Cooking

Whenever I make pancakes, I always make a bunch small enough to fit in the toaster. Toasting them straight from the freezer works perfectly.

I'll make some meat, preferably chicken or steak. Then to stretch it out, I'll cut maybe 4oz into small pieces and put it on a salad. I'm one of those people who prefer my salads with not too much lettuce. So I try to keep on hand

• a bag of salad
• some sunflower seeds -almond slivers -shredded carrots -grated cheese

Then I put the meat on top of the cheese because I like it to melt a little bit. I have an oil and vinegar store near me that sells a really delicious raspberry balsamic vinegar which I use as salad dressing, but you could use your favorite.

Other options are some hummus, olives and/or my favorite, those little potato chip slivers. Just sprinkle a few on top. Yum. This is fairly low calorie, very healthy and if you ask me, delicious salad. You can make this thing pretty big and still have enough calories left over to eat some ice cream.

Oh and also try adding some of those potato chip slivers to your favorite sandwich. It rocks!

Adding to the suggestions for things you can make a big batch of: pulled pork. It reheats and freezes very well, so you can make a huge batch and have it whenever you want it.

Also, just about any type of soup. Just make a huge batch.

I like doing chili and spaghetti. Just make a big batch and freeze for tons of meals.

Cheese Buldak is good and freezes well. I almost always make a double or triple batch and freeze a few raw portions. It's chicken, cheese, and chewy rice cake in a spiecy sauce.

https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/buldak

I do burritos in a can. But by actually canning for long term storage. Something like diced pork, red bell pepper, onion and seasoning. Cram into a pint jar raw, cold pack can for 75 minutes. Shelf stable and any time I want a burrito I dump the contents into a pot and reserve the liquid. Measure the liquid and add half as much rice and the liquid to the pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce to low, wrap it in a tortilla when the rice is done.

I also make freezer burritos. Bean, beef, rice, maybe a mix of two or three. Maybe some cheese or fresh made guajillo sauce. Keep them small so they don't take forever to cook. Place fresh made burritos on a baking sheet and freeze, toss them in a bag for later. Pull out of freezer and you can microwave, air fry or deep fry depending on what you want. Top with cheese, any sauces you have, maybe sour cream.

I'm not a fan of cook ahead pasta. The texture and sauce ratios are never right after three days in the fridge.

Not really meal prep, but I found that the major step forward was the simple act of planning out the meals I want to prepare during the upcoming week beforehand. This allows me to just buy the stuff I need. I then proceed to cook one meal from my weekly list per day. Over the course of the months I got quite good at finding a mix between quick & easy recipes and more ambitious ones.

For all of this I recommend the Paprika3 app. It's an invaluable tool for keeping track of recipes, planning meals for the week and even making a grocery list based on the planned meals. With a family, including small children this really cute down on the wasted time of making several trips to the supermarket.

Chili! I make a big pot of chili every week and have it for lunch and/or dinner. I call it quick chili because it's really easy to throw together without much fuss - 2 bags of frozen onions and peppers, 2-3 cans of beans, lean ground meat, a big jar of salsa, BBQ sauce, powdered bullion, granulated garlic, and chili powder (and maybe also cumin and oregano - depends on how lazy I am that day).

Also, I will cook up a batch of rice for the week, and also several proteins (chicken breasts, burger patties, pork loin, etc). I combine the proteins and rice with frozen veggies and/or beans to make quick meals.

Big vat of curry.

It's cheap, delicious, easily scalable and can be made to fit most any dietary concern. Just made a chickpea masala this week and curry goat the week before.

Lots of good variations on the first idea

• Pasta salad with
• • chicken and BBQ sauce
• • pesto, veggies, feta, and ham
• • cheese sauce and meatballs/bacon/cauliflower
• • cream of mushroom

Also,

• lasagna
• beef&broccoli
• riced veg
• chili
• bao
• stuffed peppers/mushrooms

I prefer batch cooking to meal prep. A burrito rolled on Sunday does not taste good on Wednesday. At all. However, keeping a batch of lentils or quinoa or farro or wilted greens in the fridge leads to easy and healthy meals throughout the week. Soups, salads, bowls, frittatas, scrambles, cakes, etc. All come together in seconds by combining a batch grain with whatever produce I have.

Whenever I manage to do any meal prep, I keep it dead-simple.

Chop up 2 or 3 chicken breasts and cook them in a skillet, divide into 3 or 4 portions to eat throughout the week with different sauces or seasonings.

Roast a bit of broccoli and carrots (or sometimes chickpeas) and use them to have a different side item each day.

Salad bowls!

Make some rice, bake a Costco salmon with lemon slices, and then cook some veg.

Through the week I make bowls with a scoop of rice, piece of salmon, edamame, and vegetables.

You can swap out the salad or vegetables and add seasoning or spices through the week, it’s flexible and easy.

Pay more attention to potatoes. It can be cooked in any way possible and be tasty. Plus it is good hot and cold too.

I like single pot rice based meals for that, they’re generally easy to store and freeze. I’m too lazy to meal prep an entire burrito batch but it can be done too (although wrapping and preventing it from getting undone is tricky). Doing chilli con carne with rice means you can later eat it in a bowl or a tortilla so you get more flexibility - this is my go to.