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• Clif (or whatever you prefer) bars
• Protein shakes
• Scrambled eggs
• those small plastic boxes of pre-washed lettuce + a comically simple vinaigrette
• whatever vegetable you like, olive oil spray, salt pepper garlic, roast at 425 until you crisp it to your liking (optional hot sauce to give it a kick after you pull it out)

Also: get a sous vide machine and prep some stuff in your freezer. I’ve got several steaks with shaved garlic, s+p, rosemary and thyme in the freezer for when I just want to not care much about cooking, but want something meaty. After the main cook, just blot it dry and sear it real quick on a rippin’ hot skillet (stainless or steel or cast iron is going to give you better results, and also not give you cancer).

I’ve also got spatchcock roast chicken down to a science - WAY less effort than most people think it is.

Ingredients: short pasta, frozen peas, garlic, butter, lemon, Parmesan

Get pasta water boiling, salt it well. Don’t dump this down the sink until the recipe is complete, it’s multifunctional.

Mince 6-8 cloves of garlic, sauteed in a hot pan with a full stick of butter and some chili flakes, keep stirring until the butter browns, but kill the heat if the garlic starts to burn. While you’re stirring, zest and then juice one large lemon. When the butter starts to brown, put the pasta in the water, reduce heat on the garlic butter and deglase the pan with lemon juice as needed. When the pasta is still underdone, transfer it from the water to the sauce, it’ll finish cooking there. Add the zest, the rest of the juice, and grate Parmesan over top, stirring everything in. As the sauce gets stodgy from the cheese, add some pasta water to make the separate elements cohere — you’re aiming for a silky, creamy sauce. Dip the frozen peas in the pasta water long enough to turn bright green and mix them into the pasta and sauce.

Serve, garnishing each bowl with more parm and a dash of fresh-ground black pepper.

Now you can toss the remaining pasta water.

My kids would eat this four times a week if they got to pick.

For a fancier summer version of this dish, grate a couple pounds of zucchini into the garlic butter before it browns and slowly sautée it down on medium-low heat to a jammy consistency, which takes about twenty minutes. Only when the zucchini is completely disintegrated should you start cooking pasta. The rest of the recipe is the same, though you might want to up the lemon to match the additional sweetness. Corn also works as an add-in.

In the winter, you can chiffonade some kale or chard or collard greens or spinach into the sauce a few minutes before adding the pasta.

Rice (rice cooker or microwaved from the fridge) + frozen vegetables + hummus/canned beans/edamame + fridge sauce such as chilli crisp, soy sauce, sambal oelek, etc.

Hummus + crackers

Big ol bowl of lettuce, store bought dressing, a fuck tonne of nuts.

Breakfast:
Simple: Scrambled eggs on a tortilla and in a burrito
Something More:

• Greek Yogurt, similar enough to sour cream but healthier
• Shredded cheese
• Spinach
• Can add a little milk or flour to the eggs and whisk it all together before adding it to the pan to make the eggs fluffier
• Plenty of spices can be added on top of salt and pepper to give it even more flavor

Lunch and Dinner:
Simple: Penne pasta, spinach, some form of cubed or ground meat, alfredo sauce
Something More:

• Squash (Green, Yellow, Mexican - all good)
• Broccoli (I sometimes like to steam them in a separate pot, though you can grill them in the same pan)
• Mushrooms (lionsmane and shitake have some good health benefits)
• Onion
• Garlic
• Shredded cheese
• Can save some if the water you boil the pasta in to add to the final product after, apparently this adds more flavor though in all honesty, I’ve tried this a few times and it’s adding a few extra steps with no payoff

Both of these can utilize a lot of the same ingredients, making meal prep easy. I like having big containers containing everythjng already cooked, and then I can just add to the same container day after day. Less dishes overall, and just takes the one day of cooking a bit to make the rest if the week super easy.

Are you talking about when the executive function is completely offline? Because if that’s hitting hard and I’m going “I’m hungry but I can’t make anything” my go to is a quesadilla.
Seriously if I can stand and heat a frying pan, it becomes easygoing to warm up some tortillas in the fry pan and throw some cheese between them. Bingo bango bongo you’ve got a Mexican cheese sandwich.
And then as I’m eating the first one I can be making a second and maybe throw in some ham or some salami, or better yet some leftover taco meat. All of a sudden I’m not so hungry and I’m happier having eaten something and maybe I can be motivated to eat some veggies or fruit.

Egg, cheese, and potato burrito. Never fails to satisfy. Cut up and par boil a potato, toss it in the strainer to get it craggily, oil it up with spices, bake for 20 minutes. Scramble some eggs and throw it on a tortilla with cheese.

I call this recipe Baja balls

Get a crock pot and fill it with some plain frozen meatballs.

Dump the entire contents of a can of crushed pineapple in there, maybe a can of pineapple rings too if you’re feeling fancy.

Cover with low sodium teriyaki sauce and cook on high or medium depending on how much stuff you have to do today.

Cook up some rice when it’s looking done.

If you want it to be extra fancy you can garnish with some chives and sesame seeds

Takes literally no effort to make (especially if you have a rice cooker), kid friendly for all of the parents out there, nothing too expensive goes into it, and literally everyone I’ve given it to went crazy over it.

Lentil soup.

Cacio e pepe

Pasta with pesto. But it’s healthier and more fancy looking than you’d think …

• my grocery sells “fresh” stuffed tortellini and ravioli in “family” sized packages that are good for more than a month
• I prefer pesto over marinara, but they each come in a jar and lasts a long time

1. Brown some meat. I like found Italian sausage meat when my grocery has it. I’ve also pulled the skins off (spicy) Italian sausage, I’ve used ground beef, ground turkey, or chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces. It doesn’t matter which
2. Slice a red pepper into chunks
3. Cook the pasta - remember to save a little pasta water (I always forget)
4. Dump into a colander
5. Put the pot back on the stove
6. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil, a couple shakes of crushed red pepper, and a tablespoon or two of garlic, and cook a minute to draw out the garlic
7. Dump in the pasta, the meat, the peppers , half a jar of pesto and mix it all in.
8. Add the pasta water (you remembered to save it, right?) shaved Parmesan and a handful of baby spinach and mix (this should be right before serving so the spinach is not over done)

Now you have simple pasta but it’s colorful, looks fancy, has vegetables.

Boiled chicken + premade salad bag.

Creamy Tomato soup with onion, bell pepper, and basil

Tilapia + pick your spice of choice.

Takes less than five minutes and it’s a reasonable healthy thing

Italian sausage + bun + onions + green olives + mustard. Easy to whip up, and reminds me of being a kid. The buns and sausages are multi-packs so if your bad day turns into a bad week, you’re still good.

Egg fried rice. Throw some vegs and/or leftover meat in there too. It’s easy, it’s fast, and I can adapt it to what I have in the fridge.