A Sunday Strategy Cookbook
Volume I

Death
to Sad
Protein
Block for
Dinner

Because "I meal prepped" shouldn't mean four days of cold, grey chicken eaten standing over the sink in silence. These are real dinners. They just have a head start.

by
Nicole Machado
The Philosophy

The 30/10
System

Thirty minutes Sunday. Ten minutes all week.

This isn't traditional meal prep. I'm not spending three hours on Sunday making meals that sit in containers for seven days.

Instead: prep ingredients Sunday so you can cook a fresh, healthy dinner in about ten minutes during the week.

The proteins are cooked fresh. The vegetables are finished fresh. The pasta and potatoes are partially prepared ahead and finished in the pan.

The result is an actual dinner — instead of protein blocks of sadness.

30min
Sunday Prep
10min
Weeknight Cook
Vibrant healthy food
Fresh Finishes Every Night
Sunday meal prep
The Sunday Foundation
Sunday

The Foundation

20 minutes. Three dinners taken care of.

Protein

Salmon or Chicken

Buy enough for three to four dinners. Portion into approximately 6–7 oz servings. Salmon is ideal — it cooks incredibly fast and is loaded with protein and healthy fats.

Marinate in the Lemon Garlic Marinade (next page). Place portions in a Ziploc bag, remove as much air as possible, refrigerate.

Potatoes

Par-Boiled

Boil potatoes until just tender. Drain and refrigerate. You'll finish them in a skillet during the week.

Gluten-Free Pasta

Under Al Dente

Cook gluten-free pasta or ziti slightly under al dente. Drain. Toss lightly with olive oil to prevent sticking. Refrigerate. It finishes cooking when you reheat it in the pan.

Vegetables

Wash, Chop & Refrigerate

Choose any combination. Mix and match across all three dinners.

  • Broccoli florets
  • Snow peas
  • Baby corn
  • Carrots, sliced on a bias
  • Vidalia onions, sliced

You can also use steam-in-bag vegetables if you want maximum convenience. No judgment.

Wild Rice

Cook wild rice on Sunday and refrigerate. Used in Dinner #2 — the Caribbean Jerk. Reheat with a splash of water and a little olive oil.

Remember These marinades are not one-time-use. Make a batch. Use it for multiple weeks. The whole point is flavor systems you build once and return to.

The Foundation Marinade

Use this on fish, vegetables, potatoes, and pasta. Make a batch and keep it in the fridge for multiple weeks. It does more work than anything else in this book.

The Flavor System

Lemon Garlic
Marinade

The base of Dinners #1 and #3. Keeps for two weeks in the fridge.

Mix together and store in a jar. Place salmon portions in a Ziploc bag with marinade, remove air, refrigerate. This marinade can be made in larger batches and used over the next couple of weeks.

Also Make: Caribbean Jerk Marinade

  • Olive oil 2 tbsp
  • Fresh lime juice (1 lime) ~2 tbsp
  • Jerk seasoning 1 tbsp
  • Garlic powder 1 tsp
  • Onion powder ½ tsp
  • Salt + black pepper 1 tsp / ½ tsp
Dinner 01

Lemon Garlic
Salmon &
Vegetables

The flagship. Bright citrus, fresh garlic, Parmesan-finished vegetables, and perfectly cooked salmon straight from a 375° oven. Plus two built-in variations to keep it interesting all week.

Oven Temp
375°F
Salmon Time
7–9 min
Veg Cook
6–8 min
Total Weeknight
~10 min
Dinner 01
Lemon Garlic Salmon & Vegetables

Ingredients

Directions

Preheat convection oven to 375°F. Place salmon on a foil-lined baking sheet.

  1. Cook salmon 7–9 minutes until just opaque through the center
  2. While salmon cooks — heat a skillet over medium
  3. Add butter and vegetables; cook 6–8 minutes
  4. Finish with Parmesan and a small splash of Lemon Garlic Marinade
  5. Plate salmon alongside. Done.
The salmon and the vegetables finish at almost exactly the same time. That's not an accident — it's the whole system working.
Variation A
With Potatoes

Swap or add the par-boiled potatoes from Sunday. Heat in a skillet with butter and a small amount of olive oil until warmed through and lightly browned. Add vegetables in the last few minutes. Finish with Parmesan and a splash of marinade.

