Family Meal Planning Efficiency During the Week
In my last posting, I talked about the fact that in the fall, when activities start up, especially after school opens, schedules fill up so fast, even into the evening hours, that many people get really stressed. It takes time to adjust to new routines and frequently the first casualties are meals, most especially the family dinner. I offered some easy recipes for those “eat and run” nights, but then there are the other week nights. Those are the ones when you get home after a busy day and just want some time to relax and enjoy a good dinner with little exertion.
Providing clients with this option for extended periods, is the main focus of a personal chef service and involves a knowledge of freezing. However, with a little concentrated effort, you can furnish yourself with the same alternatives at least on a weekly basis. The first step, as I discuss in my Diet for the Food Dollar is to learn to shop for multiple meals in one trip. To do this correctly, you need to know your supplies, sit down and draw up menus for the week, listing every ingredient in each recipe. Eliminate those you have and schedule a time long enough to get everything you need. Then set aside another space of time to cook all the meals. It helps if the cooking time closely follows the shopping trip. Not only is the food fresh, but it eliminates the extra time and materials needed to store items.
The actual cooking of several meals at once is also great way to take advantage of the supermarkets’ practice of packaging their weekly sale features in Valu-pacs of “X” lbs. or more and is simplified by planning the menus to allow for multi-tasking, both of the appliances and of the ingredients themselves. If one recipe is cooking in the oven, have another going on the stovetop. It’s even better if two similar recipes can be done in the same space at the same time; a roast with a meat loaf, or chicken pieces, even potatoes to be stuffed, frozen and second baked later, for the oven; a pot roast and stew or sauce for the stove top. It all saves time and energy, yours and the power company’s.
The best way to explain this approach to weekly meal preparation is by giving an illustration. Understand these amounts are ballpark for 4 servings. You may need larger portions or fewer servings. This is only to show you how little time and effort the method actually takes, especially in view of the amount of stress it relieves on a daily basis. As usual, I will include any actual recipes at the end of the posting.
As an example, the average “Family Pack” of chicken thighs or breasts contains 10 pieces. Prepare all for cooking and place 1tsp. Dijon mustard each, under the skin of 4. Put them in a roasting pan, sprinkle garlic powder over all and add 1in. chicken broth to the pan with 1tsp, Teriyaki sauce. Roast them at 300 degs .for about 2 hrs. or until very brown, making sure to maintain the liquid level in the pan. To make the meal even easier, halve 4 potatoes, white or sweet, and place the halves between the chicken pieces to roast along with the meat. Dinner that night will be Chicken Dijon au Jus with potatoes. Or perhaps, you would prefer a box of au Gratin potatoes cooked along with the meat. Cover and refrigerate the rest of the meat with any remaining liquid.
While the chicken is roasting, brown 1 lb. hamburger and 1 lb turkey sausage in a large pot. Remove any accumulated grease by absorbing it with a wadded paper towel, held by tongs. Add (2) 28oz. cans of crushed tomatoes, 2 Tbs. oil, 2 carrots, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced, 2/3 cup raisins and seasonings: basil, oregano, garlic powder, salt to taste and optionally crushed pepper flakes. Simmer until carrots are soft, the raisins plump and the flavors meld- about 40 mins. Cool and store, chilled, in two covered containers. Alternately, cook 1 lb. of a sturdy shaped pasta like Rigatoni, and mix it with half the sauce plus 1 egg and place it in an ovenproof dish, and store covered in the refrigerator. When ready to use, top liberally with Parmesan and bake at 350 degs. for 35 mins. or until golden and bubbly.
While the tomato sauce is cooking, sauté 1 small onion in fine dice in 1 Tbs.oil until soft. Add 2 cups orange juice, and 1 Tbs Soy sauce, or to taste. Optionally, orange marmalade, brown sugar or honey may also be added to taste. Allow to simmer down a bit and thicken about 10 mins. Cover and refrigerate. On the night of your choice, simmer 4 chicken pieces, skin and bones optional, in the sauce in a covered container. I prefer the oven at 300 degs. for about 30 mins. Packets of pre-cooked rice make a speedy side for this entrée, or frozen sweet-potato fries.
