Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
indyrenegade
Apr 5, 2018

and that man's name? ENRICO FERMI
Hello! This is a thread for discussing meal prepping.

Meal prepping helps maintain your diet and save you money by, you guessed it, making your lunches for your week in advance. Look to this thread to post your week's food and to tell us what you like to make for work lunches.

For anyone tempted by the McDonalds across the street or by that coworker who always wants to go out for lunch, for the daily coffee shop-goer, for anyone looking to save a little more money than they are spending, or anyone looking to control their diet more, this thread is for you.

Ever notice how money is the root of nearly every non-health problem you have? Meal prepping helps you avoid spending money that you don't need to, letting you use up food you were gonna throw out anyway, or leave sitting in the cupboard.


Your average business Goons, working hard to provide for their families and doing their best by bringing lunch to work. What good boys.
  • But it takes effort! Yes, all good things take effort! It is harder to do the right thing than it is to do the lazy going-to-Wendy's thing.
  • But cooking is boring! I don't actually think you believe that if you are browsing the cooking subforum.
  • But it takes up my valuable, precious time on my day off! Yeah, probably about the same amount of time accumulated across a week that it would take to go to a fast food joint, wait for food, then go back to work, if not less.
Here's some advance tips:
  • Get some SOLID FOOD STORAGE. This ain't your mama's Tupperware. It snaps and seals closed for optimal non-spillage. Glass food storage is also microwave-safe, allegedly moreso than plastic. I dunno, my mother in law scared me into it and thinks I am literally eating melting plastic when I eat it post-microwave. She thinks I am slowly poisoning myself and my partner to death. It IS the case, but not through plastic containers.
  • Bring tea, coffee and hot chocolate to work. Your Instagram-worthy pics of your Starfucks venti vidi vici parappathefrappaalpacino is a monumental achievement that needs to be shared with society and remembered for future generations, sure, but I realized I was spending close to 150$ a month in just getting warm drinks and associated treats at cafes. If you're a big coffee/tea goon like me, you're probably spending as much as I was on just getting drinks all the time. GOONS RUN ON DUNKINS but you can bring that stuff from home and use an office kettle, Keurig or the hot water side of a water dispenser. I'm also tackling the massive amount of tea that I have bought over the years by bringing it to work with me.
  • Meals don't necessarily need to have a big plan laid out. I don't have the attention span, chances are you don't either. I'd rather get to cooking rather than planning, so I make it up as I go and that works for me.
  • A good starting place is just looking at the food you already have at home, checking out your cans of food. Most of the time I go in simply looking at what I have and I'll match ingredients with a cookbook, or I'll take the easy route and make stir fry.
  • Aim for variety, though. The same stir fry every week will prompt you to ignore it and want to go get fast food. We don't want that. We want to save you money so you can spend it on things that matter to you.
  • You don't have to make different food for every day. gently caress no. I make a few different dishes and divide those different things into containers for five days.
  • Have snacks at your desk/in your work locker. Get a box of Clif bars, a bag of apples, whatever you like.
BENEFITS:
  • Learn to loving cook better!
  • Use up the can of refried beans that's been in your pantry for 6 years!
  • Save some money! Buy your girlfriend an engagement ring! Buy a space rocket! Buy Lowtax a new spine!
  • Have a much easier time avoiding poo poo FOOD!
  • Optimize by not having to think about where you are getting food: It's there, it's with you already!

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

indyrenegade
Apr 5, 2018

and that man's name? ENRICO FERMI
Here's this week for me.



I treated a bunch of lovely frozen breaded fish filet like salmon and wrapped them in tin foil with lemon and dill/tarragon in the oven
Found a can of refried beans
Made guacamole with red onion and pepper and old bay seasoning
Underneath the fish is fried tofu with veggies (carrots/broccoli/bell pepper); they're dark because I made a sauce that was black bean paste, then the tail ends of some hot sauce and then garlic and maple syrup
Tomato basically for color because good lord none of these things look appetizing (maybe the fish does) without it

Liquid Communism
Mar 9, 2004


Out here, everything hurts.




This is my jam since I work nights and the options are bring something decent or live on vending machine trash. Plus it lets me keep cooking the quantities I want despite not having anyone to foist the leftovers off on. :D

This week I grilled up some jerk chicken on Sunday, and made up some black beans and rice cuban style with black beans from Purcell Mountain Farms.

