The majority of active cooking that I do during the week is either
making something out of leftovers or thawing/reheating/jazzing up meals (or parts of meals) that
I've already prepped.
To do this, I normally spend anywhere from 2-4 hours in the kitchen over the weekend. For me, this is an excellent trade off because there are always complete meals that can be ready in 15 minutes or less.
With the careful shopping and meal planning that I've been doing over the last 6 weeks, I find we are making better food choices because there are fewer and fewer moments of "Oh crap, what are we going to eat. I don't feel like cooking/I'm starving...Let's order pizza!"
I also like doing our meals this way because it means Charlie knows that if we are eating meals at different times there are "boxes" he can grab and heat up.
Here's how I used my time last week:
Friday-1 Hour
Grocery shopping based on meals I've planned.
Staples of my list include chicken breast, some type of pork, lots of green veggies (fresh and frozen), beans, and brown rice, or some other whole grain.
Sunday-2.5 Hours
1. Cook a large batch of grain(s)
I cooked 1 cup of brown rice and 1 cup of another grain. (If I've planned a bean dish that week I'll soak them overnight Saturday and also have them on the stove at this time.) Generally it takes me 5 minutes to get these dishes cooking and they cook for 45-60 minutes.
2. Cook or otherwise prep your protein
After I get the grains/beans going, I start on the protein.
This past week I had 5lbs of chicken breast and 10 pork chops to work with. I cubed 2.5lbs of chicken and threw it on a baking pan in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes.
Then, I cut up the remaining 2.5lbs of chicken and divided it evenly between two freezer bags. I put one pair of pork chops in the freezer plain but divided the remaining 8 pork chops between four freezer bags.
3. Make your sauces/seasonings
By the time I cleaned up the "raw meat area," the chicken in the oven was done and I moved it to a cooling rack and began working on the following "rubs": Jerk, Southwest, Blackened.(recipes at the bottom of the page)If I run out of time on the first night of prep I'll go ahead and portion the protein/grains/veggies and make the sauces the next day.
I measured the rubs in to mini containers (pictured above) and will keep the leftovers on my spice rack for future use.
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| Mango Chicken |
After I made the rubs I added about 1 tablespoon each to 2 tablespoons of olive oil and put them in with the bagged protein. I add the olive to help protect the meat since I plan to freeze them after letting them marinate for 24 hours in the fridge. If I was cooking the meat in the next 24 hours I would use the rubs dry. I added the blackened rub to two bags of pork, while the Southwest and Jerk went in the bags of chicken.
4. Double recipes and freeze half
After the rubs were done, I began simmering the base for a Mango Chicken dish which was dinner on Sunday. I used half the chicken I cooked earlier for dinner with two boxes of leftovers which went in the freezer after dinner.
I used other half of the chicken I cooked earlier for four servings of spicy peanut chicken. once the rice/grain was done I portioned out four boxes with 1/3 cup rice/grain, 4 ounces of chicken, and as much frozen broccoli or green beans that would fit and put them in the fridge. I normally get 4 boxes out of I bag of frozen veggies.
By this point, dinner is done. I portioned the Mango Chicken in to four servings-2 will go in the freezer. The remaining rice/grain goes in a container in the fridge for use with the pork chops or the other 5lbs of chicken during the week.
I know that seems like a crazy amount of work for one night but if I'm already going to be in the kitchen I try to have as many things cooking as possible.
Charlie normally stays out of the kitchen when all of this is happening because I usually have all four burners going, something in the oven, and all of the counter space is in use!
Monday-1 Hour
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| all the plates were dirty-don't judge |
Dinner Monday was Butternut Squash Curry with Cranberry Chutney. While the curry was simmering I made two sauces.
Sauces: Spicy Peanut, Honey/Ginger/Orange
After pouring the spicy peanut sauce over the chicken in the boxes I'd portioned out on Sunday I popped them in the freezer for later in the week.
Then I made a honey/ginger/marinade sauce out of and poured it in one bag of pork chops. I put some store bought bbq sauce in the last bag of pork chops. Then, right before dinner was done I put the pork chops and chicken bags from yesterday in the freezer.
Summary
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| Peanut Chicken |
After 3.5 hours in the kitchen I have:
-4 boxes of spicy peanut chicken meal
-2 boxes of mango chicken meal
-4 servings of jerk chicken
-4 servings of southwest chicken
-10 pork chops (2 plain, 4 blackened, 2 honey/ginger/orange, 2 bbq)
-4 servings of grain
For the rest of the week (2 hours) all I have to do to get meals ready is keep track of what needs to be thawed for the next day, reheat a meal or cook a thawed protein and heat up some grain/veggies.
I will mix in sandwiches with turkey we still have in the freezer from Thanksgiving, egg salad wraps, or other meals I've made in previous weeks like gnocchi.
Southwest: 1 tbsp each of chili powder and paprika, 1/2 tbsp each of garlic powder, ground coriander, salt, and dried oregano, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp each ground black pepper, crushed red pepper, cayenne pepper.
Jerk: 1/2 tbsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp dried thyme, 1 tsp each of allspice and black pepper, 1/4 tsp each cinnamon, cayenne, and salt.
Blackened: 1/2 tbsp paprika, 1 tsp each salt and black pepper, 1/2 tsp each garlic and onion powder, 1/4 tsp each cayenne, thyme, and oregano.
Spicy Peanut Sauce: 3 tbsp peanut butter, 3 tbsp water, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar, hot sauce to taste. Whisk all ingredients together over low heat until warm. If sauce becomes too dry just add a little more water.
Honey/Orange/Ginger: zest and juice of 1 orange, 1 tbsp honey, 1/2 tbsp fresh grated ginger, 2 tbsp soy sauce, crushed red pepper to taste. Whisk together in a bowl and add to dish. (I let meat marinate in this for 24 hours. If I freeze it in the sauce, I thaw in the fridge and then cook and serve the meat in the sauce. This is fine as long as you make sure the meat is cooked to the appropriate temperature.)
However, I've been trying out recipes that will reduce the amount of carbohydrates and sugars that we eat. I have a family history of diabetes and recently found out that my blood sugar levels were not where they needed to be. (Not much of a surprise after the last year in culinary school)
I don't believe in going cold turkey so I've been slowly reducing bread and grains in our diet over the last few weeks. I've found a few good recipes but I'm having a hard time letting go of sandwiches. I know I'm never going to give bread or grains up entirely but I have been looking for some good sandwich alternatives.
I cut 2 large red peppers in half lengthwise.
