I’m incredibly humbled and want to give many thanks to Johannes Braetz who gave me the opportunity to showcase some of my cooking skills on his famous meal prepping blog.

My name is Michel Wenzel and I graduated from the King’s College in May 2020. Just like Johannes, I spent the first 19 years of my life in Germany before moving to the United States. During my childhood, my family spent most of our vacations in countries like Italy, Spain, or South France. Subsequently, the food we ate at home developed an increasingly Mediterranean touch.

To this day, Mediterranean meals are part of my daily diet. Not only because the dishes taste so delicious but also because this kind of food is very nutritious and healthy. For the third year in a row, the Mediterranean diet ranked as the best in the U.S. News & World Report annual rankings which is mainly due to the diet’s many health benefits. BBC reported that, in these meals, the balance of vegetables and healthy proteins like nuts and fish give a great foundation for a healthy meal. However, the key ingredient is probably olive oil, a monounsaturated fat, that can be added to almost all Mediterranean dishes.

While my favorite dishes are Tapas and Paella, I have found that Spaghetti Bolognese is suited the best to meal prep in advance. The cooking itself is fairly easy. For the Bolognese Sauce, I fry some onions, a pepper, and a tomato together with a pound of ground beef in the pan. Once the beef is done, I add a glass of Trader Joe’s Marinara Sauce and mix it all together. I usually add some salt, black pepper, oregano, and of course olive oil to it. Once the sauce is done. it can be added to the Spaghetti that I prepared at the same time. Lastly, I add some shredded Parmesan or Mozzarella cheese on top of everything.

This meal tastes good, takes about twenty minutes to prepare, and also does not cost a lot of money. The amount described above is enough food for three meals. Based on Trader Joe’s prices, one meal comes out to about $3.00.

Buon Appetito!