Looking forward to it cooling off for fall, because I'll start making big pots of chili and just portioning it out into 1.5c containers and freezing it.

Dacap
Jul 8, 2008

I've been involved in a number of cults, both as a leader and a follower.

You have more fun as a follower. But you make more money as a leader.



I see a lot of people doing fish in meal preps. Do you eat it cold or do you just have to be ok with your entire office hating you for microwaving it?

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


Everyone share with me your bento sets!!! I have zero creativity and prepping bento got boring eventually. I really need to start prepping my meals and using my bento more but man it’s a lot of work and there’s some fuckin rules n poo poo to worry about. Also lots of rice.

Worse comes to worse I’ll rely on the glass containers and make a bunch of curry or something. Just gotta learn how to make curry.

What’s everyone’s favorite batch meal!!!!

Rotten Cookies
Nov 11, 2008

gosh! i like both the islanders and the rangers!!! :^)

Man, oh, man. I used to be broke and fat. I work at a metal shop and I would spend like $14 a day at the deli to get a giant italian hero (or like a chicken cutlet, bacon, ranch, cheese), chips, soda, plus other poo poo. Every drat day. That poo poo added up QUICK. I still eat like poo poo at home, but not eating deli sandwiches with giant soda every drat day is cheaper and I lost a good amount of weight.


I don't have a microwave (that I trust) at work, and my job is plus or minus 15 degrees of outside temps. So I'm cold and bundled in the winters, and right now I'm hot and sweaty as gently caress. Thermoses of chili, chicken soup, or stew in the winter. Cold bean salads, cold sesame noodles, cucumber sandwiches in the summers. Big pots of chili, soup, and stew are easy to throw together. Not trying to start chili debate here. I don't look to make anything award winning, just something to keep me full and warm at work.

For sides, it's usually chopped veggies with some tzatziki, some nuts, and some sort of fruit. At work, I really don't care if my sides go with the main part of the lunch. I'll shove it all in my face.


I also prep my drinks, if that counts?
I usually end up replacing my morning coffee with iced tea in the summers. Make a gallon batch of unsweetened iced tea every week. (Also keeps me from getting too chubby with the sugar and cream I kill my coffee with.) And then there's home carbonation. Basically a CO2 tank, regulator, and some caps to fill up your bottles. I like seltzer, and working in the heat, I drink a lot of fluids. I would end up spending so much on cans of seltzer, it's been a god send. (Also, carbonating cocktails at home is loving awesome)


I gotta say, this summer I've really been feeling the cold bean salad. Buncha beans, black, kidney, whatever. Red onion, peppers, corn, lime juice, some cayenne or whatever I feel like throwing in at the time. Have that plopped on some rice and it's a good lunch on a hot day.

indyrenegade
Apr 5, 2018

and that man's name? ENRICO FERMI

Dacap posted:

I see a lot of people doing fish in meal preps. Do you eat it cold or do you just have to be ok with your entire office hating you for microwaving it?

Typically I eat the food cold. I just don't care about heating it up unless it was a cold day. Plus I tend to eat bites throughout the day to keep my stomach munching on something, that way I never get big hunger pangs.
I used to take cans of sardines to work (hello from the GBS 'dines thread) which I would just eat outside to avoid comments altogether. Now though I will cook them into something - for example I only had 4 fish filets to work with and emptied a can of sardines onto the tray and just covered it in the same lemon and tarragon/dill. No more specifically fishy smell.


Pollyanna posted:

Everyone share with me your bento sets!!! I have zero creativity and prepping bento got boring eventually. I really need to start prepping my meals and using my bento more but man it’s a lot of work and there’s some fuckin rules n poo poo to worry about. Also lots of rice.

Worse comes to worse I’ll rely on the glass containers and make a bunch of curry or something. Just gotta learn how to make curry.

What’s everyone’s favorite batch meal!!!!

You can do it! Tell me about bento prepping! What rules are there/what boxes do you use?

Rotten Cookies posted:

Man, oh, man. I used to be broke and fat. I work at a metal shop and I would spend like $14 a day at the deli to get a giant italian hero (or like a chicken cutlet, bacon, ranch, cheese), chips, soda, plus other poo poo. Every drat day. That poo poo added up QUICK. I still eat like poo poo at home, but not eating deli sandwiches with giant soda every drat day is cheaper and I lost a good amount of weight.

