Make Your Lunch In Three Minutes Flat!

I am a slow cook. The suggested times on recipes are, for me, always a lie. Something that is supposed to take 30 minutes will take more like 45. This can also be because I spend a lot of time rummaging through cabinets in search of rarely used ingredients. But still. If I am really, really hungry, I usually resort to my stash of Trader Joe's frozen meals.

But now there is Redditor zshakked, who promised on the Meal Prep Sunday Reddit that they would come up with a way to prepare meals in 10 minutes or less, with no prep. And they delivered!

In a post called "Zero Cook Meal Prep 10 Meals in 25 Minutes w/ Recipes (no cleanup)," zshakked has provided recipes and pictures. Technically, there are only five meals to prepare—each one has multiple servings. The only utensils necessary are a knife, a strainer, a fork, and, crucially, a can opener and a microwave. (zshakked uses a disposable paper bowl for mixing ingredients, which saves time doing dishes.) If you are philosophically opposed to microwavable rice, canned chicken and vegetables, and pre-minced garlic from a jar, you will not approve of these recipes. But maybe they weren't intended for you anyway.

The five dishes are Mexican Burrito Bowl, Greek-ish Salad, Lentil-Tahini Protein Bowl, Tuna Sandwich + Salad, and Chickpea, Rice, Sweet Potato Bowl. They all take three minutes to prepare, except for Lentil-Tahini Protein Bowl, which takes six, and Chickpea, Rice, Sweet Potato Bowl, the true time-waster, which takes eight. (You have to bake the potato in the microwave, and that takes time.) zshakked hasn't test-eaten them yet but plans to report back on how filling they are. If anybody here would like to try, please let us know how it goes.