One thing you should note is that a college student (especially as a freshman/underclassman) usually doesn't have much fridge/freezer space. I had 3 roommates my sophomore year and I had the largest freezer space, which could barely hold 3 bags of frozen veggies.

one of my biggest tips is to pre-cut, portion, and freeze half of your fresh veggies, fruit, or even bread! I always found that towards the end of the week/ early into the next week my fresh food would get kind of funky. I'm also incredibly forgetful so a lot of it would get shoved to the back of my fridge and go bad. Freezing whatever veggies/ fruit I wasn't using that day in pre-portioned bags made me more likely to use it later in the week and made it not as much of a big deal if I forgot about it. This also works with pre-cooked meat but heating it up can turn it dry, I personally don't mind bc of the convenience but everyone is different.

I went through a phase of chopping/prepping all my veggies, cooked grains & beans…placing them all in small pint jars & stored them in one large box in the refrigerator. Pull the box out & do a quick stir-fry of pre-chopped mushrooms, carrots, cabbage, greens, onions, rice & chickpeas. I ate so healthy but the prepping just caught my lazy butt. Need to get back into that…like the building blocks thought. It’s a lot like my jar system. Much of that stuff can be done at the same time. Thanks for the inspiration

this video is very nice. I have seen similar videos on prepping some "building blocks" for the prep of later meals. But this video had a ton more of those. I'll try to incorporate these in my prepping.

My main problem with meal prep, is how fast I get bored of the same food. Plus the box you open the day after, is obviously more tasty than the one you open on day 5-7, if its chicken you can't even keep it for that long, and rice definitely needs rehidration after a few days.

This is such a helpful and well explained video. I'm really lazy with cooking all the time because I always have a lot to do for university, and this'll be a lifesaver!

You could replace student with any busy lifestyle. This is just generally good cooking practice. As much as I like to cook, I get lazy and having these building blocks for quick meals is great.

i spend about 2 hours late at night cooking my meals for the next day, and i use a lot of these tricks to make sure i have a lot of variety, because my adhd demands it. you have a really soothing voice, so i like to cook my food while you tell us about cooking yours! tonight i made a cajun mashed potato bowl with honey garlic chicken for tomorrow’s breakfast, and since that’s a heavy meal, i made a light lunch of roasted maitake mushrooms and tomatoes with sides of peas and gluten free ciabatta rolls & irish butter, and i’m broiling some other chicken as well for a noodle dinner tomorrow night!

I'm a student aswell, but have my own space. This allowed me to build a pantry with the essentials like you mentioned eventhough I have a very small kitchen. My go to back up meal is dahl, because I always have lentils, canned tomatos, spices, rice and eggs. Allowes me to procastinate on groceries. Because I live on my own I usually cook for two and freeze one meal that I'll eat somewhere in the next two weeks. Saves money and time. But I don't tend to prepare anything beforehand each week or something, because that is just too much work for me

As a student in engineering with a very busy schedule while also trying to meet certain fitness goals (bulking at the moment), I still think meal prepping your lunches is optimal (I prep 2 different dishes, twice a week). However, for dinners I think pairing your strategy with a slowcooker is very good. With everything prepped beforehand, in the morning you can just chuck everything into a slow cooker, set it to cook for 8 hours, and then come home to a still hot meal with plenty of room for day to day variety. Breakfast is never an issue as there’s so many things you can make in 5 minutes and in my case I also make my weight gainer shake/smoothie and get a quick 1000 cal in to help meet my calorie goals, which I drink sometime between breakfast and lunch. I’ve been hitting my goal of 3500 pretty easily this way but I’m sure this could be adjusted for just about any caloric intake.

What works for me (and a lot of other people) is having little bags of precut vegetables in my freezer. I bought a bunch of different greens, cut them and put them in zip-lock bags. Now I just take up one bag and put it straight into the pan. It makes so many different meals. It contains, onions, garlic, a bit of ginger, carrots, cabbage, bell peppers, mushrooms, corgettes, brocccoli and aubergines. I also recommend cutting up meat into 100-150g portions and freeze them in individual zip-lock bags. I defrost them in the microwave if I'm short on time. I have to use zip-lock bags because I share a freezer with my roomie and there is not enough space for tubberware containers.

