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New Day Cafe: Meal Prep [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-02-23

Good morning, Newdists. I’m here. But I’m tired. The BF and I went to Dallas for a concert on Friday night, got a few uncomfortable hours of sleep, and then drove home yesterday. It normally takes about four hours to get home from Dallas, but between the traffic and the nasty weather, it took us closer to six. We got home at around 9pm and immediately went to get groceries so we could start meal-prepping, since we need meals for the coming week. I was up until about 2am cooking, so I didn’t get very much sleep, but at least our meals are covered for the next five days!

The BF has been on a wellness kick that has gotten me back on my own wellness kick. It seems that we’re getting ourselves back on track. I thought that, rather than cook separately, I’d might as well just eat the BF’s meal plan along with him, since it’s working so well for him. Being me, I felt the need to take over the cooking, which is why I got so little sleep.

Here’s what’s on the menu for this week:

For lunch, Korean sticky beef bowls (I don’t know how “Korean” they actually are, so don’t come for me, I’m just calling them what the recipe calls them), except we used ground chicken instead of beef. And we did not make the cucumber salad, either, because gross.

Ingredients Sticky Beef - 1 Tbsp (20ml) - Olive Oil

1 - Brown (Yellow) Onion, Diced

4 - Garlic Cloves, Grated

1kg (2.2lb) - Lean Beef Mince (90%)

⅓ Cup (80ml) - Sweet Chilli Sauce

⅓ Cup (80ml) - Oyster or Hoisin Sauce

2 Tbsp (40ml) - Low Sodium Soy Sauce

300g (10.5oz) - Green Beans, Halved & Blanched

1 - Spring Onion (Scallion), Thinly Sliced

Salt & Ground White Pepper to Taste Korean Cucumber Salad - 1 - Cucumber, Diced

2 tsp (10ml) - Low Sodium Soy Sauce

2 ½ Tbsp (50ml) - Rice Wine Vinegar

2 tsp (20g) - Honey

2 tsp (10ml) - Sesame Oil

1 - Spring Onions (Scallions), Thinly Sliced

1 ½ tsp (4g) - Gochugaru (Korean Chilli Flakes) (Optional)

2 tsp (5g) - Sesame Seeds

2g (0.1oz) - Coriander (Cilantro), Chopped (Optional)

Salt & Ground White Pepper To Taste Jasmine Rice - 1 ½ Cup (300g) - Jasmine Rice, Washed

550ml (18.6 fl oz) - Cold Water

Salt to Taste Garnish - Sriracha Mayonnaise

Spring Onion (Scallion)

Sesame Seeds Instructions Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the green beans and blanch for 2 minutes until aldente. Remove, drain, and plunge in an ice bath to shock and stop them from cooking.

Add all of the Korean cucumber salad ingredients in a bowl and mix well to combine. Store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Add the washed jasmine rice, cold water and salt to a saucepan and boil. Reduce the heat to low, place on a lid and cook for 12 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the lid on for 4 minutes. Remove the lid and fluff the rice with a fork or spatula. Set aside.

Place a large pan over medium-high heat. Add olive oil and onion and saute for 4 minutes, mixing regularly. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the beef mince and let it sit for 2 minutes to build a crust. Mix and break the meat, cooking for 6 minutes or until it is no longer pink and the beef is brown.

Add the blanched green beans, spring onion (scallion), sweet chilli sauce, oyster or hoisin sauce, and soy sauce and mix well to combine. Cook for 1 ½ to 2 minutes or until the sauce has thickened. Check the seasoning and remove it from the heat.

Place the cooked jasmine rice into 5x 750ml meal prep containers. Add the sticky beef and the Korean cucumber salad. Top with a sauce of choice. Dig in.

For dinners, we have this modified version of beef stroganoff:

x YouTube Video

You can watch the video if you’re curious, but the recipe is meant to maximize protein. The biggest deviations is that it uses Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and chickpea pasta instead of egg noodles. If you’re wondering, chickpea pasta is kind of weird on its own, but works really well in this. It has a gummier texture, which pasta lovers are sure to dislike, but I like it in this recipe. If you ever cook chickpea pasta, though, for the love of God, use the biggest pot in your kitchen and watch it like a hawk. And, whatever you do, don’t try to boil three boxes at the same time. For whatever reason, the water foams up way worse than normal pasta. I had a huge mess to clean up last night because there was no stopping that pot from overflowing with three damn boxes in there.

We usually only eat two meals a day, but the BF also made some jars of overnight oats in case either of us wants breakfast. I don’t know the amounts, but I know the BF puts in protein oats, oat milk, protein powder, PB2 powder, and chia seeds. I like to add a scoop of peanut butter to mine before I eat it.

The fruits of our labor:

I’m just glad I don’t have to think about what to eat for the next week. It was taking a lot of my bandwidth, which we all need to conserve lately.

New Day Cafe is an open thread!

Share what’s on your mind this morning

From belinda ridgewood and our friends at the Inoculation Project:

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