One of my goals listed in my previous posts is:
4- to plan wisely and not spend all of my "free time" with food, but find ways to be creative to prepare things in advance, especially for the busy days
which is what I will be talking about today. By no means am I the "master chef" who has everything all together. There have been plenty of nights that I am running around like crazy stuffing food in my mouth while I'm getting ready to dash out the door to work. But as I learn, and as I get used to cooking a lot of these new foods- these crazy nights are occuring less often. I am going to share some things that have helped me, and feel free to offer any other advice that you have found helpful! We are all learning as we go, and though sometimes I get discouraged, or start thinking I'm not doing a good job, I tell myself "live and learn." "Just live and learn." NOW I know that you can't defrost a whole chicken in the fridge over 2 days, but you have to soak it in cold water for up to 5 hours! Or you have to cook it one and a half times longer at a lower heat.
I think one main thing to remember is-
If you are using an ingredient you've never used before, making a recipe you have never used, or trying a new technique- GIVE YOURSELF EXTRA TIME!
One thing I have noticed that has happened more times than I care to admit is I plan on trying out a new thing and under-estimate how much time it will take me to make. Since I work nights, I sleep during the day, get up and cook dinner- also making enough to have leftovers to take to work that night. I like my sleep, and a lot of times I will hit the snooze button one too many times, and then am rushing around like crazy, doing too many things at once, and get frustrated when I burn the pecans that I'm toasting.
The days that I stay up a little later when I get home from work and start some food prep (instead of watching Food Network or getting on facebook), I notice that cooking dinner usually goes much more smoothly. For those of you who are on a "normal schedule", this would mean doing some prep work the night before for breakfast or lunch (and possibly dinner depending on what it is). If you are making frittata or french toast in the morning, you can mix it all up at night, throw it in the fridge and then in the morning you have a clean kitchen, and all you have to do is toss it in the oven while you get ready for the day. You can also put something in the crock pot and let it cook all night while you sleep- which I do quite frequently.
You can also do "weekly prep". Something I learned from Michelle Tam in her excellent and beautiful book- NomNom Paleo. She marinates meat, even cooks up a bunch of ground beef and grills a bunch of chicken, and slices fruits and vegetables on her days off, so they always have things in the fridge to eat. One main potential problem is when you stop eating packaged and prepared/processed foods- it means you pretty much make everything from scratch. When you open your fridge and see a whole raw chicken, a bunch of whole fruits and vegetables and cartons of eggs, and you want something to eat NOW- what are you going to do? Well, if you are me- you will probably get tempted to run out and get some quick, highly processed food (even though I don't do it- I still am tempted). But what if you already had a delicious andouille sausage frittata staring up at you? Or a big pot of homemade chicken and vegetable soup that was just longing to be heated up and enjoyed? It would be a lot easier, wouldn't it? And this is where the planning comes in.
If you plan to plan- you will have food. If you don't plan to plan, you will be holding the fridge door open, staring blankly at a ton of un-prepared food saying "I have nothing to eat!"
Last year I started meal planning a week at a time. But I realized this wasn't good enough. Food was going to waste, I was going to the store about 3 times a week, and especially if I worked several days in a row at the beginning of the next week- we ended up eating frozen pizza and quesadillas because I hadn't yet planned what we were going to have. After reading a LOT of food blogs- everyone seems to do a month plan. This makes sense to me. Yes, it takes a little time (probably a few hours the first time you do it), but it will get easier every time. This is what I have found to be helpful:
Plan to Plan
1- Take an inventory of what you already have. Make a chart of the proteins, produce, frozen things, canned and boxed items- (all the main stuff you have in the house already that you would make meals out of, so you don't buy stuff you already have, and so that stuff doesn't go to waste.)
2- Look at the list of products you just wrote down. Do you have things already that could make up a whole meal? Chili? Soup? Spaghetti? Or do you have ingredients that contribute to meals? Write down those ideas
3-Think of other good, healthy meals that you already know how to make. Write them down.
4- Ask your family some things they would like to eat.
5- Look at coupons and sales and write down ideas from that as well.
