Cheap And Healthy Meals For The Week, Done In 1 Hour

Many of you don't know what I'm about to tell you. We all know I've cooked my whole life. Here's me cooking at five. And well, here's me at 12. Look, that was a different Josh. Fully depressed. I'm not gonna give you the whole sob story, all right? The point is I was not at a healthy weight, if that's not evident by looking at that image, thank you. Although I was an absolute legend at World of Warcraft, and don't you forget it. By 16, I lost over 100 pounds. So yes, hard work pays off. But here's the goal. I wanna take my fitness up a notch and get absolutely shredded. While healthy food sucks, and it's expensive, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So we're gonna learn together and end those excuses today. Okay, here's what I don't like about meal prep. People keep it way too simple. I get it, life is busy, and you wanna keep things basic and easy. But really, an egg cooked in a cup with a side of peanut butter and a cup of blackberries? No, we're gonna fix that. And by we, I mean me, my friend, Noor. Who is Jack? And we'll beat your. Noor's gonna be our expert to guide us through this process to make sure that we make the most helpful, healthy meals we can with the maximum flavor that'll fit your budget. By the end of this, Noor's gonna approve or disapprove on whether our meals pass the health and fitness test. But Noor, tell me a little bit about yourself. Okay, so our meal. For breakfast option, we have a jammy soft egg breakfast sausage sandwich. And then we have three options for lunch, dinner, or well, I guess also breakfast or a snack. Green goddess salad with shiko, a fajita bowl, and teriyaki salmon skewers with a cabbage slaw. Let me explain something. These are made with intention. It's not just ingredients thrown together to meet your macros or whatever the hell you're doing to keep track of it. But let's talk about the more important factor. Here's how you're gonna do this in one hour. I have a secret weapon. It's a sous vide circulator. Oh, what? Why, Josh? That's so dumb. Listen, let me present to you some problems. Problem number one, it's hard to consistently eat healthy, usually because of moisture. Yes, that's why people like fatty cuts of meat. You know, if it's juicy, juicy, squirt, squirt, then it's easy to eat. But if you have chicken breast and it's as dry as the Mojave Desert, well, then that's a lot harder to do, isn't it? Problem number two, cooking a lot of protein usually requires a ton of cleanup and time spent on a stove. This is going to eliminate both of those and more. I did five pounds or 2.2 kilos for the whole week, which you can do either chicken breast or pork tenderloin, you pick, or a mix. Yes, we clean the board between shots here. Thank you, we're sanitary. Now, once you have a protein, season that to taste with whatever you like. You can do just plain old salt and pepper, or you can add Cajun spice. Did a little bit of Vatavon curry spice on the chicken. Toss it in a vacuum bag. Feel free to add herbs or aromatics at this point, and then make sure to get a good old-fashioned suck and seal then drop it in a sous vide bath that's been preheated to 150 Fahrenheit or 65 degrees Celsius. Drop those bad boys in there for about 50 to 55 minutes, and now our one-hour prep time starts. Let's start with another long process, a batch of white rice. I don't care if I can't diet with white rice. I'm doing it. I refuse to eat brown rice. Texture, horrible. Dry, and it takes longer to cook? Hell no. Make as much rice as you need. I did about two and a half cups of medium-grain rice, which was rinsed of its starch, toed clear, and added to a rice cooker. With two and a half cups or 460 grams of medium-grain white rice, two and a half cups or 591 milliliters, or 600 milliliters of water, close it and turn that sweet, starchy robot on. We're starting this first because a rice cooker takes about 35 minutes, but a pressure cooker will take 15. Use your time wisely. At this point, we're about five minutes into our hour, 55 minutes left. Next, green goddess salad. Quite literally, just combine in a blender a quarter cup or 41 grams of toasted almonds, five tablespoons or 27 grams of nutritional yeast, which is completely optional, five cloves of garlic, peeled for God's sake, one cup or 20 grams of fresh basil, one cup or 30 grams of fresh baby spinach, and optionally, one poblano that's been cored and the stem's been removed. If you want, you can totally char it over an open flame and peel it, but that's just for the extra flavor. Blend that and then use water to get it loose enough just to get that nice vortex in the blender. Blend on high speed and then stream in three and a half tablespoons or 35 grams of extra virgin olive oil. Pour that into a bowl, season and taste with salt, lemon juice, and pepper, and well, that's your dressing. Now, cut up one head of iceberg lettuce