What are some of your go-to recipes for meal prepping when you’re pouring from an empty cup? Ideally, they would be fairly quick and easy to whip up, keep their flavour well, and be office friendly. I’m loving meal-prepping for work, but I find cooking to be particularly difficult when my mental health hits a low. Finding inspiration for meals that won’t be too taxing to prepare but will still keep me interested in eating can be a real challenge. You’re great in the kitchen, so I trust you’d be just the right person to weigh in!
Dear Cooking for One,
I was SO excited to see this question come into my inbox last month (sorry it’s taken so long to reply!), because as you mention… I do think I’m pretty great in the kitchen when it comes to cooking, baking, meal prepping, etc.
I’m going to share my system for meal prepping and cooking, along with a couple recipes and cookbooks. Even if my system doesn’t work for you I hope you gain a couple new recipes to try and enjoy! A couple caveats: I love meal planning and eating leftovers, and I enjoy following a recipe. So, if those two things sound more draining to you than helpful my tips won’t be of much use. Hopefully, even if my system doesn’t work for you, you gain a couple new recipes to try and enjoy!
I came up with my meal prepping system, because my previous job required me to work evenings a few nights every month. I couldn’t afford to eat out much, so I had to figure out how to cook for one on a budget and on a busy schedule. This still works for me now, even on a very different work schedule. What I would recommend to start is that you sit down one evening and take a look at the next week of your life. I literally take my planner out, along with a couple of my cookbooks, and sit down each week to plan my meals. I write down what meals I will be eating for lunch and dinner next to my to-do lists, plans, notes, etc. in my planner. To start, you should decide what you want to make for lunch and dinner the next day; pick a meal that will last a couple of days. If you’re following a recipe, it’ll tell you how many servings you should get out of the recipe. Count out that many days on your calendar and you’ll see that you’ll need to make food however many days later. If you see that you have evening plans that night and won’t be able to make dinner then, see if you’ll have time the evening before and cook it up then! With lunch, it can be even easier than that and you can designate Sunday as your meal prep day. Cook up a batch of soup, divide up a big salad, or prep sandwiches for the week on Sunday afternoon. That way all you have to do every morning is pull out the containers and you’ll be good to go for lunch every day. I’m sure you’re wondering about breakfast; I love breakfast, but usually keep it really simple. I just buy eggs, yogurt, bagels, whatever I’m feeling like eating that week. After I decide what meals I want to eat for the week, I pull out my Notes app on my phone and make the grocery list of what I’ll need to buy to make those meals. I never go grocery shopping without a list; even with one I still forget things I needed to buy often!
You mention it can be hard to meal prep when you’re struggling with your mental health. Maybe this sounds like too much work to you, we all handle our low mental health days differently. I know it might sound a bit ‘too much’ to sit down and plan out your meals like I do, but when you lead a busy life taking that 15 minutes one day a week to just make a plan for your week could help you in the long run. It has for me, at least! I love cooking, but I also love not having to cook every single night for dinner. I also would suggest, if you have the freezer space, to use it and freeze leftover servings! They can be so handy to pull out on those days that you really don’t have the energy to cook.
Ultimately, don’t be so hard on yourself if you do end up ordering takeaway every other day or eating those Pot of Noodles you have in your cupboard three days in a row because that’s all you have the energy for. Shaming yourself for what you eat will only make you feel worse. Just accept that you gave your body some kind of nourishment and call it good enough.
My favorite meal prep dishes
While I’m confident enough in my cooking skills to not follow a recipe all the time, I personally find it’s just easier at the end of the day to use a recipe. I love collecting cookbooks and finding new favorite recipes. Once you make a recipe a couple times, you can make it your own too so there’s still a chance to experiment and make it your own! My favorite cookbooks are Chrissy Teigen’s Cravings books. Anyone who has ate in my kitchen before knows how obsessed I am with her food. And then they try something I made from one of her cookbooks and can taste why I am too. Her food is so flavorful, fun and mostly very easy to make. I am a big fan of her soup recipes and the fusion recipes she has; she loves to take classic dishes and give them a twist that I personally love. I also cook from Antoni Porowski’s cookbooks when I want something a bit more elegant and Joanna Gaine’s cookbooks for classic American dishes. If cookbooks aren’t your thing, luckily the internet is great for finding new recipes! Food Network, Good Food, and Allrecipes are my go-to’s to find online recipes. While I have so many favorite recipes, here are three of my favorites that are especially good for meal prepping!
Vegetable Tortilla Stew from Cravings by Chrissy Teigen
This is one of my favorite stews to make during soup season. It’s so filling AND vegetarian (even vegan) friendly! This would be a good recipe to freeze too if you have the freezer space.
Serves: 5
Cook Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes
Ingredients for the stew
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion, diced
1 large green bell pepper, diced
1 large jalapeno pepper finely diced (include the seeds) ((I’ve also used red chili flakes in a pinch))
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Kosher salt and black pepper
4 cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth
2 15-ounce cans diced tomatoes in juice
2 15-ounce cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup cooked rice
Ingredients for the Tortilla Strips
2 cups vegetable oil, for frying
4 corn tortillas
Kosher salt
Ingredients for serving
Roughly chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1 avocado, sliced
Shredded cheddar cheese
Method for the stew
1. In a soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, and jalapeno. Cook, stirring, until the onion is translucent, about 10 minutes.
