Posts about living in, understanding, and finding the best of mavenhood.
The Digital Magazine
Social media creators share plenty of clever ways to sneak more fiber and protein into meals people love, without turning dinner into a science experiment.
This batch of meal-prep hacks rounds up some of the best ideas, credited to the specific cook or creator when we could trace it. Some ideas are familiar concepts from a grandmother’s kitchen, with a fresh twist. No matter which ones you try, future you will be grateful you set yourself up for success.
Add more fiber
- Add quinoa and lentils to white rice. Kylie Sakaida adds 1 cup white rice, ½ cup quinoa and ½ cup lentils to a rice cooker with approximately 3 cups water. The cooked mixture can replace plain rice in bowls, sides and stuffed vegetables.
Source: Kylie Sakaida, @nutritionbykylie on TikTok - Stretch ground beef with cooked lentils. Add brown, black or green lentils to seasoned ground beef for tacos, meat sauce, sloppy joes or shepherd’s pie. Katie Lee Biegel adds 1 cup cooked lentils to taco meat.
Source: Katie Lee Biegel, “Fiber-Packed Tacos,” EatingWell - Turn hummus into salad dressing. Joy Bauer mixes ¼ cup hummus with 1½ tablespoons water, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, salt and smoked paprika. It turns a prepared dip into a creamy dressing with added fiber.
Source: Joy Bauer, “Hummus Dressing“ - Make two kinds of high-fiber jelly from psyllium husk. For juice jelly, quickly stir 2 tablespoons psyllium husk powder into 75 milliliters of tart cherry, grape, cranberry or blueberry juice and let it thicken for five to 10 minutes. For berry jam, blend frozen strawberries or mixed berries with ground chia seeds, psyllium husk, honey and water.
Sources: Dr. Joseph Salhab, Instagram reel (high-fiber fruit jelly), and Rupy Aujla, “Gut-Boosting Berry Jam,” The Doctor’s Kitchen - Add nutritional yeast to homemade pizza crust or sauce. Mix it directly into the dough or marinara for more fiber, protein and savory flavor. It can also help a lower-cheese pizza taste cheesier.
Source: White Blank Space, “Thin Crust Pizza Dough” - Replace breadcrumbs with crushed high-fiber cereal. Liz Weiss uses 1 cup Fiber One Original in a batch of eight Mediterranean tuna cakes. The cereal binds the mixture, gives the cakes a crisp exterior and brings each two-cake serving to 7 grams of fiber. The same idea can work in meatballs or as a coating for chicken.
Source: Liz Weiss, “Crispy Mediterranean Fiber One Cereal Tuna Cakes“ - Blend white beans into marinara or creamy soups. Purée drained white beans with the sauce or soup until smooth. The beans add fiber and protein while making the finished dish thicker and creamier.
Source: @cookwithangelika, Instagram reel
Add more protein
- Cook pasta or grains in bone broth. Replace the cooking water with chicken or beef bone broth. Pasta, rice, quinoa and other grains absorb some of the broth as they cook, adding flavor and some of the broth’s protein.
Source: @thedeliciousnutritionist, YouTube Shorts - Replace ricotta with blended cottage cheese in lasagna. Blend the cottage cheese before assembling the lasagna for a smoother consistency. You can usually replace the ricotta in equal measure.
Source: Andrea Rivera Wawrzyn, “I Never Use Ricotta for the Best-Tasting Lasagna,” The Kitchn - Blend cottage cheese into marinara or pasta sauce. Blend the cottage cheese with marinara, Parmesan and a little pasta water to make a creamy, higher-protein sauce.
Source: Yumna Jawad, “Cottage Cheese Pasta Sauce,” Feel Good Foodie - Use cottage cheese as the base of a reheatable cheese sauce. Tom Walsh blends cottage cheese with a smaller amount of strongly flavored cheese, milk, nutritional yeast and seasonings. Add a few tablespoons of milk when reheating if the sauce becomes too thick.
