Meal Manifesto 📜


⚠️ A note to readers: This document is written by Aiden for his own use as an individual, therefore general usability is not guaranteed, especially for those that are not Aiden.

Document Sections


Document Organization

This document is divided into several sections. Most of these sections are lists of recipes that I use regularly enough to want to reference them here. The Purpose Statement describes my thoughts and philosophy in creating this document. The Term Definitions defines some of the terms I use in the document to leave them less open to interpretation. Each subsequent section in contains instructions for creating delicous cuisine units. Meals for Self contains instructions for creating great single meals for oneself. Feeding the Crowds contains instructions for creating more banquet-type meals that can feed a group. Fancy Food contains instructions for creating meals that take a lot more time and effort than the typical fare. Lavish Treats contains instructions for creating desserts. Miscellaneous Foodstuff contains instructions for creating other fun edible things I didn’t feel like categorizing. Recipes for substances that are typically assembled into greater meals are located in the Recipe Appendix.


Purpose Statement

The purpose of this document is to provide a document for me, by me, to improve my intentionality and efficiency in making food for myself and others while being in alignment with my food goals. My food goals of are:

⚡️ Be able to whip up something good fast.

The most important thing for me is to be able to procure an enjoyable meal but not at the cost of a huge amount of time. In other words, the goal is to have the highest yum to make-speed ratio.

🐀 Meal prep as much as possible to prevent scrounging behavior.

Now that I have finished my student-career I want to move on from microwave-baked potatoes and box Mac n’ Cheese. To increase the likelihood of procuring a quality meal the right ingredients need to be present and ready to assemble. This involves buying certain things while shopping, preparing a list of things to get before going shopping, and having a plan of what to do with said ingredients, how to prepare them for ready-use, and when to prepare and use them.

🔮 Have lots of options to account for as many conceivable meal-related scenarios as possible.

Ideally this document could be consulted for a range of different situations from trying to feed the self with something reasonably quick-to-make and healthy, to trying to feed a crowd of gluten-free vegans something thats still yummy for carnivores.


Term Definitions


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Meals for Self


Yum Bowl

Description: The classic yum bowl is served by the resturaunt chain Cafe Yum that spawned out of Eugene Oregon. The key part of this meal is the sauce. Overall this meal feels good in the body and tastes real good.

Ingredients:

Preparation:

  1. Create yum sauce ~ 1 hour. Use these directions. The yum sauce takes effort to create, but a lot of it can be made at once and it doesn’t go bad quickly. The sauce can be stored directly in the blender glass.
  2. Cook brown rice ~ 1 hour. Use these directions. The rice takes a bit to make but does not require active participation. Cook using a rice cooker or instant pot.
  3. Chop olives ~ 5 min. Chop black olives into slices and store in tupperware container for ready use.
  4. Grate cheese ~ 5 min. Grate cheese and store in tupperware container for ready use.

Execution:

  1. Fill bowl with rice and microwave. Push rice to one side of the bowl to make room for the beans.
  2. Fill a strainer with a half can of black beans and wash. Put beans into bowl.
  3. Throw all other ingredients on to preffered proportions. Be careful not to overflow. Ingredients can be arranged in a pretty fashion for style bonus.

Chia Bowl

Description: This is an incredibly easy breakfast to produce.

Ingredients:

Preparation: No preparation is needed unless creating your own granola.

Execution:

  1. Fill bowl with a half cup of chia seeds.
  2. Add milk for the seeds to soak up. Let soak for 3 min.
  3. Add granola on top of milk-soaked chia seeds.

Yogurt and Granola

Description: This is an incredibly easy breakfast to produce.

Ingredients:

Preparation: No preparation is needed unless creating your own granola.

Execution:

  1. Fill bowl with a big spoonful of greek yogurt.
  2. Add granola on top of yogurt.
  3. Add fruit on top of granola and yogurt.

Freezer Burrito

Description: Not the healthiest, but very filling and easy to prep in mass.

Ingredients:

Preparation:

  1. Create and freeze freezer batch burritos ~ 3-4 hours.
  2. Move the desired number of burritos from the freezer to the fridge to thaw at least 10 hours in advance to eating.

Execution:

  1. Remove burrito from fridge and place in oven.
  2. Bake until crisp (convection oven ideal).

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Feeding the Crowds

🛠 TODO:


Fancy Food


Lasagnas


Mexican Lasagna

Description: Great with a side of salsa, sour cream, and guacamole. This recipe was kindly shared with me by my mother, Juile Decker.

