My Chef’s Guide To Week Night Meal Prepping

[00:00] happy New Year and welcome to the new year new me Club the time of year where

[00:03] you have every intention of creating new habits waking up early eating healthier

[00:08] getting fit and saving more money well I can't help you with most of those but I

[00:13] can help you with creating delicious meal prep that doesn't suck so today's

[00:17] video is my Ultimate Guide to weeknight meal prep dinners that don't suck from

[00:22] my Chef's experience so I'm going to run you through four proteins two legums and

[00:26] 10 veg and garnish sides for burrito bowl inspired meal that you can mix and

[00:31] match and not get bored throughout the week let's get stuck in the me prep

[00:35] carbohydrate King rice but we're going to season it we'll do that once it's

[00:39] cooked first of all rice in your rice cooker wash it till the water almost

[00:43] runs clear enough water to the first knuckle into your rice cooker if you

[00:47] don't have a rice cooker just use a pot with a lid bring it up to a simmer turn

[00:51] the heat right down low and cook it until all the water's evaporated but the

[00:54] same method before that rinse it really well first knuckle water on you go rice

[01:00] white rice is delicious first step is to fluff it what seasoning we season our

[01:05] rice people I don't know why people don't season their rice enough so you

[01:08] can do it with like sushi rice seasoning which you can buy which works really

[01:11] well what I like to do is use some of this which is a Japanese spice Mi which

[01:16] I'm pretty sure is pronounced as tagi I could get that wrong I like a bit of

[01:20] this which adds a nice little citrusy note and I like to amplify that citrusy

[01:24] note with some lime zest and lime juice so I put half the seasoning in and stir

[01:32] it through and add the other half take the time to season your rice because it

[01:36] literally turns plain old rice into something that's really tasty and

[01:40] Moorish with just a couple of extra

[01:45] steps into a container give it a label and let it cool completely before we put

[01:50] a lid on it and get it in the fridge one of my favorites black beans you need to

[01:54] soak these covered in water overnight in the fridge once they've soaked for 24

[01:59] hours you rinse them well until the water runs clear and then I found the

[02:02] best way to cook black beans is in lots of water in a pressure cooker if you

[02:07] don't have a pressure cooker you can just use a normal pot but it is going to

[02:10] take a while just keep it simmering keep stirring it's probably going to take an

[02:13] hour and a half so make sure the beans are really well covered in water it'll

[02:17] absorb more than you probably expect then you're going to add a big pinch of salt three bay

[02:24] leaves one onion just peeled and the ends off and four cloves of garlic just

[02:29] crushed now remember you're going to eat these things for 4 days maybe 5 days

[02:34] even so take the extra steps add the garlic add the onion season it well

[02:39] otherwise it's going to be a pretty boring week turn that on you want it on

[02:43] low pressure we'll check it after 25 minutes these have been cooking for 25

[02:47] minutes and I release the pressure let's see how they're doing for me the ideal

[02:53] black bean is it's nice and tender but it's still holding shape drain

[02:57] those I mean you really just need to get the bay leaves out the onions can garlic

[03:01] can stay in there nothing wrong with that pour it into our container label

[03:07] it and let them cool until we put them in the fridge so we're going to get into

[03:11] the protein section now we're going to start with salmon couple of things to

[03:14] talk about I love crispy skin hand fried salmon however that does not hold up in

[03:18] the fridge so don't bother trying to get crispy skin salmon now cuz it's just

[03:22] going to taste like jelly rubber in 2 days time when you reheat it so I prefer

[03:26] to bake my salmon when I'm using it for meal prep why cuz I think you can

[03:30] control the temperature better of the inside for me I like to undercook my

[03:34] salmon slightly rather than overcook it cuz you probably going to shove it

[03:38] through the microwave to reheat it later or even when you eat it cold medium rare

[03:42] salmon is far more juicy and tasty compared to well D salmon seasoning is

[03:46] super important when it comes to all cooking but especially this cup of

[03:49] cooking because you want to make sure that everything's seasoned nicely but it

[03:53] all compliments each other you want something that's kind of going to work

[03:55] with everything so you feel like salmon and black beans tonight and then salmon

[03:58] and rice tomorrow you want it to still taste slightly different so all these

[04:02] seasonings are going to use for proteins you can mix and match them use them on

[04:05] whatever protein you want for the salmon I'm going to use olive oil then some