The thing I dont like about all this meal prepping is the amount of utensils you need. Cleaning is just as important as groceries and cooking and using all these many containers is just a pain in the arse. Especially if you dont have a dish washer. I think its just a thing to always keep in mind. And also how much storage you need bcs I live in a flat with multiple people and I cant just take the whole fridge space for me.

Btw interesting side fact, since you haven't mentioned it: putting boiled eggs into cold water is mainly done to stop the cooking process very quickly. So if you like your eggs a bit softer and a bit liquid...y, you should totally do that.

Having rice noodles (or wheat noodles) prepared or a simple vinaigrette is also a great idea, couscous is very quickly done as well (just add hot water). I like to have olives at hand and tomato sauce for Italian dishes and dried wakame and pre cooked shiitake mushrooms for Japanese food (quick ramen or salads)

I’m not even exaggerating-this video is one of the most friking helpful videos I’ve ever seen. I never thought about meal prepping in this manner. I only had to start cooking for myself recently and with no help, I’ve been all over the place and eating a lot of take out. This is perfect, and I 100% prefer this method as opposed to just making the same meal all week. Thanks for making this video, it was well explained, especially with all the examples, and very useful for my life

One of the things I do to prep is to freeze a lot of food. Yes, this does require a large freezer (mine's about the same size as my fridge), but when it's just you on your own, it makes things so much easier. Not everything can be frozen, but most one pot meals can be, as well as oven baked dishes such as lasagne or pies. I individually portion them into foil takeaway containers and so I can just take it out the freezer and put it in the oven. I dislike using the disposable containers though, and so am on the lookout for individual oven proof dishes with lids; most of the ones I find though are just a bit too large for my needs.

My favorite cook book is the America's Test Kitchen meal prep book. It gives you a run down on what to have in your pantry, and weekly lists for each meal plan.

My tip is to make 3 - 4 portions 1 for then. One for left overs then freeze the other 1 to 2. Over time you build up alot of meals

I used to do this back at college too! Got tired of eating the same food, so started just to prep stuff to mix it up together later and do different dishes. I actually got the idea because someone told me that some restaurants do that to get things fast.

This channel is so underrated. MAN, IM SO LUCKY I FOUND YOU ! Im a 11th grade high school student, who live in my grandpa house, cuz my parents house is too far from the school, and by that I need to be independent. Cuz im aware of my health, and i wanna do some work out too, i need to find meal prep that has, as you were said in the video, the goal of prepping. Before I saw this, I was kinda confused for something like, what basics meal I have to make, what type of food are them, how do I prepare them, etc. AND YOU REALLY HELP ME WITH IT. But sadly, I live in Indonesia, and there's some of the food that is hard to find, or gonna have a bit expensive price, so I have to modify some of the ingredients. But then again, thank you so much for making this video KWOOWK 💯 (sorry idk what's ur real name)

Your content is so comforting and rich! Thanks for getting me into cooking :)

One of my favourite "building blocks" is pork shoulder. Really cheap (about $3CAD/kg where I am) and delicious. Throw it in a slow cooker with some liquid and flavourings overnight, pull it the next day, and bam, freezable, versatile, delicious pulled pork. You can also use the leftover bones to make stock

This is probably one the best meal planning videos i've seen so far. It really feels like you're just talking about it from a realistic point of view and I love it.

I LOVED this video!! I agree that the enjoying cooking and eating is important so I never meal prepped but all of your ideas were amazing!✨ I would definitely do the mixed spice and the veggies:)

this video is so much better than the usual “MEAL PREP THAT MAKES YOUR MUSCLES GROW EVEN WHILE YOU’RE ON THE SHITTER” i just need some meal prep as a regular student who eats regular stuff not aimed at muscles or anything in particular, just food

One great option for a quick and fairly healthy "frozen dessert": Blend the frozen fruit of your choice with a light sprinkle of sugar or drizzle of agave and just enough dairy or nut milk to make it come together into a thick, ice-cream-like product. Freshly blended, it's basically a soft serve that tastes amazing and is mostly just fruit. I'll often whip a bowl up when it's hot and disgusting out and I really need to cool down and it literally takes minutes to throw together. And you can always prep it ahead of time and refreeze it if you want something more like a hard ice cream without all the unwanted extra ingredients. Frozen aging bananas definitely come in clutch here, since you can blend them all by themselves to create a very respectable, smooth and tasty "ice cream" base, and then just add other fruit for flavor. And of course, fresh or frozen fruit cooked down into a sauce is a great prep-ahead topping for your fruit 'ice cream' sundaes. 😉

