Multi-Meal Prep

Creating leftovers is always a good idea. If you box them up and freeze them for a take-out lunch.

I think the idea of doing multi meal prep just happened. It just seemed like a natural thing to prepare – along with the family meal during my Friday cooking sessions. Make a little extra of this and a little extra of that and combine them into a set of boxes. Then customize each lunch portion with a different sauce and complete it with a protein source.

Then came the idea of taking the leftover pasta or other carb components (cooked spelt, rice, millet…) and package plus freezing them to go alongside.

Eventually though, I ended up with ‘reverse food engineering’ in various orders. Either I started with a vegetable combination, put some of it into three boxes and completed it in the way I mentioned before (individual sauce, protein source). Or I prepared a variety of diced or grated vegetables and added them gradually to the main pot/pan. In the process I filled different stages of the dish into boxes. Most of the time, of course, I needed two pots and an extra pan to keep the number of possible combinations high without losing the flavor.

Very important in all of this is having enough broth to make tasty sauces, so now I usually start by making the broth – mostly ahead actually. Proven combinations of favorite flavors are also important. For example, my husband loves anything with mustard, and he always appreciates the classic Italian style (sweet and sour with oregano, thyme, basil, sage & bear’s garlic). And – I am truly blessed here, given my talent for the unexpected – he is willing to be amazed when I go “exotic”. With other family members, I have to be a little more conservative (white sauce, brown sauce, tomato sauce – I’m sure you know the routine).

The really funny thing is that the take-outs are now considered standard. So everything went from “Yes, dear, you can take a prepared meal to work and eat tasty, nutritious and inexpensive food instead of herding with the crowd at costly, boring and stomach-churning feeding stations” to “Honey, there is only one meal left in the freezer, can you make more?”

Well, that’s the price of success, I guess…

Eventually though, I ended up with ‘reverse food engineering’ in various orders.

Side Notes:

• To make a good broth, check out the recipe at [Vegetable Broth].
• As I mentioned earlier, there is a risk of “mushing” the flavor of a dish when preparing multiple dishes. It is the same effect as mixing colors: if you mix too many, the picture gets dull areas and loses its overall brilliance. So stick to a theme and add just one or two food highlights. For example, if you have a rather conservative dish and want to spice it up, add small pieces of fruit and mix well. There is no need to put fruit salad on a pot roast, so to speak. For ideas on how to prepare a triple lunch, see the following recipe [‘Multi-Meal Prep (Exemplary)’].
• Latest development: my husband’s colleagues have started to ask for the recipes of the ‘delicious looking food’, he always brings along. Oh my …