Source: Tom Walsh, @stealth_health_life on Instagram - Add cottage cheese to scrambled eggs or egg bakes. Joy Bauer mixes ¼ cup cottage cheese with two eggs for a scramble containing more than 20 grams of protein. Blending the cottage cheese first works well for egg bakes and gives them a smoother texture.
Source: Joy Bauer, “High-Protein Scrambled Eggs with Cottage Cheese“ - Cook egg whites into oatmeal. Add liquid egg whites near the end of cooking and continue stirring until the oats thicken. The egg whites blend into the oatmeal and give it a creamier texture.
Source: Liz Marino, “Egg White Oatmeal,” The Clean Eating Couple - Mix powdered peanut butter with regular peanut butter. Reconstitute the powder with a little water, then mix it with conventional peanut butter. The regular peanut butter keeps the familiar flavor and richness while the powdered version adds volume and protein.
Source: Blair Cooley, Instagram reel (this version mixes the powder with liquid) - Make Pro-tatoes and protein gravy from the same pot. Cook cubed potatoes in chicken bone broth, then drain them over a bowl so none of the broth is lost. Blend cottage cheese with some of the reserved broth, pour it over the potatoes and mash. Mix in an egg and a touch of butter extract for additional protein and buttery flavor. Finally, thicken more of the reserved bone broth to make gravy. The published batch uses 5 pounds of russet potatoes, 3 quarts of chicken bone broth, 1½ cups cottage cheese, 1 egg and ½ teaspoon butter extract.
Source: @cooking_comedy_chaos, “Pro-tay-toes,” via cooked.wiki, original Instagram reel - Turn hard-boiled eggs into high-protein mayonnaise. Blend three hard-boiled eggs with ⅓ cup water, 2 teaspoons vinegar, 2 tablespoons oil and salt to taste. Use it for sandwiches, tuna salad, chicken salad or egg salad.
Source: Alison Lethorn, @homechefalison on Instagram
Upgrade dessert
- Turn white beans into five-minute cookie dough. Blend a drained can of white beans with oat flour, almond flour, peanut butter and maple syrup, then fold in chocolate chips. The beans disappear into the dough while adding fiber and plant protein.
Source: Alissa Steinberg, @healthyu_dietitian on Instagram - Turn silken tofu into chocolate mousse. Blend 400 grams silken tofu with 200 grams melted dark chocolate, ½ teaspoon vanilla and 3 tablespoons maple syrup for approximately three minutes. Divide it into containers and refrigerate until set.
Source: @lea.martine, Instagram reel, “Recipe for my viral vegan high protein chocolate mousse” - Whip Greek yogurt with sugar-free Jell-O. Combine Greek yogurt with dissolved sugar-free Jell-O, whip until smooth and chill until set. Garnish with raspberries.
Source: Rena Awada, “Fluffy Greek Yogurt Jello,” Healthy Fitness Meals - Make the viral Japanese yogurt cheesecake. Layer ½ cup thick Greek yogurt with 3 Biscoff cookies per serving in a jar or container, alternating layers until full. Cover and refrigerate overnight (at least 8 hours). The cookies absorb moisture from the yogurt and soften into cake-like layers.
Source: Hannah Kling, “Viral Japanese Cheesecake (Greek Yogurt + Biscoff Cookies),” Lovely Delites - Make three-ingredient protein muffins with cake mix and a bottled shake. Amy Britton combines one box of zero-sugar cake mix with one 42-gram Core Power vanilla protein shake and one single-serving Ratio Protein Greek yogurt. Her batch made approximately 13 muffins and baked at 350°F for about 20 minutes.
Source: Amy Britton, Instagram reel - Make 10-minute protein cookie dough. Emma of @emmabfit mixes 2 tablespoons melted peanut butter, ¼ cup Greek yogurt, 1 tablespoon honey, one serving vanilla protein powder and 1 tablespoon almond flour. Stir in chocolate chips, then freeze for 10 minutes.