One thing i really like to do with using the rice cooker is to put in some eggs in there. Once the rice is done, the eggs are perfectly hardboiled as well (tried it with 3 different rice cookers and works always), an easy thoughtless way to prep some extra food while you're already using it for making rice ^^

Look at it as ingredient prep rather than meal prep :) This is a really helpful video for people living independently for the first time; learning how to cook, budget but make sure you're eating food that's nourishing your body. Thank you Kwoowk!

Been following this for a year, so useful and I've really improved my skills from 0 to being a decent cook now! This video has definitely been the most helpful for me

This sauce looks SO GOOD. I'll have to get an immersion blender soon. Also, good tips in general! I already usually freeze half of what I cook (pasta sauces, soups...) so I can have more variety, as I cook for myself, but I should absolutely prep some potatoes or rice! I personally also like to marinate tofu and fry it as needed - I guess I could also fry it in advance!

Because of how great the video was I didn't even skip the sponsor like most. Thanks for the idea, it's a far better way of meal prep, you're a cook master. Greetings

Perfect representation of what mealprepping should be. Love your channel bro! Greetings from a fellow Romanian🇷🇴

Excellent points with practical examples. I still do the multi day meal prep, but I freeze them. Like you, dinner Is the meal I cook for. But some days, there’s just zero energy to cook, and more importantly, clean up. So they usually last a few months as emergency rations that are near indistinguishable from something I sat down to cook for.

I think you kind of missed the point of meal prep As an engineering student I barely have free time as it is, the point of it is to have a ready made lunch (especially if you commute) easily without any time spent trying to decide what you want and making it. And I know I spent too much time trying to decide what I want to eat or make. You can still have nutrition and tasty meals with meal prep

I like to cook 2 days worth of food, so I still have a lot of variety while eating and I don’t have to worry what to cook for the second day. And if I don’t have time, it’s nice to have food prepared in advance and you can live with less stress, even if I love cooking.

I really like that nutrition is really important to you. I can see that in the videos you're making. That's important for me too. And I can take a lot of meal ideas from you.

This is a really inspiring video. I love how it is all vegetarian friendly. It's all reasonable and makes sense. Very thorough thought put behind the whole process from start to finish. Excellent! Thank you for putting so much effort into this video to create a realistic way to cook at home for people who are short on time and money. An essential life skill.

thank you so much for saying that meal prepping is unnecessary. i have always wondered how a week-old meal-prepped stale food is appetizing because it isn't

I really love this channel, it's so accessible and down to earth. These vidéos really help me appreciate cooking during my studies. And i really like the fact that KWOOWK makes cooking fun and accessible while having fun himself

Ummmm. I struggle to afford some of those 'staples' and I haven't been a student for many years (hence why I clicked on a video for students - they often feature affordable meals). I think making the same meals every day is what makes it possible for many people (including students) to eat well. I could buy in bulk and therefore buy slightly more expensive ingredients, but nothing crazy. I look at what you make and think, where does he get the money to afford that? I was a student in nz 10 years ago and flatted with 6-7 other people, but my general budget was about $80 nz for a week's worth of food. There would be no way I could afford to buy fresh coriander, tahini paste, quinoa, blueberries, cherry tomatoes, etc. Not saying there aren't some great ideas here (I love the idea of making a sauce for the whole week) but for me personally I'd have only been able to afford it when I stopped being a student and started working fulltime. Thanks for the ideas though!

great tips! pickling veggies enhances a lot of meals, i usually make kimchi or soy-sauce cucumber to eat throughout the week. Kimchi is super versatile and goes great in fried rice. A more exciting version of boiled eggs is the marinated soft boiled eggs that is used in ramen or the chinese tea eggs. These are so good in noodle and rice dishes. As you get used to cooking, a simple dinner could take less than 30 minutes to make. I tend to cook extra for dinner and take leftovers for lunch. I definitely can't eat the same thing everyday.

