Since moving out, I’ve been trying to plan out low-effort but nutritious meals.
Bought two Value Size flats of refridgerated (not frozen) chicken from safeways - 1.8 kg. $33 each. Froze both.
A single-size (two or three breasts) flat of chicken can simply be unwrapped (the paper absorbant can be easily peeled off while frozen) and put directly in the instant pot together with two 710 mL tubs of water. Essentially no cleanup and no sanitization required. The “pressure cook” setting with 10 minutes duration suffices.
Here, however, breaking the long, stuck-together chicken was not so easy. I had to run hot water over the middle chicken breast, which is totally unsafe.
Unless there’s…~$15 savings in buying a large flat of chicken, I don’t think it’s worth it. Should buy many single-flats instead.
In any case, put huge flat in for 15 minutes rather than the usual 10. added enough water to cover the top of the flats
need to remember to set multiple timers when waiting to depressurize - it’s a big waste if you forget the pressure cooker
rice cooker
1 can of lentils is a side for 2-3 meals.
1 can of peas is about the same. mini can of corn, 2 meals.
had a timing issue in that the chicken wasn’t ready, but I had the rice ready. having the containers laid out already allowed me to put each ingredient in a container and into the fridge.
Rice did not turn out well. have not tried teriaki spice yet.
at least for my commute, buying a lunchbox for work was kind of a waste - it doesn’t even fit two containers, for lunch and work. I put everything in a plastic bag ‘secondary containment’ anyway so leaking juices don’t affect things.
Test #1:
$30 in chicken.
$3 large can tuna
$2.2 small can tuna
$2 4x noodles
$3 2 cans peas
$1.2 can of lentils
$1.2 can of mixed beas
$1.2 can of corn
$2 in rice
$48.8 for 7 meals
$7 a meal.
WTF? that’s crazy money. I can buy a subway for that much. I should have stretched it with rice. At two tubs or $14/day, that’s $420/mo.
I distributed a pressure-cooker full of rice over the tubs, in the hope that it will satiate me for longer.
Took about 2 hours, though I could probably have done it in half an hour.
Conclusion: it made a huge mess, cost an unstustainable amount, took too long (if I go through two tubs a day, it took an hour a day). Need more ‘bulking’ ingredients - pasta, cuscus, etc.
need to better plan how much of which ingredient will go in each tub. I just winged the chicken ratio, but I probably can re-distribute the chicken later, maybe add some vermicelli.
it all fit in the freezer - the freezer was pretty full already, can probably get 20 or so tubs in the freezer. Need to buy more
The rice section of Safeway has the little stir-fry noodles.
Forgot about frozen peas, frozen corn, and frozen green beans that I like. might be more cost effective.
thin vermicelli - fast to cook
pancakes: Ricemilk + egg + off-the-shelf mix
meh, okay, not too hard
Made another 9 meals. Took circa 3 hours - 5 hours total, of you include
- $30 flat of chicken.
Double-flat of chicken came apart more easily this time. Needed hot water again to separate. Important: remove the paper backing while the chicken is still frozen.
With such a large charge of water, pre-heating the instant pot so the chicken isn’t sitting in tepid water would have been a good idea.
Again, rinsing the pot immediately is critical.
- Half a large bag of fettuchini
All boiled in one big pot - at least three meals worth
-
2 cans of lentils ($2.5)
-
a full box of cuscus ($~4?)
Quinoa might be an alternative
- Pan-fried frozen veggies
Lots of olive oil makes this work. Put frozen corn, peas, and large veggies.
Fried halfway without a lid, then added a lid to cook the large chunks.
I made about 3/4 tub of this, it wasn’t quite enough. Should have made another batch of this.
- Riced cauliflower
For the last three meals I needed more veggies, so I added another.
Need to dry everything better; most food was sopping wet. Putting ingredients in the fridge while others were cooking wasn’t ideal for quality.
I should probably do two “cycles” of this each weekend - that way I have more than enough quality meals to last the week.
I feel like I’m straying from my platonic ideal of instant, no mess meals. This preparation consumed a good deal of my weekend, high cognitive load for the time being.
Also, I find it hard to sequence these things. Using a gantt chart with the expected timing might be a good idea.
Last week was fairly busy, and the meals were fantastic. Lasted me the whole week. I’m doing the whole thing again with fairly minor changes this week. Two flats $25 in chicken, half a large bag of fettuchini, 2 cans of beans, 1 can of tuna (skipjack is half the money? It seems to be the same stuff!)
One variation I’m trying is, rather than pan-frying the frozen veggies, which has a limited volume per batch, putting them in the rice cooker to steam. I just threw a bag of frozen cauliflower and maybe a cup of corn and peas in with an equal volume of water and turned it on. we’ll see how that works. Recipes online recommend using a steamer tray - might be worth buying one.
flat turkey
3 cups rice
corn peas
Parboiled rice + margerine
1kg ground turkey is actually much cheaper than ground chicken!
boiling in instant pot works but it takes longer than chicken
Boiled 5 eggs for 10 minutes in the small pot. Unshelled them and mashed in a bowl with a fork.
Boiled pasta and string beans for 7 minutes with an egg.
This isn’t related to the aim of this thread, quick and cheap meals, but I came across this recipe which I remember making with my mom. It tasted great.
came across this a while ago.