Source: Emma, @emmabfit on TikTok - Make faux Reese’s balls with powdered peanut butter and applesauce. Mix 1 cup powdered peanut butter with ½ cup unsweetened applesauce. Form the mixture into approximately 16 balls, chill and coat them with ½ cup melted chocolate chips.
Source: @slowslimmer, Instagram reel - Replace most of the oil in boxed brownies with canned pumpkin. Erin Clarke combines a box of brownie mix with ½ cup pumpkin purée and 2 tablespoons oil. The pumpkin keeps the brownies moist while adding another plant to dessert.
Source: Erin Clarke, @wellplated Instagram
A little meal prep can go a long way when the goal is spending less time in the kitchen, making it easier to reach for home-cooked food or a wider variety of vegetables. Prepping sets future you up for success in reaching your goals.
There’s a wide range of home cooks and creators on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook sharing tips to make food prep faster and more efficient, plus hacks to add more plants to meals you already enjoy. Below, we’ve gathered some of the best ones circulating, crediting the specific cook or creator behind each idea when we could trace it.
Prep faster
- Make your own meal kits. Measure, chop and group all the ingredients for a future meal in one container or designated section of the refrigerator. When it’s time to cook, the decisions and most of the cleanup are already handled.
- Prep slow-cooker meals without cooking them first. Add the uncooked meat, vegetables, sauce and seasonings to labeled freezer bags, freeze them flat and cook each meal in the slow cooker when needed. Write the cooking time and any ingredients that need to be added later directly on the bag.
Source: Kelly McNelis, The Family Freezer - Build the meals while the food is already out. If you make four servings each of chicken, potatoes and green beans, line up four containers and distribute each component immediately. Future you gets four complete grab-and-go meals. Keep sauces separate when appropriate.
- Cook meal-prep pasta for only half the package time. Tom Walsh boils pasta for approximately 50 percent of the recommended time, then finishes it in the sauce. This gives the pasta time to absorb flavor without becoming mushy when portioned and reheated.
Source: Tom Walsh and the Stealth Health Kitchen Staff, “Garlic Butter Chicken Alfredo: Comfort That Keeps You Going,” Stealth Health Life - Freeze cooked grains in portions. Pack rice, quinoa or other grains into silicone muffin or storage cups and freeze, then store the individual portions in a freezer bag.
- Freeze chopped garlic in break-apart squares. Flatten minced garlic inside a freezer bag and score it into individual portions before freezing. Break off only what you need.
- Freeze ginger and butter before grating them with a microplane. Frozen ginger grates cleanly and lasts longer, while finely grated frozen butter distributes quickly and evenly through dough, mashed potatoes and other dishes.
- Plan five meals around one batch of chicken. Cook the chicken with seasonings that work across several flavor profiles, then change the sauces and supporting ingredients for each meal. Alma Knows Food turns one chicken prep into BBQ chicken mac and cheese, chipotle ranch chicken salad, a chicken Caesar wrap, chicken and esquites salad and a chimichurri chicken bowl.
Source: Alma Knows Food, @almaknowsfood - Strip and shred a rotisserie chicken faster. Place the warm chicken inside a tightly closed bag and shake it vigorously to release much of the meat from the bones. Transfer the meat to a stand mixer, partially cover the bowl with plastic wrap to prevent splatter and run the paddle attachment on low until shredded.
- Bake eggs without the shells. Crack a batch of eggs into a greased loaf pan or baking dish and bake them together. Chop the cooked eggs for egg salad without boiling and peeling individual eggs.
For freezer breakfast sandwiches, Tom Walsh of Stealth Health Life takes the idea one step further. He blends whole eggs and egg whites with cottage cheese and a little cornstarch before baking the mixture on a sheet pan. The cottage cheese helps the eggs stay soft, while the cornstarch helps them set and slice cleanly.
