Hi everyone! So I don’t do all of my meal prep all at once. Instead, I’ll typically do some significant prep a couple days a week, and the results will feed the freezer as well as set me up for that week. Case in point here! You’re seeing three days of breakfast with those strawberry overnight oat+chia pudding, at this point I eyeball the recipe and just try to track that I won’t abuse the quantities with my coffee serving spoon. For the rest of the week’s breakfasts, I will pull one of my homemade McMuffins, or today I warmed up a thawed bagel and ate it with cream cheese and avocado.
In the weekend I made a batch of croquetas for a birthday party (recipe in Spanish but you can dump it on Google Translate: https://www.petitchef.es/recetas/entrante/croquetas-de-pollo-y-champinones-fid-1513294). Some of them went to the freezer, and that bag you’re seeing in my collage picture? There were two of them with the surplus chicken breasts I’d bought, shredded for future sandwiches, salads, bowls etc. Super easy: sear on the pan, then dump in a pot with broth, S&P and boil for some 15-20 mins. I will cut them in pieces and my string chopper takes care of the rest (amazing kitchen gadget omg). Which, speaking of gimmicks, get yourself a corn chucker. Mine arrived yesterday and the lone cob of corn I’d bought will now stretch for a couple salads/healthy meals this week, for instance with one of those marinaded beef bags you’re seeing. A large tray of 400 gr was on sale for $6.81 at my usual supermarket, so most of it went to the freezer. Marinades were just my choice of three spices (skewers blend, Cajun and ras-el-hanout) with lemon juice, salt, EVOO and for the ras one, yoghurt. They will do their thing when the meat thaws!
Now for the vegetable situation. I ordered one kg sweet snap peas and 500 gr asparagus for real cheap online ($3.95) and though they took some time to shell and prep, now they’re there! Along with some mint, onion, radish and bell pepper from last week, they made for some great veg stir fry that I paired with some lentil pappardelle I found in my dry pantry. Add taters with either chicken meatballs or (not pictured) salmon (both from previous meal prep in the freezer) and I am set for two meals! Salmon I marinated with fish masala and coconut milk, just eyeballed. Chicken meatballs recipe I took from some instagrammer, sorry!
Dinners are always made at home fresh, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t some thinking involved. Take that eel and the tuna, for instance. Both bought online in advance for $9.64; when my order arrived I wasn’t home and so in the evening I found that the eel and one of my tuna fillets were partially thawed. No biggie! Eel made for dinner yesterday with a bag of salad greens, and tuna will be prepped tonight in a cinch for another meal this week, while the other fillet stays in the freezer. What do I have there right now? Pesto…bolognese…some bread…butter chicken…all of what I mentioned above…roasted chicken with veg…and I am probably forgetting something.
Congrats if you read all this haha. It’s a bit chaotic but here’s how I eat a wide variety of foods weekly, always having a backup in my fridge and without breaking the bank (I wouldn’t say “for cheap” because groceries just aren’t cheap, but the maths always beat eating out properly). This is all for one though my partner will sometimes sit to the table too. 💖 Hope it gives you some inspiration and feel free to ask!
by PresentationAlive279