I do pretty good I’m just in search of ways to make work lunch prep as brain dead easy as possible. A couple points specific to me: I don’t like to eat the same thing more than a couple days in a row and I very rarely take frozen meals because they’re expensive and don’t have the nutrition that I want.
I get a farm share during the growing season. So every week I sit down with whatever I’ve gotten from the farm and clean, chop, dice, slice, etc. Then I make two large batches of food from whatever I’ve gotten from the farm that week, and some side stuff as well. Those get portioned info single-serving containers; half of them to into the fridge, the other half into the freezer.
Then I take everything that hasn’t been used in a dish, and I try to make a variety of salads - spicy, savory, sweet, fruity, cheesey etc. I make 10-12 salads - one for every lunch and dinner for the work week. Greens go on the top so they’re not crushed, crunchy stuff goes in a Ziploc on the side, and an old pill bottle of dressing gets tucked in as well.
Then I go over everything that wasn’t used in a salad. If it’s snack-appropriate, servings go into snack-sized ziplocs, with an old pill bottle of dip/dressing if appropriate. Anything still left over may get frozen to be used as ingredients later in the year, or processed and canned, pickled or dehydrated.
The first part of the week, I eat freshly made meals, salads and sides; the latter part of the week, I eat something from the freezer for mains and sides, and a salad from the fridge. I usually have 40-45 servings of 12-15 different main courses available, so I don’t really get tired of stuff.
My goal each week is to use up or process everything from that week’s harvest; and my goal each spring is to finish eating everything in the freezer and pantry before the next season gets fully underway.
Some of my standards: eggplant Parmesan, stuffed peppers and stuffed tomatoes, zucchini boats, twice-baked potatoes, vegetable pizza, French onion soup, seven-layer casserole, mashed turnips, pickled beets, sweet potato pie, pumpkin pie, blueberry pancakes, strawberry muffins, raspberry jam, butternut squash soup, lettuce soup, early greens frittatas, vegetable stirfries, cranberry sauce, cranberry scones, apple turnovers, spinach salad, peach kuchen, baked apples, feta-stuffed baked tomatoes, cinnamon roasted baked potatoes, kale chips, pumpkin and squash seeds, roasted squash, corn soup, corn salsa, chili, tomato salsa, tomato paste, marinara, pickled garlic and garlic confit, stuffed cabbage, celeriac stuffing, current scones, 9-bean soup, green bean casserole, daikon gratin, mushroom pot pie, veggie pot pie, colcannon, strawberry and rhubarb crisp, granola, etc.