Sunday batch cooking for weekday meals

This Sunday I put on music before I started cooking. That was most of the change, and I want to write down why it helped.

Meal prep used to feel like a chore I had to force. Sunday meant cooking and portioning for the week, and I spent the morning dreading it. By the time I started I had already used most of my energy on the dread. I did hours of it every week with gritted teeth.

This week I tried a different approach. I put music on first. I made extra of foods I actually like instead of what I thought meal prep was supposed to look like. I did not measure anything perfectly and decided that was fine. I cooked preferred foods in larger batches.

Cooking for weekday lunches

Partway through, how I thought about the work changed. I was packing meals for midweek, when I come home tired with nothing left for cooking.

Once I pictured finding those meals already made midweek, with food I like, the afternoon stopped feeling like a chore. From the outside it looks almost the same: same pots, same portions, same Sunday. The only change was treating the prep as ready weekday food instead of a task to grit through.

I do not know if every Sunday will go this way. Some weeks the dread will probably return. I can tell the difference now between cooking as an obligation and cooking so weekday lunch is already done.