I’m looking to have tasty and balanced food while maintaining a reasonable budget and being more organised.
I know how to cook. I already have tasty yet not complicated meals I’m use to make but I never needed to be organised about it before.
So I decided to start to write menu in advance, do a some meal prepping probably a bit of batch cooking.
I found resources online to start following a plan but maybe you have advices for the beginner that I am.
Thank you!
I riff on basically the same thing all week.
1 meal is (at least mostly) a salad with whatever fresh is lying around + dressing + cheese
My other daily meal is brown rice (genmai), some kind of sauce (usually like sriracha), cheese, and whatever veg + protein is handy/cheap. I sometimes replace the rice with potato (baked but occasionally mashed) or corn tortillas. If your body is nice enough not to hate you, tons of wheat options there.
In the colder months, I might also throw in the odd batch of chili + cornbread (sub wheat flour for rice flour, but you probably don’t need to do this) or some other soup/stew.
I think learning templates is much more important than recipes since you can just riff on them with whatever you have to hand that’s within the budget. Recipes are good for the more fiddly things or treats.
Edit: I bulk buy and freeze chicken (sometimes whole but usually thighs), pork, seafood, fish, etc. and supplement with local seafood when seasonal and tofu. I also buy lots of frozen veggies in bulk which, in most places these days, are better in terms of flavor and nutrition than canned. I also grow what I can, but I realize that’s not going to be possible for everyone at significant amounts (though growing some greens and herbs is probably doable by almost anyone; I’ve also grown chilis in PET soda bottles in windows).
Edit2: full disclosure: once a week we grab something take-out from the grocery, usually sushi since we love it and basically everything else runs afoul of my wheat issues.
That a good thing to keep in mind.