Source: Tom Walsh and the Stealth Health Kitchen Staff, “Sausage Egg & Cheese Breakfast Sandwiches,” Stealth Health Life
Sneak in more plants
- Blend cauliflower or carrots into marinara. The puréed vegetable disappears into the sauce, adding another plant to the meal.
- Blend cooked carrots, butternut squash or cauliflower into mac-and-cheese sauce. Purée the cooked vegetable with milk, then add the cheese. The vegetable becomes part of the sauce.
Source: Andi Anne, Hidden Veggie Macaroni and Cheese - Replace some of the basil in pesto with spinach. The basil creates the recognizable pesto flavor, and spinach increases the vegetable volume.
- Blend spinach and eggs into a wrap. Blend 1 cup fresh spinach with 2 eggs, then cook the mixture in a lightly oiled, covered skillet like a thin crepe. The spinach becomes the wrap.
Source: Emily Grace, “2-Ingredient Wrap,” Emily Grace Food - Add grated zucchini to meatballs or burgers. Mix approximately 1 cup grated zucchini into 1 pound of ground meat. This vegetable addition also keeps lean meat from getting too dry.
Source: Beef Loving Texans, “Beef & Vegetable Meatballs“ - Use finely chopped mushrooms to stretch ground beef. Pulse mushrooms in a food processor, brown the beef without draining it and cook the mushrooms in the rendered fat. They collapse into the meat and can be used in taco filling, meat sauce, burgers or meatloaf.
Source: Nicole McLaughlin, “I Learned This Hack to Stretch Ground Beef,” Allrecipes - Turn cauliflower rice and cottage cheese into tots. Jasmine Mays combines cooked, seasoned cauliflower rice with blended cottage cheese, light mozzarella and Parmesan, then rolls and bakes the mixture. It turns a bag of frozen cauliflower into a batchable tater-tot-style side.
Source: Jasmine Mays, cauliflower-rice and cottage-cheese tots - Replace some of the frozen fruit in a smoothie with frozen cauliflower rice. Cauliflower rice thickens the smoothie and adds a vegetable and fiber.
Source: Kashmir Brummel, “Bulk Up Smoothies With This Nearly-Tasteless Vegetable,” Tasting Table - Turn eggplant into meatballs. Roast cubed eggplant until browned and tender, then pulse it in a blender and combine it with eggs, seasoned breadcrumbs, Pecorino and parsley. Roll the mixture into meatballs, brown them in a skillet and finish them in marinara. Joanna Moeller’s version, shared via Appetito, turns roasted eggplant into a meatless meatball for a plant-forward pasta night.
Source: Joanna Moeller, @spaghettiroots_nyc, “How to Make the Eggplant Meatballs That Went Viral,” Appetito - Turn zucchini into an apple-free crisp. Barefoot Mimosas cuts zucchini into small chunks and cooks it in a pan with lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg before adding a crumble topping and baking it. The zucchini takes on the flavor and texture of apple filling.
Source: Barefoot Mimosas, zucchini apple crisp, Instagram
Use rice-paper and wonton-wrappers
- Dip rice paper in beaten egg instead of water. The egg adds protein and creates a crispier wrapper.
- Double-wrap rice-paper dumplings. A second wrapper helps contain the filling and makes it less likely they’ll break apart.
- Make the rice-paper Big Mac inspired spiral. Spread seasoned ground beef over softened rice paper, add the burger fillings, roll it into a spiral and cook until crisp.
- Make dumpling lasagna with wonton wrappers. Alternate seasoned pork filling and wonton wrappers inside ramekins. Add water, cover and steam until the pork is cooked and the wrappers are silky. Nicole Modic’s version of the viral trend delivers the layers and flavors of dumplings without the folding and pleating.
Source: Nicole Modic, “Viral Dumpling Lasagna,” Kalejunkie
