Looking for some meal prep ideas for a picky eater....

March 3, 2019 10:45 AM

I really want to start doing meal prep but unfortunately I have some annoying requirements. What are some good recipe ideas?

I really want to get into meal prepping but I'm feeling overwhelmed with these "300 meal prep ideas!" articles, none of which seem to work for me. Here are my basic requirements:

* First and foremost, no beans. Never beans. Or mushrooms.
* This is such a pain. I'm giving up bread for lent. Which means no breadcrumbs. All the good looking recipes such as meatloaf, meatballs, etc require breadcrumbs.
* I dont have a slow cooker or crockpot.
* No tofu
* I love shrimp but I'm totally intimidated at the idea of cooking it. So probably no shrimp.

Any suggestions? I'm looking for the basic protein plus carb plus veggie type thing.

posted by silverstatue to Food & Drink (14 answers total)

Response by poster: I just want to add, anything like pizza, tacos, wraps, etc. That all counts as bread. So although I love all that stuff, I can't eat it right now :(
posted by silverstatue at 10:48 AM on March 3, 2019

I make my meatloaf with only about 1/2-2/3 meat by volume. The rest is diced onion, carrot, celery, (sometimes sautéed for ease of cooking) rolled oats, and 1-2 eggs.

The oats take the place of breadcrumbs and if you get the ratios right and add a side salad it’s pretty much complete nutrition.
posted by SaltySalticid at 10:48 AM on March 3, 2019 [8 favorites]

Chicken thighs with fresh walnuts are the BOMB. Recipe: chicken thighs, lotsa walnuts (add them toward the end of cooking) and whatever spices you like. Can serve by itself, mixed with rice and/or on a bed of spinach.
posted by serena15221 at 10:52 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

I've been following Mel Joulwan's plans for a couple of years, and it's changed my life. It was really helpful to me because she tells you what to do and when to do it.

If you don't want to do strict paleo and just give up bread, you can adapt things.

I have the chocolate chili on the stove right now, and this week I'll make her curry.
posted by jgirl at 10:58 AM on March 3, 2019 [4 favorites]

You might like Budget Bytes for some basic meal prep ideas. She recently posted a salsa chicken and rice recipe that meets your requirements.
posted by Red Desk at 11:17 AM on March 3, 2019 [4 favorites]

There are a lot of variations on rice plus meat plus veggies out there. Do you like spicy? Look at curries, Mexican food, Asian meals that use meat rather than tofu. Polenta? Grits? Pasta and sauce? Options abound.
posted by bile and syntax at 11:36 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

Any recipe that contains breadcrumbs (in the mix, it's a little different if this is for frying/breading) can have them left out, or you can replace them with green-can-style parmesan or crushed chips, not-sweetened cereal, or pork rinds. (These also work fine on top of casseroles in lieu of breadcrumbs.)

Casseroles or similar are the cornerstone of my meal prep, meant to be sides to a simple protein (roasted or grilled chicken b/s thighs or leg quarters, beef or pork roast, meatloaf/balls/patties). You can go really simple - hack up one or two heads of cauliflower or some other vegetables you like, mix a large can of diced tomatoes with seasonings and 1-2 eggs for binder, stir in cauliflower/veg, top with mozzarella (and/or breadcrumb substitute) if you like, bake at 350 25-30 minutes and pop the broiler on for a couple minutes at the end to brown the top. Vegetable gratins, rice casseroles (like a nice broccoli-cheese casserole, or here's one with no rice), lasagnas with or without meat - as a side, you can get 6-8 servings from one casserole dish, 4-6 for a main, and that's half your week covered.

Also, chili without beans. We usually make a big batch to eat several meals from, and then roll the rest over into other dishes, like chili dogs or burgers (we don't eat bread, so it's just on a plate), chili on steamed veg (if you eat potatoes, also great on a good baked potato), chili omelette.

I meal prep our breakfasts too, so I make egg muffins (no flour required; any add-ins are fair game just pre-cook them) or egg casserole or quiche. I am perfectly happy eating that with a little salad for lunch, too.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:03 PM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

By the way, it may help to narrow your searching/browsing to keto or paleo meal prep, as there's generally not going to be any flour or beans.

