Meat and Veggie Post-workout Dinner
The post-workout dinner that cooks itself - leave this simmering while you're in the shower 🚿
Alice Sun (@alicecsun) shares a unique view into her life through the ways she uses food to nurture wellness, cross cultural divides, and bring people together, all through the medium of storytelling.
Alice Sun•
March 16, 2026
I’ve been guilty of ordering takeout one too many nights, when I’m completely exhausted from work and it just feels like too much effort to also have to cook dinner AND get a shower in… but now, I can just pop this to simmer on the stove, straight from the freezer, and it’ll be ready after my usual 15 mins showers!
They’re so easily customizable and there are tons of combinations you can make, but even the prep part of it is so simple and can be made days in advance.
All you need is a ziploc bag, thinly sliced protein of choice, and some veggies to make these post-workout dinners — no defrosting needed 🍜
For the proteins, I always end up choosing between:
- Shabu shabu beef
- Thinly sliced pork belly
- Thinly sliced pork shoulder
- Meatballs
- Fishballs
- Pork dumplings
For the veggies, these are some of my favorites:
- Napa cabbage
- Chrysanthemum greens
- Bok choy
- Yu choy
- Spring pea shoots
- Daikon
- Sweet potato
- Carrot
- Spinach
To flavor it all, I usually use one of these sauces or aromatics:
- Doubanjiang (fermented bean paste)
- Red, white, or awase miso paste
- Soy sauce, mirin, sake
- Thinly sliced onion
- Diced garlic
- Scallions
- Thinly sliced ginger
Ingredients (14)
Ingredients (14)
For this dinner, here’s the combo of ingredients I used…
Instructions
Few days before, prep your meal kit but placing a handful of roughly chopped napa cabbage, a few circles of carrots, handful of thinly sliced onion, 3 slices of ginger, bok choy, chrysanthemum greens, and spinach into a Ziploc bag.
Add 1 tablespoon of fermented bean paste.
Seal the ziploc bag, place in freezer.
On the night you’re ready to cook, bring water (4 cups) to boil and add in the chicken base, soy sauce, and mirin.
Remove the ziploc bag from the freezer and place the frozen contents straight into the pot.
Cover and lower the heat to a simmer, then go to take your shower.
When you come back, the pot should be simmering, with the meat cooked through.
At the end, either cook the buckwheat noodles in the pot for a thicker soup, or boil them separately, then add to the soup.
Enjoy dinner, without the delivery fees.
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