into chunks and a couple handfuls of grape tomatoes cut in half. Well, I've said this before on my YouTube shorts, which, by the way, if you're not watching those, what are you doing? Go and get on that. And just take two lids, like from a deli container, load them up with miters, place another one on top, and cut in between, bada-bing, bada-boom, look at that. Dress your lettuce, depending on how much you can with whatever your caloric intake is, in a large bowl, coat it nicely, toss, toss, toss, then just load up a meal prep box or a to-go container kind of thing like this, and some grape tomatoes, if desired. Make seven of those, guys, you know, for the week, and we'll add protein when it's done cooking. We're now 15 minutes in, 45 minutes left. Okay, our fajita bowl. We just need to make a very basic peppers and onions. For this, just cut two red bell peppers and one green bell pepper into matchsticks. Slice one sweet onion thinly. Heat up a large saute pan over medium high, grease the pan with cooking spray, then add your veggies. Season to taste with salt, and cook for three to five minutes, tossing often until lightly charred and cooked through with a little bit of crunch. That's it, you know, there's something beautiful about this vegetable combination. You don't really need much. Next, we need a sauce for our protein. In a small bowl, add a quarter cup or 15 grams of finely chopped parsley, four cloves of garlic, grated, one tablespoon or 11 grams of water, one tablespoon or 16 grams of soy sauce, two tablespoons or 20 grams of olive oil, and two tablespoons or 22 grams of lemon juice. Season to taste with salt, combine that, and stir till dissolved. We'll be ready to assemble that once the rice and our protein is done, and we're currently 25 minutes in with 35 minutes left. Now we're at the make or break moment, if you will. If you make both the salmon and the breakfast sandwich, then be aware, you only have 35 minutes to do that. I can do it in probably 20 to 25, but if you're a little slower, respectfully, then you should pick one or the other before getting your keister absolutely handed to you. Let's say you pick the breakfast sandwich, super simple, soft boiled eggs, very easy, I don't know why people struggle with it. You literally just get a pot of boiling water, you put seven eggs in there, you know, one egg per sandwich, and just let them boil for six minutes and 30 seconds on the dot. Pull them, immediately submerge in an ice bath, cool till warm, about five minutes, then peel, and well, that's it, you slice them, and they should be loosey-goosey and jammy to the point of weak knees, you feel me? Now for the turkey breakfast sausage, we'll do this. Medium sized bowl, add two pounds or 900 grams of 95% lean ground turkey, one tablespoon or one gram of fresh sage, finely chopped, half a teaspoon or one gram of onion powder, two teaspoons or eight grams of garlic powder, two teaspoons or 12 grams of fine sea salt, half a teaspoon or half a gram of cayenne powder, and half a teaspoon or half a gram of fresh ground black pepper. Mix that together, kneading nicely. Somehow ground turkey is just not very delightful to touch with your hands. Shape those into four ounce balls, which should get you around seven to eight. Yes, you may have an extra one, you're welcome. Once you have your balls, you're gonna cook these just like a smash patty burger. Grease a large skillet with cooking spray, heat over medium high, and once nearly smoking, add in a ball, press it down with a spatula or a burger press until about a quarter inch thick, and let that sear for about two minutes, then flip and sear for one to two more minutes, or until fully cooked and browned on both sides. Be careful not to go too long, or you'll go from juicy patty to drier than a flip-flop. Now, snag your most diet-friendly bread you can find. To be honest, the most healthy would be a beautiful sourdough bread made from scratch, and I have many recipes for that, but I guess regular is fine. Ina is watching. Toast your bread. It's not just a texture thing, it's a flavor thing, so don't skip that. You'll need 14 slices to make seven total sandwiches. See, I'm getting better at math too. Now, here you can add a sauce that fits your macros, which I would recommend and leave to you to decide. Now, toasted bread. Sear juicy turkey patty down, a soft jammy egg split in half with the jammy side facing down. Lined up in the center, place another slice on top. We're going for sort of that Japanese egg salad sandwich cross-section. Now, wrap each in plastic wrap, split it in half, and hope you have a good-looking jammy cross-section. It's simple, but oddly satisfying. Now, we've got five to 10 minutes left till the proteins are wrapped up, and about 15 minutes till the full hour is up. Now, if you don't want the breakfast sandwich, here's our teriyaki salmon skewer. First, our sauce. To a medium saucepan, add one