Low-friction meal planning for a week-friendly kitchen.
This isn’t batch cooking in the gym-bro sense.
It isn’t “leftovers.”
It isn’t strict meal prep with identical containers lined up like a dystopia.
It’s a weekly cooking rhythm built around anchors and transformations. Past you sets the stage, present you assembles, and future you eats food that doesn’t feel repetitive.
The Anchors
Each week, you cook three main recipes. These become the backbone of your meals and give you flexibility without chaos.
Base Recipe
This is the recipe you’ll remix throughout the week. It’s usually made in a pot, but it can also live in an appliance like a slow cooker, pressure cooker, or air fryer. Think chili, stew, braised meats, beans, or pulled pork. This is flexible food—designed to shapeshift and be repurposed.
Casserole Recipe
This is your structural food. It’s baked, self-contained, and reheats without drama. Lasagna, enchilada bake, baked ziti, shepherd’s pie, breakfast strata—these are dependable, fridge-stable, and emotionally grounding.
Fun Additions
This is where novelty lives. Side dishes, sauces, toppings, or small projects like homemade pickles or a fresh slaw. These aren’t required. In low-energy weeks, limit them or skip them entirely. The system still works.
The Remix
The remix is how you turn one base recipe into multiple meals that don’t feel repetitive.
Take chili as an example.
Day one might be a warm bowl of chili over rice.
Later in the week, it becomes chili mac and cheese, chili dogs, Frito boats, or chili-stuffed baked potatoes.
Same base. Different textures, formats, and moods.
You’re not eating the same thing every night—you’re choosing a different version of it.
What This System Gives You
When you use the Anchor & Remix System, you can expect to:
- Spend less time planning meals during the week
- Spend less on groceries
- Feel less tempted to eat out on work nights
Most importantly, you end the week fed without feeling bored or burned out.
How to Start (Your First Week)
Start small. You don’t need a perfect plan—you just need a starting point.
For your first week:
- Choose one base recipe you already know how to make.
- Choose one casserole you wouldn’t mind eating twice.
- Choose zero to two fun additions, depending on your energy.
- Pick 3-4 remixes.
- Create a grocery list for your chosen recipes, then shop for the ingredients.
- Cook your base, casserole, and fun addition recipes when meal prepping.
That’s it.
You can always add more later. This system works best when it meets you where you are, not where you think you should be.
A Few Gentle Guidelines
This system has no strict rules—only guardrails.
Some weeks you’ll cook all three anchors. Some weeks you’ll only manage one. Some weeks the “fun addition” is store-bought pickles, and that still counts.
The goal isn’t optimization.
The goal is to make feeding yourself feel easier, not heavier.
How Much to Make
You don’t need exact measurements—just intention.
- Make your base recipe large enough for one dinner plus two or three remixes.
- Make your casserole so it comfortably feeds you at least twice.
- Keep fun additions small and optional by design.
If you run out early, that’s information for next time—not a failure.
A Note on Leftovers
If you’re tired of something, freeze it.
If you don’t remix it, that’s okay.
If a plan changes midweek, adjust without guilt.
This system is here to support you, not judge you. Food doesn’t need to be perfect to be useful.
Who This System Is For
This system is for people who:
- Work long days
- Get tired
- Want real food without cooking every night
- Like variety but don’t want chaos
It’s not for people who want seven identical meals lined up in containers or hyper-optimized food rules. There’s nothing wrong with that—it’s just not what this is.
How Recipes on This Site Work
Each recipe on this site will tell you how it fits into the Anchor & Remix System:
- Whether it works as an anchor, a remix, or a fun addition
- How long it realistically takes
- How it behaves as leftovers
- Simple ideas for remixing it later in the week
You don’t need to plan everything in advance. You just need a few solid anchors—and the freedom to remix them as the week unfolds.