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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.
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# ? Aug 27, 2018 22:49 |
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# ? May 4, 2024 10:07 |
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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
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# ? Aug 28, 2018 01:41 |
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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. 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.
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# ? Aug 28, 2018 05:11 |
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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?
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# ? Aug 28, 2018 20:37 |
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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!!!!
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# ? Aug 28, 2018 21:53 |
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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.
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# ? Aug 28, 2018 22:40 |
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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. 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. 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.
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# ? Aug 29, 2018 18:10 |
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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. 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.
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# ? Aug 29, 2018 18:41 |
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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.
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# ? Aug 30, 2018 14:17 |
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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).
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# ? Aug 30, 2018 18:01 |
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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?
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# ? Aug 30, 2018 18:22 |
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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.
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# ? Aug 30, 2018 18:35 |
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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 |
# ? Aug 30, 2018 19:17 |
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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.
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# ? Aug 31, 2018 00:07 |
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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.
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# ? Aug 31, 2018 03:47 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 1, 2018 00:43 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 1, 2018 22:48 |
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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
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# ? Sep 1, 2018 22:54 |
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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 |
# ? Sep 2, 2018 01:42 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 2, 2018 14:31 |
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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
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# ? Sep 4, 2018 13:24 |
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indyrenegade posted:this week: 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.
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# ? Sep 4, 2018 14:37 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 4, 2018 16:48 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 4, 2018 17:05 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 4, 2018 20:56 |
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one of my best purchases was a GOOD rice cooker -- $75 for a 'used' (read: new) zojirushi from amazon warehouse deals.
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# ? Sep 5, 2018 00:59 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 5, 2018 04:04 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 9, 2018 17:11 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 10, 2018 17:01 |
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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?
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# ? Sep 10, 2018 18:25 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 10, 2018 19:56 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 10, 2018 20:43 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 11, 2018 01:20 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 11, 2018 01:27 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 11, 2018 06:59 |
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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:
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# ? Sep 12, 2018 02:55 |
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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 |
# ? Sep 12, 2018 03:39 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 16, 2018 11:16 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 16, 2018 22:31 |
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# ? May 4, 2024 10:07 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 17, 2018 03:25 |