2. Add the garlic, chili powder, cumin, cayenne, 2 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp black pepper and cook about 2 minutes.
3. Add the broth, tomatoes, and beans and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
4. Add the rice and cook until the stew gets nice and thick, about 15 minutes more.
Method for tortilla strips
1. Fill a saucepan with a couple inches of oil and heat over medium-high heat.
2. Stack the tortillas on top of each other and cut them into thin strips.
3. Add small handfuls of the strips into the hot oil and fry until crisp, 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Pull them out with a slotted spoon, drain on paper towels, and add salt to them.
To serve, garnish with cilantro, avocado, cheese and the strippies.
Pad Thai Carbonara from Cravings: Hungry for More by Chrissy Teigen
I LOVE this recipe; it’s easily one of my favorite simple, but oh-so-flavorful meals. The fusion of pasta and Asian flavors checks all my favorite things.
Serves: 4
Total Cook Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients
1 small head of broccoli
2.5 tbsp sweet soy sauce
1 tbsp liquid soybean paste
1.5 tsp fish sauce
1.5 tsp less-sodium soy sauce
3 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into 1-inch squares
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
.5 tsp Thai chili powder
.5 cup chicken broth
.5 lb. spaghetti, cooked to al dente, drained, and oiled
2 eggs, beaten
2 scallions, cut into 1-inch lengths
Method
1. Separate the broccoli crown from the stem. Trim the end off the stem, peel it, and cut it crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick coins. Separate the crown into small florets. In a small bowl, whisk together the sweet soy, soybean paste, fish sauce, and less-sodium soy to make the sauce.
2. In a wok or very large sauté pan, cook the bacon over medium heat until just gently crisped. Add the garlic, and chili powder and cook stirring for an additional minute. Increase the heat to medium-high, add the sauce, and cook until reduced slightly.
3. Add the broccoli, splash with half the chicken broth, and cook until just tender, 3-5 minutes. Increase the heat to high. Add the spaghetti and the rest of the broth and cook, tossing, until very hot and the sauce is absorbed, 3-5 minutes (if it feels too dry, splash in more broth a little at a time). Season with more soy and/or fish sauce to taste.
4. Remove the pan from the heat, add the eggs, and toss until the eggs are creamy. Toss in the scallions and serve.
Chicken Tikka Masala with Garlic Naan Pita from Cravings: All Together by Chrissy Teigen
One of my favorite big-batch meals to prepare. Takes a bit more prep time, but so worth the end result! This could also be frozen and pulled out in a pinch.
Serves: 6-8
Total Cook Time: 1 hour and 25 minutes
Ingredients for Spice Blend
4 tsp ground garam masala
1 tbsp ground cumin
2 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1.5 tsp ground coriander
.5 tsp cayenne pepper
Ingredients for Chicken Tikka Masala
1.5 cups plain whole-milk Greek yogurt
3 tbsp finely minced garlic
1 1/2 inch piece fresh ginger, grated on a microplane
4 tsp kosher salt
2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs, patted dry and cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks
3 tbsp ghee, clarified butter, or unsalted butter
1 jumbo yellow onion, finely diced
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 15-ounche can tomato sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1.5 cup heavy cream or half-and-half
.5 cup frozen peas, defrosted
.5 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2-3 cups of cooked basmati rice, for serving (depends on how much rice you like)
Ingredients for Garlic Naan Pita
1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tbsp roughly chopped garlic
.5 tsp salt
2 Pita breads, split open and halves separated
Method for Chicken Tikka Masala
1. Make the spice blend by combining all the spices in a small bowl.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the yogurt, 1.5 tbsp of the garlic, half the ginger, and 2 tbsp of the spice mix. Add 2 tsp of salt and stir until smooth. Add the chicken and stir to coat. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes and up to 6 hours. Remove the chicken from the brown and discard any excess marinade.
3. Heat 1 tbsp of the ghee or butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add half the chicken mixture, spacing it apart a bit in a single layer, and brown, not moving the chicken if you can avoid it, for 3 minutes, until golden underneath. Carefully flip and fry another 3 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate, then repeat with the remaining chicken, adding a bit more ghee to coat the pan, if necessary. Cover the chicken with foil to keep warm.
4. Reduce the heat to medium, add the remaining 2 tbsp of ghee to the pain, then add the onion and cook, stirring often and scraping the bottom of the skillet to loosen any browned bits, until the onion begins to soften. Add the remaining 1.5 tbsp garlic and the remaining ginger and cook, stirring often for 1-2 minutes. Add the tomato paste, then stir in the remaining 2 tbsp of the spice blend. Cook, stirring, until fragrant for 30 seconds.
5. Add the tomato sauce, sugar, and the remaining 2 tsp salt, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce darkens and thicken slightly, 10-12 minutes. Stir in the cream until evenly combined, and cook until the sauce begins to bubble, 1-2 minutes. Gently return the chicken to the skillet and cook for an additional 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is thick. Add the peas during the last 3 minutes of cooking. 6. Season with salt and more cayenne to taste, the stir in the cilantro and serve with the rice and pita.
Method for Garlic Naan Pita
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. In a small bowl, combine the butter, garlic and salt. Spread one-fourth of the mix on the insides o each pita half, arrange the pita on a baking sheet, and bake until the pita and garlic are golden in spots and the butter is sizzling, 6 to 7 minutes.
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...But Not With Haste 