Put on weight with bulk cooking!

Preparing your food in bulk and up front will help your weight gain.

One of the best weapons in our arsenal when it comes to putting on weight, is preparation. I couldn't count the number of times I didn't eat well during the day, because I had to prepare the food at every meal. I ended up missing out on up to two meals a day. When my schedule is packed, and say, I get free at 4 o'clock, it can take around an hour and a half for me to cook, eat and clean up after the meal. If the meal is precooked, this takes 20 minutes. Precooking your meals will allow you to consume your meals faster and minimize the time between every meal.

Here is a sample of a very simple meal that can be precooked in about an hour. It's great tasting (in my opinion) and can save you a lot of time.

Stewed chicken.

This is so simple. I'm not even going to lay it out as a recipe. You know, listing the ingredients and then giving the instructions. You may need big pans for this. The bigger the more you can cook. I'm not a chef, so the proportions I mention are not really to be taken literally and you may have to experiment to make the recipe right for you. This recipe can be done with any amount of food, just scale it as you need it. Remember that it'll probably only stay in a fridge for a week, or even less, I'd eat the stuff within 3 days.

Ok, simple! You cook some brown rice (can be any rice or pasta). Say 500g. Simply put it in a pan with a bit of salt, bring to the boil, and then simmer from 30mins to an hour, until the water is vaporized. I use about 2-2.5 parts water, to every part of brown rice. This will simply be simmering while you do everything else.

Get around 1kg of chicken breasts (again this is what I use, I have about 200g a meal). Chop them up into cubes, not to big, not to small. About the size of a golf ball. Heat up a frying pan or a skillet, whatever you want to call it. Put a bit of oil on it also some butter for extra taste. Make sure the pan is really hot, highest heat. Now chuck the chicken pieces on there and fry them up, turning them every now and then, should take about 5 minutes. You can try and cut one to check if it's cooked through. If there's no pink raw meat inside, they're cooked. If your pan isn't big enough you may have to fry them in a few batches. Once done, chuck them into a big deep pan, the ones you use to boil stuff in.

Next, chop up an onion or two, and if you want a few carrots(carrots are optional, but I use them). Add more oil onto the frying pan and sweat the onions and carrots, for faster cooking, keep the pan on highest heat and keep stirring them about, until cooked. Add some seasoning, like salt, pepper, garlic and whatever else you like. Finally add a few tablespoons of flour and let it stir in (this will add thickness to the stew).

When the onions and carrots are done, simply chuck them in with the chicken into the big pan. Now pour boiling water over everything (you can use chicken stock for added flavor). Use about 1.5 part water for 1 part of chicken and onions. Bring to the boil and then simmer for about 40 minutes. If you want to add thickness to it, use cornstarch dissolved in cold water. Add it close to the end. 1 or 2 teaspoons of cornstarch in about a teaspoon of water.

That's it! Simply put the rice and the stew into the fridge. Whenever you're hungry all you have to do is take out the rice, put as much of it as you want into a small pan, pour the stew with the chicken over it and heat it up on the hob. Takes about 5 minutes. While it's heating make sure to boil some broccoli.

So to sum it up. Cook rice. Fry chicken and onions, pour water over everything (not the rice), simmer for 40 minutes. Very, very simple and does not require any special ingredients.

Now go on, go and eat something!

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