I gotta say, this summer I've really been feeling the cold bean salad. Buncha beans, black, kidney, whatever. Red onion, peppers, corn, lime juice, some cayenne or whatever I feel like throwing in at the time. Have that plopped on some rice and it's a good lunch on a hot day.

Yo good for you - that's another added benefit I didn't think of. I stopped eating carbs a LOT when I began meal prepping. Not really at my ideal weight goal yet but I it's made a change all the same. I'm stealing that bean salad recipe. I made black bean patties last week; might try this when I prep on Sunday.

TheCog
Jul 30, 2012

I AM ZEPA AND I CLAIM THESE LANDS BY RIGHT OF CONQUEST

Pollyanna posted:

Everyone share with me your bento sets!!! I have zero creativity and prepping bento got boring eventually. I really need to start prepping my meals and using my bento more but man it’s a lot of work and there’s some fuckin rules n poo poo to worry about. Also lots of rice.

Worse comes to worse I’ll rely on the glass containers and make a bunch of curry or something. Just gotta learn how to make curry.

What’s everyone’s favorite batch meal!!!!

https://www.justonecookbook.com/simple-chicken-curry/ is a very good bento curry. I like having half my bento with rice, the other half with curry.

http://justbento.com/ has some amazing bento recipes.

distortion park
Apr 25, 2011


Dacap posted:

I see a lot of people doing fish in meal preps. Do you eat it cold or do you just have to be ok with your entire office hating you for microwaving it?

I always have it cold. If I want something warm I just buy a soup from the grocery store and heat that up in the office (it's nicer and more variety than the fast lunch places).

90% of the time on just have bread, cured meat, cheese and a fruit though.

physeter
Jan 24, 2006

high five, more dead than alive
Let's get cheap. $8-15 a day for lunch is such a damned waste. Crockpot is my weapon of choice. A bean soup, curry, or tomato meat sauce on a Sunday will give rise to a score of bring-to-work lunches during the following week.

Things that help:

1) Buy your chickens whole, use the meat, and make stock from the bones and trimmings. Your everything will taste better with homemade stock, and at the price of chicken meat it's like getting the dark meat and stock for free. A single bird carcass can give you gallons of stock if you're patient. Go big or go home when it comes to stocking. A dutch oven is a waste of time. My stock pot is a 10-gallon $20 aluminum tamale steamer I found at Target years ago.

2) Save your vegetables that are about to go bad, and trimmings (esp celery, onions and carrots) in a plastic bag you keep in the freezer. Add a couple handfuls of frozen vegetable to the chicken stock to round out the flavor.

3) When it isn't holiday time, turkeys are often cheap. And they make even more/better stock.

4) After the stock is stored, there's probably a pound of dog food leftover if you want you dog to be really happy and you feel like picking through it.

More things:

1) Not only should you be making your own coffee at home, but you should be making full pots. Once you've filled your little carafe in the morning, pour the rest into an empty gallon jug, add sugar to taste, and keep it in the fridge. This plus a little creamer and some ice cubes = $5 at Starbucks. Cost to you? Ehh, 50 cents maybe? If you bought really good coffee, which you should.

2) Learn your seasons for fruit and veg. Prices vary accordingly, even in big chain stores.

3) Cabbage. Lonely cabbage, all by itself. Cabbage wants to be your friend. All the old people are dying off, and poor cabbage is left all alone in that little bin down at the corner of the produce section, with its fancy romaine lettuce and other pansy poo poo. So cheap. So low calorie and yet filling. So ignored by "cool" people paying $5 for a handful of trendy brussel sprouts. A handful?? Why would I want a handful of tiny cabbages when I get one big one for less? Get the gently caress outta here with that. Cabbage wants to be your friend. Cabbage can be cooked in anything. Cabbage can be made delicious with good olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Cabbage can be patiently caramelized, oh yesssss. You will have attained peak cabbage not when your SO clamors for cabbage, no. She just might be humoring you. But when they go by themselves to acquire a cabbage, on their own initiative, and deliver said cabbage to you with a plea for more cabbage? That my friends, that is peak cabbage. Get there. Take that massive $2 mildly sulfurous lump of green poo poo and turn it into ambrosia.

(Note to all: do not use cabbage trimmings in stock above. Avoid sulfurous trimmings in stock. My dogs have always loved the outer leaves and chopped cabbage cores after roasting in the oven but ymmv.)