[04:09] salt and then some ground fennel fennel works really well with fish it also

[04:13] works pretty well with chicken and I'm going to use a little bit of ground

[04:16] white pepper why white pepper over black pepper I don't know it's a weird like

[04:20] French chef thing that they use white pepper with fish I guess cuz you can't

[04:24] see it as much but you can use ground black pepper as well so in the oven it

[04:28] goes on 190° C fan Force I'm going to check it after 8 minutes it'll probably take 10

[04:35] though all right I know it's looking pretty pale but it won't be dry 2 more minutes be good to

[04:42] go perfect you see it's still got a bit of Bounce in it so that'll be nice and

[04:47] medium rare in the middle we're going to place it into our container let it cool

[04:50] down before we put a lid on it and that skin will just peel off nicely when you

[04:54] pull it out of the container chicken the meal protein of choice for most people

[04:59] why chicken's pretty tasty I like chicken fun fact family owns a chicken

[05:02] farm olive oil I like Old Bay on my chicken but I think Old Bay works really

[05:06] well as a seasoning in general decent amount of O B on there and some salt and

[05:11] then I'm going to take it outside to the grill which I've got ripping hot I'm

[05:14] going to get some good bar lines on the outside before we put it on a tray line

[05:18] with paper and we place it in the oven to finish cooking so why do we start it

[05:22] on the grill and finish it in the oven well cuz we want the bar lines from the

[05:25] grill to add some flavor finishing in the oven allows us to control the

[05:29] temperature better and it's also an indirect source of heat so you got less

[05:32] chance of the chicken drying out once that chicken reaches a internal

[05:36] temperature of about 68 to 70° C we're going to pull it out and cool it down

[05:40] quickly cuz it's safe to eat chicken has reached 70° internal pull it out into a

[05:45] container let it cool down completely before you put a lid on it and place it

[05:49] in the fridge the obligatory ground beef and I say obligatory but it's you know

[05:53] it's good for a reason the only thing I will say about cooking beef like this is

[05:57] go to a butcher and get good beef it makes such a difference if you put it in

[06:01] the pan it shouldn't leech out heaps of water it's going to sometimes it'll

[06:05] oxidize a little bit that's okay that's just cuz it's not packed with an inert

[06:09] gas to stop that happening it's natural it happens if it's got a little bit of

[06:12] brown like that don't stress it's fine it should smell like beef should be

[06:16] fresh have no real odor and then we're going to season it and we're not going

[06:20] to use taco seasoning we're going to use something more interesting this is Rasel

[06:25] hanut which is a spice blend from like North Africa and really prominent in

[06:29] Moroccan cooking but you can use whatever spice PKS you want like I said

[06:32] earlier Pan's nice and hot we're going to break up our beef to little pieces

[06:36] and just let it get some Browning season with salt and our Russ we're not going

[06:42] to start breaking that up just you really want to let that mayard reaction

[06:45] start to work before we start stirring so I'm doing about a kilo of beef in

[06:49] total here but I'm going to do it in two 500 G batches and you could even go

[06:53] three or four you really want to get great color on that beef but you know I

[06:56] think two is enough in a pan this size anyway a bowl is not a Mexican invention

[07:01] it's not something that you'll find in Mexico I don't think anyway I think it's

[07:05] like a North Cali kind of thing so you can kind of be a bit more adventurous

[07:09] with what you're putting in it doesn't need to be super traditional I often

[07:12] love kimchi in my burrito bowls that I make at home and you see here that mince

[07:17] has not let any water out into that pan and it doesn't take long to cook you

[07:21] really do not want to overcook it so as soon as you see all the pink disappear that's good to

[07:27] go first batch done let's do the other one label on it let it cool down before

[07:35] you put a lid on it and place it in the fridge and the last protein we're going

[07:38] to do is some prawns or shrimp if you live in the states well but technically

[07:41] they're not the same thing but they kind of are the same thing does that make

[07:44] sense not the same animal very similar anyway peed and deined prawns a good

[07:49] drizzle of olive oil pinch of salt prawns are great too right really low

[07:53] fat almost zero fat decent amount of protein they're just expensive and tahen some tahen that's

[08:00] quite old by the looks of it so perfect for this you wouldn't really want to use

[08:03] it on like a cocktail or something but considering this is going to be pan

