Here’s an example of how I prep my food for a week. Bear in mind that I am going for economy, consistency, portability and microwavability since I have to eat five of my six meals at work Monday through Friday now that my project has gone into beta development. I can do this for my budgeted $21 and change per week, but there will not be much variety at all.

Sample Daily Menu:
M1: 1/3 c. oatmeal (dry) with 3 T. raisins, 3 egg whites and 1 whole egg
M2: 1 piece of fruit, 1 scoop whey
M3: 3-4 oz. chicken breast stir-fried with 1 c. non-starchy veggie, 1 portion sized baked sweetpotato (or portion brown rice or oatmeal)
M4: 1 rice cake with 1/2 T. all natural peanut butter, 1 scoop whey
M5: 3-4 oz. chicken breast (or 5-6 oz. tuna), 1 c. non-starchy veggie (or a 3 c. salad with 2 T. low-cal FF dressing), 1 corn on the cob or another half portion of carb
M6: 1 scoop of whey with 1 c. 8th Continent Light soy milk (either as a shake or frozen into popsicles, yum!)

For meal 1, I get seven ziploc sandwich bags (which I re-use weekly of course) and premeasure my oatmeal and raisins into each bag. I just grab a bag in the morning after my workout, throw it into a bowl with some water, nuke for 2.5 minutes, and chow down. The eggs I either cook fresh that morning since it only takes 5 minutes, or I do a bulk hard-boiled egg batch ahead of time (I like to put the eggs in a steamer pot and steam for 15 minutes vs. actually boiling. I rarely get any broken eggs this way, and the egg shells just come right off.) so I can just grab 4 eggs, peel, chuck out 3 yolks, and be done with it.

Meals 2, 4, and 6 are pretty self explanatory and easy. Just have enough rice cakes, fruit, and soy milk on hand to go with your protein powder and water. If all that protein powder makes you gag, you can always do the standby of cottage cheese and fruit or pre-mix and bag up the ingredients for a quick microwave protein muffin. Just add 1/3 c. water to the mix, nuke for 1.5 minutes in a glass container, and voila! Instant almost-bready muffin goodness for under 180 calories.

Meals 3 and 5 I will prepare completely ahead of time for half a week at a go if I am just refrigerating them and have time for another round of cooking on Wednesday or Thursday, or a full 7 days if I have enough freezer space to put 3-4 days worth of homemade microwave meals inside. Basically, I mass marinate and either bake, saute’ or stir fry (with veggies) all the chicken in one session, prep the veggies, and bake the potatoes, then I divvy everything up into individual cheapo Gladware or similar containers–protein, veggie, starch in each one. I stack six of these containers in the fridge, then put the other eight in the freezer. I just grab my meals and nuke them when it’s time to eat.

If you have a little more time to cook in the evenings, I recommend using the flash-marinating technique described by Stella Juarez in her bodybuilding cookbook, Stella’s Kitchen:

1. Cut up your lean meat into individual serving size portions. This can be either in large single filets or in slices or cubes if you plan to stir fry.
2. Prepare enough marinade or seasoning for the entire batch and get out that handy box of ziploc sandwich bags.
3. Place two portions of meat into each ziploc bag and add two portions of your seasoning/marinade.
4. Seal up, mush the seasonings into the meat to coat it evenly, mark the bag with date and contents, then toss the bag into the freezer.
5. Grab a bag whenever you need to cook up your lunch and dinner, thaw in the microwave for 7-10 minutes at 30% power, and prepare as usual.
6. Enjoy your tasty marinated meat in (generally) less than 15 minutes.

Another great prep-ahead meal option for meals 3 and 5 is the whole wheat pita bread pizza, which, in its most basic form consists of a WW pita, 3 oz. shredded cooked chicken breast, 2-3 T. spaghetti sauce, 1/2 c. cooked veggies of your choice (spinach is my favorite), salt/pepper/garlic powder to taste, and 1/4 c. FF mozzarella prepared assembly line fashion, wrapped in plastic wrap, and chucked into the freezer for baking up to several weeks in the future.

Oh yeah, I also refill one of those 7-day pill boxes each week with my calcium, multivitamin, and BC pill to help me remember to take all of the above with my breakfast.

And that is my boring meal plan and preparation system in a nutshell.