4) This one is controversial in my house, but BAN PAPER TOWELS. Use cloth rags and old lovely hand towels, wash and reuse. (But keep a secret roll of Bounty hidden away because sometimes that's what you need and your SO will NEVER shut up if you need it and you don't have it).

TheCog
Jul 30, 2012

I AM ZEPA AND I CLAIM THESE LANDS BY RIGHT OF CONQUEST

physeter posted:

3) Cabbage. Lonely cabbage, all by itself. Cabbage wants to be your friend. All the old people are dying off, and poor cabbage is left all alone in that little bin down at the corner of the produce section, with its fancy romaine lettuce and other pansy poo poo. So cheap. So low calorie and yet filling. So ignored by "cool" people paying $5 for a handful of trendy brussel sprouts. A handful?? Why would I want a handful of tiny cabbages when I get one big one for less? Get the gently caress outta here with that. Cabbage wants to be your friend. Cabbage can be cooked in anything. Cabbage can be made delicious with good olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Cabbage can be patiently caramelized, oh yesssss. You will have attained peak cabbage not when your SO clamors for cabbage, no. She just might be humoring you. But when they go by themselves to acquire a cabbage, on their own initiative, and deliver said cabbage to you with a plea for more cabbage? That my friends, that is peak cabbage. Get there. Take that massive $2 mildly sulfurous lump of green poo poo and turn it into ambrosia.


Please talk to me about your ways of making cabbage delicious. So far my cabbage experiments have been pretty hit or miss. How do you caramelize it, just in a pan with some oil for a long time?

Croatoan
Jun 24, 2005

I am inevitable.
ROBBLE GROBBLE

TheCog posted:

Please talk to me about your ways of making cabbage delicious. So far my cabbage experiments have been pretty hit or miss. How do you caramelize it, just in a pan with some oil for a long time?

Cabbage is rad. Yeah just slice it into disks, brush them with a little olive oil, sprinkle kosher salt and pepper and bake at 450* for about 15 minutes until it begins to carmelize. Also, you can make galumpkis and take those to work.

physeter
Jan 24, 2006

high five, more dead than alive

Croatoan posted:

Cabbage is rad. Yeah just slice it into disks, brush them with a little olive oil, sprinkle kosher salt and pepper and bake at 450* for about 15 minutes until it begins to carmelize.

This is my default but I use one of those magic bullet blenders to puree a shallot, half a garlic bulb and the olive oil into a brushable sludge. Take a bread knife and saw the cabbage down to the core. A big cabbage can fill both oven racks, a single layer on each rack for maximum surface exposure. Once the cabbage disks start to fall apart I'll just stir it around a bit to get an even cook. Toss it on some rice and that's a meal that doesn't even miss meat. It reheats reasonably well.

physeter fucked around with this message at 19:32 on Aug 30, 2018

AnonSpore
Jan 19, 2012

"I didn't see the part where he develops as a character so I guess he never developed as a character"
Ziplocks are way better than tupperwares for bulk prep imo, just because of the stackability. If I had unlimited space it'd be cool to have 40+ tiny tupperwares to stack in my huge freezer but in lieu of that I'll make due with sandwich size ziplocks and a ladle.

Rotten Cookies
Nov 11, 2008

gosh! i like both the islanders and the rangers!!! :^)

TheCog posted:

Please talk to me about your ways of making cabbage delicious. So far my cabbage experiments have been pretty hit or miss. How do you caramelize it, just in a pan with some oil for a long time?

Make a vinegar based slaw, throw in some other fun veg and some spices. I put some mustard powder in there one time and it was pretty dang good.


To bring up the point before about making a whole chicken, or even turkey, I am a dumbass and didn't know how to cut up the bird when it was done. This left me with a lot of shredded poultry. Perfect for making chicken or turkey salad. I go light on the mayo and heavy on the veggies and spice.


Also hell yes making big batches of coffee. Especially in the summer for making iced coffee n poo poo. And that cabbage/shallot/garlic/oil slab thing sounds great.

sterster
Jun 19, 2006
nothing
Fun Shoe
I've been meal prepping for a while now. I still don't understand how people make & freeze burritos then microwave them and the tortilla doesn't get all soggy gross and fall apart. Is this not a thing that happens? What stuff do you put in your burros? Also I've been doing this for a while so glad we started this thread. Hopefully we can get some good feedback.

