Photo by S'well on Unsplash

I've been pre-cooking my meals for three years now — here's how to spend only 2h cooking per week

Cooking takes away a lot of time and since people keep asking, here are the best recipes so far — tweaked to suit the preferences of pre-cooking.

There are exactly five things I judge a meal on: Taste, prep speed, price, calories, health. And one of them has to be bad. Meal prepping is the only way to push this boundary through economy of scales (sacrificing variety between meals I guess). Everything I eat is fairly healthy and high in calories to cover my needs. So, below I will rate the meals only on the other three categories.

I guess you could get around variety constraints by either freezing a lot of meals or taking turns/pre-cooking with a large group, so it's only for 1–3 meals.

I have bought 7x big glass bowls with cover and 14x smaller ones to be able to create and transport meals that have two components.

I make sure every ingredient is eatable with a spoon: cut things into small enough pieces.

Generally, I pre-cook on the weekends for the entire week. Usually two recipes (lunch and dinner) with 6 meals each. And then on the weekends I freestyle one lunch and one dinner.

Recently, I've found someone to outsource the cooking to. Highly recommend for even more time savings.

1. Buckwheat bowl

Taste ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Speed ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Price ⭐️⭐️

Ingredients

• 1kg buchwheat
• 1.5kg minced meat
• 1.5kg frozen brokkoli or pak choi
• 300g chestnuts
• 400g walnuts
• Salt, pepper, ghee (for frying), soy sauce and chilis
• optional: pearl barley

Preparations

1. Start to cook the buckwheat (and pearl barley)
2. Fry the minced meat in ghee
3. But the veggies in the oven
4. Put chestnuts into microwave as described on package
5. Put everything in one big pot, stir, season and then distribute into containers

2. Salad bowl

Taste ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Speed ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Price ⭐️⭐️️️⭐️️️

Ingredients

• 1.5kg Carrots
• 1.5kg Chicken
• Carbs: either 2kg (sweet) potatoes, 1kg buckwheat or 1kg quinoa
• Sauce: Balsamico, honey, olive oil, mustard, (optional: pepper)
• 1–2kg of frozen veggies: Brokkoli, cauliflower, peas, green beans

Preparations

• Put the carrots at the bottom, they won't change if soaked in water (which collects at the bottom)
• Prep the sauce in a separate container and add it the day you want to eat the meal. Sauce is just 1/3 of each balsamico vinegar, olive oil and mustard and a bit of honey and optionally coarse pepper

3. Butter chicken

Taste ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐⭐️
Speed ⭐️
Price ⭐️⭐️️

Butter chicken | Recipe | Kitchen Stories

4. Chickpeas & rice bowl

Taste ⭐⭐⭐
Speed ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ingredients

• Whole grain rice
• Chickpeas
• Pork bacon stuff
• Onions

Preparation

1. Chickpeas: put in bowl, mix with olive oil, paprika, pepper and salt; then spread in oven for 40 minutes until crunchy -> make sure to open oven repeatedly to let the moisture out
2. Rice: in a pot you put olive oil and put onions. Once onions are brown put rice and water to cook the rice
3. Pork: fry it in pan add pepper and salt. Make sure to cut into small enough pieces to eat the final meal with a spoon.
4. Cut and fry bell peppers or other veggies (brokkoli)
5. Mix everything

5. Beet root salad

Taste ⭐⭐⭐
Speed ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ingredients

• 400g walnuts
• 1.5kg fresh beetroot
• 1kg chicken
• 1.4kg red lentils
• 600g feta cheese
• Sauce 1: olive oil, mustard, balsamico, honey
• Sauce 2: olive oil, soy sauce

Preparations

1. Wash the beet root and use a food processor or a grater to get it into small pieces. Watch out for cloths as this stuff colors everything. Don't use wooden boards, just metal, ceramics or plastic.
2. Cut chicken into small pieces and fry.
3. Cook red beans. Red lentils don't need to soak, just cook for ca. 10 min. Don't overcook (that's very easy).
4. Mix everything in a big bowls and add the feta cheese (squeeze in hands to break down) and the walnuts.
5. Distribute in bowls.
6. Mix the sauce(s) and add in the morning of consumption.

6. Lauchkuchen

[yet to be meal prepped]

Ingredients

Preparations

7. Keema curry

Taste ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Speed ⭐⭐
Price ⭐⭐⭐

Keema curry (Spiced ground beef with potatoes) | Recipe | Kitchen Stories

8. Red Thai curry

Taste ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Speed ⭐⭐⭐
Price ⭐⭐

Rotes Thai Curry mit Hähnchen | Rezept | Kitchen Stories

9. Banh Mi

Taste ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Speed ⭐⭐⭐
Price ⭐⭐⭐

This one is yummy and unique — but hard to transport, i.e. only home office compatible.

Hoi An's famous Vietnamese Banh Mi and special sauce - Taste Topics

Mẹ đảm nổi tiếng gợi ý cách làm cơm gà kiểu Hội An siêu ngon cho cuối tuần

10. Sweet potato bowl

Taste ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Speed ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price ⭐⭐⭐

Ingredients

• 1kg carrots
• 5 onions
• 1 pack of tomato sauce
• 1kg soy beans, red beans or chick peas
• 1kg chicken
• Thyme, oregano, pepper, salt
• 2kg sweet potatoes
• 600g grated cheese

Preparations

1. Cook onion, garlic and carrot in a pan with olive oil
2. Add drained soy beans, red beans or chickpeas as well as spices, salt and soy sauce. Sauté for 5 min over high heat, add pepper, soy sauce, tomato, thyme and water.
3. Cut chicken into small pieces and fry with ghee.
4. Wash sweet potatoes, puncture the peel with a fork and put it in the oven or microwave until soft.
5. Peel the sweet potatoes, add salt and pepper and mash them.
6. Mix everything in a big pot, add the cheese and seasoning, distribute in containers.

Inspiration from here.

11. Chorizo bowl

Ingredients

1. Amaranth, millet, bulgur
2. Chorizos pikante
3. Eggs
4. Tomato sauce

Preparations

1. Cook carbs
2. Cut and fry chorizo
3. Fry eggs
4. Mix

12. Chicken marbella

13. Potato bolognesa

Favorite snacks

1. Cinnamon sticks (tons of flavor, low calorie)
2. Fermented cacao (tons of calories, makes you dislike chocolate, healthy)
3. Adadiya Pak
4. Medjool dates (unhealthiest snack I consume — but still better than Haribos)
5. Self-made hummus

Favorite add-ons & sauces

1. Ajvar sauce

Tricks

To figure out how much salt a dish needs take a little of it. Salt it. Try it. Salt more and try gain until slightly salty then take the previous level for the big pot.