. Write the dish and the date.
- A big tray and a big pan. Most batch cooking needs nothing else.
The short version
- Two days in the fridge, the rest in the freezer.
- Cool it and chill it within two hours, and rice within one.
- Defrost in the fridge, eat within 24 hours.
- Reheat once, until steaming hot.
For what to put in the boxes, see high-protein meal prep for the week. Liftprep plans your cook days and rolls every ingredient into one shopping list. Start by finding your numbers.
Sources
- Food Standards Agency. How to chill, freeze and defrost food safely.
- Food Standards Agency. Cooking your food.
- Food Standards Agency. Home food fact checker.