OnceIWasAnOstrich
Jul 22, 2006

sterster posted:

I've been meal prepping for a while now. I still don't understand how people make & freeze burritos then microwave them and the tortilla doesn't get all soggy gross and fall apart. Is this not a thing that happens? What stuff do you put in your burros? Also I've been doing this for a while so glad we started this thread. Hopefully we can get some good feedback.

One of my coworkers eats for lunch exclusively a ridiculous variety of frozen burritos. A lot of them seem to be things like char siu or barbecue burritos. He heats them up in the toaster oven which I assume is why they don't come out soggy.

indyrenegade
Apr 5, 2018

and that man's name? ENRICO FERMI

OnceIWasAnOstrich posted:

He heats them up in the toaster oven which I assume is why they don't come out soggy.

Good for any leftover sandwich/wrap/sub thing. I like to keep the second half of my Subway and heat it in the oven the next day for a few mins until the bread is crusty again

anakha
Sep 16, 2009


I usually prep the week's breakfast, lunch, and dinner over the weekend.

For this week, breakfast is gonna be crustless quiche with spinach, parm, cheddar, and leftover corned beef.

For lunch/dinner, I've got 2 pounds of thinly sliced beef ready for Thai red curry with eggplant as well as gyudon. Getting curry paste from a restauranteur friend was a game-changer.

E: regarding drinks, I started cold brewing tea to try and replace my preference for soda. I steep barley or green tea overnight and bring a thermos of it to work.

anakha fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Sep 2, 2018

Happiness Commando
Feb 1, 2002
$$ joy at gunpoint $$

I'm pretty boring when it comes to meal prep. Right now I'm on a three dish rotation for work lunches, one dish per week. Pasta with vegetables, beans, and spicy red sauce; pasta with vegetables, beans, and garlic-lemon oil; and thai green curry with tofu. I have my recipes worked out to provide roughly 6 meals worth of food, so I do 5 lunches and then eat the rest for a dinner at some point.

indyrenegade
Apr 5, 2018

and that man's name? ENRICO FERMI
this week:

arrabiatta with pork/sausage meatballs
pork dumplings + egg rolls from lady at one of the farmer's markets around here
a fuckton of spinach that needed to be eaten

made america's test kitchen's recipe for meatballs; deviated by using pork/sausage blend and cooked them on two sides on a skillet then transferred to sauce to steep and cook for an hour; took about 3 hours with 2 and a half being the sauce simmering
no noodles; tried doing that "zucchini/sweet potato spaghetti" thing and I wish I cooked noodles but needed to use vegetables that were about to wilt

Rotten Cookies
Nov 11, 2008

gosh! i like both the islanders and the rangers!!! :^)

indyrenegade posted:

this week:

arrabiatta with pork/sausage meatballs
pork dumplings + egg rolls from lady at one of the farmer's markets around here
a fuckton of spinach that needed to be eaten

made america's test kitchen's recipe for meatballs; deviated by using pork/sausage blend and cooked them on two sides on a skillet then transferred to sauce to steep and cook for an hour; took about 3 hours with 2 and a half being the sauce simmering
no noodles; tried doing that "zucchini/sweet potato spaghetti" thing and I wish I cooked noodles but needed to use vegetables that were about to wilt

Having a garden with too much zucchini, I've definitely resorted to using veggie spaghetti more than a couple times. It's alright. I just go heavier on the sauce. Speaking of, love a good spicy sauce.

This week Ms Cookies was a fuckin' champ and did the prep on her own.
-Potato, green bean, onion, roasted garlic, quinoa with some sort of vinegar dressing. It's real good. Having that over spinach
-Fig caprese salad with a balsamic glaze. Figs from nan's garden, basil from ours. It's loving amazing.

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


Every time I buy bunched spinach I end up getting grit in it even when I clean it thoroughly. It’s really put me off of eating spinach.

anakha
Sep 16, 2009


Pollyanna posted:

Every time I buy bunched spinach I end up getting grit in it even when I clean it thoroughly. It’s really put me off of eating spinach.

That's part of the reason why I usually just get frozen spinach. The other is that meal prep for one means it's easier for me to stock up on frozen veg and get fresh only for specific dishes.

Liquid Communism
Mar 9, 2004


Out here, everything hurts.




