Swole Appetit: A Guide to Meal Prep
This week on Swole Appetit…
Some of you may have heard of the term meal prepping, if you have, feel free to skip my explanation for the newbies.
Meal prepping is essentially cooking large quantities of food at once to sustain you for a few days.
“But wait! Isn’t that just cooking in bulk?!”
Yes, you’re absolutely right and you didn’t need a guy like me to tell you. But now that we’re all on the same page lets continue. Ideally, you cook some sort of protein, some carbs, and vegetables and separate them into containers for each meal.
“But wait! Why should I even waste my time meal prepping?!”
So why should you even bother to meal prep? Well for starters, it saves you a shit load of time since you’re only cooking 2–3 days a week instead of 7. It also keeps your diet in check since you’ll already have food prepared and are less likely to eat out or order something unhealthy, which also means that you’re saving money!
Now how much you wanna cook depends entirely up to you. You can cook a 2 or 3 days worth of food at once or a weeks worth of food at once. Depending on how many meals you have in a day and how willing you are to eat the same damn meal multiple days in row, will determine how many days you’ll want to prep in advance. Test out different amounts and see what works best for you!
Here’s a simple recipe that you can use to meal prep.
Swole Beef Stir Fry
Nutritional Value
Servings: 5
Amount per serving:
Calories: 568 kCal
Protein: 43 grams
Carbohydrates: 41 grams
Fats: 26 grams
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs of skirt steak, cut into strips
- 3 cups of broccoli
- 4 tbsp of sesame oil
- 2 red onions, thinly sliced
- 3 cups of brown rice (medium-grain), cooked separately
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 red bell peppers, chopped
- 4 carrots, thinly sliced
- 6 tbsp of soy sauce (I use Kikkoman Lite)
- 2 tbsp of paprika
Method:
So this is a really simple meal to prepare, however, due to the large quantity you’re cooking it’ll take some time. My suggestion is to split the cooking into 2 or 3 separate cooks which means you need to split the ingredients evenly. I know you can do it!
If you have a wok it’ll be easier since the design allows you to cook the beef and vegetables side by side without anything spilling. If you don’t have one, don’t stress it, a simple sauté pan works too!
Heat the sesame oil on a medium-high heat. Then add the beef into your pan and cook until completely brown. (Tip: Best time to throw in the meat is when the oil barely starts to smoke). Move the beef to the side and throw in the vegetables.
The trick here is to let the veggies cook enough so its not raw or too soggy. I usually cook them for about 2–3 minutes before I add in the soy sauce and paprika. Mix everything well!
Cook for another 2–3 minutes or until the beef is properly cooked and the vegetables are firm. Repeat this cycle as many times as needed until everything is cooked.
Storing:
To store the food I like to have a bed of brown rice and stir fry on top but thats me. You can put it on the side or however you want to, I won’t judge you for being a weirdo. Store everything in plastic tupperware that you can put in the refrigerator (Tip: If you’re storing food for more than 2 days place make sure you store them in the freezer or else it’ll taste like shit!).
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