I've always been somewhat disappointed in myself for not having "figured out" meal prep. "You're 33 years old", my inner critic will say. "Meal prep isn't complicated. There are a million resources available online. You've had years to learn and iterate. How haven't you figured it out by now?"
Well, I finally may have something that works. One meal for dinner, another for breakfast. For dinner it is a bowl with brown rice, lentils, ground chicken, green peas, garlic, and spices.
For breakfast it's a bowl with brown rice, black beans, taco seasoning, caramelized onions, egg whites, avocado, and a sauce.
Before discussing each meal, let me begin by talking about what matters to me and how I prioritize things.
Considerations
I'm gonna admit something that sounds a little pathetic. I don't think I've ever said it out loud before. At least not loudly.
I've built up an identity of a "foodie", and because of this identity, I feel a sense of embarrassment when the cooking I do is boring.
Because of this, over the years, I've stressed myself out and overextended myself in an effort to cook "fun" meals. The inner critic's rant goes something like, "Really? I mean, yeah, I guess the rice bowls are fine, but I thought you are a foodie? Don't you want to liven things up?".
I've spent so much time watching cooking videos on YouTube. I've read various cookbooks cover-to-cover. Read a million Serious Eats posts. Cool blogs like SheSimmers. I'm also the type of person who has an elaborate scheme for categorizing restaurants on Google Maps and has skimmed through the menus and photos of most restaurants in town.
But if I'm being honest with myself, on a day-to-day basis, no, I don't particularly care to liven things up. I'm ok with meals that satiate me and that taste decent.
And to continue that theme, on a day-to-day basis, I really don't want to expend effort on cooking. I want to just pop something into the microwave and be shoving food down my face within five minutes. Things like washing lettuce and cleaning that extra mixing bowl are trivial inconveniences that usually feel quite annoying. There's a certain inertia that I experience as I'm going about my day, and overcoming that inertia to take an extra 10-20 minutes prepping a meal is more difficult and unpleasant than you might expect.
Furthermore, this inertia happens on the time scale of days as well as minutes/hours. It makes it difficult to eg. meal prep twice a week and store stuff in the fridge. For example, imagine that I aim to prep some sort dish on Sundays and Wednesdays. What happens is that I find myself caught up with things on Tuesday... and then Wednesday... and then Thursday. It's hard to keep up. It's hard to know when I'll have the time and energy to do meal prep. This makes the chest freezer my best friend.
I really love being able to cook a bunch of stuff that is easy to warm up, and that I could store in my chest freezer. In addition to being pragmatic, it also just feels really good. It gives me a sense of security that I suppose is similar to the breathing room that an emergency fund gives you financially. Having 10-15+ meals frozen and ready to warm up makes me feel at ease, like I'm not at risk of falling behind any time soon. And it gives me a wide window in terms of when I do my next round of meal prep.
What other considerations should I talk about? Health? Let's talk about health.
Health is relatively important to me. I don't want to go overboard, but I do want to aim to be pretty healthy.
What does that mean? Well, for starters, basic things like avoiding processed foods and refined carbs. Try to have a lot of green veggies and legumes. Stuff like that.
Cost is another consideration. I aim to adhere to a budget of $400/month on groceries and $300/month on restaurants. It could be worth spending more, but I'd feel icky about that. Call it a quirk.
Ingredients
Given these considerations, how do we construct a list of meals that I may want to meal prep? Well, I find it helpful to start with a list of ingredients and work backwards from there. Once I know which ingredients I want to focus on, then I can figure out what meals would make sense.
Carbs
Tiers:
Quinoa, barley
Farro, brown rice, sweet potato, millet, sorghum, regular potato
I divided things into tiers based roughly on how healthy they are, not based on taste, convenience or price.
Comments:
Quinoa is healthy and tastes great. A little more expensive, but I don't mind that too much. It's inconvenient to make though. I find that the traditional preparation is kinda gross. I would want to follow the advice in this video, but the straining and stuff is annoyingly time consuming.
