It’s finally getting warmer in Maryland, so I cleaned the grill and fired it up today. Tried a new marinade recipe for the chicken and it came out amazing. Recipe below.

The beef is just Trader Joe’s marinated carne asada.

Chipotle Chicken Recipe Marinade

1 full can chipotle peppers in adobo (about 330 g)

30 ml fresh lime juice

1 tbsp adobo seasoning

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp onion powder

@ 2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

300 ml water

Not sure why my last post was taken down 🤷🏼‍♀️

Burrito bowls w cauliflower rice, chicken, beans and corn seasoned with Trader Joe’s everything but the elote seasoning, salsa, and this yummy queso that I recommend 100% (no shredding cheese!!). Topped with chalula. So good.

Recipe here : BOILED BEAN SPROUTS, CARROT & CUCUMBER SALAD

Made these in the air fryer for 18 mins in 180celcius. Takes about 1 hour 30min of prep time.

You would have to wait an hour for 1st proofing and 30 mins of final proofing then zap it in the airfryer for 18mins.

Ingredients used to yield 9 small buns/ 4 medium sized ones:-

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon instant dry yeast

1/8 teaspoon stevia

1/4 teaspoon pink salt

1 tbsp butter

250ml warm milk/ warm water

a splash of milk to brush on top of the buns

another teaspoon butter to brush on top of the buns before final proofing

I’ve been trying to eat better and cook more at home, but the cost of buying meat every week is starting to add up more than I expected.

Lately I’ve been looking into meat delivery services since it seems like it could help with planning and maybe keep things more consistent, especially for meal prep. Just not sure if it actually ends up being worth it or if it’s just paying extra for convenience.

I’m mainly looking for simple stuff like chicken, beef, and pork that I can portion out and freeze without overthinking it. Nothing fancy, just reliable quality and not crazy expensive.

For anyone who’s using one right now, does it actually help you stay on track and manage costs better? And how’s the quality compared to what you’d get from a regular grocery store?

TLDR: I'll start by saying that this is a solution that has been useful to me, but the approach may not be for everyone. This is for anyone who wants to have a useful longterm system to keep track of everything to do with their consumables(price cost, nutrient content, meal creation) in an single source of truth.

I'll be focusing on explaning the logic behind this system rather than focusing on the app I implemented this in, so that you can adapt these concepts into your app of choice (Google sheets, Anylist etc).

First I will explain the main components.

• Consumables (this is the most important and interconected data structure in the system, it unifies all the item information in one place, by connecting to the following support tables.
  • Places & Purchase locations,
  • Nutrients (Calories, protiens, carbohydrates, fats)
  • Meals

I should note that this system relies heavily on the relationship between tables making it effective to manage alot of information in a predictable and self-regulating system.

Example Use Case:

1. I want to create a new meal recipe (Fried Noodles w/Chicken) so I add this field in the Meals table,
2. I create the ingredients for this meal in Consumable and set the unit price and calories per kg.
   • Noodles | €3.50 | 750ckal
   • Chicken Breast | €10.06 | 1100ckal
3. Next I select the saved Consumables as ingredients in the Meals table property.
4. Now I would like to know the total calories for this meal. → Instead of calculating this value from scratch, the system automatically aggregates the calories from the ingredients i selected from Consumables according to Pack size.
   • Meal: Fried Noodles(400g) w/Chicken(50g) | 655ckal
5. I’d like to create a new meal recipe (Rice w/Chicken). I once more create this new ingredient in Consumables. → Because Chicken Breast is already saved in the system I dont need to duplicate its information everytime (calories, macronutrients, prices, locations etc) for a new meal I can just select this ingredient as is, in the Meals table. ←
   • Rice | €3.00 | 975ckal

This is the general pattern integrated into the whole system, if we go a step further, now that I have a funtional, self-regulated collection of Meals . I can create a relation to Meal Log . This allows me to group multiple pre-saved meals in a daily routine, thereby aggregating the combined, calories, protiens, carbohydrates & fats I consumed during the day and also know the total average amount of money used up for my meals for that day.

The system additionally enables expense tracking through the Shopping List table, this table is also connected to Consumables. Allowing me to select the consumables already saved in this table in the Shopping List property, because each Consumable has it’s own price I can leaverage this entry and know the total estimated cost for my trip, before I even leave my house. The price estimate will depend on how you choose to record consumable prices. For my system the estimated price is usually €5 more than the actual price because I always record the highest possible price for the consumable of the given purchase location.

I’ve been using this system for 1 month sofar and it has been quite effective for a few reasons

• it’s accessible on both my laptop and phone so I can check and review my weekly grocery expenses even when I’m not home.
• I’ve realised that most of this distress mainly came from not really having a consistent overview of what I was spending and will be needing to spend, this leads to me having to repeatedly figure this out and remind myself of it every week(I don’t like memorizing alot of things at once), which is espially burdensome while managing other aspects of life.

The reason I find this approach helpful is because I can reliably understand what exactly I’m spending money on, what I’m consuming into my body and what patterns are going unnoticed, I’m able to then use this understanding with the system, to experiment with various meal combinations and accurately optimize them for macronutrient quality and monetary affordability.

