I hear a lot people say that they don’t have time to cook, and I feel the same way a lot of the time, but I’ve made a resolution to clean up our diet, yet again. Two days of meal prep per week is probaly the minimum. If you do this on Sunday night you’ve got food to last you through Thursday. You can make double or even triple depending on the number of people you’re trying to feed. It works out to about $10 per person per day. I spent around $75 which included $12 for avocado oil, $6 for walnut oil, $4 for sesame oil (not used here), $5 for a new kitchen towel and 3 tupperware containers, and $11 for almond meal so the bulk of the meal without factoring in stocking up my kitchen is about $40. I have been paleo cooking for a while so I already have some things like coconut shreds, golden flax meal, as well as a ridiculous amount of seasonings.
Here’s an image of the shopping trip:
Salmon Salad:
1.5 lbs wild caught salmon filet
Walnut oil
1 whole mango
2 cucumbers
1 egg
raspberry balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper
dried cilantro
Tbsp fresh onion
Turkey Burgers:
4 turkey patties
avocado oil
grilling seasoning
4 cups fresh spinach
1 large sweet potato
1/4 fresh onion
3 peperoncini peppers
prepared dijon mustard
1 egg
white wine vinegar
salt & pepper
Beef Broil:
1.5 lbs Pepper steak
29 oz tomato sauce
garlic
salt & pepper
liquid smoke
1/2 onion
3 cups carrots
3 cups broccoli
Italian seasoning
Olive oil
Breakfast:
10 eggs
2 bananas
1/4 c. Melted coconut oil,
1/3 c raisins
2 tbsp flax golden
coconut shreds
1/2 c almond flour
tbsp cinnamon
BEGIN!
I grouped these into the steps that make sense to me from a workflow standpoint, ha ha. Here’s how we do it…
Step One: Preheat oven to 350, get out your ingredients while you wait for the oven to preheat. I like to organize them into their different dishes.
Step Two: Boil 10 eggs in a covered pot. Total boil time is 15 minutes (set a timer)
Step Three: Mix banana bread batter consisting of 2 mashed bananas, 3 eggs, 1/4 cup melted coconut oil, 1/3 cup raisins, 1/2 cup almond meal, 2 Tbsp shredded coconut, 2 Tbsp golden flax seed meal, 1 Tbsp cinnamon, dash salt. I mash the bananas while they’re in the peel. Grease an 8×8 glass baking dish with coconut oil, spread batter evenly and put in the oven until baked in the center, approximately 30 minutes.
Step Four: Dice beef and add to a hot skillet with sea salt to sear. Transfer into a crockpot on low with 1/4 cup olive oil, 29 oz of tomato paste, 1/2 diced purple onion, 3 cups each freshly diced carrots and broccoli. Frozen is fine too. Season with 1 Tbsp liquid smoke, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp italian seasoning ( I used Penzey’s Tuscan Sunset which someone gave me for my birthday) and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper.
Step Five: Slice sweet potatoes and get them into the same iron skillet on low with olive oil and salt. One large sweet potato will take two batches usually.
Step Six: Slice cucumbers while you cook your sweet potatoes and divide them into four dishes equally. Divide spinach into four other dishes equally about one cup each. Are your eggs done boiling? If so get them cooled off by running them under cold water and adding ice cubes to cool them quickly.
Step 7: Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat salmon with walnut oil, salt and pepper. Clean up and man the sweet potatoes while you wait for your banana bread to finish up. When you’re ready to put the fish in, turn the oven up to 400 and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or to temp.
Step 8: Sauces. In a blender combine 1 Tbsp onion, 1/2 cup walnut oil, 3 Tbsp Raspberry balsamic vinegar, Salt, Pepper, 1/2 tsp cilantro, and 1 peeled boiled egg. Transfer to a small container and label it salmon dressing. I like to keep my sauces separate until the day I plan to eat it. That way if it settles you can shake it up. Check sweet potatoes. Start sauce two. Don’t even rinse out the blender and add 1/2 cup avocado oil, 2 Tbsp white wine vinegar, 1 boiled egg, 3 tiny peperoncini peppers (I use these to slightly mask the avocado oil flavor as I found it to be overpowering), 1 boiled egg, 2 Tbsp dijon mustard. Transfer to a small container labeled turkey dressing. Clean up from the dressings and line another baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat turkey patties with avocado oil and grilling seasoning. If you don’t have grilling seasoning use a combination of salt, pepper, paprika, red pepper, onion powder and salt.
Step 9: Once you take the fish out of the oven turn on the broiler and cook the turkey burgers for about 5 minutes on one side and about three minutes on the other side.
Step 10: portion and garnish remaining dishes. Slice banana bread into four equal pieces and put 2 eggs with each. Add a fish filet to each cucumber salad and a quarter of fresh mango wrapped in plastic wrap to preserve freshness. Top each spinach salad with a cooled turkey burger and an equal portion of sweet potato. Garnish with sliced purple onion. Stir your crockpot and come back 8 hours later to portion.
Clean up and enjoy!
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Awesome, so once you cook it all, you refrigerate it and reheat? How do you do this with some items that I wouldn’t usually consider reheat well. Like salmon?
Oh, I ate the salmon cold as a salad, but I am also okay with microwaving everything but steak
I tried the banana bread and beef broil recipes the other week and it was great! Thanks for posting this. My only comment is that the broccoli in the beef broil stank up the apartment during the slow-cooking, so I’m going to look for a broccoli-substitute for next time.
Thanks again!
You can steam some broccoli separately and serve the together. Broccoli is SO good for you! Don’t give up on it. Alternatives I would say sweet potatoes and kale.
Will do! Thanks for the tips Megan.