How many of you spend hours a week on meal prep? Cooking a week’s worth of meals can take up to half a day—and most shortcuts result in some pretty Not Awesome™ food.
But there’s a faster way. A better way.
And it’s with a little something called a “sous vide” machine.
Good for Dinner Parties & Fitness Goals
Sous vide is a method of cooking where you slowly cook food in a bag (usually a gallon freezer bag) while submerged in hot (but not boiling) water. Why cook it this way? Because it’s slow, lets you control the temperature to within a degree, and it requires ZERO supervision. You literally put the food in the bag, put the bag in the water, and let it sit until it’s cooked.
Restaurants usually cook sous vide because you can cook dozens of meals at a time, and then just finish them in a pan when someone orders the dish. It’s the ultimate low maintenance cooking.
Amazon has some pretty affordable sous vide machines that are really easy to use—the Joule by ChefSteps connects to your phone through an app, which makes it one of the most straightforward machines on the market. However, there are plenty of options!
Here’s How to Do It
Once you’ve got your sous vide machine, you’ll want to mix-and-match your meals using your favorite:
- Lean proteins
- Complex carbs
- Fiber-heavy veggies
- Healthy fats
Quick tip: pork chops, chicken breast, and flank steaks will all cook at 140 degrees Fahrenheit—so you can cook multiple meats at once and add variety to your meals.
As for your veggies, you’ll want to cut them into bite-sized chunks, then leave them raw—they’ll naturally steam when you microwave your meal later in the week. Then cook your carbs however you want them—steamed, boiled, or baked.
For portioning out your meals, here’s a quick rule of thumb:
- Palm-sized chunk of protein
- Fist-sized chunk of carbs and veggies (each)