New Year Muscle Hacks: TheFoodGrinder
Continuing our New Year Muscle Hacks series, we’re drawing food prep inspiration from innovative Instagram chef Alex Dodman, aka @thefoodgrinder. He’s dished up five nutritious meals that are simple to make, delicious to eat and perfect to pack for work so you won’t derail your resolutions with pricey grab and go grub.
Dodman’s a food prep wizard, who cuts through the celebrity chef waffle to create #nofussfood solutions that anyone can follow without becoming a slave to the kitchen. Just try his genius home-cooked ham, egg and sweet potato wedges. Yours for a fraction of the £7.50 you’d have to cough up at the cafe.
And all of his meals are well balanced, making sure you get enough protein and other nutrients spread throughout the day, keeping your muscles, brain and body firing.
Along with the inventive recipes he’s also provided the six rules he cooks by that will help your meals go further and muscles stay well fed in 2017.
Dodman’s Food Prep Rules To Cook By
1. Cook double for dinner
Double up on ingredients when cooking meals like stir-fries and chilli con carne and use the leftovers for lunch over the next couple of days.
2. Save two evenings for prep
Set aside two evenings that’ll keep you stocked up for the week. I find meal prepping on Sunday night sees me through to Wednesday, when I’ll do another mini prep to see me through to the weekend.
3. Don’t leave any gaps
Fill any spare lunchbox space with nutritious and filling salad, vegetables or even a boiled egg to ensure you don’t go hungry and lurch for the cookie jar.
4. Keep it simple
Keep it simple to start. Begin by filling your fridge and cupboards with the basics — chicken, sweet potato and eggs are a good start. Then you can experiment by adding different foods to your lunchbox to accompany them — even strawberries.
5. Invest in Tupperware
Washing up tends to scupper the best food prep intentions so make sure you have extra supplies. Have a couple spare for your new prep and just bang the dirty ones in the dishwasher. Simple but effective.
6. Buy in bulk
It’s cheaper, especially when stockpiling chicken breasts. Once you’ve lugged them back from the shop (or had them delivered — another time saver) divide them into separate freezer bags and defrost them on the morning of your designated food prep days. Given your hands are dirty you can even pre-chop them before freezing to make that midweek food prep whizz by.
You can follow Alex Dodman on Instagram at @thefoodgrinder. For more New Year Muscle Hacks keep your eyes on our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram channels, as well as here on The #fuel657 Journal, to start 2017 with a bang.
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