(Shrimp is gross reheated, and smelly, so maybe not a great option for meal prep. However, you can prep everything else in advance - make a gratin, or pasta in sauce, or a jambalaya type rice - and then seafood cooks so fast you could easily make the protein a la minute while the rest of the meal reheats.)
posted by Lyn Never at 12:06 PM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

Good idea. I meal-prep every Sunday for the week ahead.

Which meal are you prepping for - breakfast, lunch or dinner? Also what do you have - an oven? Frying pan? Deep pot?

For lunches I cook a big pot of brown rice with rosemary and salt for flavour. No fancy cooker or anything.

At the same time I cook a stew of bay leaf, onion, 3 cloves garlic, olive oil, 3 courgettes, broccoli, cubed salmon (can swap for chicken), paprika, tomato puree, lots of thyme, 1 scotch bonnet and a bag of chopped spinach.

It's very tasty. I also include chickpeas and prawns but you said you don't eat those.

If you want something even quicker I will just cut up any vegetable I see and layer it in a tin (e.g. 1st layer aubergine, 2nd layer onion, 3rd layer courgette) to go in the oven adding olive oil, tomato, bay leaves, parsley, salt and black pepper. I also eat that with rice.

I tried meal prepping breakfast muffins (check youtube - they're everywhere) but the outcome was so disgusting i've been put off from trying it again. You may have better luck.

Edit - Yeh Lyn Never beat me to it! Those muffins!
posted by ihaveyourfoot at 12:07 PM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

Serious Eats is mostly a site for serious foodies (duh), but this recipe for Kung Pao Chicken is easy to make and fulfills your criteria as far as I can see. It's so simple, I'm not sure I'd bother to prep in advance, but if you do it's easy to make the sauce in one container, and the stir-fry ingredients chopped and ready in another, so you only have to cut up the chicken and cook the rice. In general, wok recipes are really good for food in five minutes, where you have the vegs prepared and stored in transparent containers. For that, I find a lot of inspiration at the woks of life, which has a lot of Chinese food, but not only Chinese food.
River Cottage is English, and has many inspiring recipes.
Roast a chicken on a Sunday, and you'll have food for several days. Eat the legs on that Sunday for dinner, and make a broth from the bones and carcass. The breasts can be a fricassee on Monday, or both, and Tuesday you can make a soup. Everything can be prepped Sunday. Here's a list of 21 recipes for leftover chicken.
In a similar way, a big steak can appear first thinly sliced on a salad, and then in a pho-inspired soup (I'd just buy frozen beef broth as the point of departure).
There are some frozen food items I think are just fine: simple beef and chicken broths (with no added anything); spinach; peas (unless they are like beans in your taste). If you like shrimp, frozen shrimp can be fine, but only heat them for about a minute, or they will turn bad.
posted by mumimor at 12:37 PM on March 3, 2019

You can use oatmeal instead of bread in meatloaf. Meatloaf freezes very well, cooked or not, but takes longer to cook from frozen.

When you make sauce for pasta, it only takes a bit more work to make a lot and it freezes well. I use Italian sausage, browned & not drained, onion well-sauteed in olive oil, canned crushed tomatoes and some garlic and Italian seasoning, all simmered for at least an hour so the meat gets really tender.

Leftover rice + leftover meat - fried rice. Saute onions in a fair bit of oil, add rice (fresh rice doesn't work as well), shredded chicken or other meat, leftover veggies, soy sauce, maybe some sesame oil, garlic, scallions, ginger (powder is ok). Add frozen peas at the last minute; they only need to get warmed through.

Shepherd's pie - base is browned hamburg. Make gravy by adding flour at the end of browning, add some water. Veg layer - green beans are popular; I use a mix of canned corn & creamed corn. Top with mashed potato; instant is pretty decent, but always make extra mashed potatoes when you make them. (I make taco beef on night 1, then use leftover seasoned beef in shepherd's pie. Just add a lot of chili powder and salt; no need to buy packets, they are literally flour, chili powder, salt.)