and a half tablespoons or 20 grams of white vinegar, a quarter cup or 60 milliliters of water, a quarter cup or 60 milliliters of soy sauce, half a teaspoon or six grams of toasted sesame oil, three tablespoons or 46 grams of honey, one inch knob of ginger, grated, then whisk in two and a half teaspoons or eight grams of cornstarch, heat over medium heat, stirring frequently until thickened, which is really fast, about two minutes. Cut off the heat, stir in three cloves of finely chopped garlic, and that's it. Now, for the salmon, you need two pounds or 900 grams of a salmon filet. Remove the skin beautifully. Hey, got skills like that? Look at that, whoo! It's a skinned salmon right there. Cut that bad boy into one-by-one-inch cubes, or at least as closely to a cube as you can. When cutting a fish like this, please don't saw at it like it's a well-done steak. Ideally, you wanna cut it in a single stroke from heel to tip of the knife. You know, it's all about that stroke game, you know that. For the vegetables, you need one crown of broccoli that's been cut into florets, and three green onions that have been cut into one-and-a-quarter-inch segments. Skewer your salmon onto the skewers, alternating between salmon, green onion, broccoli florets. Really, you can organize them however you like. Now, preheat a grill so one side is hot and the other is off. You can use any type of grill, really, but the main important thing is you spray your grill aggressively with cooking spray, season your skewers lightly with salt, and grill beautifully for about two minutes per side or until you get some nice color and char, and the fish is just barely cooked with an internal temperature of about 125 Fahrenheit. Now, while that guy's cooking on the grill, we're gonna make a very basic lemony slaw. You'll need half a head of green cabbage sliced as thinly as you can, ideally on a mandolin. Somehow, a half a head produces way more cabbage threads than it looks like it can. Add that to a bowl, along with two thinly sliced green onions, salt, and lemon juice to taste. Toss together, and that's it. You know, I'd say you'd add some oil or mayo, but that's not on diet. Now, is it, bruv? Now, once your salmon skewers are done, quickly brush each skewer with your teriyaki sauce while it's grilling, and continuously rotate on the hot side so that your glaze gets nice and sticky, tacky, and lightly charred. Then, load up your meal prep boxes with your salmon, a serving of white rice, and or your slaw. Again, I'd say probably about 20-minute process here. So, I think we'll land with just a little bit of cushion before that full hour's up. So, here's how you'll configure these meals. You'll do the split sandwich, a nice mix of 50-50 raspberries and blackberries, about one cup or 115 grams each of them. Then, about half a cup of Greek yogurt and a pinch of cinnamon per container. It's simple, but it really gets the job done, and it's very satiating. At this point, you've got about five minutes till the hour is up. Your protein should be done. Simply pull them out, pat them dry. If you don't have time, you don't have to sear them, but feel free to give them a quick sear before slicing, or don't. It's like literally a minute in a hot pan on both sides, so you totally could. Unload a skewer or two into your meal prep tin, followed by rice, followed by slaw, you know, to your heart's desire, or whatever Nora tells you, in my case. Now, for the salad, add your dressed greens to a meal prep container, fresh sliced sous vide chicken breast on top. Your grape tomatoes for the pork. Slice it nicely, lay it down. Add your peppers and onions, your rice, and don't forget a spoonful or two of that beautiful sauce you made earlier. With all this clocking in at just under one hour, depending on if you do the salmon or the breakfast one. But first, let's clock in our calories with proteins, carbs, and fat. This is the total we spent for the week, which means we spent this for each day, and this for each meal. Now, let's taste test. We're here with our expert, Nora, the one and only. Okay, so we can start with breakfast. That was really just toasted bread, soft-boiled egg, and breakfast turkey patty. This is good. That's about 30 grams of protein. Perfect balance to start the day. Sous vide chicken. Cup of rice. The fajita veg. I really like this dressing. I think you're gonna really like it. Herbaceous. A lot of nutrients from the spinach, from the basil, and the fiber from the spinach. Yeah, if you don't like salmon, I can help. Oh, I love salmon, man. What, 10 grams of sugar, maybe? I lost you, man. This is so good. You heard it here. Perfect macro roundup. You can't go wrong. The reality is, take the time, and Nora will prove I'm going to be shredded in six months. Is that really gonna land on 4th of July? If it doesn't get shredded, I'm quitting my job. Oh, ----. You wanna know what else is gonna get shredded? B-roll.