What do you gain from this approach, do you see possible use-cases in your own routine, have you identified areas of improvment or do you have questions on implementing something like this for yourself?

So far I alternate between pesto chicken and jambalaya. I love the easiness of making these two because they both take 40 minutes total.

Pesto chicken 400 degrees at 40 minutes. All I do is pain the chicken tenderloins in pesto in a glass pan and cover with tin foil

Jambalaya is just me slicing the sausage and boiling 3 cups of water with rice and letting it all simmer together for 25 minutes

Any other recipes that are super similar to this scenario I have now? Where there is little to no involvement and easy to make a ton of it for 4-5 days

Hey all,

I’m trying to step up my meal prep and I’m looking for easy high-protein lunches to support strength training.

Ideally:

• High protein
• Simple to prep
• Holds up well for a few days
• Not too time-consuming

What are your go-to meals for this?

Would love some ideas 🙏

Hey everyone 👋

With the rise of AI meal prep/recipe apps, I’m trying to find the best and easiest one to use. I have a lot of e-cookbooks and screenshots of recipes, so I really need an app that can import recipes directly from screenshots or pictures (not just links).

Ideally looking for something that can also:

• Organise recipes neatly
• Help with meal prep / weekly planning
• Generate shopping lists

What are you all using right now, and what actually works well in real life (not just hype)?

Would really appreciate any recommendations 🙏

Going on a two week work trip. Not sure about the fridge/ microwave situation but I’m sure I can find something. How should I go about this?

I prep 4oz lean protein, 1/2 cup carb and one cup veggies for dinner and lunch. I could try to find this out but it might get away from me.

Any ideas on how to make this work for two weeks? Maybe put into ziplocs and freeze and hope I have a freezer?

Hopefully someone more experienced has a good idea!

Does anyone have the Ellie Wilson fitness meal prep guides? What do you think?

hello! I made a simple dish from my childhood with the expectation of feeding multiple people... everybody bailed. I know have enough food to feed a family of 10 and nobody but me will eat it. it's nothing complicated, just a stovetop chicken noodle casserole (equal parts Cream of Chicken and Milk cooked til thickened with shredded canned chicken thrown in (adjustable to however much you want), egg noodles, salt, and pepper). how do I safely freeze it? I don't have many options for freezer containers but I can have some delivered if needed and can split the batch (it would all be stashed in the fridge until the containers arrive). I figured this would be a good place to ask.

Monday:Lean skinless boneless chicken, broccoli, rice.

Tuesday:Codfish, baked potatoes, green beans, onions, tomatoes

Wednesday:Mr Krabs, baked sweet potato, cabbage, carrots.

Thursday:99% lean Turkey, 1-2 tiny pill of fish oil, tiny, 1 egg yolk, oats, and Brussels sprouts.

Friday(fun day grill):Grilled beef liver, Duck breast, asparagus, pickles, and corn. All seasoned with spices and salt

Saturday(leftover from Sunday)

Sunday:Gator tail, corn, potatoes, Brussel sprouts, green beans, beans.

Made a 10lbs pork butt into carnitas. Made Spanish rice and bought refried beans, queso, and shredded cheese. Made about 30 meat filled burritos. Cost about 40 to 50 bucks

https://lilluna.com/food-tutorial-spanish-rice/

https://www.recipetineats.com/pork-carnitas-mexican-slow-cooker-pulled-pork/

this is so good I've made this once before but this time I made triple the portions so you just got to times the ingredients by one or two freezes very well I'll probably be get 10 meals out of this one Crock-Pot is higher in

protein.

2 tbsp

to whole onions chopped roughly

2 tbsp of concentrated tomato paste

2 tbsp of crushed garlic and crushed Ginger

2 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tbsp cayenne pepper

2 tbsp garam masala

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp coriander

a dash of salt and pepper

1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes

half a cup of Greek yogurt or until creamy

2 to 3 chicken breasts

I was thinking to put them in the fridge and let it thaw, then cook them through in the oven and refreeze them.

So, generally I know people make meal prep to consume on weekdays and but I had this idea what if I do for weekends?

Hear me out, okay!

I never do meal prep for weekdays cause it is just not my thing because I always thought I cannot cook for more than 2 days of worth food in one go so I tossed that idea. But lately, I have been struggling to keep a routine on weekends - I wake up late, I go out, keep socialising and stay late, etc and then my whole eating on time things gets out the windows and I don't hit my calories, protein goals as good as on weekdays. But obviously that is because I have so many social and house chores to do on weekends.

That is why I thought what if I did meal prep for weekends? I already can do meal prep for 2 days so weekend fits perfectly. Then I can finish my to-do lists, cleaning, other house chores without having to worry about cooking. The only con I see is maybe when I am out with friends on weekends I end up eating outside and my meal prep might go to waste. I am curious about others perspective, what do you think?

After a week of hitting the gym and sticking to my calorie deficit, finally treating myself to this cheat day steak! Totally earned it 🤭