Ingredients:

Directions:

  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Brown the meat in a skillet; drain.
  3. Add onion and garlic to the meat and cook until the onion is tender.
  4. Add the chili powder, cumin, and paprika.
  5. Stir in the tomato sauce, chiles, olives, and salt. Simmer for 15 minutes.
  6. Mix the cottage cheese and egg in a small bowl.
  7. Layer 1/3 of the ground beef mixture, 1/2 of the Monterey Jack cheese, 1/2 of the cottage cheese mixture, and 1/2 of the tortillas in a 9x13 baking dish.
  8. Top with 1/2 of the remaining ground beef mixture, the remaining Monterey Jack cheese, remaining cottage cheese mixture, remaining tortillas and remaining ground beef mixture.
  9. Sprinkle with the Cheddar Cheese.
  10. Bake for 30 minutes.

Pesto Lasagna

🛠 TODO:



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Lavish Treats


Cookies


Chocolate Chip

Description: This will make make about 3 dozen cookies. It is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe that I know of. This recipe is a modified version of this recipe from Cook’s Illustrated.

Ingredients:

Directions:

  1. Heat oven to 325 degrees.
  2. Mix dry ingredients (flour, salt, and baking soda) together in a bowl and set aside.
  3. Mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended, then mix in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until thoroughly blended.
  4. Mix in dry ingredients a third at a time into sugar blend. Mix until just combined.
  5. Stir in chips (and nuts if you’re using them).
  6. Create cookie dough balls from dough (1/4 cup of dough is a decently large cookie) and place onto plate.
  7. Prepare baking sheets with parchement paper (or just rub them with butter or oil to prevent stick).
  8. Place each cookie dough balls on the baking sheets by ripping the ball in half, joining it back together (non ripped side to non ripped side) and placing it on the sheet. This step is for giving the cookies texture, and can be skipped if you want smoother, less textured cookies.
  9. Cook cookies for 15-18 minutes. Start checking at 15 minutes. Cookies left in closer to 15 minutes will be chewier and cookies left in 18 minutes or more will be crunchier. If you are cooking more than one sheet at a time make sure swap the positions of the sheets halfway through cooking (7-9 minutes through).
  10. Serve after 2 minutes for a melty yummy time, and store extras in an airtight container.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip

Description: This will make make about 3 dozen cookies. It is really just a modified version of the standard chocolate chip cookie recipe that I use. There is more to improve I think with this recipe through experimentation, but it still is quite tasty.

Ingredients:

Directions:

  1. Heat oven to 325 degrees.
  2. Mix dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda) together in a bowl and set aside.
  3. Mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended, then mix in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until thoroughly blended.
  4. Mix in dry ingredients a third at a time into sugar blend. Mix until just combined.
  5. Stir in chips (and nuts if you’re using them).
  6. Create cookie dough balls from dough (1/4 cup of dough is a decently large cookie) and place onto plate.
  7. Prepare baking sheets with parchement paper (or just rub them with butter or oil to prevent stick).
  8. Place each cookie dough balls on the baking sheets by ripping the ball in half, joining it back together (non ripped side to non ripped side) and placing it on the sheet. This step is for giving the cookies texture, and can be skipped if you want smoother, less textured cookies.
  9. Cook cookies for 15-18 minutes. Start checking at 15 minutes. Cookies left in closer to 15 minutes will be chewier and cookies left in 18 minutes or more will be crunchier. If you are cooking more than one sheet at a time make sure swap the positions of the sheets halfway through cooking (7-9 minutes through).
  10. Serve after 2 minutes for a melty yummy time, and store extras in an airtight container.

Molasses

Description: Molasses cookie recipe by Bon Appetit. Great savory cookie that’s not overwhelmingly sweet. Thank you to Margeaux for sharing this one with me!

Ingredients:

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Prepare cookie sheets with parchement paper (or just rub them with butter or oil to prevent stick).
  3. Mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, salt) in bowl and set aside.
  4. Whisk the butter, egg, sugar, molasses, and brown sugar in a medium bowl.
  5. Mix in dry ingredients just to combine.
  6. Place sanding/coarse sugar in a shallow bowl.
  7. Scoop out tablespoonful balls, roll in sugar, and place in pans with 2 inch apart spacing.
  8. Bake cookies until puffed, cracked, and just set around edges. This will be around 8-10 minutes.
  9. Transfer cookies to wired racks and let cool.

Snicker-Doodle

Description: Not great if you just want to eat the dough, but once they are in cookie form they are dangerously snackable.