Sweet potato is similar. Prepped traditionally it tastes kinda starchy and mealy. I also don't love the texture of potatoes that don't have a crispness to them. I'd want to follow the advice in this Serious Eats post and par-cook them to transform that starchiness into sweetness, but that prep is annoying to do. It also doesn't stay crispy after reheating.
Pasta is super easy. It's delicious. And if whole wheat, it isn't the most unhealthy. But I have a big tendency to overeat pasta, and it doesn't freeze well.
Barley is promising but isn't my favorite texturally.
I think it makes sense to just KISS here and focus on brown rice.
Legumes
I feel like legumes are a secret weapon. They're super cheap and super healthy. Personally I find a plate of beans or lentils to be kinda gross, but when mixed in to a dish, I enjoy the substance and bite that they add.
I think lentils and black beans work best for me. Lima beans and chickpeas I don't like as much. Well, chickpeas are great when roasted, but the crispiness doesn't really sustain itself after reheating, and even if it did I probably wouldn't find it to be worth the effort.
I know that there's debate about red meat and stuff. I don't have much of an opinion there. I have high cholesterol and triglycerides. My cardiologist and nutritionist said to limit red meat, and I'm going to follow their advice.
Chicken breast is very healthy. However, I find it to be a pain to make. I also hate dealing with raw chicken. And it ends up getting dried out when you reheat it.
Steak and pork tenderloin fit well as a treat to have once in a while, but not as a staple.
I think ground chicken and egg whites are the winners here.
These are all healthy and delicious. Unfortunately, frozen peas are the only item that freezes well. So annoying! I really wish other greens froze well.
I keep broccoli and carrots in the fridge and add them to my meal when I'm feeling motivated. Sometimes even breakfast! I tell myself that I'll mix in other greens periodically for fun, but in reality that rarely ever happens.
Leafy greens
Tiers:
Lettuce, kale, spinach
I'm very cool and had a YouTube video about lettuce made especially for me.[2] It says that you could prep lettuce in advance and that after doing so it is good for one to two weeks. Unfortunately I haven't really found that to be the case. For me it gets a little scrunched up after a few days. And even if it didn't, I dunno, it's probably a bit more effort than I'd like to expend for meal prep.
The items here I think are notably less healthy than the green veggies. They aren't things that I'm particularly eager to focus on. And corn is the only one on the list that freezes well.
Alliums
Tiers:
Onions, garlic, shallots
Comments:
A nice thing to incorporate into meals. Pretty neutral health-wise. Decent amount of flavor given the cost in money and time.
Given that I aim to cook in bulk, shallots don't seem worthwhile. They're more expensive and aren't tastier.
Avocado is pretty great. Healthy, satisfying, tastes great when it's the right ripeness. Maybe a little expensive, but whatevs. I hate when I misjudge the ripeness or when I let it sit too long and it goes to waste, but buying two or three at a time seems to address that problem well enough for me.
Almonds seem healthier and/or cheaper than other nuts. Probably a winner. At least as something to snack on.
I've never been a fan of frozen fruit. And fresh fruit is damn expensive!
Fruit that is too acidic hurts my teeth.[3] And the fruit that is actually healthy tends to be more acidic.
Sugary fruit I hear is actually pretty unhealthy. Before we modern humans got our hands on things, this is what fruit used to look like.
Dinner and breakfast bowls
Given everything discussed above, I feel like my dinner bowl and breakfast bowl each kinda naturally present themselves.
For the dinner bowl:
6 of brown rice; cooked in rice cooker 3 cups at a time
3 cups of lentils; boiled in a pan
4 pounds of ground chicken; 3 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of MSG, 2 tsp of garlic powder, 2 tsp of paprika, 2 tsp of cayenne, 2 tsp of turmeric, 2 tsp of sugar; baked on 400 F on sheet pan lined with parchment paper for 20 minutes
Buncha frozen garlic sauteed in olive oil
Add everything to huge mixing bowl; add a buncha frozen green peas; mix up; portion into meal prep containers
Microwave to reheat
If I'm feeling motivated I'll add some carrots or some steamed broccoli
Sometimes I'll add caramelized onions
I'll usually just squeeze some lemon or lime on at the end, but sometimes I'll also mess around with different sauces
And the breakfast bowl:
6 cups of brown rice
3 cups of black beans
Bloom taco seasoning in neutral oil
Mix rice, beans, oil and taco seasoning; divide into deli containers and freeze
Cook caramelized onions separately
Warm up rice and beans in bowl
Reheat caramelized onions in small nonstick pan
Add caramelized onions to bowl with rice and beans
Cook egg whites in nonstick pan used to reheat caramelized onions
Slice up an avocado (if I have one)
Sometimes I'll slice up some cheddar cheese and add it[4]
I actually find each meal to be rather tasty and enjoyable.
