Meal Plans
My husband is a dear, willing fellow, but it is in everybody's best interest that at our house, I do the cooking. For him, cooking involves "driving thru," dialing, or on special occasions, heating up the oven and tossing in a handful of pizza rolls.
One would think that a person so disposed must have few preferences about food. One would be wrong. My husband is one of those rare individuals with epicurean tastes and (before we married, and during one low point in our house renovations) fast-food habits. What he likes about fast food is its absolute predictability: your fries might be a little crispier or soggier, but a Big Mac is a Big Mac is a Big Mac. Other food choices involve daring calculations of risk; he seriously can taste the differences between two seemingly identical brands of grated parmesan cheese, or olive oil from different kinds of olives. This is, of course, impressive, but makes him high maintenance as an audience for dinner.
On the other hand is his general affability and appreciativeness. He is overjoyed to have meals prepared for him; while I'm cooking, he comes down from his office to lie on the couch for his first calm minutes of the day and watch the news, his feet shuffling with barely contained happiness and anticipation of the meal. This incites my wifely devotion, so I want to make him good meals.
With the threat of fast food hanging over my head (I personally love McDonald's, but would be ashamed if my husband had to resort to it because I had failed to provide for him), I always feel that I need to have a meal plan in place. It's the planning and shopping that determine my success or failure in a given week. I recently purchased a pad of paper with the days of the week on it to put out in the kitchen, and have tried to plan meals based on a complex algorithm involving 1) ingredients we have fresh or left over, 2) time I leave in the morning (can I set up the slow cooker, and maybe start it going at lunch?), 3) when we both get home from work, 4) whether it's a Bath Night (bathtime extends bedtime back into dinnertime), 5) health (not too much red meat, even though I honestly love cooking with it), 6) what we are likely to have had for lunch, and 7) variety.
All of this strategizing might sound like a hassle, but I have to admit that my inner housewife enjoys it a lot. I use the slow cooker and breadmaker a lot, and I make a lot of double and triple batches of things that I then freeze for quick meals in the future. Some of them aren't quite as good after having been frozen, but others, like a hearty vegetable beef soup or chili, are really just as good, and all I have to do is drop a frozen container full into the pot on the stove. Because Sam doesn't like to eat the same thing soon again (a weird psychological hang-up, sort of like when you can't eat the same thing after you've gotten sick on it once--he has had a series of unfortunate experiences with leftovers), I also freeze ingredients, so if we have roast chicken one night, I pick the rest of the meat, freeze it, and we have the makings of quick chicken pot-pie for another night.
So, based on Yolanda's blog with her recent weekly menu (which sounded totally yummy), I'm interested in what meal ideas people have. What do you like to cook, especially when short on time, and how do you manage it? Recipes, please!
One would think that a person so disposed must have few preferences about food. One would be wrong. My husband is one of those rare individuals with epicurean tastes and (before we married, and during one low point in our house renovations) fast-food habits. What he likes about fast food is its absolute predictability: your fries might be a little crispier or soggier, but a Big Mac is a Big Mac is a Big Mac. Other food choices involve daring calculations of risk; he seriously can taste the differences between two seemingly identical brands of grated parmesan cheese, or olive oil from different kinds of olives. This is, of course, impressive, but makes him high maintenance as an audience for dinner.
On the other hand is his general affability and appreciativeness. He is overjoyed to have meals prepared for him; while I'm cooking, he comes down from his office to lie on the couch for his first calm minutes of the day and watch the news, his feet shuffling with barely contained happiness and anticipation of the meal. This incites my wifely devotion, so I want to make him good meals.
With the threat of fast food hanging over my head (I personally love McDonald's, but would be ashamed if my husband had to resort to it because I had failed to provide for him), I always feel that I need to have a meal plan in place. It's the planning and shopping that determine my success or failure in a given week. I recently purchased a pad of paper with the days of the week on it to put out in the kitchen, and have tried to plan meals based on a complex algorithm involving 1) ingredients we have fresh or left over, 2) time I leave in the morning (can I set up the slow cooker, and maybe start it going at lunch?), 3) when we both get home from work, 4) whether it's a Bath Night (bathtime extends bedtime back into dinnertime), 5) health (not too much red meat, even though I honestly love cooking with it), 6) what we are likely to have had for lunch, and 7) variety.
All of this strategizing might sound like a hassle, but I have to admit that my inner housewife enjoys it a lot. I use the slow cooker and breadmaker a lot, and I make a lot of double and triple batches of things that I then freeze for quick meals in the future. Some of them aren't quite as good after having been frozen, but others, like a hearty vegetable beef soup or chili, are really just as good, and all I have to do is drop a frozen container full into the pot on the stove. Because Sam doesn't like to eat the same thing soon again (a weird psychological hang-up, sort of like when you can't eat the same thing after you've gotten sick on it once--he has had a series of unfortunate experiences with leftovers), I also freeze ingredients, so if we have roast chicken one night, I pick the rest of the meat, freeze it, and we have the makings of quick chicken pot-pie for another night.
So, based on Yolanda's blog with her recent weekly menu (which sounded totally yummy), I'm interested in what meal ideas people have. What do you like to cook, especially when short on time, and how do you manage it? Recipes, please!
posted by Tara | 1:06 PM
4 Comments:
Matt is our family chef, since I cannot stand the hoo-hah of meal planning and preparation. It's weird, though -- it SOUNDS like a cool thing to be into. I just cannot see it as anything but a hassle. (baking, however ... despite its greater frivolity, holds great interest!)
Anyway, recipe. One Matt does a lot for us is what he calls "ghetto shepherd's pie." The 'ghetto' part is just his way of saying 'using pre-fab ingredients for greater speed.' You brown some ground beef -- or, even yummier, sausage -- and throw it over a bed of thawed frozen mixed vegetables in a casserole dish. Over that, put gravy from a can, or from a dry mix, and instant mashed potatoes on top. Add a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, whisk into the oven for 20 minutes or so, and ... voila! a complete meal. (unless Sam doesn't like casseroles. In which case, never mind.)
I'm curious to know how this appetite for refinement went over while you were traveling. Then again, he probably knew all the best Greek restaurants!
I just asked Don what one of our easiest good meals is, and he proposed this one: Turkey Rigatoni. Boil some water for rigatoni and add rigatoni at appropriate time. Meanwhile, saute ground turkey in olive oil until brown, then add garlic and onions and cook until opaque. Then add sliced black olives and diced tomatoes. Combine with cooked rigatoni and sprinkle with parmesan cheese that's been approved by Sam :)
I'm also including this link. We've made all 3 of the dinner recipes, and they're really fantastic. I highly recommend them, and they really only take 15 minutes (at most) to prepare
http://www.foodnetwork.com/everyday-italian/ingredients-in-15-minutes/index.html
Enjoy, and great post!
I feel like a total failure. The third party provided home cooked meals have recently dried up and I still haven't gotten back on the cooking horse yet. Every day I get up and say,"THIS is the day I'm going to start cooking dinner again."
Kate: Suspiciously enough, Sam transforms into a completely different person when traveling. Open. Venturesome. Flexible. Not at all his usual particular self. ;) He does love a good casserole, so I am excited about the ghetto pie.
Yolanda: Mmm, more ideas from you. Thanks!
Julie: On the other hand, you are kind of preparing 8 meals a day.
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