Meal prep shouldn’t be this easy…

So, frozen Lego meal prep cubes have taken over my life. I mean, look at the state of my freezer right now. What started out as me just honestly testing out a trend that I thought was interesting has turned into a fullon revolution in the way I meal prep and consume food throughout the week. Which is why I immediately started testing different instant noodle and pasta ideas. Because imagine a world where you could just get home from a long day of work, pop out a sauce cube or a broth cube, and boom, you've got instant noodles or a quick pasta dish. And before we get into these six incredible recipes, just like the last videos in this series, all the recipes are in detail in a free Google doc below that you can download, you can print out to make your meal prep just a little bit easier. And we're starting out with something very exciting, which has already been very beneficial for my life. Hopefully, it will be for yours as well, which is your very own homemade instant ramen cube. Now, instant ramen, of course, is extremely popular all around the world. I did a video a few years ago testing out a few of the more modern brands to see if they're actually good, and they were fine, but they are not like this homemade cube I'm about to show you. All right, so I'm going to take a medium sauce pot and I'm going to dump in a bunch of chicken broth. I'm using some kettle and fire broth, but you can use homemade if you have that available. And phase one is to infuse the stock with a ton of umami and aromatic flavor. So, first I'll dump in a bunch of dried shiakees. These actually came right from my own shiake logs, which I dehydrated myself, but they're pretty easily found dried in most markets. If you can only find fresh shiakees, that's fine as well. The flavor won't be as concentrated. You could also use other dried mushrooms that you can find. Then, for some more umami flavor, I'm going to pop in a few pieces of ku, which is a Japanese seaweed. And then for the aromatics, I'll simply add a few pieces of whole green onion and some peeled ginger, which I'll just give a little bash. So now I'm going to cook this uncovered for about 30 minutes until it's about half of the original amount. This will not only infuse the flavors, but it will also concentrate the stock since we're going for a more concentrated broth cube. And finally, the koo being a seaweed releases algenate which works as a natural thickener similar to an agar agar which is really going to give your ramen such a better final mouth feel. I'll then strain all of the contents out. And for the seasoning, I'm going to use some soy sauce, a little bit of mirin, and finally some miso. I'm using some homemade miso, but storebought will do just fine. Now, I did dig out those hydrated shiake mushrooms. Sometimes when they're rehydrated, they can be a little bit tough, but just give it a taste. If they still taste good, you definitely want to keep those in your instant ramen cubes. And look what we have right here. Concentrated instant ramen broth. Well, actually, not yet. We got to freeze these cubes up. And now we have instant ramen cubes. And just like regular instant ramen, you can keep it really simple with just the broth and the noodles. But that is of course not how I do ramen. And what I love about these cubes is that since they're concentrated, one is good for two portions. So I'll heat them up with more water. And I'm using rice noodles here. Of course, use any noodles you want. I'll add my delicious toppings. And finally, this thing right here, which is an aromatic ginger scallion oil cube, which I'll get into in just a second, but not before I destroy this ramen. All right, so the next cube is this thing right here. It's not a full meal. This is a little bit more of a hack. It's an aromatic oil cube. You saw I just used it for my ramen, but there are so many other uses for this when you're bringing together meals, which I will get to. And they really couldn't be easier to make. The first step is to take a pot. You're going to add in a bunch of neutral oil. I'm using some avocado oil here. And while that's heating up, I'm going to take out my food processor. I'm going to peel up some ginger. I'll pop that in. I've got a bunch of fresh scallions or green onion. And this is optional, but if you can get your hands on some green garlic, that is a bonus addition. And I'll process that up until I get this texture right here. I'll dump that into a heats safe bowl. And before you add your oil, you want it around 350° F. An easy way to check is just pop in a chopstick or a wood spoon. And if you see those little bubbles, you're good to go. You just pour that oil right over the aromatics and let it sizzle and infuse. Now, you want to let this super hot mixture cool before you ladle it into your mold. I'm using the two tablespoon molds from Super Cubes, but any smaller ice cube tray will work. And I'll freeze these up. Now, the ginger scallion oil is a traditional Chinese technique, but of course, ginger, onion, garlic, these aromatics, they span the flavor spectrum of so many different Asian cuisines. So, the options are really endless of how you