There remain 2 pieces of chicken, and it’s wise to have saved the largest for this. Skinned and boned the meat c can be shredded for fajitas or tacos, diced for stir-fry or pizza, or used in a salad. I’ll include some recipe selections below. The point is that you now have 5 pre-prepared meals with less than an hour hand-on kitchen time. It goes without saying that other sides will be needed, but they too are easy using frozen products.
For example, if you choose stir-fry for the last night of chicken, you only need powdered garlic, and ginger, Teriyaki sauce and oil, plus a bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables. Add the pre-cooked rice and you’re set! The other dishes are equally simple to make. If you need a sixth meal, see last week’s posting for quick meals, or mix canned baked beans with a little ketchup and some molasses or pancake syrup, cover with sliced onions and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 mins. Roast hot dogs along with them and you’re done!
Of course, other foods can be substituted for the chicken with suitable leftover recipes and for the tomato sauce using variations. Roasts do very well in this role. Another way of preparing dinners ahead for the week is using a Slow Cooker. A relative of mine, who has three small children and a job that requires a long commute, has found hers to be invaluable.
She served a huge bowl of Pulled Pork at a dinner recently that was a show stopper. She told me she often buys pork shoulder. It’s still reasonably priced, better yet is frequently on sale, and has a lot of meat for the weight. She wasn’t too precise about her recipe, only that she puts 6-8 lbs. roast, in the pot on top of 3-4 chopped onions adds about 2 cups of broth and cooks it on low for 10 hrs. The interesting part is that she freezes the pulled meat in entrée size, square, plastic containers, with enough broth to prevent freezer burn. She adds the seasonings and sauces she chooses for each dinner just before microwaving the meat that night, barbecue, taco, teriyaki, gravy or just herbs. She averages 3 to 5 meals, which she serves over about a 2- 3 week period.
She uses some of the quick fixes I recommended last week and some of the traditional methods but mainly fills in her weekday menus with other slow cooker recipes that she can separate and freeze to be served in various ways. Pot Roast becomes stew, then Daube Sauce for pasta and chicken lends itself to many sauces. By slow cooking one large recipe per day over a weekend, and using what she has frozen, she can schedule a week’s worth of dinners.
Don’t forget, if you have a slow cooker, or are thinking of investing in one, that all recipes are convertible. Traditional ones can be slow cooked and visa-versa. The standard timing guide is:
Traditional Cooker Low Cooker High
In fact this medicine helps in controlling ejaculation and in turn improves the sexual performance. tadalafil cost The other process of medicine effects in 15 minutes and in case of oral pills you are requested to make love to their female counterparts. order viagra cute-n-tiny.com Hidden link between low libido and erectile function at the very young age, as they mainly focus on things that cause stress, such as job pressure, financial cialis professional india http://cute-n-tiny.com/cute-animals/baby-polar-bear-twins/ burden, familial tensions, marital issues, etc. The increased flow of blood provides direct source of fresh energy to various organs and let them do their work efficiently while vardenafil canadian pharmacy leading a happy and stress-free life. 1. 15-30 min. 4-6 hrs. 1 ½ – 2 hrs.
35-45 mins. 6-10 hr. 3-4hrs.
50 min.-3hrs. 8-18 hrs. 4-6 hrs.
Either way, slow cooker or traditional, it’s worthwhile to carefully plan the week’s menus with a consideration to including one, preferably two items that can either be repeated , or altered to be served at least twice. Then you plan a quick dinner mid-week, totally unrelated in taste to the other two, to maintain interest and avoid boredom. For a minimum of kitchen time, there will be dinners ready and waiting when you get home from a busy day, most of which will give you time to relax, even enjoy a glass of wine, while they become table ready. It’s a win-win plan,
CRANBERRY-CHICKEN-NUT SALAD WITH FETA: Serves 4
1 cup cooked chicken (at least)
1 head iceberg or Romaine lettuce chopped
¼ cup dried cranberries
¼ cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup crumbled Feta cheese
Raspberry-Walnut vinaigrette
Freshly ground pepper to taste
Toss everything except the cheese in a bowl. Divide onto serving plates and garnish with the Feta. Serve with artesian bread.
