Food Diary of the Studio Manager at PT Workspace
Written by Nathan Drury-Ellis
It is so important when we have busy lives to use our time as efficiently as possible when preparing food, for that reason i utilize what i call “mass production cooking”. Often a meal even for one person in the evening can take between 30-45 mins to prepare and cook and so i prepare as many meals at one time as i can. This can seem obvious but often when i speak to clients that i train they never use this as a time saving tool.
Okay so every Sunday (yes the day of rest) i do “mass production cooking” for the week ahead. This is so i can take some food (in tubs) on the go that i know the nutritional value of and as we all experience it is hard to get healthy but tasty food when we are out and about in the week.
Ingredients
I genuinely put an hour aside each Sunday to do my cooking and often requires just a single trip to the shops to get a hand full of extra ingredients.
The ingredients do vary but often the basic ingredients remain the same.
- 2kg of boneless chicken breast
- Handful of Spinach, tomatoes, Red peppers ,broccoli, mushrooms, and often a mixed bag of frozen veg.
- 2-3 cups of Rice
- Tin of Black beans
I use an assortment of middle eastern spices such as Cumin, Coriander, Chilli, Garam Masala, Paprika and often Garlic and Ginger for the chicken & the veg. You can pick from the spices that you like best for obvious reasons due to the fact i am the sort of cook that likes to get creative i am not going to place specific amounts but the tend to range between 2tps-3tps each.
Nutritional Reasoning
So for the nutritional reasoning behind these choice is simple. The 2kg of chicken is split up into 6-7 meals a week equalling between 250-300 grams per serving. This alongside a protein shake and often a some mixed nuts with another fish based meal mackerels salad, tuna etc it will total my daily protein needs of 2x my 80kg body weight so 160-180 grams of protein.
The assortment of vegetables means i do get the recommended daily needs for vitamins & minerals. Spinach and broccoli are must haves in my book due to the high levels of vitamin A, C and immune system benefits. I could do a whole post on the benefits and make-up of the vitamins and minerals in the vegetables alone but i will keep to the main topic.
So the carbohydrates (the mix of black beans and rice) goes without saying it is important but specifically it’s needed for energy and also has positive nutrient uptake (protein to the muscles) when eating post workout.
The Cooking
- So the cooking itself is easy and it requires little skill.
- Dice chicken into trays and mix spices to coat and place in the oven for around 45 mins
- Boil rice about 20-25 mins and add black beans at the end when finished just to heat up, do not forget to empty and rinse black beans!
- Vegetables are easy and can help to create a sauce when using tomatoes it’s so simply by sauteing in a large deep pan with the other veg for around 30mins.
- Equipment needed, large pan for vegetables and the two oven pans for the chicken. Also small saucepan for the rice.
Helpful order for cooking for vegetables:
1, red peppers, mushroom, add garlic and ginger, spices and then tomatoes and frozen mixed veg (this contains the broccoli and extras such as peas, carrots etc).
This can cook while your chicken is in the oven alongside boiling the rice/black beans and so the food should all be ready together. It is 1 hour approx dependent on how fast you are with a knife and chopping board :).
The finished article
Now i usually place 2-3 in the fridge to grab for next couple days and the others between 3-4 in the freezer. The freezer meals i grab out and place in the fridge after about 2-3 days for the rest of the week.
You can eat theses when you get home in the evenings or as i do take on the go to save me buying poor nutritional value foods from tesco, pret etc.
The measurements and ingredients are specific to me and my daily needs (80kg male) but it can be easily modified with switching up less or more chicken, rice etc and for vegetarians maybe quorn as an alternative.
Hope this was helpful and send me any questions or do not hesitate to comment below if i missed anything.
Happy Mass Cooking 🙂
P.S If you are interested in finding out about personal training or studio hire at PT Workspace you can contact [email protected]. In addition why not take a look at some of the personal trainers who already work with us here.
