How to 'Meal Prep'...if you hate Meal Prepping (like I do)

📃 RECIPE Link(s):

📚 Videos & Sources mentioned:

USEFUL KITCHEN GEAR

⏱ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
2:05 Downsides of Meal Prep
5:23 Psychology Behind Cooking
7:43 Sunday Braise Framework
11:05 Banh Mi
12:44 Tinga Tostada
15:20 Garlicky Beef Pasta

MISC. DETAILS
Music: Provided by Epidemic Sound
Filmed on: Sony a6600 & Sony A7C
Voice recorded on Shure MV7
Edited in: Premiere Pro

Affiliate Disclosure:

[treaustin]

This would be an awesome series of like 10 videos. Just different bases to do on a Sunday, and then a set of 3-4 example dishes for throughout the week. This is super useful.

[lewismassie]

As someone with ADHD, the activation energy of a task is often the thing that rules my life, and almost noone ever even thinks about it. You're the first person to even acknowledge it in cooking

[cabe_bedlam]

If it helps, I never deliberately meal prep.

I live on my own so if I want a curry, it's only a tiny bit more effort to make 4 servings, I then portion it out into the freezer as individual meals. This lets me have a "library" of some homemade meals *and* stops me from just eating the leftovers!

[poppyvrealtor]

Please do more videos exactly like this! As a single person who despises meal prepping and gets easily bored eating the same thing, this kind of series is perfect.

[jonahduncan]

This video introduces my favourite concept: "food prep". Preparing ingredients and not meals. I often make something that can be used as an ingredient in multiple meals. It could be meat (or alternative), grains, bread, sauce, whatever I feel like and use that throughout the week.

[Ccswimmerback]

This is actually changing my life, I've never been able to convince myself to meal prep or cook consistently and now here I am braising an entire pork shoulder and it wasn't even hard! The proteins have always been the hard part for me (I hate the mess / cleaning up and fears of cross contamination) so this is quite literally the perfect solution to me, thank you so much!!

[sarah_gene]

There's a book of essays and recipes titled "Supper of the Lamb" which begins, "Let me begin without ceremony." Followed by the recipe heading, "LAMB FOR EIGHT PEOPLE FOUR TIMES". and from there it goes through how to use a whole lamb for four huge meals. This method of weekly cooking reminds me of that, and the old style "Sunday Roast" way of family cooking, just in a sorta modernized, cooking for 1-3 people version.

[timothylloyd]

I can't thank you enough for all the hard work and quality you put into these videos, from the incredibly interesting research to the delectable filming of the process and the final, concise edit. It's interesting you talk about braising here because your video on braising and the science behind it is what ignited my desire to start cooking more than just a box of Mac and cheese. Thank you so much Ethan and team!

[AbdulMunimKazia]

You absolutely nailed down what makes me uncomfortable about meal prep: i have to decide what exactly to eat at the start of the week and stick to it! I can barely decide what I want to eat in the very next meal at any given time.

[Wessso_]

I’m a truck driver, so I’m over the road 90% of the time for weeks on end. I try to meal prep, but I can’t quite figure out what meals work best for me while living in a truck as well as trying to stay healthy. I enjoy cooking, and I miss it everyday at home. But this helps me with great ideas to prep when I have home time!
Possibly make a video for people who are always on the road like myself? :)

[bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb-]

Executive dysfunction is a huge problem when it comes to planning and making meals during the week, and this video is so helpful for people who's lives are run by their executive dysfunction.

[FilmFactry]

TIP: I often take a Pork Butt or Beef Roast, and char it on the BBQ. Not to cook it but to give it some color and flavor. Then I use my pressure cooker with broth, bay leaves, what ever you like for 30-50 min and you get the same pulled pork or beef (or chicken) but super fast and it tastes amazing. It is the simplest carnitas you can make. or shredded beef. And being pressure cooked it remains tender and you don't spend several hours in the oven.

[TinaColada]

I do the same and sometimes even precut the veggies aswell. I also make sure that everytime I cook something like ragù alla bolognese or any other freezable pasta sauce I make a really big batch of it so I can freeze 5-7 servings for later use. Same with veggie soup (put aside before adding any dairy products). This helps me sooo much when I'm struggeling with mental health.

[josephmann]

This is truly one of the best meal prep tips. We learned this method from a friend of ours in a group for blind parents. Things like braised chuck or just simple ground beef with salt and pepper are bases that, with minimal effort, can be then flavored and transformed. 😜 Even a blind college student can make a dozen different wonderful dishes. We cook big proteins down a lot at a time. It can freeze or can once it’s cooked. When the time comes, tacos, spaghetti, soups, and so much more are just a few steps away. If you can open a few cans and add pre-made packs of seasoning, you have real, home cooked meals. We loved finding this method for our son, but we use it for ourselves so often too. Cook hard one day a week - the rest of your week is done in minutes.

The other thing we like to do is make a lot of what we make, like chili, Bolognese, stews, soups etc, that easily can or freeze. Homemade vegetable soups can for years. Spaghetti can be frozen for months. Even things like gravy or sauces freeze beautifully for months. If you’re dirtying up the kitchen anyway, chopping 10 onions takes the same time to clean up a food processor as chopping one.

We, and our kids both blind and sighted, appreciate the diversity of meals they can make. It’s nice that this method doesn’t necessarily lock in an outcome.

Great tip that really works.

[EveaGornall]

This makes me feel so happy because I’ve already been doing this! But I’m extra lazy — I add pork shoulder or chicken thighs or something on sale at Costco to my slow cooker with minimal spices. When I get home from work, I pull it apart and portion them in little snack baggies and throw those in a ziplock freezer bag so I now have multiple different kinds of precooked, pre-proportioned, flavor-neutral meat I can just reheat and use in a multitude of ways each night 👌

[CP-mbly]

this is how I've been doing exactly what you're saying - reduce food waste, have a variety of ingredients... I just call it "Modular dinner" (my trademark don't steal lol) and it's so much easier than spending all day meal prepping. Just prep the ingredients to be versatile! Great video!

[james.randorff]

I really appreciate this because you are taking good, basic cooking concepts, explaining them, and showing us how to make several excellent dishes utilizing them.

This isn’t reinventing the wheel, it is showing just how much use you can get out of the wheel, if you’ll only use it correctly. Thank you, Ethan!

[pinoyriot]

I noticed that no one used the freezer at work, so I started making large batches of meals that freeze well, a lot of which go well with rice (japanese curry, adobo, gumbo, thai curry, etc). Usually I'll make one or two dishes on the weekend. I keep a ton of Deli cups and take out containers, so I just separate porrtions with those and take it out of the freezer the night before. So all I have to do is bring rice to work, and reheat everything in the microwave, andI have a wide variety to choose from.

This has worked well with me for over three years now. I also keep back up lazy meals just in case I don't feel like cooking that week. And If I start to get bored of a particular dish, I 'll phase it out and add a new dish to the rotation.

[jacobwillis]

This system seems perfect for those with ADHD. One of the major challenges is impairment for even starting a task, but the way you broke this down felt very do able. I would watch your braising session every Sunday if you made that a thing on your channel! It could be a fun community eat along thing.

[misskaterinat]

I’d love to see some more ingredients done in this style of meal prep! Great video