Simple Eats

When it comes to meal prep, I'm one of those who usually just keeps things on hand and throws together whatever I feel like making when it comes time to eat. Meal calendars scare me. Seriously. To much planning in my book. Even when I do throw out a few ideas and write them down on my dry erase board, the days we have what typically change, and only half of those meals ideas end up being used anyway, which is why I use a dry erase board rather than printing out my plans. I used to feel this tremendous weight drop over me just upon hearing the words "meal" and "planning" used together. Recently I had my methods validated, however, by a blogger who was actually just doing the same thing I was: keep some meat and veggies around, and you're set. "THANK YOU!!!" I shouted to the heavens. I now feel as though creativity and flexibility at meal time is actually a valid way of cooking. ;) Of course it always has been, but my feelings needed to get in line with that belief.

That said, just because I like to throw things together on a whim, especially when my hubby and I brainstorm together ("oo! We have some ___. We could make ____!), doesn't mean that I don't enjoy following a good recipe every now and then. I enjoy trying out new things, and now that my husband has joined in on that, it's even more fun. Yet, just because there's a recipe I want to try out doesn't mean I typically actually make whatever that recipe might be. Well, today I'm proud to say that I actually did. (Is my AD/HD showing yet?) S and I threw together Elise's Panzanella Bread Salad, initially sans bread, and, boy, was it yummy! We halved the tomatoes and cucumber, just because we're still getting used to eating fresh tomatoes, and used it as a topper for leftover chicken. I also poured some over some fresh, torn french bread. Yum!

When I cook, simplicity of ingredients and cooking methods is key, which is why I wanted to try Elise's recipe. Special occasions aside, I think it's crazy to spend more time cooking a meal than eating it. I'm always looking for a new way to save time and effort in the kitchen, and I've gathered some great ideas over the past few years. As I stated before, using fewer ingredients and only one cooking method is the main way I do this.

Another of my favorite time savers is bulk cooking, which idea I've had to dust off and start using again after child #2's arrival. Meat is my favorite thing to bulk cook. (Chicken, hamburger, it's all meat to me.) In college, S and I would lay out chicken tenders on a couple baking sheets, sprinkle some dried herbs over them, throw them in the oven for about 20 minutes, and then leave out half for the week's meals and freeze the other half. We'd then be able to throw together dinners in 5-20 minutes, depending on what else we had on hand and what we felt like eating. Even just pulling them out of the fridge and dipping them in some leftover sweet and sour sauce or some BBQ sauce was a great snack to tide us over until a more involved meal was ready. That whole idea of "ruining your dinner" is out the window for us. As S and I finally learned one busy semester, it's better to get food in our bellies than to bicker with each other simply because we're hungry.

Now that I'm even more penny-savvy than I was before (and the fact that I live were food is much more expensive than it is where I lived before), and thanks to Kroger's typical boned-in chicken breasts price of $1/lb, as well as some inspiration in remembering our previous bulk cooking, our new thing is to bulk cook boned-in chicken breasts. Same technique as before: lay 'em out, sprinkle with herbs, cook for an hour, eat some and package the rest up for later. Instead of also de-boning them right then, we've actually just been reheating them as is and prepping sides instead of a main dish. How do we reheat baked chicken so that it's oven fresh? Like this: microwave for 1 minute per breast, toss under the broiler for 5 min., and done. As to freezing/thawing those bone-in breasts? Well, that's next in line for experimenting. My hope is it goes just as easy, but I know that the thicker meat could pose a slight challenge. Maybe just microwaving for 2-3 minutes will do the trick.

What else can be bulk cooked? Well, pretty much anything that can be reheated well. Obviously, I didn't make a huge batch of Pananella Bread Salad. In fact, I'm glad I didn't add dry bread to the veggies at all. The leftover veggies are safe in the fridge--oh, wait, she said not to refrigerate them, just a second. Okay, the leftover veggies are safe on the counter (fresh veggies are usually fine being left out, cooked veggies aren't), and there's no worrying about the bread getting soggy by tomorrow's lunchtime. We can just slice some up and add it in when we eat. Most meals are generally made twice as big as they need to be, whether its pasta, soup and salad, rice and beans, breakfast casserole, or pancakes. I have to admit I have yet to freeze burritos, something I've frequently heard of others doing. It's always been on my list of freezer meals to try, although I wonder if I'd like just thawing the filling and tossing it onto a fresh tortilla better. Maybe that's why I've never tried freezing individual ones.

Simplicity is my way in general. Why would I need to spend thirty minutes making a fancy lunch that I'd then have to rush thru each day--not to mention clean up after--when I could just throw together a whole-wheat pb&j in 60 sec. or less? Add in some fresh, seasonal fruit and I'm good to go, whether it's jumping into the car to run some errands or sitting back and enjoying conversation with my daughter. The more time I have available for my family, the better off I am.