Ingredients:

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Prepare cookie sheets with parchement paper (or just rub them with butter or oil to prevent stick).
  3. Mix the dry ingredients that are not for topping (flour, baking soda, salt, cream of tartar, and nutmeg) in bowl and set aside.
  4. Cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla together in a bowl until light and fluffy.
  5. Add the eggs one at time, mixing until each is incorporated.
  6. Add the dry ingredients a third at a time, mixing until well-blended.
  7. Create cookie dough balls (a litter larger than a rounded tablespoon is a good size).
  8. Mix topping ingredients (sugar and cinnamon) in a small bowl.
  9. Roll each cookie dough ball in the topping ingredient bowl and place in the cookie sheet.
  10. Bake cookies until they are firm and have small cracks on top, which is about 12-13 minutes.
  11. Serve after letting cool for 2 minutes.

🛠 TODO:


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Dessert Bread


Banana Bread

Description: The banana bread recipe that Sasha Leamy kindly shared with me.

Ingredients:

Directions for Muffins:

  1. Position an oven rack on the middle rung.
  2. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
  3. Line 12 regular-sized muffin cups with foil or paper liners.
  4. Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) in a bowl. Whisk until well blended. Set bowl aside.
  5. Combine wet ingredients (bananas, brown sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla). Mix until well blended and only small bits of banana are visible.
  6. Pour in dry ingredients into wet ingredients bowl and gently stir just until blended. If using nuts, add them when the flour is almost blended and stir to incorporate.
  7. Scoop the batter into the lined muffin cups, dividing evenly.
  8. Gently tap the pan on the countertop to settle the batter.
  9. Bake until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick or butterknife stabbed into the center of one muffin comes out clean, which should be about 18 minutes.
  10. Transfer the muffin pan to a rack to cool for 10 minutes.
  11. Serve in delight or cover with plastic wrap and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Directions for a Loaf:

  1. Position an oven rack on the middle rung.
  2. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
  3. Prepare a 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch (21.5 cm by 11.5cm) loaf pan by oiling or rubbing with butter to prevent stick.
  4. Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) in a bowl. Whisk until well blended. Set bowl aside.
  5. Combine wet ingredients (bananas, brown sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla). Mix until well blended and only small bits of banana are visible.
  6. Pour in dry ingredients into wet ingredients bowl and gently stir just until blended. If using nuts, add them when the flour is almost blended and stir to incorporate.
  7. Pour and scrape the batter into the pan.
  8. Gently shake the pan to settle the batter.
  9. Bake until the top is golden brown and a toothpick or butterknife stabbed into the center comes out clean, which should be about 55-60 minutes.
  10. Transfer the pan to a rack to cool for 15 minutes.
  11. Serve in delight or cover with plastic wrap and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Zucchini Bread

🛠 TODO


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Miscellaneous Foodstuff


🛠 TODO:


Recipe Appendix


Burritos

Freezer Batch Burritos

Description: Burritos aren’t the healthiest, especially frozen ones, but they sure are filling and convenient. Making them yourself also grants a bit more control over what goes into them. Forget to make a meal? Got a little lazy? Never fear! Burrito is here! This recipe was inspired by Ian Sloan.

Ingredients:

Directions:

  1. Combine all ingredients into a large bowl.
  2. Mix ingredients in bowl with hands until well mixed. It should look something like the picture below.
    burrito ingredients bowl image
  3. Scoop some mixture into a tortilla and fold into burrito.
  4. Put burrito to side.
  5. Repeat steps 3-4 until there is no more mixture left. This should leave you with several stacks of burritos (see example stack below).
    image
  6. Place burritos into plastic bag and store in freezer. Several plastic bags may be needed.
    image

Curries

Thai Red Curry with Chicken

Description: Need something with protein and spice to go with your rice? Well companion, you have found your meal! This recipe is a variant of this recipe.

Ingredients:

Insta-Pot Directions:

  1. Stir together red curry paste and 1/2 can of coconut milk in Insta Pot.
  2. Turn on Saute Mode and saute until mixture is bubbly, a minute or two. Use a splatter screen if necessary, to guard against splatters from the coconut milk.
  3. Turn off Instant Pot.
  4. Stir in chicken, remaining coconut milk, and chicken broth or water.
  5. Pressure cook on high pressure for 4 minutes.
  6. Allow the pressure to release naturally (NPR) and wait for float valve to be in the down position. This may take 15 to 30 minutes.
  7. Select Saute mode.
  8. Stir in fish sauce, brown sugar, lime juice, bell pepper, carrot, onion, bamboo shoots, and lime leaves.
  9. Cook until vegetables are crisp-tender, about 3 to 5 minutes. Don’t overcook, as the vegetables will continue to cook in the residual heat.
  10. Taste and adjust with more fish sauce, brown sugar or lime juice.
  11. Stir in the Thai basil leaves.
  12. Serve with jasmine rice or store in containters to freeze.