want to use these little cubes. So, of course, you can use it as a little aromatic oil topping for a ramen. And if you have some leftover rice, this will elevate your fried rice to places you never thought were possible. But this is a noodle video. So, here's a little noodle stir fry I made earlier this week. It's packed with veggies and tofu. I sauteed those off first. And then the real flavor glue here is you just slip one of these cubes in, give it a toss, and bam. Look at that. All right, so we're shifting into the world of pasta. And what is the most popular instant pasta dish of all time? Probably mac and cheese, right? At least in this country. Easy mac. How can I make my own homemade easy mac, which would be a huge bonus in my house since my kids love mac and cheese. And I thought maybe I could get a little sneaky and slip in some veggies in there. So, I took a little inspiration from this thing right here. You ever had this? It's the Trader Joe's butternut squash mac and cheese, and we're going to recreate it and turn it into a cube. And the first step, of course, is peeling a big old butternut squash. I'll slice it in half. I'll remove all of the seeds, and I'll dice it into larger chunks. And I'll just pop that on a baking tray. Drizzle it with a little oil and get that roasting in an oven at about 400° F until the squash has some color and it's cooked through, which takes around 20 to 25 minutes. In the meantime, I'll get a pan on a medium heat and I'm going to start with my rue. We're making a classic cheese sauce here. I'll add in my butter and some flour and I'll toast that together for about 5 minutes. And it should get nice and brown like this, which is when I can start whisking in my milk. And once I have the milk evenly incorporated with the R. I'm just going to let that slowly heat up and thicken over time. And while that's happening, I can grate my cheese. I'm using some cheddar and some griier for this cheese sauce, which I believe is what Trader Joe's uses as well. And when that milk coats the back of my spoon like this, very similar to making a custard or ice cream base, you know it's ready to go. So, I'll cut the heat. I'll add in my cheese. And I'll give it a mix until it melts, which is right on time for those roasted squash coming out of the oven, which I'm going to dump into my blender. And I'll just give it an initial pulse to start the process. Then I'll dump in that cheese sauce. And you can do this with a immersion blender or a food processor, but a highowered food processor really is going to whip up that sauce and make it super creamy to the point where it looks very similar to like a classic Vita cheese sauce. I don't know why I said classic and vita in the same line, but that's what it looks like and that's how you're going to trick your kids into eating more veggies. Now, I did feel like it was a little bit thick, so I just added some chicken stock and a little bit of salt. And that little bit of chicken stock did add some nice body to the sauce. So, I highly recommend that. And we've got our cheese sauce ready to freeze. >> Oh, yeah. >> Now, when you have these cubes, making your instant mac and cheese is almost as simple as the storebought stuff. You can do it in one pot, but two pots is a little bit more ideal. One, I'll boil some water and I'll add my pasta to, and the other one, I'll heat up my cubes. And I do find just adding a scoop of that pasta water to the cubes is a nice trick to bring it back to life a little bit more easily. And when the pasta is done, just ladle that right into the sauce. And look at this goodness. Definitely my favorite mac and cheese sauce of all time. Now, I just want to take a quick minute to tell you about today's sponsor, which is Kettle and Fire. A big driver of a lot of these recipes today. Now, with the type of food I cook and the way my entire family eats with tons of different soups and noodle dishes and pastas and curries, broth and stock is a huge part of our diet. It adds a ton of depth and flavor and honestly just the nutrition that is essential to my diet. And yes, I do make it from scratch, but I am a very busy guy. I have three little kids and I've got to make a ton of videos, so I don't always have the time to make it from scratch, which is why Kettle and Fire is a staple in my pantry. It's a product I genuinely trust and feel great about using because most box broths are pretty bland and not something that I would be excited to add to my meals. But Kettle and Fire is different. They use organic freerange chickens and grass-fed grass-finish beef bones. And they simmer those bones for 14 hours for maximum nutrient extraction. And the convenience factor is just so nice. A simple tear of the box and boom, you have some instant delicious flavor and nutrients in your dishes. So, if you're looking to easily upgrade your meal prep, use code Mike G., you can get 20% off your first order with the link below. Now, before we get into the next recipe, I got to give a big shout out to someone. Now, this series originally was inspired by this video right here. When I saw this, the idea of Legoifying your meals into these modular components just seemed