The only thing I'd do different is not sharpen the knife over the food and rinse the knife after to avoid microscopic metal shavings getting into the food.

Great video! Personally, I would refrain from cooking the grains (especially rice) or pasta in advance because the properties of rice/pasta make it very susceptible to growing bacteria (which can be difficult to notice --> potential food poisoning).

I love your videos. I just made that tofu and veggies on rice. Really good. This is real next level tricks too. You are so right, if you stop cooking on a daily basis you become lazy and eat take out. Thanks again. btw I pre-ordered your book :)

Man I'm addicted to this channel. I'm a brazilian student and this helps me giving me so many insights of how to prep meals. Also, too tired of eating the same stuff everyday. Thank you a lot!

Also preparing a soup will be good, healthy and quick. It lasts in the fridge for about three days, and you can also freeze it quite easily.

oh, yes, a student dorm with an oven, rice cooker and a blender...

Really loving your videos. I discovered you with the reels and those are great, but I think these longer videos are even better. My biggest skill upgrade when it comes to cooking is doing simultaneous things at the same time. Cleaning some dishes while i am waiting for something to boil or cutting veggies. Really really optimal

I'm picky about many of the things you made here, like pickles and cauliflower, but I love that your video is made to be suited to everyone's own taste! I'm still in school so my mom cooks for me, but since sixth grade I've asked her to let me prep my own lunchbox for school because I love being in charge of my own food. I've been sort of worried about college because I'm really hoping to go abroad and I thought I would be forced to depend on university food places which I can't be sure are halal. I'm also a great fan of meal planning (or any sort of planning XD). I really hope I have a freezer in college though (wish me a good spot!). Thanks for being awesome! :)

Tip for those who still wanna mealprep, 1) Get an instant pot from China. The kind which has 2 tiers/layers. (not sure if that's what they're called) 2) Put 1 dish with all ur mealpreped meats & veges on 1 tier. 3) & uncooked rice & Water in a dish on the 2nd tier. 4) Set pot to cook both in the morning & warm the food after. 6) Eat half of each dish for lunch & other half for dinner. - U'll always have warm food. - Doesn't require u to cook at all on weekdays. Ate this way for years. Hope it helps someone :)

my meal prep as a student is just eating leftovers LMAO

Something I like to do to inject a little variety into my cooking is buy fresh vegetables that are in season. Easiest way to do this is shop at a farmers market if you have one nearby. Buy any vegetable you can see yourself eating and find a way to cook it. You only "don't like it" when it doesn't taste good well seasoned and sauced. Do this enough and you'll know what vegetables you want to grow when you finally start that garden you've talked about for years.

Man I love you, you're a life saver... I hope you get the recognition you deserve ! 💖💖💖

Hey! I recently started keeping some sushi rice sauce in the fridge and it's super useful for obviously making sushi, but also is quite good for adding to any meal you want that kind of flavour profile for. The recipe I found is just simmering 4 parts rice vinegar, 2 parts sugar and 1 part salt for like 1 minute.

I’m a senior in high school and I’m about to go into a very busy year. Last year I really fell out of love with food, I didn’t have an ed or anything but I was just eating to stay awake or to distract myself and it was a disaster. This year I want to plan out my meals for the week and make them the night before and this video was very helpful, thank you!

Man I glad that your shorts popped up in feed a couple of months ago. I like how you talk about food and I even "snatched" some recipes. Keep doing your work, you are awesome, Kwoowk!

An alternative to rice and quinoa is couscous imo. It's also really easy to prepare and you can do a lot with it.

Thanks so much for so many useful tips I have one too: safe the rice water. It's so nutritious, at least water your plants with it 😊

the most realistic cook on yt. my respect.

An instant pot is also a godsend for students. So versatile. You can steam vegetables, hard boil eggs, make curries, cook beans/rice, make pasta sauces, stews and more. At most it just requires you to saute some onions/garlic, then add spice and all your ingredients to the pot and hit the button. You can do your student stuff and come back in 30 mins and your food is all done. No need to stand by the stove to mind your creation.

