Berry Overnight Oats
Cold and creamy, gone purple from berries that bleed overnight and sweetened by dates that soften as they soak. Stir it together at night; it's spoonable by morning.
Contains peanut · soy
A pantry system · v0.5 · Evidence-first
Minimum
Viable Pantry.
It's probably lentils.1
Stock the pantry once. Cook from it indefinitely. Most food advice is vibes; this is a spreadsheet.
Methodology v0.5 · every change logged
§01 · Closed-set cooking Recipes, from only
Recipes, from only
what's on the shelf.
A short list, on purpose. Most recipe sites are archives thousands deep. I'd rather publish 30 dishes and have all of them be worth cooking.
Red Lentil Dal
Creamy and warming. Coconut and red lentils melt into something that tastes slow-cooked.
White Bean & Broccoli Soup
Half the pot blended for body, half left chunky, then lemon off the heat lifts the whole green bowl. On the table in under half an hour.
Contains soy
Aaron Chow Breakfast
A warm bowl of oats, berries, seeds, and nuts, unsweetened and finished with a spoon of peanut butter. Seven years of tuning toward near-complete nutrition.
Contains tree nut · peanut · soy
Aaron Chow Lunch
A thick, boldly spiced one-pot stew of over a dozen vegetables, grains, and legumes, brightened with lime and vinegar. Nearly a complete meal in one bowl.
Blueberry-Walnut Baked Oatmeal
Soft, cakey oat squares with jammy blueberries, toasted walnuts, and warm cinnamon. Bake a pan on Sunday and grab a square on the way out the door all week.
Contains tree nut · soy
30 recipes Browse recipes →
§02 · Field notes The recipes,
The recipes,
shortlisted.
One page per constraint: the twenty-minute night, the soy allergy, the tight week. Pick the one you're having.
Dinner
Complete dinners from the standing plant-based pantry. No grocery run, no decision spiral.
19 recipes →Soy-free
no soy in the ingredient listRecipes with no soy anywhere in the ingredient list, cooked as written rather than adapted.
17 recipes →High-protein
15 g protein or more per servingHigh-protein plant-based recipes: the dishes where beans, lentils, and tofu pull the most weight per serving.
16 recipes →One-pot
cooks in exactly one vesselOne-pot recipes from the standing pantry: dinner that leaves a single vessel in the sink, not a stack.
15 recipes → 12 shortlists All field notes →
§03 · The System How the list
How the list
gets made.
Step 01
Evaluate everything.
I counted 198,899 distinct ingredient names across 2.2 million real recipes, then scored the contenders against 8 published research datasets — nutrient density, satiety, cost, shelf life. The receipts are on every card.
Step 02
Keep one small pantry.
70 staples made it. Each earns a distinct job — cheap enough to cook from daily, healthy by premise, and durable enough to stock ahead. The list is curated by judgment, backed by the data, and every change is logged.
Step 03
Cook closed-set.
Every recipe is buildable from the pantry alone — dried, canned, or frozen. If a dish would need something else, it doesn't get published. No surprise shopping trips, ever.
One trip.
Print the list, walk the store once, and cook from the shelf for months.