so interesting to me. And this video is actually by Sarah Hart. A bunch of you called this out in the first video in the comments, so thank you very much. And to be totally honest, at the time I was just scrolling the gram and I saw this video and got inspired. But when I took a deeper look into her channel, her main focus is freezer meal prep. But what makes the content so interesting is it's not just recipe focused. You get a lot of different systems and hacks, and her videos help you shift into this whole new frozen meal prepping mindset. So, she really was the original influence for me. It's made a huge difference in the way I meal prep. And since she really is the freezer cube queen, I asked her what her favorite pasta recipe is that she likes to turn into cubes. >> Thanks, Mike. I wanted to share a quick meat sauce recipe that I like to freeze and have on hand for quick meals throughout the week. This recipe starts with 2 lbs of ground meat. It calls for sausage and ground beef, but you could use all ground beef, or you could use half beef, half ground pork. You could use a leaner ground turkey, whatever your preference is. Start by browning all the meat in a pan with a little bit of olive oil. I like to break up the meat a bit with a spoon and then leave it on one side to develop some color before stirring, flipping, and continuing to break up all the meat into smaller pieces while allowing it to brown on all sides. Once the meat is brown, add in a diced yellow onion and let that cook in the rendered fat from the meat. If you used ground turkey or a leaner cut of ground beef, you might need to add a little more olive oil. Once the onion is translucent, add in some minced garlic and stir that for about 30 seconds before adding in the tomato paste and allowing that to caramelize and the color to deepen a bit. Then add in 28 oz of crushed tomatoes and 16 oz of your favorite marinara sauce. Let that simmer on the stove for an additional 15 to 20 minutes. Then turn off the heat and allow it to cool before adding it to your freezer trays. This recipe makes 8 cups worth of sauce and I like to freeze this in 1 cup and two cup portions. The 1 cup portion is great to use as a sauce with your favorite pasta shape. Heat up the frozen sauce in a saucepan. Add a splash of pasta water and your cooked noodles and you have a quick meal right from the freezer. For the two cup portion, I like using this as a base for lasagna soup. All I need to do is pop out the frozen cube into a saucepan and add two cups of broth. Bring that up to a boil and then you add in your broken lasagna noodles or whatever flat noodles you like to cook right in the soup. Finish it with some heavy cream. And I like to add a little ricotta topping. And I have lasagna soup for two right from the freezer. Now, a lot of these Bolognese recipes I see on the internet are pretty complex, and I've actually been looking for just a simple meat sauce. And this recipe from Sarah, I have to say, absolutely nailed it. It was really easy to make and I love the idea that I can now bring together quick two portions of pasta and guarantee that it's going to be fresh every single time with zero leftovers. Now, I had to include one of my favorite noodle dishes of all time that happens to work wonderfully as a cube. I'm talking about a cow soy, the northern Thai red curry dish, traditionally served with egg noodles in the broth and crispy egg noodles on top. Now, to make this dish properly, it is definitely a little bit more complex. So, I just wanted to make a version that has all of those yummy flavors that's slightly more accessible. And it's going to start out with a homemade curry paste, but you make it in a food processor rather than pounding it out with a mortar and pestle for like an hour. That's not happening in my life. And I'm starting out with red peppers that I could easily find, which were Mexican dried guajillos. These are super fruity. There's not much spice. If you want more spice, just add some spicy chilies in there. And I'm going to toast these along with my other whole spices, which are coriander seeds and cardamon pods. And once those peppers are nicely toasted, I'll remove them from the pan. And I'll just dump my dried spice right into the food process. I'll deseed the peppers, which is going to make my curry paste much more smooth, and I'll soak them in some hot water to rehydrate them. Then I'll prep up the fresh aromatics for this curry paste. I've got some turmeric. I've got some ginger, shallots, and finally garlic. I'll get all of that peeled up and I'll just dice them into chunks. And I'll add some coconut oil in a pan and I'll start frying up the fresh aromatics until they slightly soften and caramelize. And now that the peppers are hydrated, I'll dump those into the food processor along with all those toasted aromatics. And I'll process that paste up until it is nice and smooth, adding in some of that pepper water if it's too thick. Now, this is a chicken curry. You can use any uh dark meat chicken. I'm using chicken thighs with the skin on and the bone in for that extra flavor, which I'll simply salt and pepper on that skin side. And I'll just get