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Sauces


Oily Tomato Onion Sauce

Description: This simple sauce is delicous, easy to make, and tastes great wtih some rice and chicken. Credits to Mary Andreyka for this great recipe.

Ingredients:

Blender Directions:

  1. Add the oil and tomatos to a blender. Blend slightly to reduce the room the tomatos take up in the blender.
  2. Add onions and salt, then blend until the onions are chopped into smaller chunks.
  3. Pour sauce into a large sauce pan and heat to medium-high heat. Cover with lid so the boiling sauce doesn’t get all over the stovetop.
  4. Continually heat the sauce and add siracha to taste. When it gets a little darker it’s close to done!

No Blender Directions:

  1. Chop the tomatos and onions into small chunks.
  2. Add the oil, chopped veggie chunks, and salt into a large sauce pan and heat to medium heat. Cover with lid so the boiling sauce doesn’t get all over the stovetop.
  3. Continually heat the sauce and add siracha to taste. When it gets a little darker it’s close to done!

Yum Sauce

Description: The classic yum sauce is served by the resturaunt chain Cafe Yum that spawned out of Eugene Oregon. This recipe is a knock-off that doesn’t taste all that much like official Yum sauce, but it tastes good still and can be used in placement of the actual stuff. This recipe is a variant of this recipe.

Ingredients:

Blender Directions:

  1. Add the oil, almonds, beans and water to a blender. Blend until very smooth.
  2. Add the coconut milk, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper, curry powder, oregano, cilantro and nutritional yeast. Blend again until creamy and smooth.
  3. Add additional water and/or lemon juice to thin out the sauce if needed.
  4. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Peanut Sauce

Description: Great with rice and some protein!

🛠 TODO: Figure out ingredient proportions

Ingredients:

Blender Directions:

  1. Add the oil, lemon juice, soy sauce, siracha, water, and garlic to the blender and blend until well mixed.
  2. Add in each cup of peanut butter and mix one at a time.

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Rice


Long Grain White Rice

Ingredients:

Insta-Pot Directions:

  1. Fill pot with cups of long grain white rice.
  2. Fill pot with 1 1/2 cup of water per cup of rice used. Rinse rice before adding.
  3. Add one half-teaspoon of salt to pot for each cup of rice used.
  4. Set pot to high-pressure (if not already set).
  5. Cook for 5 minutes on high pressure.

Short Grain Brown Rice

Ingredients:

Insta-Pot Directions:

  1. Fill pot with cups of short grain brown rice.
  2. Fill pot with 1 1/4 cup of water per cup of rice used. Rinse rice before adding.
  3. Add one half-teaspoon of salt to pot for each cup of brown rice used.
  4. Set pot to high-pressure (if not already set).
  5. Cook for 30 minutes on high pressure.

Jasmine Rice

Ingredients:

Insta-Pot Directions:

  1. Fill pot with cups of jasmine rice.
  2. Fill pot with 1 1/4 cup of water per cup of rice used. Rinse rice before adding.
  3. Set pot to high-pressure (if not already set).
  4. Cook for 4 minutes on high pressure.
  5. Allow Keep Warm mode for 10 minutes.

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Proteins


Crispy Baked Tofu

🛠 TODO: Figure out ingredient proportions

Description: Cripsy tofu goes great with a pasta or rice! This recipe was inspired by Sasha Leamy.

Ingredients:

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Press the tofu between towels to remove moisture.
  3. Chop tofu into small (about half inch) cubes.
  4. Mix wet ingredients (soy sauce, siracha, and olive oil) into a bowl and set aside.
  5. Mix dry ingredients (corn starch, paprika, and creole seasoning) into another bowl.
  6. Lightly butter or oil a pan to remove stick.
  7. Dip tofu into wet ingredient bowl ensuring the cubes slightly absorb the mixture.
  8. Dip tofu into dry ingredient bowl ensuring the cubes are covered on all sides.
  9. Put tofu onto pan and bake for 20 minutes.
  10. Take tofu out of the oven and flip the cubes to their other sides.
  11. bake for another 20 minutes.

Breaded Chicken

🛠 TODO: Figure out ingredient proportions

Description:

Ingredients:

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Mix wet ingredients (eggs and siracha) into a bowl for dipping the chicken breasts.
  3. Mix the dry ingredients (breading mix, paprika, and creole seasoning) into another bowl for dipping the chicken breasts.
  4. Butter or oil a pan to prevent stick.
  5. Dip each breast into the wet ingredient bowl, then into the dry ingredient bowl (ensuring it gets fully covered), and then place onto the pan.
  6. Cook chicken for 40-45 minutes.

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Copyright (c) 2023 Aiden Nelson