#meal prep

#meal prep

Pickle fans know the joy of nabbing a fresh jar of any of the best pickle brands and enjoying the tasty snacking and sandwich-stacking possibilities. But there's a way to feel even better about your pickle purchase: reusing those jars. When you can repurpose a product's packaging, the benefits are plentiful. You're participating in an eco-friendly mission to reduce waste, and you're also putting the packaging to use for where you might have otherwise had to spend money to buy new.

A carefully calibrated amount of rice and water ensures everything cooks at exactly the same rate, so don't eyeball it. Making your own sofrito on a weeknight is a commitment that's well worth the effort; it provides a deeply savory foundation that perfumes both the rice and chicken. Serve it with a dollop of sour cream, some pickled onions, or warm tortillas for a stick-to-your-ribs dinner that tastes like it took at least two, if not three, pots to make.

There are exactly three meal-prep foods that I have on rotation: shredded beef, shredded pork, and, you guessed it, shredded chicken. All of these involve exactly two steps: Putting spices on a meat, and putting that meat into a crockpot. Every other dinner is leftovers or sandwich meat. Author Don't say I haven't tried. During the pandemic, I went through a jerky phase. I've sampled most of the meal prep boxes.

Note: As many redditors have pointed out in the original thread, these examples are not to discredit how useful pre-prepared foods are to those who are disabled or have a super packed schedule. There's nothing wrong with buying these from the store - we all do (I say, with a jar of pasta sauce literally sitting on my counter right now). There's no shame in it!

At 4:30 a.m., before her husband and two kids are up, Morgan Walker is typically just starting her workout. "I'm kind of a first-thing-in-the-morning type of person when it comes to exercise," Walker, a 32-year-old registered sports dietitian at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania, told Business Insider. Walker focuses her own workouts on a mix of cardio and strength training. Each week, she spends three to four days building muscle mass by gradually increasing the weights and rep counts of exercises like bench presses, deadlifts, and squats. She also runs twice a week, for up to an hour at a time.

Don't try too hard Rather than trying to impress people, it is actually the opposite that ultimately does impress, says Rosie Kellett, who hosts supper clubs in London and is the author of In for Dinner. My advice is keep it really simple. Cook something that you know you're going to nail and feeds the right amount of people. Go for the heavy-hitters that are solid gold in your repertoire.

This is a versatile dinner that can be dressed up, down, and sideways depending on who you're feeding.

It may sound weird, and it's definitely unconventional, but Ree Drummond's method for boiling an omelet in a bag is actually genius. You need to try this if you're among those of us who try to flip an omelet and quickly change the meal plan to scrambled eggs every time. On her Food Network show, " The Pioneer Woman," Drummond demonstrated how she makes an omelet by adding all the ingredients for the previously complicated egg dish to a boil-safe bag and cooking a tasty dish in minutes. After enjoying this dish, there are no messy pans to scrub because you can simply toss the bag in the trash.

I love cooking, I write about kitchen gadgets for a living after all, but cooking in bulk when you live alone can feel like a chore. And eating the same thing four days in a row can even get downright depressing. The way I've figured out how to enjoy it is by starting with basics-grains, roasted veggies, versatile proteins-and then jazzing them up with sauces, marinades, and dressings so they don't feel repetitive. That's where the Smart Stick comes in.

I love this recipe because it's so versatile. If you're missing artichokes or olives, try sun-dried tomato or capers. No chickpeas? White beans work or double the lentils. You really can't go wrong. The dressing is quick, easy and versatile and you can use it to create your own Mediterranean variations of this salad. Here are a few more reasons to love it:

There are different versions of whipped coffees around the world, and Dalgona is one of the easiest to create. However, it can be time-consuming; if you don't have an electric mixer, you could end up beating the mixture for 15 minutes. But if you make a big batch at the start of the week, you can freeze it and simply scoop the mixture on top of the milk or water when ready to serve.

As a food writer (and, you know, loving mother), I probably shouldn't admit this, but until I started using PackIt's modular lunch containers, I really hated packing my kids' lunches. Each box comes with two dividers that can be popped into any of the eleven grooves, so you can make your lunchbox work for your lunch, versus trying to cram food into fixed-size containers. They're super durable, completely dishwasher safe, and the lid is leakproof.

From a nutritional standpoint, both canned and frozen vegetables can be every bit as good for you as fresh. That's because preserved produce is often packaged straight from the field at the height of its freshness, which protects its vitamins and minerals at their peak. So you aren't doing your body a disservice in any way by making a side of frozen spinach.

The back-to-school grind is a juggling act, but one that can be made a little bit easier when you're not tirelessly pitting cherries for a toddler's lunch like a footman at Versailles, or scrambling to make dinner from scratch. It's hard enough to get your kids dressed and out the door by 7:15 AM, and often that means scrambling to slap together a PB&J (no shame, we love a PB&J) when we might have preferred a more diversified meal.

School lunch prep shouldn't feel like solving a daily puzzle where everything goes wrong. The difference between lunch success and cafeteria disaster often comes down to having the right gear.

Cottage cheese egg salad is a high-protein meal that utilizes hard boiled eggs and cottage cheese, combined with fresh herbs for maximum flavor.