[08:06] fried it's great if you don't know what tahen is it's a Mexican spice plan very

[08:11] citrusy uh a very small amount of heat not really much heat at all but um absolutely

[08:16] delicious make sure all that stuff's all that stuff all that seasoning is kind of

[08:21] nicely distributed pans on hot going to add a little bit more oil to the pan

[08:25] olive oil let that come up to temperature and then we're going to add

[08:29] our prawns a couple of minutes each side and instead of dumping the whole pan in

[08:34] at once do it individually because it'll allow the pan to keep up a bit better if

[08:38] that makes sense you put all these cold prawns in there the heat will really

[08:42] come out of that pan we want to cook these quickly and ideally get a little

[08:46] bit of char on them too once you see the Tails start to go pink time to flip then

[08:52] we're going to turn the heat off add the juice of a lemon and out they come label on let

[09:00] them cool we're going to move into the veg section of this video but I want to

[09:03] start with something that's actually not going to be ready today Sauer CRA is one

[09:06] of those things that I always have in my fridge having something fermented with

[09:11] your diet everyday is really good for your gut health and you can absolutely

[09:14] just go buy sour crout and use it there's nothing wrong with that but if

[09:17] you make it yourself it just tastes better cabbage fancy cabbage peeler now

[09:23] we need to weigh the Cabbage 1.7 kilos every 1 kilo of cabbage we need 20 gram

[09:31] of cooking sea salt that will work out to be a grand total of 34 gram of salt

[09:36] so we need 34 G of cooking salt which is more than you probably think actually

[09:40] let's see oh there we go that's 38 stunning and now we need to get all that

[09:45] evenly across that the best way to do it is to do it in batches season it really

[09:51] rub it in there push that to one side Ras you feel the liquid coming out of

[09:58] that already look at this going to wash my hands we'll leave that for half an

[10:03] hour and then we'll pack it into a ceramic jar and we'll let it ferment for

[10:06] 4 weeks you won't see the end product in this video I'm sorry but oh it's on a

[10:10] short I have a short I'll link it below so it's set for half an hour and you can

[10:16] see here a lot of water's come out but we want that water don't throw that away

[10:20] going to put some Caraway I like caroway caroway is delicious quite a bit of

[10:23] carow away going to evenly mix that through and then here I've got a

[10:27] fermenting jar ceramic jar you can just use a glass jar if you want okay so

[10:31] we're going to pack this you want to pack it fairly tight you don't want big

[10:34] air bubbles small handfuls and it goes and push it down and any extra liquid

[10:39] make sure you pour that in as well so we're going to press down nice and firm

[10:43] on this and you should feel the the liquid covering the Cabbage doesn't have

[10:48] to be covered by a lot but you want there to be water on the top if the

[10:51] water doesn't cover it dissolve some more salt in some water for every kilo

[10:57] or liter of water add 20 G of salt and dissolve it and then pour it on the top

[11:02] you won't need a later you might need 100 m or something cuz you need that to

[11:05] kind of cover it anyway put some weights on top which will keep that cabbage

[11:09] under that water level stunning secretly just wanted to make some sauerkraut

[11:13] during work hours so I kind of incorporated into video this will be

[11:16] ready in 4 weeks it'll be delicious 3 weeks if you want it crunchy and not

[11:20] super strong 4 weeks if you want it a little bit more you know funky I'm going

[11:24] to put some water in this too and what that will do is like I said before

[11:27] create an airlock I'll see you in four weeks veggies there's two things I want to

[11:31] talk about before you start cooking them cuz we're going to go rapid fry through

[11:34] these cuz it's a lot of the same thing and I don't want to bore you the first

[11:37] thing I want to talk about is make sure you undercook your veggies I think a

[11:40] large reason why a lot of people don't like to eat veggies not looking at

[11:44] anyone Dez is because they were served rubbish veggies that were overcooked as

[11:48] kids undercook them they're going to get reheated well-cooked veggies are

[11:51] delicious overcooked veggies suck the second thing is acid acid is super

[11:56] important in cooking and I think it's underutilized a lot for the home cook

[12:00] acid balances flavor enhances flavor and there's lots of ways to add acid you can

[12:04] use citrus like lemons and limes or even oranges and blood oranges or you can use

[12:08] vinegars vinegars are very broad there's lots of vinegar if you had to have one

