I waste ages cooking every day. For those who batch the whole week efficiently, what's your system to prep multiple days of food in under a couple of hours? Looking for the workflow, not just recipes.
My Sunday system, about 90 minutes:
Everything overlaps so nothing sits idle.
- Get the oven and hob both going at once - roast trays of chicken/veg/potatoes while rice and a chilli cook on the hob
- Cook proteins plain in bulk, portion sauces separately for variety
- Use the same base, vary seasoning across the week so it's not identical
- Portion into containers, fridge for 3-4 days, freeze the rest
Everything overlaps so nothing sits idle.
The 'oven and hob going at once' point is obvious in hindsight but I cook one thing at a time like an idiot.
That's where the hours go. Parallel-cook and you halve the time instantly.
Batch the components, not full meals - a tub of cooked protein, a tub of rice, a tub of roasted veg, then mix and match through the week. Less boring than identical meals and faster to assemble. Mealprep 'lego'.
A slow cooker or instant pot does the hands-off heavy lifting - chuck in a chilli or pulled chicken in the morning, it's done with zero attention while you prep the rest. Massive time saver for big batches.
Freeze half so you're prepping every other week, not every week. I do a big cook, eat 3-4 days fresh, freeze the rest for the following week. Doubles the output for the same effort. Sanity saver with kids.
Parallel cooking, batch components not meals, slow cooker for hands-off, freeze half. That's a proper system - my Sundays just got shorter. Thanks everyone.