Meal Prep for One: Cook Once, Eat All Week

Chapter 1: The Solo Meal Prep Method

Let me start with a confession: I used to hate meal prep. Not the idea of it, but the execution. Every Sunday, I would dutifully roast a full chicken, boil a pound of pasta, and steam a mountain of broccoli. By Tuesday, I was staring at a fridge full of leftovers that all tasted vaguely like the same sad casserole. By Thursday, I was ordering takeout and throwing away the evidence. The problem was not my cooking. The problem was that I was cooking like I had a family of four, and then trying to eat like a single person who wanted variety.

This book is the solution to that specific, maddening problem. It is not about cooking a week's worth of identical meals and eating them like a robot. It is not about chopping a dozen containers of raw vegetables that will go soggy by Wednesday. It is about cooking one or two smart, versatile components on your prep day, and then using those components to build entirely different meals all week long. One batch of shredded chicken becomes a quesadilla on Monday, a chicken salad sandwich on Wednesday, and a quick stir-fry on Friday. A pot of simply cooked farro turns into a breakfast porridge, a lunch bowl with roasted vegetables, and a dinner side dish with a pan-seared piece of fish. You are not cooking six meals. You are cooking one or two foundational things, and then assembling the rest.