Rotisserie chicken is easy, tasty and affordable. Most of the breast meat and maybe thigh meat usually goes to the 1st meal. But pick off the rest of the meat and refrigerate or freeze. Simmer the bones, skin and any juices for an hour or more to get fantastic broth that takes time but no effort. Strain with a colander then a strainer unless you have a massive strainer. Use the chicken in chicken soup with noodles, or whatever. (when you are back on bread, it is great in tacos or wraps).

Veg. Sweet potatoes take 9 - 10 minutes in the microwave, are delicious with butter, salt, pepper, maybe sour cream, are nutritious. Baked sweet potato fries are easy and nutritious. Baked potatoes are easy and a great base for leftover pulled pork or that chicken, with barbecue sauce or any other good sauce. Topped baked potatoes are always useful for pairing with leftovers.

One of my favorite easy meals is roasted veg and kielbasa. Wash and chunk up sweet and white potatoes, put in a big pan, toss with olive oil, seasoned salt, pepper, start roasting at 400F for 15 mins, slice kielbasa, add to the pan, roast another 15 mins. Toss it with a spatula a few times with cooking. We add Brussels sprouts, not everyone loves them.

You can prep or buy chopped onions, and wash and prep veg for the following week. For the chicken soup, chop onions to saute in butter or olive oil, peel and slice carrots, maybe some celery.

All of these and these bagged prep ideas look great - leave out beans or mushrooms.
posted by theora55 at 1:00 PM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

Eggs? Fried, scrambled, in omelets, etc.

Lots of things that might be eaten in a taco or tortilla can be put on a plate and rated with knife and fork. French fries from the freezer can replace the missing carbs.
posted by SemiSalt at 1:25 PM on March 3, 2019

What kind of food do you like? The limitations you list are really not bad. You could season and cook a few chicken breasts, i like this recipe, steam any veg you like and cook some rice and you’re set. To make it more varied use a few different kinds of veg, vary the seasoning of the chicken and use different sauces to serve this, not talking about sugar laden commercial stuff but more warm vinaigrette and such.

As others have pointed out you can use oats, rice (cooked) etc instead of bread crumbs in meatballs or meatloaf. The bread is added for two reasons - to lighten the texture and to make the meat go further. It will help bind things but so do eggs. Even ground flax seed will do that, I used it to replace an egg in cinnamon rolls the other day cause I had run out of eggs.

It is really easy to cook tasty shrimp but yes, not my first choice for re-heating.

I also like to make a big pot of soup, you can add as much veg as you like and different kinds of protein, including slicing some of the above cooked chicken breasts.
posted by koahiatamadl at 2:14 PM on March 3, 2019

Although shrimp isn't typically great for meal-prep options, you don't need to feel intimidated! Frozen peeled and deveined shrimp can just get bunged into basically any sauce/curry and cooked from frozen. You can make the sauce beforehand as a batch, then heat it up and cook the shrimp for the meal. It's not too hard! Promise!

One of my go-to quick meals is a shrimp pasta and it's super-easy with minimal prep:
- Boil up your pot of pasta
- While that is happening, heat a scant 1/4c olive oil on medium-high heat in a heavy-bottomed skillet. Rinse a standard half-pint container of cherry tomatoes; slice them in half.
- When the oil is hot but not smoking, dump in the cherry tomatoes and let them sizzle until they begin to burst and brown a bit. Stir occasionally. The oil-and-tomatoes will slowly become a nice sauce. Add salt, pepper, some red-pepper-flakes if you like spice.
- About halfway through the pasta-cooking time, take some IQF shelled/deveined shrimp and nestle them into the oil/tomato sauce. Turn the heat to medium-low. Flip them over when they start turning pink/white opaque on the bottom -- this takes a minute or two. When they're solidly pink/white on both sides, remove to your plate.
- About a minute before the pasta's done, throw some handfuls of fresh greens into the pasta pot. Kale, spinach, arugula, mixed salad greens, whatever.
- Drain and toss the cooked pasta into the oil/tomato mixture.
- Top with shrimp, and a little fresh basil if you have it.

(I'm assuming noodles don't count as bread; if they do, Trader Joe's sells excellent brown-rice-and-quinoa pasta, or you can use the GF pasta of your choice. You can also serve this dish over rice or any other carb.)
posted by halation at 3:07 PM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]