that skin side rendering down in a pan, which is when I'll salt and pepper the other side of the chicken. And when those skins are super crispy like this, I'll give them a flip. And I'm just trying to fry them on the other side until I get some color. These do not need to get cooked through because I am removing them from the pan. And I'll dump in all of that curry paste. This is going to be a concentrated curry cube. And along with the curry paste, I'm going to dump in half of a can of coconut cream, which I'll cook down for around 10 minutes. And what's going to happen is that liquid is going to cook out of the coconut cream, leaving just the fat, which I'll then use to toast up all of that curry paste, removing all of that rawness and really caramelizing those flavors. And when that curry paste is fried off for about 5 minutes in the coconut fat, I'll go in with the rest of the coconut cream along with some chicken broth. Just really enough to slip those thighs back in so they can simmer away in all of that goodness. And after about 30 minutes on a low simmer, this is what you're left with. The colors have completely transformed. You've got that nice oil separation going on. And the chicken is now tender enough where I can remove those bones. And now once the bones are removed, I did cook the chicken for another 5 minutes just so it could get super shreddy. And the final step was just a little hit of some fish sauce to season. And these cubes were ready for the freezer. Now, what I love about these cubes here, I have four of them vacuum sealed. One of these half cup cubes has so much concentrated flavor. So, when I reheat them, I can thin them out with either a little bit more stock or just some water. I can add some fresh veggies here. I just have some bok choy. And now you've turned this concentrated cube into a full delicious curry meal. I can't tell you how awesome these are for meal prep. Now, finally, we have another pasta cube. And being an avid gardener, one thing I have learned is that pesto freezes so well. And when I say pesto, I'm not just talking about traditional basil pesto. We turn all types of green things into pesto. Garlic scape being the ultimate treat. But garlic scapes are not in season right now. So, I'm using an ingredient that's very easy to find in the winter, which is kale. And I'm first going to start off by toasting off some almonds. You can use pine nuts, but they are just so much more expensive. And personally, I love the flavor of toasted almonds in my pesto. And when those have a little bit of color on them, I'll dump them right into a food processor along with a bunch of garlic and some salt. And I'll give this an initial process just to break down those nuts before the greens go in. And I'm using a combination of kale and basil. I mean, the amount of basil I would need to buy to make a pesto reasonable enough to freeze just wouldn't be worth it. which is why it's nice to have some other green to bulk things up. And kale works so well. So, what I'll do is process the greens in small bunches not to overwhelm the food processor. Just a few handfuls at a time. I'll pulse it together until I get everything broken down. And then the final step is to drizzle in a good bit of olive oil until everything emulsifies and you get this beautifully green and smooth pesto ready for the freezer. Now, once you have these, where are they? Where are they? Where? Kale pesto, baby. Again, pesto reheats so well from frozen. Add a little bit of that hot pasta water to these cubes. It's going to come back to life like it was fresh off the press. And you have Oh my god, this pesto is addicting. Of course, it's highly customizable. if you want to bulk it up with some more vegetables or some chicken or whatever you have. A wonderful meal prep option. And that is all she wrote, my friends. If you want more cube ideas, boom, boom, boom. And remember, you can download all of these recipes below completely for free. Print that baby out. Make a few of these. Tell me how they are in the comments or on my Instagram at life by9G. And I will see you in the next video.

Try my favorite bone broth Kettle & Fire! Get 20% off your order when you use my code MIKEG and click the link: https://www.kettleandfire.com/mikeg Download all 6 recipes from this video here for free! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fN670C9HNTYnqPFSqno4_LeKBnZCDL6IqxpAwElwzBE/edit?usp=sharing Thanks to @simplysarahhart for the inspiration! 00:00 - Intro 00:45 - Instant Ramen 03:16 - Ginger Scallion Oil 05:13 - Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese 09:17 - Meat Sauce 12:32 - Thai Red Curry 16:14 - Kale & Basil Pesto Learn to cook with confidence using my courses, cookbooks, and free recipes at https://lifebymikeg.com Souper Cubes Silicone Soup Freezer Molds (1 cup) - https://amzn.to/4s8hMm0 Souper Cubes Silicone Soup Freezer Molds (2 cup) https://amzn.to/4s50FS0 For other products used in this video - https://www.amazon.com/shop/lifebymikeg Music Credits: Epidemic Sound: https://www.epidemicsound.com Video Credits Creator, Host - Mike G Editor - Cooper Makohon Motion Graphics - Raphael Oliveira Culinary Producer - Carly C