So it took me abt 9 hours time this time but I made way more food, and a greater variety so I think I was actually cooking *faster* than the 7 hr meal prep. I started before noon yesterday and did 6.5 hours straight, went to bowling league for 3+ hours, came back and did two more hours so I didn’t get to stop from 11:30 am until after midnight basically. Then I made these breakfast sandwiches today this morning. I have posted before about meal prepping freezer meals in these portion trays with ADHD and in a 8’x10’ kitchenette with only a portable stove and airfryer. Here is the og post if you want to see it: https://www.reddit.com/r/MealPrepSunday/comments/1q3b3mg/7\_hr\_meal\_prep\_with\_adhd\_and\_no\_kitchen/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=mweb3x&utm\_name=mweb3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button
First pic, top row left to right (each comma separates the next tray of food) :
birria consumme, birria meat, more birria meat and Scalloped Zucchini bake, more Scalloped Zucchini and roasted sweet potato w carrots, southern style collard greens w bacon, cheesy chicken broth rice, a big bowl of mashed potatoes that I still have to portion out 😒
First pic, bottom row left to right:
“Tuscan” creamy sausage kale potato soup, another tray of the same soup, instant pot barbecue bourbon baked beans, more baked beans and honey balsamic roasted eggplant mash, green mango curry marinade with chicken thighs (2 vaccum seal bags with marinated meat and a whiskey ice cube tray of the marinade by itself), and some silly little breakfast sandwiches that are just english muffins and some sausage patties with egg n cheese. Not pictured is some vacuum bags with chicken drums marinating in literally just italian dressing from the bottle and s+p.
Next few pictures are of the food during cooking/before portioning so you can kinda see its all “real” food that can be eaten and not just odd frozen bricks of goo lol. Last pic is an assembled dinner that I just ate before writing this post if the mango curry chicken, roasted potatoes/carrots, and just some minute rice (the microwave cups are convenient and good for when I’m exhausted , don’t judge lol) with a bit of the extra cooked marinade sauce drizzled on top of the rice. No picture of me this time, just trust that I’m EXHAUSTED after all that lol.
There are actually some recipes this time! I took the time to write them out for y’all (but also for me so I can actually remember how I made something lol) but I don’t really use exact measurements so it was VERY difficult lmao. I’ll put it in the comments! I skipped my adderall today, so fair warning that if you follow the recipes at home then you may not end up with a final product exactly like mine… but they should be a good reference point.
Thank you to everyone who gave me advice on cooking in a small space last time. Since that post, I got more of the duper cubes in different sizes per your suggestions. I found a different outlet near the kitchen to do some of the cooking on to avoid tripping the breaker. I also majorly upgraded from that stupid cheap crappy electric burner to an induction one. I love it soooo much faster and I’m shook that I can boil water in like 5 min now instead of 25!!! I didn’t think I had any pans that were induction compatible so I avoided it cause I didn’t want to have to buy all new pans but turns out my enameled cast iron dutch oven and all my regular cast iron skillets IS indeed compatible! It seriously upped my meal prep game soooo much. I’ve ordered a stainless steel fry pan (with magnetized bottom made for induction) so that will be coming soon. Bus tubs are coming soon in order to keep sink space available without having to stop and do dishes.
Also, a lot of people were asking if the souper cubes are worth it. I got the “douper” cubes for half the price on Amazon so they were worth the price to me, but whether or not they’ll be actually useful to you is highly individual. I was freezing stuff in ziploc bags and plastic meal prep containers before and these portions trays are so much more convenient for me and stack well in the freezer. Its nice to not have to heat up 6 portions of something at a time and have to keep eating it meal after meal, I can just reheat one portion and eat something else the next meal if I wish.
by phoebestars69
3 Comments
Recipes:
Please be mindful when following these that i’m not good at exact measurements, but tried my best to estimate!!
Sausage kale potato soup:
Makes about 8ish cups of soup?
• 16 oz johnsonville ground sausage
• Unsalted Butter
• Half a diced yellow onion
• 6-7 medium sized red potatoes (sorry I have no idea how many pounds it was, maybe 2.5?) diced
• 4 cups kale (uncooked measurement)
• 3-10 cloves minced garlic (use your heart)
• Crushed red pepper
• Dried parsley
• Dried rosemary
• Sundried tomatoes
• 6ish cups of water
• Chicken bouillon paste (the better than bouillon brand is cracked)
• 1/4 cup of heavy cream
• A sprinkle of shredded Parmesan cheese
1. Melt butter in a heavy bottomed enameled dutch oven. Sautee onion but don’t let it get too browned. 3ish minutes
2. Add sausage and brown, adding garlic at the same time and taking care to stir occasionally and not to let it burn. Remove the sausage and set aside.
3. Add your kale in batches and about a cup of water, scraping the browned bits. Don’t worry about how much kale it is, it’ll shrink as it cooks I promise!
4. Add the rest of the water and chicken bouillon paste according to the bouillon’s directions, bring to boil
5. Add the red pepper, rosemary, and parsley plus s+p to taste and keep a light boil until potatoes are cooked through, stirring occasionally.
6. Add sausage back in and sundried tomatoes and stir everything like a mf. Turn off heat and let cool some before finishing with heavy cream and parm.
