免备餐式备餐：忙碌时也能吃好的两种方案

A while back I wrote an article about what I eat in a day, and in it I talked about how I meal prep lunches for the week.

Here’s the gist: on Saturday or Sunday, I’ll either slow cook or grill a bunch of chicken breasts, or grill a big pork loin or some lean hamburger patties, or just cook some lean ground beef in a skillet. That’s my protein. Then I’ll boil up a big pot of either sweet potatoes or regular potatoes (I’ll roast them occasionally, too), or I’ll make a big batch of rice, or I’ll make a big pot of beans. Then I microwave some frozen vegetables for micronutrients. I put all this stuff in Pyrex dishes, put them in the fridge, and then dole myself out a lunch each day. It doesn’t take much time, and it’s pretty dang cheap.

But some weeks I don’t have time to meal prep on Saturday or Sunday. Things just get busy with work or kids, or I’ve been traveling and I don’t have time to grocery shop and cook.

I still want to eat well during these busy stretches. I don’t want to eat fast food or QT taquitos. So when my schedule is crammed, I’ll basically do meal prep without meal prepping. There are two ways I do it.

Option 1: Buy a Precooked Protein and Some Frozen Veggies and Assemble

Prep time: A quick trip to Walmart or the grocery store, ten or so minutes microwaving frozen veggies

Cost: $3.50–$6 per lunch, depending on the protein

My go-to option when I’m busy is to stop by Walmart on the way home from dropping the kids off at school to pick up some prepared foods for lunch. There are a lot of great options out there now. You just get an already-cooked protein of some sort, a starch, and some frozen vegetables, and then you microwave it up and you’re ready to go.

The Protein

There are a lot of precooked proteins at Walmart now. These are the ones I’ve used.

Kevin’s. Kevin’s Natural Foods makes sous-vide chicken and beef that’s fully cooked. It takes about five minutes to heat up. One thing to note is that the portions run small and the price high. A container lasts me about two lunches.

Precooked meat from Soules Kitchen and Hormel. These are already cooked and ready to eat. Lots of options. Fajita steak or chicken, rotisserie chicken, pork roast. You could eat them right out of the fridge if you wanted to. I’ll buy a bag or two and portion them out each day.

Rotisserie chicken. Sometimes I’ll just buy a rotisserie chicken from the Walmart deli and slice off pieces to eat. Skin has a lot of fat, so if I’m trying to lose weight, I discard that and stick to the meat. If you want rotisserie chicken with even more convenience, you can buy a package of shredded chicken. Will cost you more.

The Starch

For the starch, I’ll use one of four things:

Frozen diced sweet potatoes. Walmart’s Great Value brand sells them in a bag. Cheap, too! Three bags will get you a side for a couple of days of lunches.

Frozen or heat-and-eat potatoes. If I want regular potatoes, I’ll get a bag of frozen potatoes or heat-and-eat potatoes.

Frozen rice. The steam-in-bag kind.

Canned beans. Great source of fiber and protein. Thinkin’ about those beans.

The Vegetables

To get my micronutrients, I’ll add some frozen veggies. Green beans, broccoli, a California medley, whatever. They’re just as nutritious as fresh and take a few minutes to cook in the microwave.

整合起来

我会买足够吃上几天的蛋白质/淀粉/蔬菜。我会用微波炉加热几袋红薯或普通土豆，或者一大袋冷冻米饭，还有些冷冻蔬菜，放进冰箱。然后每天我分配一份淀粉和蔬菜，再加些蛋白质——比如 fajita 肉条——称好分量，做出一顿营养均衡、利于控制宏量营养素的餐食。只需几分钟。

方案二：在冰箱/冷冻室备好利于控制宏量营养素的即食餐

准备时间：4 分钟

成本：每餐 $4.99—$5.99（Counter）；$11.99 起（Factor 和 Ice Age Meals）

我做的另一件事是在冰箱或冷冻室里备一些利于控制宏量营养素的即食餐。这样即使连方案一都没时间做时，我也能拿出一样东西来吃。

Counter

Target 有一个很棒的冷冻餐品牌叫 Counter，非常利于控制宏量营养素。

• 冷冻碗餐。Taco Mac & Cheese、Chicken Alfredo 以及其他几款。约 30 克蛋白质，310 到 370 卡路里，每份 $5.99。
• 冷冻卷饼。Beefy Queso Burrito 含 30 克蛋白质、340 卡路里，售价 $4.99。我在冷冻室里备了几份。

餐食配送

还有一些公司提供利于控制宏量营养素餐食的配送服务。

Factor。Factor 的餐食很不错。（注：Factor 是本播客的赞助商，但这次提及我没有收钱。我只是喜欢他们，也用他们做过免准备的备餐。）Factor 的餐食是新鲜配送的，需要放在冰箱里，用微波炉加热后一周内吃完。你也可以冷冻它们；只要用铝箔或冷冻袋包好，防止冻伤。这是订阅制，不想要的时候记得跳过。每餐约 $12。

Ice Age Meals。我过去用过 Ice Age Meals，非常喜欢。分量很足的 Paleo 风格餐食。没有订阅，只需下一单买一箱。缺点是不如 Factor 好吃——更像纯粹的宏量营养素配送（虽然味道还行）——而且价格偏贵，$14.99 起。

用钱换时间

所有这些方案通常都比自己备餐更贵。我平时在家备的午餐 $1.25 起，最高约 $3.50。而用即热即食食品拼成的一餐 $3.50 起，最高可达 $15 甚至更多。

但你换来的是便利。你在用钱换时间。它让你能继续好好吃饭，即使时间紧张、无法备餐时，也能坚持健康和健身目标。没有任何投资的回报率比得上你在健康上的投资。

我并不是一直做这种免准备的备餐。大概每季度我会用上一两次，通常是在特别忙的时候。我不建议把它当作饮食常规的主力，但在忙得不可开交、又想好好吃饭时，兜里有个免准备的备餐方案是很有用的。

本文最初发表于 The Art of Manliness。