I never knew meal prepping meant to make food for the entire week. I just cut my veges and store them so I don’t waste time on them later. I also have a weekly food plan which is quite tasty

Way more helpful and less overwhelming than all the meal prep videos I’ve seen yet 👌

I'm a uni student and although I don't live alone I would love to get into cooking. This channel really helps me see cooking as not an arduous task but something I can plan ahead for and have fun with. Love your content!

I'm getting heavy old-school brothers green vibe, and I love it.

The meal prep lunch boxes usually look like airplane food, which can taste pretty good at times, but it’s still something you eat hundreds of kilometres in the air. Whereas the ones showed here is kind of like a buffet, you can take as much or little as you want

My favorite easy breakfast lately has been tamago kake Gohan. You microwave a bowl of rice, crack an egg in it, add seasoning and soy sauce, mix it all vigorously with chopsticks and you're done. It takes 3 minutes if you made your rice in advance

Getting a rice cooker changed my life.

Loovee this video! So simple and so intuitive. Regular meal prep is so boring. I prefer this method way more!

I got this in my recommended videos and i saw the title. It made me a bit mad because to me, meal prepping saves time, but when you get the hang of things. I meal prepped in university and it helped me, but ultimately it did get repetitive and boring, like you said. I am so glad i watched this video because it really does help to have the essentials and building blocks to make your meals rather than making 4 plates of the same meals. I also agree that chicken, broccoli, and rice are boring when you eat them every day. You need variety to get your nutrients. Also yeah, a buff guy making meal preps can be annoying in my personal opinion. I digress. Anyway, i love this video. You gave great examples of versatile ingredients that you can use for different dishes. This kind of reminds me of a comedian skit where she described the ingredients of 3 Mexican dishes and they all had the same exact ingredients, and it makes me think we Mexicans are pretty flexible and creative by using tortillas, beans, cream, salsa, chicken, in like 4587 different dishes LOL. And that's essentially what you're doing in this video and i love it. Thank you for sharing this video! As a side note: the way i used to meal prep was to bake chicken and fish, cook quinoa and rice, roast vegetables, and make salads in small containers. I would mix and match, in a way. One day, I'd have chicken with the roasted vegetables and quinoa. The next day, I'd have fish with rice and other roasted vegetables, next day chicken with rice and veggies, next day fish with quinoa and veggies. (The vegetables were different, I'd roast 4 different veggies and mix them up). Plus one of the salads. That kept the meals from getting boring. If i only bought chicken breast, i would stuff it with cheese, mushrooms, tomato, spinach, for a different day, like Monday cheese with mushrooms, Tuesday spinach and tomato, etc. I would also buy a whole baked chicken and would use the breast as portions, I'd use some of the chicken for soups and I'd dump as many vegetables and spices as i could into the pot and that would serve as "comfort food", I'd get some of the chicken to make a chicken salad. On the side, I'd make like. Lentil soup because i love it, and I'd have side soup with my meals or have the soup for dinner. It's getting the hang of it that can be the tough part, but once you get into it, it becomes fun. Sometimes, to spice things up, I'd get chick fil a sauces to add to my food and that would make a big difference LOL. Get creative everyone!

👏👏👏👏 Great, informative. I'm really impressed that you are a college student and cook this well with so much variety! Well done!

as a very busy mother with two kids where food has to be nutritious for them and fast for me. I am experienced and relatively fast at making our food but i can tell you that your idea is Genius. making the basic ingredients and go as the mood go with these. I like the idea alot and definitely i am setttig down now to decide on which are my basic ingredients to prepare..i can see cooked minced beef...marinated chicken cubes...cooked pasta ...basic tomato sauce that can go with veggies or pasta or meat...two salads like hummus and green beans ...and your king ingredient is definitely the pickled onions ...looks so yummy i am definitely making them

I can not explain how valuable this is. Thank you so much!

You're something else ! This is exactly what people from the fit content needs to hear. I also find cooking a place to flourish my creativity . Your channel is quite important to make young people more conscious about quality of food and the right way to healthy and getting out the idea that meal prep sounds "fit". I agree with you cooking your food and see what we sometimes have left on the fridge it is a way to save money and eat a bunch of different flavors and best part: improvise! I am southern European and I love food: For me would be such a depressive week if I have to eat on Friday something I cooked on a Sunday afternoon ahahaha. wishing you loads of success to your project, Keep creating good food content ideas for us!