Green Mango curry marinade:
Makes 2.5 ish cups of finished sauce.
• 2 mangos (mine weren’t ripe at all lmaooo)
• One jalapeno, deseeded
• Juice of two limes
• Abt one full bunch of cilantro, stems removed. Half gets set aside to put in whole when you bag the marinade. For aesthetic reasons.
• A 1/2” knob of ginger
• 3-4 tablespoons of white sugar, less if your mangos are ripe
• Pinch of cayenne
• Teaspoonish of yellow curry powder (that is a lot, but life is short). You can use red curry, but it makes the final color a weird shade of dookie brown.
• 2 cloves garlic
• Half of a yellow onion
• One full 15 oz can of coconut milk
• A dash (or 4 dashes; I’m Vietnamese) of fish sauce. If you leave this out, you’re a lil b***h fr…it adds so much flavor.
1. Blend it all together in a food processor. It’s totally ok if the coconut milk gets a bit chunky, it’ll all get frozen and reheated and the chunks will melt then. Taste and adjust as you go.
2. Watch as your bf eats almost 1/4 of it straight out of the blender with a spoon bc its so good.
3. Use as marinade for chicken, shrimp, other light meats or as a sauce/salsa on top of tacos or sandwiches
Barbecue baked beans:
Makes like 8-9 1/2 cup portions
https://youtu.be/HWZ-m5pfznY?si=l9KABkaG7_aokPU4 I did pretty much exactly this process and similar amounts/ingredients but subbed the beans for pinto beans, the maple syrup for honey and added abt 3/4 cup of Stubbs smokey brown sugar barbecue sauce, a diced poblano pepper and like 5 shots of jim beam bourbon. They’re really good if you add those additional things!!!
Eggplant mash:
I raw dogged this one straight from my head but its really good! I’d estimate these amounts make 6-8 slightly less than full 1/2 cup souper cube portions.
• 6 big eggplants, diced into 1 inch pieces. I know thats a lot but I used 3 and it didn’t make nearly enough so get 6. Maybe even get like 10 eggplants bc the final product is genuinely better than coke, speaking as someone who’s done coke. Its seriously addictive and very easy to eat through a lot!
• Olive oil
• 8-12 whole cloves of fresh garlic, peeled and butthole part removed.
• 2 tsp Smoked paprika
• S+p
• 2 tbsp Balsamic glaze (i used the taste of inspirations brand)
• 3ish tbsp Honey
• 1-2 tbsp Sesame oil
1. Roast the eggplants and garlic in olive oil, sesame oil, s+p, smoked paprika at 350 for 20-25 min. Make sure to turn halfway through. Cover the garlic with the eggplants so it doesn’t burn. Let cool some before proceeding.
2. Mash by hand (don’t blend this, its not the same!) and add honey, and balsamic glaze. Taste and add additional salt/smoked paprika if needed.
Scalloped Zucchini Bake
Makes 4-6 half cup portions maybe…
• 5 medium Zucchini squash, thinly sliced
• Half a yellow onion
• A cup of heavy cream
• S+p
• 3/4 cup parmesan
• 3tbs melted butter
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
• Dried parsley
• Dried herbs de provence
1. Sautee onions in butter. Once translucent, add in zucchini and cook for a couple minutes on medium heat.
2. Add in cream and herbs and cook on low-medium heat until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. Season with s+p to taste. Zucchini should be a bit undercooked at this point.
3. Remove zuchinni from heat and stir in parmesan
4. Stir melted butter with breadcrumbs, s+p to taste.
5. Add zucchini mixture to a lubed baking dish and top with bread crumb mixture and bake at 325 until brown, 15ish minutes?
Roasted potatoes and carrots
No amounts for this one, sorry. My brain hurts.
• Potatoes and carrots, duh
• Butter
• Cinnamon
• Brown Sugar
• S+ p
1. Peel and cut your veggies into 1” pieces
2. Drizzle over melted butter
3. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon and brown sugar and toss to coat
4. Add s+p, do this after the cinnamon sugar part for better results.
5. Roast at 375 for 25-30 minutes, turning every 10 to avoid burning.
Mashed potatoes:
Nobody wants to dice up and boil potatoes when ur making this much frickin’ food. I use the ones you microwave in the plastic bag. The bpa’s and microplastics will strengthen me idc. Once they’re microwaved I use a ricer and mash them (its like 4 lbs between the two bags I bought with abt 1 cup milk, abt 4 oz sour cream, 4 tablespoons melted butter, and about a cup of shredded parm. S+p plus garlic powder and dried rosemary to taste. Don’t worry about using fresh, the flavor comes together when it sits in the freezer.
Birria/consumme:
https://youtu.be/M1YfIiFO_PE?si=MR7AsEfVzv0vM3Xf
Collard Greens:
I make them in an instant pot to save time and use bacon instead of smoked ham/turkey neck the way its traditionally done. The rest of the exact recipe I will gatekeep bc its *very* special to me. But some of the basic ingredients for southern style collard greens: chicken broth, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, diced onion.
That birria looks 🔥
Well done with your whole menu!
Everything looks delicious. Thank you for the recipes!