Work has started for me and I’m growing a little tired of the food options around my work area. So I figured why not I just prep my own lunches and bring them to work (yeah by a week I really mean 5 working days)! This way, I can save on time spent going out to takeaway and effectively save a little bit more time of my lunch hour to idle about.
This is a fun and big deal for me because I enjoy cooking (even though my recipe range is limited) but I also love sleeping (I would have to get up earlier to prepare my meals). So I’ll be logging down the whole process and my thoughts throughout (just like a wannabe cosmopolitan article about trying something; that I love reading) from the planning to the buying of groceries down to the cooking and eating!
Sat myself down and started thinking to write down the different meals I will be having for the next week along with the ingredients I would need. Pre-planning what exactly you want to cook is probably helpful because I feel there simply isn’t time on the day itself to think about what you really want as you might not even have what you want to cook stocked up at home and there just isn’t time to run out to grab it. This prep phase has actually made me more excited about the foods I will get to it in the upcoming week (so check 1: mood lifter).
After buying the groceries I needed, I went back to portion everything, cutting the meats and vegetables beforehand so I didn’t have to do it when it was time to cook. Also marinated the meats I wanted to marinate and stocked them all in the fridge! I didn’t manage to get everything I wanted in the end because there were some meats out of stock at the supermarket so I might end up only making 4 meals in the week. We’ll see.
Sunday Night
Made a conscious effort to have an earlier night instead of my usual doing god knows what so that I’ll be energised in the morning!
Monday
Alarm started to ring and I was already regretting this a little. But okay, got myself up from my bed and headed to the kitchen to start prepping my meal! I was making pasta salad today so it was just some boiling of the pasta together with an egg, pan frying chicken breast, topping it off with cherry tomatoes and then putting everything together. In that one hour of preparation, it really brought me out of my sleepy daze and made me more awake (check 2: it gets me ready for the day by perking me up!).
I was also super excited for lunch time to eat my own food! Poured in roasted sesame sauce to go with all the ingredients and it was pretty filling (check 3: I also had more time to idle instead of wasting time travelling out to eat). One of the downside is that I have to eat cold food (no microwave at the office), I do prefer hot foods more so this is one thing that gets to me.
Tuesday
Ended up not cooking today because I was going to work at another location and thought it would be nice to try the food there. But it ended up raining so we ordered in anyway. Guess this would make up for the lack of groceries I have to make 5 days of lunches!
Wednesday
Woke up with full force again to prep my meal. (Check 4: It lifts my mood tremendously just by getting to make food). Today’s meal was more fun because I was making tomato-based pasta. Something I tried out previously (instead of using the standard Prego sauce) and super loved! Sizzled the tomatoes with some garlic and blended them together in a blender to make the tomato base and threw in some chopped tomatoes on its own to add to the texture of the sauce. Pan fried some bacon to go along with the pasta along with a hard-boiled egg (that I tried to slice nicely but failed).
Preparation of my own food makes me more excited than usual for lunch time! Heated up the sauce in one of those mini plug-in pots that was available at the office for a warmed up lunch (yay!) Thoughts so far is that I really love that own personal space I get when I eat my own prepped lunch as opposed to having to interact with people (albeit limited interacting of ordering food) and deciding what to eat for the day.
Thursday
After hump day, the fatigue of the week just gets to you. Snoozed my early alarm today and decided to give today’s meal prep a miss… (I know, I hate myself too)
Friday
After yesterday’s defeat, told myself this shouldn’t happen again. So I managed to spring myself out of bed and also because it’s friyay! Cooking my marinated meats today so not much prep on my end, just gotta pop things into the oven and air fryer. So I baked my marinated drumlets and air fried sliced up potatoes and bacon for a western-style ish kinda lunch to celebrate Friday. Topped it off with cherry tomatoes for that extra bit of health amidst the fried foods.
But, when lunch time rolls around, I realised that it probably wasn’t good idea to prepare fried food because my food has become soggy after being kept in the lunchbox for some hours. It still smelt great so it was enjoyable but not as enjoyable as fresh out of the oven/air fryer taste (yes I tried some in the morning because the smell made me hungry and it was super crispy then).
In the end, I only managed to make lunch on 3 out of the 5 days. Overall, it does feel nice to prep your own food because it makes me feel like I have some control and fun in the mundane and typical 9 – 6 job. Some might feel that it is a hassle to prepare food on top of having to work (I mean yes for me on some days) but on that 3 days I prepared food, it was a lot of fun for me!
However, it is quite tough to plan meals to eat if you like eating different variety of foods. For me, I don’t usually mind so I planned it around the same foods so it makes grocery buying easier as well. You would have noticed my ingredients are pretty similar each day – mostly cherry tomatoes/tomatoes, hard boiled egg, chicken for meat and the consistent use of fusilli for my pasta option and some switch ups here and there.
On an additional note, I do have some uncooked food leftover and to try to finish cooking whatever I bought, I will be trying to get to my fourth meal for another work day!
A random work day
After a few more mornings of not being able to get my lazy ass to cook away my leftover ingredients, I finally got down to it one fine morning. Baked some salmon and paired it with non-spicy aglio olio (I don’t know if I can even call it this) which consisted of pasta cooked with cherry tomatoes, red and green bell peppers and garlic. I was pretty excited to make this one because it’s actually the first time I’m trying it and it was pretty successful!
When lunch time rolled around, I really enjoyed my food a lot because this is the first time I have cooked dry pasta that isn’t overly dry without sauce. But, my salmon was a little on the dry side (probably overcooked it a little in the oven). Feelings of productivity and fulfillment of being able to get up and cook really makes the day feels different.
Bonus sharing
Also just wanted to use this post to share about my latest favourite drink. Okay so backstory: I seldom drink coffee but when I do I usually order it black or with soy milk because I don’t like the taste of milk. So mostly it’s black coffee or I would choose not to drink it since black coffee can be bitter too.
But, I visited this quaint little cafe, back in Hsinchu and they actually had Yuzu Americano on the menu! Ordered it and absolutely loved it because the yuzu really complimented the black coffee well (okay just a disclaimer I know nothing about coffee and the knowledge behind it).
So I tried to replicate it by mixing those yuzu concentrate that comes in jars at the supermarket with an instant kopi-o kosong (black coffee with no sugar) pack and I was so happy that it tasted good and like the one I had in Hsinchu! I now make this drink when I need a little pick me up in the morning (yay to new creations!). So, just wanted to share this here so anyone interested in the taste can try it out too!
Mostly just wanted to share about my cooking life because it’s really something I enjoy quite a lot hehe. Thank you for tuning in! (this has been in my drafts since JUNE)
shenaniganswpie 