This is definitely another way of doing things, but I think another huge advantage of meal prep is the complete removal of mental load. I don't have to think about food at all for an entire week, which is really valuable to me. I just get my nutrition while doing other things. One issue I have with this is that I just don't want to think at all about what I'm going to cook on a weekday night.

Yeah, I saw few meal preps in this gym version. It's not that bad, but I prefer something like those in Domestic Geek channel here on YT, she has wonderful ideas, and then Dawnshiftology and her prep and serve ideas. And they are very delicious.

for baked potatoes you can also just microwave them! it takes like 10-15 minutes and you get basically the same results

I've been following you for a while and just came back to this video for inspiration again, now noticing that this was literally shot in a building right around the corner from my school haha, I love how small the world can be

But one of the ideas behind meal prep is to not waste your time cooking in your everyday busy schedule. So you cook one day and you can eat the other 6 days without effort. The thing about this video is that you have to use that 1 day to prep anyways, and then you ALSO have to cook every day. So... whats the point then? Also the "basic" ingredients in this video are too expensive to buy as a student. The point of having kind of the same thing everyday when you meal prep, is to be able to afford the food. As it is cheaper to buy something in larger quantities, than it is to buy 5 diferent small things.

My meal prep is making food and then eating all of it. Sometimes it provides 6 meals, sometimes 1.

I just do it for 2-3 days cause I’m in a very tiny, shared!!, space with one sink (for everything !) and a ‘messy’ roommate. So yeah me prep/starvation(fasting really) between meals is the way for me.

I always make bologna, pea soup, red pork soup and so on. at the start of the month in to the freezer. So I usually have around 20 packages of food packed there ready to go. I don't eat them every day and I've got a few options to choose from. I don't get fed up this, so the trick is to pick a few meals you can eat every other day without boredom. And it's always pretty much as good as it was the day it was made. Just need to remember to pick it out of the freezer at the start of the day. Adjust your meal prep strategies to fit you.

Thank you for taking time to show slowly how to cut the veggies. I’ve bought cauliflower in the past and it intimidated me to even touch it, to take it apart. I really appreciate it. It kind of reminds me of the show don’t tell method for teaching kids something new.

one more suggestion, maybe it is just me but I forget when I get/cooked something all the time to the point where food safety is a legit concern. so I label everything I cook with the expire date (+3 days is safe in general, but it depends how long the food is in the danger zone of course)

Your essentials are so simple but it feels so complete that I will have to take notes and buy all that for this week to see how it works out for me and my preferences

This is actually helping me so much

Everyone in this comment section is so nice 😭this is so wholesome, also this was really helpful! Thanks man!

YOU MY FRIEND ARE THE ABSOLUTE BEST!

I absolutely love this! I think alot of meal prep videos mis the idea that by Wednesday your OVER the set meals you've decided on on Sunday. To prep elements of your meals always you to be flexible which is nice. I'm going to take these foundation into the new year.

I literally just meal prepped, stored the other containers, sat down to eat one, pulled up KZfaq, and this is the first vid on my recommended LOL

I started doing this over time before watching this video when i realized the ingredient prep gave me flexibility. It's fun seeing some recipe ideas here!

Love, love, love this video!

Ok yeah cool idea, not sure about the cheap part though. Like stuff like avocado , tahini and others and other extras are definitely luxury flods for students in my country

(if available) hot tip: for affordable fruit and veggies, go to a market. for affordable spices, go to an oriental or turkish store of some kind.

This is a great video about aspirational but simple cooking.

for homemade tortillas, i recommend putting them in a plastic bag if you are going to put it in the fridge cuz if not, they become hard and brittle. And if you do get brittle tortillas, i just cut them into pieces, fry them with a little oil, and then, pour in eggs. Very tasty (Softer tortillas will taste better than the brittle ones). I then add some beans, chicken, or lettuce on the side and a scoop of canned chipotle. (I put homemade tortillas in the fridge because the house ants like eating them.)

The best meal prep video ive seen

ur channel is my new fave thing

THIS IS PURE GOLD THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU SAVED MEEEEEEEE

Been working in kitchen for a lot of time and men, really enjoy your videos.

Can't tell you how much I appreciate your content.