Yeah, I tend to use a lot of frozen veg in my meal prep, because doing lunches for one I just don't need enough of it to be worth buying fresh and not eating half.

Seven Hundred Bee
Nov 1, 2006

one of my best purchases was a GOOD rice cooker -- $75 for a 'used' (read: new) zojirushi from amazon warehouse deals.

briefcasefullof
Sep 25, 2004
[This Space for Rent]
I've been meal prepping my lunches for a couple of years now. I went with pyrex containers and I love them.

My wife bought me a mini Crock Pot Food Warmer: https://www.crock-pot.com/collections/lunch-crock/ and it's awesome for soups and beans. It does not cook food, but it's great for warming up soups and such.

anakha
Sep 16, 2009


Crappy phone pics from last week's meal prep:


Quiche


Gyudon w/ egg


Red curry beef. Rice on top so that I don't have to wipe curry off the inside of the office microwave.

Wasn't in the mood for stovetop cooking this weekend, so I did more quiche; lunch this week will be baked salmon, roasted brussel sprouts and brown rice. Had to stop myself from snacking on the brussel sprouts after they came out of the oven.

Rotten Cookies
Nov 11, 2008

gosh! i like both the islanders and the rangers!!! :^)

Figures the week I make a bunch of gazpacho is when the weather decides to stop being 90 and drops to 60.


I need to remember the galaxy brain method of putting rice on top of the curry for the microwave. Dunno why my dumb brain never thought of that.

sterster
Jun 19, 2006
nothing
Fun Shoe
I'm curious how long your cook times are on Sunday. Me and the wife make 2 different dishes for a total of 10 meals ( 1, 6 day and 1, 4nday dish). Think it was about 1.5-2 hrs prep and cook time.

Anyway this week we mad "pad Tai" and a southwest quinoa and grilled chicken dish with a lime wedge. Hands down I honestly could do and have done the quinoa dish all week for multiple weeks. It's delecious and filling and looks appetizing. I would post pics but effort.
Additionally what's the easiest way to post pics here from a phone?

Professor Wayne
Aug 27, 2008

So, Harvey, what became of the giant penny?

They actually let him keep it.
I got into a rut with meal prepping a few years ago and wanted to branch out into new recipes. I did a trial week of Blue Apron and never looked back. If you order high calorie options and portion them right, you can cook them all up on Sunday afternoon to last you lunch and dinner nearly a full work week. Portioning it out also brings the cost per meal to about 6-7 bucks. While still not a great deal, I consider it a tax to not have to go to a grocery store. The stores closest to me always seem packed, and it's awkward to get groceries home on a bike.

I can see how it's not for everyone. Please don't judge me if you already cook a variety of recipes or have a convenient grocery store. If you do end up trying Blue Apron (or most other services like them, I imagine), for the love of God, augment their recipes with your own spices and seasonings.

It probably takes me 2-2.5 hours total to make them all at once. But I am usually taking my time, having a few drinks and listening to a podcast or something.

I do fish pretty often. Fortunately, I work in a giant corporate office with a giant cafeteria pretty far removed from anyone's desks. I guess if I worked in closer quarters, I would save them for dinner.

Theotus
Nov 8, 2014
This week I took a stab at taco soup style lentils with brown rice. Considering I am just now starting to cook, they turned out pretty good. Need a little salt, but totally servicable.

Should have started doing this so much sooner.

Bliss Authority
Jul 6, 2011

I'm not saying it was witches

but it was witches

Got myself a washable bento box from the Daiso that sprung up downtown, once I get my check today I'm gonna get a bunch of bulk ingredients and prep the hell out of dinner and next day's lunch.

Thinking either chicken curry or some kind of beans/rice/chicken thing with tortillas.

anakha
Sep 16, 2009


Excluding clean-up and washing dishes, I take about 3 hours total of hands-on time to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner for the week. I usually do breakfast on Saturday and lunch/dinner on Sunday.

Re: Blue Apron and getting into a rut, that is something I'm a little concerned about since I only really started cooking for myself again last January and don't have a wide repertoire of easy meal prep recipes yet, which is why I've been going out of my way to buy Japanese and Korean ingredients the past couple of weeks. Last week's Gyudon was my first time making it and I wanna try a version I saw that omits the eggs and uses dashi broth instead.