By now you should have a good amount of meals. If you have more than 30, great! You can start planning for next month too. If you don't have quite 30, then plan to have leftovers some days, or make the same thing twice. Its OK to repeat the same meal a few times a month! This way you will really master the recipe, get better and faster at making it every time. As the months pass- you will find this easier and easier, because you will have (hopefully) found some really delicious recipes that you and your family enjoy, and you can plan on making those every month- and on the days you have more time- you can experiment with new foods.
Make a list and check it twice
1-Get your recipes together. If you have Pinterest and some device that you can get an app on- I really recommend the app -"Pocket". Either that, or you can make a whole new board for recipes for that month so you can have them all in one place.
2- Make a grocery list. Obviously if you are using canned or boxed things you can buy them all at once at beginning of the month, so during the month you only have to buy fresh produce and eggs/dairy. I also recommend buying in bulk- but ONLY things you know you will use before they go bad. This should save you quite a bit of money. Keep nuts & seeds and extra butter in the freezer.
3- Go SHOPPING! Use as many coupons and deals you can find. If there is something that you use often and its on sale (especially if it's something that keeps well or can be frozen- stock up!)
4- Prepare food. You can make meatballs, taco meat, meatloaf and marinate meats and freeze them. Then as you need them, you take them out the day or 2 before and let them defrost in the fridge. Roast a chicken and a bunch of vegetables and make chicken broth.
5- Chop fruits and vegetables for the week. I have noticed that food gets eaten if it is ready to eat! If it's not easy to grab, it may sit there for a while and get bad. Prepare toppings for salad, roast nuts, boil eggs, and bag up snack bags of baby carrots or fruit for people to grab to take to work.
Yes, it takes time. Yes, it takes practice- but is it worth it? YES! If you take a few hours a week (and maybe half a day at the beginning of every month) You will be going to the store less often, making fewer messes in the kitchen, stop stressing out and asking yourself "what are we eating today?", and probably wasting less food because you are consciously using what you already have! Don't give up. Don't expect to be perfect the first month, or even the third. Make little steps towards a goal and give yourself a high five every month that you did a little better. As you cook more, plan more, and prepare in advance more- you will have less stress, become a better, more organized cook, and have more fun in the kitchen!
So go now- tie on your apron, and COOK!
"Food is essential to life, therefore make it good."
-Truett Cathy (founder of Chick-Fil-A)
For the Novice Chef- (or anyone who wants a little extra help)
As my sister-in-law just blogged about "Start Where You Are." Don't compare yourself to me, to your mom, or to anyone else. Everyone had to start somewhere, and maybe today is your day. I have some resources to share with you that can really help and encourage you along your journey.
If you eat out 5 times a week, try this week to only eat out maybe 4 times, and cook one of those meals. Even if it's something simple. Every week try to add a little new thing. Make one meal a little healthier with fresh whole foods, instead of packaged, processed stuff. Ask a friend what one of their favorite healthy recipes is and see if they can teach you how to make it. Little by little your knowledge will grow, as will your skills, and your ability to make things without a recipe because you understand how flavors go together. Just start where you are right now.
One of my all time favorite cookbooks is made by the FoodNetwork. It's called "How to Boil Water." Please don't be insulted by the title- because it is an excellent book that doesn't assume you already know how to baste a chicken, julienne a carrot, or flour a pan. It tells you AND shows you with excellent pictures. At the beginning of the book it shows you how to stock your kitchen with the most important spices, condiments and tools to make most anything with the most basic of things. It also tells you how to make things like oatmeal, hard boiled eggs, and how to chop up difficult fruits and vegetables. Things you kind of need to know, but most cookbooks just assume you already do. You can get it here:
For those of you following the Paleo diet- here are a few very helpful sites that are filled with tons of great recipes, beautiful pictures, and most of them have an app or you can find a lot of the recipes on Pinterest:
http://stupideasypaleo.com
http://nomnompaleo.com
http://www.primalpalate.com
I hope all of this is helpful! Please feel free to ask questions any time. I am not perfect at any of this-but am learning as I go, every day a little bit.
http://nomnompaleo.com
http://www.primalpalate.com
I hope all of this is helpful! Please feel free to ask questions any time. I am not perfect at any of this-but am learning as I go, every day a little bit.
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