ABZ…My Best Life Hack for My Waistline & My Pocketbook. DIY Single Serving Frozen Lunches.

I can put together a lunch for a couple of dollars, & I know what goes into it.

Step 1: Go on a Diet

One of the things that I really tried to change up this year was my diet/exercise story. In my 20s, I could eat anything I wanted to & I stayed rail thin. In my 30s, I could eat whatever I wanted as long as I was exercising, in my 40s, I’ve found that I have to be pretty damn serious about both if I expect to get the kinds of results that I want. I’ve been doing a ketosis diet since the first of the year, & I’ve lost 39 pounds so far. The diet is pretty simple (if really hard to implement), no grain carbs, no sugar. I make a modest exception for the specialized sugar that represents wine. The thing about non-standard diets is that it’s hard to put together a story if you’re running out to grab lunch, & then there’s the fact that most of the lunch options within walking distance of Pier 9 where I work are going to be in the $12 to $15 range. My solution is to spend 3 or 4 hours on a Saturday or Sunday doing cooking for the week, & then freeze single serving portions of lunchables.

Step 2: Pork Salad - Season & Roast the Chops

A meat thermometer makes all the difference here. Pork to an internal of 145 degrees, chicken to an internal temp of 165 degrees. My Ikea thermometer battery died, so I had to go old school, but I generally like to use the cool Ikea thermometer with a cable extension. You insert it into the meat & then the cable allows you to run the digital readout outside the oven. I like to program it to give the alarm when the meat is at 5 degrees below the recommended internal temp. I’ll pull it out & let carry over cooking take it the rest of the way.

Step 3: Chop & Marinade

Cut your roast meat up into bite sized bits & add a little booze.

Step 4: Assemble, Prepare, & Chop Your Fresh Ingredients

Mushrooms, daikon radish, tomatillos, pasilla peppers, & Italian parsley. For the tomatillos, I like to scrub them a bit after peeling them. Chop everything up in sizes that makes sense to you. Fresh lemon & lime. Finally, I’ll add some green onions & spinach.