There are a lot of positives when it comes to meal prep.
Having something to eat every day when you’re dead tired or v busy = great
Building the discipline to set time aside to prepare for the future week = great
It’s pretty and photogenic and you can show off to people = okay
Having to spend half of your weekend cooking and packing and cleaning = uh
Eating the same thing every single day = absolutely terrible please God no
I call BS on the “joy” influencers get when they post these beautiful photos of their expensive Tupperware housing colorful platoons of the same food 10x over.
Whenever I see them, I’m immediately reminded of the behind-the-scenes tactics that advertisers use to make food look delicious in commercials:
Using GLUE instead of milk in cereal so it doesn’t get soggy looking
Microwaving and hiding WET TAMPONS in shots to create steam to make food look hot
Using SHOE POLISH to varnish meat like burgers so they look shiny and succulent
Spraying MOTOR OIL on pancakes so the syrup doesn’t seep into porous flapjacks
Putting DISH SOAP into soda to make it more bubbly
Yeah, it looks good…does it actually taste good?
Are these people really sticking cooked salmon in the microwave? Are they eating it cold?
Both seem like a bummer.
I saw a title of a YouTube vid of a comedian I thought was pretty funny:
You Suck at Meal Prep Because Meal Prep Sucks.
(the vid made me laugh several times and has some great points too 👆🏻)
Some people are totally fine with eating the same thing every day, which is honestly pretty dope and makes life a lot simpler.
But to all the other finicky people that need a different taste explosion in your mouth 3 times a day 7 days a week, but are still slightly lazy, tired, or busy…
…there’s a nice middle ground that’s 100x easier.
Partial meal prep.
Make a lot of one simple thing that can be variably changed into many other things throughout the week.
No joke, I make this every single Monday at the beginning of the week. I never get sick of it because a) it’s really good and b) can be utilized in a lot of different ways.
Pad Ka Prao (Thai Ground Pork)
Ingredients:
Will make enough meat for 3-4 meals for one person.
Necessities:
1 pound of ground pork, beef, or chicken (I typically use pork)
7 large cloves of garlic
1 onion, chopped
2 tbsp. cooking oil
2 tbsp. thin/light soy sauce, 1 tbsp dark sweet soy sauce (or just 3 tbsp. of whatever you have)
1 tbsp. oyster sauce
Near Necessities:
3-7 bird’s eye chilies (or whatever you have, I use Cheongyang Peppers) (depending on your spice intake)
1 cup basil leaves
red chili flakes to taste
crunchy garlic for topping
Eat it with:
Rice and a fried egg (my go-to)
Some crusty bread
Lettuce wraps
Tortillas + taco stuff
Nachos
Your hands
Steps:
1 - Dice your onion, chop up your garlic, chop up your peppers.
Actually, the “authentic” way is to mash these three ingredients (onions, peppers, garlic) into a paste. So if you have a food processor or mortar and prefer to do it like this, go for it. Just seems like more cleaning/work to me.
2 - Add cooking oil to your pan. Sauté your onion for a few minutes on medium heat. Season with S+P and red chili flakes if you like it spicy. After onion has cooked down a bit, add the garlic and peppers right at the end.
The longer you cook down garlic and peppers, the more it mutes its flavor. I want it to punch me in the mouth, so I barely cook it. Like less than a minute.
3 - Add your ground meat to the pan. Let it cook, and break it down as you go.
You can be patient here. It will get easier to break down the more it cooks. I’ll typically move all the onions, garlic, and peppers to one side of the pan, drop the chunk of meat and just let it sit to get as much browning as possible on one side. Then break it up and mix it all together.
4 - Once your meat is mostly browned, it’s time to add the sauciness. Add the fish sauce, soy sauce, and oyster sauce. Mix and let it cook down together.
I added a note about oyster sauce a couple of issues ago. Fish sauce = is another super staple ingredient that lasts forever once you get a bottle. Brings an incredible amount of flavor to anything. Just don’t smell it on its own. Seriously.
There should still be a solid amount of liquid in the pan when it’s done. This will ensure that it will stay nice and juicy if you decide to reheat this later. That sauciness mixed into your rice is a gift from God.
5 - Just before you take the pan off the heat, throw in all your basil and stir it up.
You only want to barely wilt the basil with the residual heat from the pan. That’s how you maximize the fragrance from the herb.
6 - Serve it over rice. Throw on a crispy fried egg on top. If you have some crunchy garlic to throw on top, you get an A+.
That’s it. Save it in some Tupperware and add it wherever necessary. The good thing about this is you only need a little meat and the sauce to bring a ton of flavor to other dishes.
If you meal prep pls leave a comment and tell me how to make it suck less.
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Ooh, I love Jon Favreau, and I have negative cooking skills, so def gonna check out the Chef Show. Thx for the tip!
You had me at "throw a crispy fried egg on top". Eggs are literally the bomb. I think I'll give this a go. I'm actually one of those who likes to cook in bulk and eat the same thing 3 or 4 days in a row then move on. I just made rich bolognese sauce and had it with steamed cauliflower tonight. Tomorrow it might be with Slendier edamame pasta. I'll probably have your recipe with cauliflower rice and a crispy fried egg. Ka-bam, great inspiration, thanks!