[12:12] I'd say just have apple cider vinegar that'll do the job well a close second

[12:17] would be something like this a cherry vinegar this is quite an expensive

[12:19] Cherry vinegar you don't need to get a super expensive one you can if you want

[12:23] a very delicious vinegar though a little bit sweeter a Chinese style black

[12:26] vinegar that's usually the ones that you have in Dumplings but I really like it

[12:30] um to use it to season veggies as well it's a bit sharper has quite a nice you

[12:35] know multi flavor almost and then this is a vinegar that I've become really

[12:38] accustomed to uh lately in the last couple of years spending a bit of time

[12:41] in the Philippines as a coconut vinegar a bit of more of a mild flavor um as far

[12:46] as the coconut but it's got quite a pungent kind of vinegar flavor which is

[12:51] which isn't a bad thing you just need to be careful when you're using it so how

[12:54] we're going to attack the veggies is we're going to sauté them and a little

[12:57] bit of olive oil salt and we're going to season them with vinegar the vinegar is

[13:01] going to balance out flavor and it's also going to help us as we store these

[13:04] veggies we're going to raise the acid level means they're not going to go off

[13:07] as quick and they should hold their crunch a bit longer that's enough of me

[13:11] yapping it's going to be quick fire show you how to cut them pan fry move on to

[13:15] the next one first up zucchini or corette depending where around the world

[13:19] so top and tail off your zucchini straight down the middle and then you

[13:22] want to cut on an angle relatively thick get your pan nice and

[13:31] hot once your oil is starting to smoke add your zucchini don't overcrowd your

[13:35] pan and just like with the beef let them get a bit of color up before you start

[13:39] tossing little bit of salt ground cumin works really well with zucchini after a

[13:44] couple of minutes give them a stir and then leave them again for another few

[13:47] more minutes this is what we're looking for if we can get color like this on all

[13:51] sides we're in a good place however undercooking them is more important than

[13:55] having color in my opinion in this scenario cuz if you overcook these just

[14:00] to get color you're going to get really soggy veg that's it that's all those need out

[14:07] there go and we'll cook the rest all right going to turn the heat

[14:12] off going to add the first lot back and we're going to dress them with a little bit of

[14:18] vinegar out they come zucchinis done next up squash but a word of warning if

[14:25] you you're using your favorite pan of this it's a carbon pan or a cast iron

[14:29] pan the vinegar at the end might affect your seasoning so don't don't come at me

[14:33] if you're seasoning your stay in a steel pan no drama to cut these beautiful

[14:38] yellow squash in half and then each half into three if they're smaller just in

[14:43] half and in half again very similar to the last ones oiling let it get hot oh

[14:48] um do me a favor and um like this video And subscribe so that I can um continue

[14:53] making them and I hate having to ask I don't know why it feels so desperate you

[14:58] are desperate yeah I know I am I'm desperate oil's hot and those go ideally

[15:04] you want these the flesh side down that's going to get more color than the

[15:08] skin side PID of salt going to use a little bit of ground coriander get some color on one side

[15:15] flip them around same on the other stunning heat off good color on

[15:21] these I'm happy with those look great don't they let that pan temperature come

[15:25] down a little bit little bit of apple cider vinegar

[15:31] and off they come squash done red capsicums slice the faces off make sure you get the bottom

[15:43] and a bit around the top and then I like strips pan on high olive oil in capsicum

[15:50] or bell pepper I'm going to enhance the capsicum flavor by using a little bit of

[15:55] paprika paprika is just dried and ground up capsicum good amount of color there

[16:00] pan off we're going to use lemon juice for the acid label capsicum done next up

[16:09] asparagus I have a theory on asparagus my theory is only eat it when it's in

[16:13] season you should only eat most things when they're in season especially

[16:16] asparagus I don't know why but in Australia we always get this imported

[16:19] asparagus and it annoys me because we make we grow great asparagus here if

[16:23] it's not in season just don't eat it on your Pan's hot olive oil in let that heat up asparagus

[16:30] salt and I'm going to use lemon Myrtle if you don't have lemon Myrtle it's an

[16:34] Australian native uh spice if you live in Australia you can order the stuff

[16:38] online if you don't live in Australia you might be able to order online if you

[16:41] don't want to just use some lemon zest but we're not going to put it in just

[16:43] yet we want to get some half de in Char on this asparagus we don't want to burn the lemon

