I am truly, madly, deeply in love with this little corner of my fridge. Its where all my prepped food is stashed. This week my project was trying to find a hybrid prep ahead/cook ahead meal system. (p.s. if you don't see the links to click, just visit the blog). I hate eating out. It feels like a waste of money. It stopped being enjoyable about the time I figured out I was allergic to every possible food allergen. Chili's is really awesome, they have this online tool where you input your allergens, and they spit out what you can eat on their menu. When I input all my allergens, the only thing left is Diet Coke... awesome. But when I am pressed for time and dinner doesn't get done, what do we do? We wind up eating out and I hate it.
I tried doing the cook ahead for 30 days thing in 1 day. It just didn't work. I can't get everything that organized, do that much shopping and invest that much time without losing my mind and I kinda need my mind.
So, onto what I am up to. Today I made main dishes for this evening through Sunday evening. Tonight Chicken Satay was on the menu. Normally, I am not a fan of Sandra Lee's Semi Homemade. Mostly because I am already proficient in the fine art of can opening and don't need a show about it. But her new show "Money Saving Meals" is a winner. She gives you a recipe for one night, and then you cook a double batch to use in another recipe another night. So the chicken satay on the lower right will become Spicy and Sweet Chicken Wraps for Saturday night.
Behind the Chicken Satay are the Hamburger patties I made for Saturday's Father's day Lunch. Next to the hamburgers I have pork chops siting in an apple brine waiting to be grilled for tomorrow night. On top of the pork I have Chicken Breasts seasoned and waiting to be thrown in the oven for Sunday night.
Maybe its a symptom of how myopic my world view is as a stay at home mom, but this really excites me. I like having this done, not having to worry about "is it defrosted?" and "what am I going to do with it?" Especially during the summer when we seem to have more activities that bump right up against dinner time.
1 comment:
Once a month cooking was too hectic for me as well. I take one week, the week I get groceries, and I cook ground beef, chicken (and shred it) ahead of time. I also make some side dishes, like broccoli and cheese casserole and a few desserts. It does make things so much easier because I don't like eating out either = )I like this post and you have a good sense of humor!
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