Variation B
With Gluten-Free Pasta

Place par-cooked pasta in a skillet over low heat. Add olive oil, fresh garlic, and Parmesan. Mix until hot. Add vegetables directly into the pasta if desired. Optional: pinch of cayenne for heat. Serve alongside the salmon.

Salmon fillet
What You Need
  • Salmon (6–7 oz portion)
  • Prepped vegetables (Sunday)
  • Butter
  • Parmesan cheese
  • Lemon Garlic Marinade
  • Optional: potatoes or pasta
375°
Convection
Salmon
7–9
minutes
Veg
6–8
minutes
Fresh vegetables
Dinner 02

Caribbean
Jerk Salmon
& Wild Rice

Same protein, completely different world. Warm jerk spices, lime, and garlic — finished with perfectly sautéed vegetables and earthy wild rice you prepped on Sunday. It's fantastic.

Marinade
Jerk + Lime
Salmon Time
7–9 min
Rice (reheat)
~5 min
Total Weeknight
~10 min
Dinner 02
Caribbean Jerk Salmon & Wild Rice

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Preheat convection oven to 375°F — cook salmon 7–9 minutes
  2. While salmon cooks: heat a skillet, add butter and vegetables
  3. Cook vegetables 6–8 minutes until tender-crisp
  4. In a second skillet, heat wild rice with olive oil and a splash of water until warmed through
  5. Optional: add extra jerk seasoning to the rice for more depth
  6. Plate rice, vegetables, and salmon together
If you like Caribbean flavors, this one is fantastic. The jerk marinade on the salmon pairs with the earthiness of the wild rice in a way that feels like a completely different dinner than the one you made Monday.

Caribbean Jerk Marinade — Quick Reference

Olive oil
2 tbsp
Jerk seasoning
1 tbsp
Lime juice
1 lime
Salmon plate
What You Need
  • Jerk-marinated salmon
  • Wild rice (Sunday prep)
  • Broccoli, snow peas, onion
  • Butter + olive oil
  • Splash of water
  • Extra jerk seasoning (opt.)
375°
Convection

Marinate the salmon exactly as you did with the Lemon Garlic version. Same technique, entirely different flavor system.

Wild rice
Dinner 03

Italian Salmon
or Chicken
with GF Ziti

One new ingredient — gluten-free ziti — and the same marinade you already made produces a completely different dinner. Garlic, Parmesan, Italian herbs, one pan. This is the one that stops feeling like prep altogether.

New Groceries
1 item
Salmon
7–9 min
Chicken
10–12 min
One Pan
Yes.
Dinner 03
Italian Salmon (or Chicken) with GF Ziti

Ingredients

Cook the Protein

Preheat convection oven to 375°F.

Reconstitute the Ziti

Place refrigerated ziti into a skillet over low heat while protein cooks. Add:

Mix until hot. The pasta should still have bite — you undercooked it on Sunday for exactly this moment.

Finish the Pan

Add prepared vegetables directly to the skillet. Cook until heated through. Finish with more Parmesan, fresh cracked pepper, and optional cayenne.

This is not a separate grocery trip. The only addition to your existing haul is gluten-free ziti. One ingredient. Completely different dinner.
Salmon cooking
Plated result
Fresh salmon
What You Need
  • Salmon or chicken
  • GF ziti (Sunday prep)
  • Lemon Garlic Marinade
  • Olive oil + fresh garlic
  • Parmesan cheese
  • Italian seasoning
  • Optional: vegetables, cayenne
375°
Convection
Salmon
7–9
minutes
Chicken
10–12
minutes

This doesn't feel like meal prep. It feels like you cooked dinner. That's the entire point.

More
The Collection Continues

More
Coming
Soon

More meals. Same grocery list. Still no sad protein blocks.

"Thirty minutes on Sunday. Ten minutes during the week.
Fresh dinners. No protein blocks of sadness."

01
Lemon Garlic
✓
02
Caribbean Jerk
✓
03
Italian
✓
04
Mediterranean
05
Tex-Mex
06
Asian Night
Nicole Machado
Death to Sad Protein Block for Dinner
Vol. I of VI