[16:48] Myrtle oh yeah okay we getting some nice color developing here that is what we're looking for heat

[16:56] offcial and use a little bit of coconut vinegar with this one actually going to toss that

[17:07] first asparagus done next up corn it's got the juice how crazy was that well what a

[17:15] time he's like he was like six so hopefully he's in school going to run

[17:19] your blade down the side of the cob taking all the kernels off now if you're

[17:24] a smarter man than me you'll do this into a bowl so it doesn't go everywhere

[17:28] and if you're even SM you'd stop what you were doing and fix the problem

[17:31] instead of just carrying on but we're here now pan on high olive oil this will take

[17:38] seconds I'm not going to put any other spice on that hot oil in the pan pinch of salt

[17:47] done and that's all the cooking done baby spinach is something that I'll

[17:50] always have cuz it's delicious and it's full of iron is that true Dez before I

[17:56] spread false information I have no no idea I'm just referencing Popeye it does

[18:01] have iron in it can confirm vitamin A vitamin C vitamin K iron potassium and

[18:07] add some protein leafy greens they're good for you wash it put it in a

[18:10] container then it's good to go the idea of all this work we're doing now you get

[18:15] home after a busy day you open some containers you choose your own journey I

[18:18] want some salmon I want some prawns I want a bit of zucchini some spinach and

[18:22] some asparagus and then tomorrow the same thing happens and you go oh

[18:25] actually I want some black beans and a little bit of rice some beef some

[18:29] zucchini some red pepper choose your own Journey you know what I mean spinach

[18:34] it's the easiest one yet so since I decided to go RAR you can make a recipe

[18:37] that takes 4 weeks the other way you can do cabbage is I like to use raw red

[18:41] cabbage shaved nice and fine I love this thing it's so satisfying and then I just season it

[18:50] with a pinch of salt and some coconut vinegar it's basically a quick pickle it

[18:54] will lose a bit of water and kind of pull up in the bottom of the of the

[18:57] container but that's okay it'll go nice and vibrant red which adds a nice pop of

[19:02] color and even if you're just pulling a bowl of of veggies into a burrito bowl

[19:06] at home making it kind of presentable is always good you know eat with your eyes

[19:09] and all that and that goes some seasoned raw red cabbage label we've only got one thing left and

[19:18] it is the easiest cucumber the trick I think with keeping cucumber fresh is to

[19:23] remove the seeds so in half take the tops off in half lengthways and and

[19:28] again then cut the seeds out and I think they just don't go as soggy we're not

[19:33] going to season this cuz otherwise the the water will kind of pull out which is

[19:37] a a thing salted cucumbers does work but I want to try and keep this fresh cuz

[19:42] everything we've got here you know is nicely seasoned with vinegar and salt so

[19:46] a nice little bit of freshness always helps to cleanse the pet and then we're

[19:51] just going to cut these at an

[19:56] angle cucumber one last thing avocados always have a couple of

[20:03] avocados on hand I'll have one that's a little bit less ripe than the other one

[20:06] so that one's ready to eat in the next day or Sue and the other one should be

[20:09] ready later on in the week if you're only using half avocado cut it open

[20:13] Twist It Off use the half that doesn't have the PIP in it or the seed in it and

[20:17] leave the seed in the half that you're saving cover it in plastic wrap or into

[20:21] an airtight container I don't know if it works or not I don't know if there's any

[20:24] truth to this but for me I find that it goes Browner slower if you keep that

[20:28] seed in that side so there you go that's how I meal prep as a chef few key things

[20:32] to remember don't overcook your veg especially and only just cook your meats

[20:36] and proteins make sure you got lots of variety so you don't get bored then you

[20:40] can pull bits different nights of the week Chicken on one night with some

[20:44] zucchini beef the next night with some capsicum some corn bit of fresh avocado

[20:49] in there and that way you won't get bored make sure you're using acid to

[20:52] season things properly it'll also keep things fresher longer thanks so much for

[20:56] watching Legends Happy New Year hope it's a crack one don't worry this

[20:59] channel ain't turning into some healthy Channel but people do always ask me how

[21:03] I eat often at home look when I'm not eating the food that we cook that's

[21:06] super rich and delicious I eat really simple basic stuff to try and keep a nice balanced diet happy

[21:13] 2025 And subscribe