Given what I discussed in the ingredients section, I feel like I don't really have much room to change things up. That seems like it's gotta be wrong, but I'm not sure what other meals would actually make sense for me in terms of day-to-day meal prep.
If people have thoughts, I'd love to discuss them in the comments section. I'm also interested in hearing about what works for other people and what they prioritize differently. Do others find it easy enough to keep up with more frequent fridge-based meal prep? Prioritize taste and variety more? Throw money at the problem? Have strong feelings about red meat?
To be clear, day-to-day meal prep isn't the only thing I eat. I leave myself room to prioritize taste at some meals at the expense of price, health and convenience: either by going to a restaurant or by cooking something fun at home. But those meals are the exception, not the rule. Call it an example of the barbell strategy.
I know, I know. They're orange. But I think they fit better here than in the "Veggies" category, like a blegg that contains palladium instead of vanadium.
I've always been somewhat disappointed in myself for not having "figured out" meal prep. "You're 33 years old", my inner critic will say. "Meal prep isn't complicated. There are a million resources available online. You've had years to learn and iterate. How haven't you figured it out by now?"
Well, I finally may have something that works. One meal for dinner, another for breakfast. For dinner it is a bowl with brown rice, lentils, ground chicken, green peas, garlic, and spices.
For breakfast it's a bowl with brown rice, black beans, taco seasoning, caramelized onions, egg whites, avocado, and a sauce.
Before discussing each meal, let me begin by talking about what matters to me and how I prioritize things.
Considerations
I'm gonna admit something that sounds a little pathetic. I don't think I've ever said it out loud before. At least not loudly.
Because of this, over the years, I've stressed myself out and overextended myself in an effort to cook "fun" meals. The inner critic's rant goes something like, "Really? I mean, yeah, I guess the rice bowls are fine, but I thought you are a foodie? Don't you want to liven things up?".
I've spent so much time watching cooking videos on YouTube. I've read various cookbooks cover-to-cover. Read a million Serious Eats posts. Cool blogs like SheSimmers. I'm also the type of person who has an elaborate scheme for categorizing restaurants on Google Maps and has skimmed through the menus and photos of most restaurants in town.
But if I'm being honest with myself, on a day-to-day basis, no, I don't particularly care to liven things up. I'm ok with meals that satiate me and that taste decent.
And to continue that theme, on a day-to-day basis, I really don't want to expend effort on cooking. I want to just pop something into the microwave and be shoving food down my face within five minutes. Things like washing lettuce and cleaning that extra mixing bowl are trivial inconveniences that usually feel quite annoying. There's a certain inertia that I experience as I'm going about my day, and overcoming that inertia to take an extra 10-20 minutes prepping a meal is more difficult and unpleasant than you might expect.
Furthermore, this inertia happens on the time scale of days as well as minutes/hours. It makes it difficult to eg. meal prep twice a week and store stuff in the fridge. For example, imagine that I aim to prep some sort dish on Sundays and Wednesdays. What happens is that I find myself caught up with things on Tuesday... and then Wednesday... and then Thursday. It's hard to keep up. It's hard to know when I'll have the time and energy to do meal prep. This makes the chest freezer my best friend.
I really love being able to cook a bunch of stuff that is easy to warm up, and that I could store in my chest freezer. In addition to being pragmatic, it also just feels really good. It gives me a sense of security that I suppose is similar to the breathing room that an emergency fund gives you financially. Having 10-15+ meals frozen and ready to warm up makes me feel at ease, like I'm not at risk of falling behind any time soon. And it gives me a wide window in terms of when I do my next round of meal prep.