I'm also planning to try a spicy chicken recipe this weekend with the gochujang I bought and am checking out recipes online to use up the 1kg of miso paste I got as well. At least all of this is ensuring I don't get bored with what I make over the next few weeks.

Bliss Authority
Jul 6, 2011

I'm not saying it was witches

but it was witches

Bought a ton of everything that actually resembles food, and spent a good half-hour disjointing two chickens and throwing them into freezer bags. Fun times.

Bento box is full and in the fridge; coconut Calrose rice, leftover lentil stew my roommate made, a chicken thigh, some roasted vegetables. Gonna be great.

indyrenegade
Apr 5, 2018

and that man's name? ENRICO FERMI
Not my greatest week; I made some prep on Saturday then ended up being busy on Sunday and didn't make the time to follow up on food. So here I am with what I will lovingly dub "leftovers week". Still gotta post for accountability.

I made gai lan with tofu in a sweet oily sauce on Saturday night; used sesame oil, vinegar, oyster sauce, garlic, brown sugar, ginger, corn starch, soy sauce. I ate that Monday, then came home last night and threw leftover shish kebabs in there and brought it to work today.

Here's the rest of the week.



The leftovers are:
Chicken lasagna (it's..... bland, it's about as boring as you can imagine it would be. For the love of god make normal loving lasagna)
Homemade soup - chicken, noodle, leftover carrots and whatnot, pretty average
Pork shish kebab pieces taken off the skewer

The newcomers are:
Indy Doesn't Know How To Make Beautiful Plating so We Cut A Tomato Into It
Egg fried with paprika/Old Bay
Added a handful of cashews/pecans in there


Not my best. Anakha is giving me a run for my money this week! I might steal the quiche idea from you.

anakha posted:

Crappy phone pics from last week's meal prep:


Quiche


Gyudon w/ egg


Red curry beef. Rice on top so that I don't have to wipe curry off the inside of the office microwave.

Wasn't in the mood for stovetop cooking this weekend, so I did more quiche; lunch this week will be baked salmon, roasted brussel sprouts and brown rice. Had to stop myself from snacking on the brussel sprouts after they came out of the oven.


anakha
Sep 16, 2009


To be fair, portioning and meal prep get a lot easier when you're used to eating rice everyday and can just plan on differing combinations of rice-protein-veg every week.

Lazy dinner meal prep this week was Dragon Noodles from Budgetbytes. Thin egg noodles, ground pork, and a 1-1-1 combination of sugar, soy sauce and chili garlic sauce. Pics later once I get home.

E: Noodles and cold barley tea:

anakha fucked around with this message at 15:52 on Sep 12, 2018

anakha
Sep 16, 2009


This week's meal prep:


Hardboiled eggs for snacking plus a couple of eggs being marinated in mirin and soy for ramen.


A meal prep staple - burrito bowl with rice, ground beef, corn, black beans, salsa, and cheddar cheese.


Chicken thighs marinated in a gochujang-based sauce then baked, plus store-bought kimchi.

briefcasefullof
Sep 25, 2004
[This Space for Rent]
This week will be spaghetti with "meat" sauce - using vegan crumbles for the meat. I ordered a protein pancake mix, so I'll be trying those out for breakfast this week.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

indyrenegade
Apr 5, 2018

and that man's name? ENRICO FERMI
Some firsts this week, but also I have room for improvement. This is a rather heavy meal, with a lot less vegetables than I normally go for. I was too excited about trying new recipes to think of the balance of the what I would be eating, so now I have some comfort food-y lunches this week. Not a bad thing; I eat generally pretty healthy and low carb the rest of the time. Also gonna aim for better pics next week. I meant to do better but got too excited and portioned the food out before I thought to take pics of the individual finished sides.



Made my first from-scratch curry; used gnocchi that had been sitting in my fridge in it. Super basic curry from All Recipes but it has good lingering spice. I'm happy with it. Ended up finishing a pint of yogurt into it, so it's quite a light looking sauce rather than a deeper colored one.



First time pork tonkatsu!!! Followed this video. I left the pork in a brine for about 2 hours then breaded and fried it in vegetable oil. I'm unsure if brining for only 2 hours did me much good; if I do this recipe again I will brine overnight.

The rest of it is a basic frittata with parsley, yellow bell pepper and sausage - I was tired by this point and just needed to round out the food with something easy.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply