The Protein Drop #7: A lunch that never goes near a microwave

Every meal prep problem in this series so far has been a reheating problem. There is a way around all of them at once, which is to build a lunch that was never meant to be hot.

Dress the beans, not the tuna

Make the dressing in the bottom of the bowl: olive oil, lemon zest and juice, dijon, salt and plenty of black pepper. The cannellini beans, tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and capers go in first and get folded through it properly. Beans absorb dressing overnight, and that is the reason the jar tastes seasoned on day three instead of only on day one.

The tuna goes in last, flaked, with one or two folds and no more. Fold it like the rest and it turns to paste. Parsley, dill and feta after that, then press everything down lightly in the jars so the dressing works its way to the bottom.

The tuna and white bean spoon salad jars are 33g of protein at 420 calories a jar, keep four days, and are better on day two than on day one.

The prep note: a jar is not a salad box

The usual jar-salad rule is to keep the dressing away from the leaves. This one ignores it, because there are no leaves. Everything in it is sturdy enough to sit in dressing and get better for it, and that is the whole trick to cold lunches: pick the ingredients that improve with marinating, skip the ones that wilt, and you get a box with no assembly, no reheating and nothing to go wrong at work.

Eat it with a spoon straight from the jar, or pile it onto toast when you want it to be more than lunch.

Add it to your week

Every card at the bottom of this issue carries a calendar button. Tap it and the dish lands in your week, which pools everything you have added into one shopping list. Add all three from this issue and the list writes itself.

Something new to cook this week

The turkey sausage and cottage cheese breakfast skillet is 34g of protein at 370 calories a serving and feeds four in twenty-five minutes. The cottage cheese is whisked into the eggs rather than spooned on top, which keeps them soft as they set and adds the protein without adding a step.

Something sweet worth the oven time

The baked cottage cheese protein cheesecake is 22g of protein and 235 calories a slice, six slices from one small pan. Two things matter. Blend the cottage cheese until there is not a curd left in it, and when the bake is done, turn the oven off and leave the cheesecake inside with the door cracked for an hour. That hour is what stops the crack down the middle. Then chill it for three more.

New in the bank this week

Recipes go live on a schedule, a few every week, so the bank is not the same on Saturday as it was on Monday. Everything published in the last seven days is collected on the new recipes page, meals and drinks together, with the newest first. This week that includes grilled provoleta with chimichurri and cottage cheese flatbread, 26g of protein at 360 calories, where cottage cheese goes into the melting cheese, the chimichurri and the flatbread alike.

One thing cooked hot on Sunday, one jar that asks nothing of you at all, and something in the fridge for the afternoon. Back next Saturday.