What other considerations should I talk about? Health? Let's talk about health.
Health is relatively important to me. I don't want to go overboard, but I do want to aim to be pretty healthy.
What does that mean? Well, for starters, basic things like avoiding processed foods and refined carbs. Try to have a lot of green veggies and legumes. Stuff like that.
Cost is another consideration. I aim to adhere to a budget of $400/month on groceries and $300/month on restaurants. It could be worth spending more, but I'd feel icky about that. Call it a quirk.
Ingredients
Given these considerations, how do we construct a list of meals that I may want to meal prep? Well, I find it helpful to start with a list of ingredients and work backwards from there. Once I know which ingredients I want to focus on, then I can figure out what meals would make sense.
Carbs
Tiers:
I divided things into tiers based roughly on how healthy they are, not based on taste, convenience or price.
Comments:
I think it makes sense to just KISS here and focus on brown rice.
Legumes
I feel like legumes are a secret weapon. They're super cheap and super healthy. Personally I find a plate of beans or lentils to be kinda gross, but when mixed in to a dish, I enjoy the substance and bite that they add.
I think lentils and black beans work best for me. Lima beans and chickpeas I don't like as much. Well, chickpeas are great when roasted, but the crispiness doesn't really sustain itself after reheating, and even if it did I probably wouldn't find it to be worth the effort.
Protein
Tiers:
Comments:
I think ground chicken and egg whites are the winners here.
Greens
Tiers:
These are all healthy and delicious. Unfortunately, frozen peas are the only item that freezes well. So annoying! I really wish other greens froze well.
I keep broccoli and carrots in the fridge and add them to my meal when I'm feeling motivated. Sometimes even breakfast! I tell myself that I'll mix in other greens periodically for fun, but in reality that rarely ever happens.
Leafy greens
Tiers:
I'm very cool and had a YouTube video about lettuce made especially for me.[2] It says that you could prep lettuce in advance and that after doing so it is good for one to two weeks. Unfortunately I haven't really found that to be the case. For me it gets a little scrunched up after a few days. And even if it didn't, I dunno, it's probably a bit more effort than I'd like to expend for meal prep.
Non-green veggies
Tiers:
The items here I think are notably less healthy than the green veggies. They aren't things that I'm particularly eager to focus on. And corn is the only one on the list that freezes well.
Alliums
Tiers:
Comments:
Fats
Tiers:
Comments:
Dairy
Tiers:
Comments:
Fruit
Tiers:
Comments:
Dinner and breakfast bowls
Given everything discussed above, I feel like my dinner bowl and breakfast bowl each kinda naturally present themselves.
For the dinner bowl:
And the breakfast bowl:
I actually find each meal to be rather tasty and enjoyable.
Given what I discussed in the ingredients section, I feel like I don't really have much room to change things up. That seems like it's gotta be wrong, but I'm not sure what other meals would actually make sense for me in terms of day-to-day meal prep.
If people have thoughts, I'd love to discuss them in the comments section. I'm also interested in hearing about what works for other people and what they prioritize differently. Do others find it easy enough to keep up with more frequent fridge-based meal prep? Prioritize taste and variety more? Throw money at the problem? Have strong feelings about red meat?
To be clear, day-to-day meal prep isn't the only thing I eat. I leave myself room to prioritize taste at some meals at the expense of price, health and convenience: either by going to a restaurant or by cooking something fun at home. But those meals are the exception, not the rule. Call it an example of the barbell strategy.
I know, I know. They're orange. But I think they fit better here than in the "Veggies" category, like a blegg that contains palladium instead of vanadium.
It wasn't made especially for me, but it was inspired by a question I asked the creator via email.
Cold hurts them too. The dentist swears that my enamel is fine and doesn't see anything concerning.
I buy my cheddar in bulk, slice it up into blocks, and freeze it. This makes it easy to defrost one block at a time.
Homemade. So freaking good. Mayo, lemon, sriracha, salt, black pepper, garlic powder.