Blog #7: Meal Prep for 1

I’m not married and I don’t have kids. I never thought I’d be saying that at 44, but at some point, you just have to accept and embrace where you are in life and not belittle yourself for following a different path than those around you. Cooking for one can be tricky. Most recipes are for at least 4 people and while I do enjoy cooking for family and friends, I’m not one to enjoy eating the same thing, 4 days in a row. Variety is the spice of life! So, I’ve come up with a couple of tricks of the trade to keep things interesting in the kitchen while still shopping on a budget and keeping it simple. 

Let’s start by looking at ground meat, 4 ways. I generally prefer to buy ground turkey or ground chicken, just to keep my red meat intake in check. Let’s face it, I’d rather have a greasy burger from Fatburger or some Korean or Japanese grilled beef once every 2 weeks rather than make it at home myself. Since I’m cooking for one, what I like to do is split up one meat package into 2, and make 2 different preparations for the week. Especially when I was teaching English as a Second Language, I would often put far more time into my lesson planning and correcting than I was paid for and ended up too tired to cook at night when I’d get home. These simple and advanced meal preps helped me to stay on track with my health and tasted good to boot. 

1.Turkey taco meat

-1/2 a package of ground turkey

-1/2 a packet of taco seasoning (Trader Joes brand or El Paso…TJ’s is spicier)

-1/2 an onion

So easy, guys. Fry the onion first, add the turkey meat, pour off the excess water and add the spice. Stick it in a storage container, and it’s ready to go. Just add tortilla, cheese, salsa, avocado and radish on the night that you decide to go for turkey tacos. 

2. Turkey meat sauce

-1/2 a package of turkey meat

-1/2 a bottle of your favorite red/marinara sauce

-1/2 a green bell pepper

-1/2 an onion

Chop and fry the veg first. Add the meat. Add any spices you desire (I usually do garlic salt, onion powder and black pepper). Add the sauce and….voila. Your sauce is ready to go. Whatever night you choose to have pasta, all you have to do is boil the pasta. Easy peasy.

3. Ground Chicken and Kale

-1/2 a package of ground chicken

-chopped kale (amount is to your liking)

-Trader Joe’s Soyaki sauce (or any teriyaki sauce)…amount is to your liking

-a dash of crushed red pepper

-chopped ginger and garlic (to your liking)

Now, I say, “to your liking” because, it really is! I’m laughing at myself because I hate it when my mom says, “a bit of this and a bit of that” and now I’m doing the same thing. However, it just depends on how much you like these ingredients. I love a lot of garlic and ginger and I would put those 2 things in just about anything I eat! Kale is a naturally bitter green so something slightly sweet like the Soyaki sauce is a good balance in flavor (you could also try honey and a touch of soy sauce or apple cider vinegar). Don’t overdo it though. The sweetness is just there to offset the kales bitterness. Add this on top of a bowl of brown rice and you have a well balanced, healthy meal (try Trader Joes microwaveable brown rice from the frozen section in packets of three, which each serve three). 

4. Herbed Ground Chicken

-1/2 a package of ground chicken

-1/2 an onion

-dried rosemary, thyme and sage (to taste/ your liking)

Sauté all of the ingredients (I always like to start with the onion).This recipe is a little odd on its own. However, try pairing it with a sweet potato (jab with a fork a few times and microwave for 5 minutes), with butter and a touch of cinnamon and you’ll have what tastes like Autumn on a plate! Sweet potatoes have significantly more nutritional value than the average potato so, it’s good for you too. 

I am not a chef. These are really simple preparations but they hold up over the week and just a little warm up and adding the mentioned carbs (rice, pasta or sweet potato) makes them complete meals. Also, don’t be ashamed of buying salad kits or pre-washed and pre-cut vegetables! Listen, if it helps you eat healthy, what’s a couple of extra bucks to save on the time of washing and chopping and save your heart and body? I’m a huge fan of Trader Joes power greens and tuscan kale in a bag but check the dates when you buy them and make sure to eat them before they go bad. Just a little olive oil, lemon and a couple of your favorite spices makes the best salad dressing. Oh, and avocados! Put them on anything! Your salad, your tacos….they’re  full of good fat and just needs a sprinkle of salt and pepper to become the perfect addition to many a meal. 

Here’s one more to round out your work week. 

5. Sausage and cabbage

-2 pieces of garlic herb chicken sausage from Trader Joes (packets come with 4)

-a packet of organic, shredded cabbage from Trader Joes

-a dash of your favorite spices (garlic salt, black or red pepper, onion powder)

*keep in mind that the chicken sausage is already quite flavorful and already cooked*

Chop and sauté the sausage until it starts to brown a bit. Add the cabbage and spices and sauté until slightly wilted. Put it in a container and stick it in the fridge. This goes great over a bowl of brown rice or quinoa. Couldn’t be easier right? 

Like working out, keeping cooking simple is one of the keys to eating well. If your workouts are incredibly daunting, you will find every reason to get out of them, right? Well, same goes for cooking, especially if you are busy. We are definitely in a strange moment of life where some of us do have a lot more time on our hands than usual (and if that’s you, by all means, make those Chinese dumplings from scratch!), but, usually, if we’re tired at the end of the day, cooking is the last thing we feel like doing. A little prep work and pre-planning your menu for the week can go a long way. 

*substitues for vegetarians*

-soy chorizo (Trader Joes) for the tacos (don’t add the taco spice because this is already spicy)

-Trader Joe’s Beef-less Ground Beef for the meat sauce

-tempeh instead of chicken for the Herbed Ground Chicken