I've previously mentioned how I use technology to plan my meals and write my shopping list. Of course, not everything is digital - I still have handwritten, scribbled notes and many favourite, sauce splattered and annotated cookbooks.
Try something new
I like to try at least one new recipe a week, and this may come from a cookbook, an idea posted on another blog, or something I invented in my sleep (this happens fairly often). This meal is usually scheduled for a weekend or a day I'm not in the office. I like to make things as easy for myself as possible.
Keep it fresh
My planning also takes into account my access to fresh produce. I prefer not to freeze steak or seafood for example, so I will always plan those meals around when I can buy fresh.
Save time with bulk cooking
I also like to ensure that at least one meal a week is something that can be doubled or tripled. I prefer not to have the same meal twice in a week but instead will use the extra from the first meal to make something a bit different. Alternatively I will prepare something and freeze it so we won't starve if I'm sick or I get home late.
This week I spread out some cookbooks and clicked through some favourite foodie websites. My husband chose Jill Dupleix's Angelhair with crab and lemon as the new recipe on this week's meal plan. He gets extra bonus points for choosing something quick, easy and light. He usually doesn't!
Photo credit: Betty Crocker by 427
Keep records
My planning system also includes recording each day's meals on our synchronised google calendars. It avoids the mid-day phone call, "what are we having for dinner tonight?" And here it is for you.
Monday:
Garlic and chilli king prawns stir-fried with onion and still crispy red capsicum, green beans and broccoli, lightened with oodles of fresh parsley, served on steamed Basmati (I use Basmati a lot as it is lower GI than other types) rice. I'd prefer brown rice but I haven't won that battle in my household yet.
Tuesday:
Home-made chilli and herb crumbed chicken schnitzels (oven baked), with macaroni cheese, roast grape tomatoes, baked herb field mushrooms, steamed greens. For some reason unknown to me, my macaroni cheese provokes bizarre reactions of rapture amongst my friends and family. My husband regularly begs me to make this, and due to the fact it is so insanely easy, I do indulge him. My version isn't too heavy either - the sauce is a roux enriched with mustard, cheese and herbs and lightened with low-fat milk.
This meal will give me leftovers - extra cooked chicken schnitzels to go into the freezer (I can then pull them out later, defrost in the fridge overnight, then top with a tomatoey sauce and cheese, then chuck under the grill) plus leftover macaroni cheese to have with a salad for lunch on Wednesday.
Wednesday:
Angelhair pasta with crab and lemon plus a simple garden salad. With any luck I'll be able to buy some fresh pasta from the Italian place down the road, but if not I have some decent quality dried pasta in the pantry. I don't mind making my own pasta but I'm better at ravioli or lasagne sheets that don't need as much precision!
I'm not in the office on Wednesday so I can skip over to the fishmonger and then the butcher for tomorrow's dinner.
Thursday:
Seared beef and rice noodle salad. I can make this one in my sleep and it is lovely and fresh and flavourful.
Friday:
My grandmother, my sister and her boyfriend are coming over for dinner to have my famous risotto. This one will have prosciutto, tomato, basil and baby spinach. We'll go heavy on the carbs with some home-made bread and a few simple salads. Dessert is likely to be sorbet and fruit or perhaps some cupcakes if I get time.
Saturday:
Duck salad with rocket and baby spinach, just warm slow-roasted tomatoes, red onion, capsicum and snow peas, drizzled with chilli jam.
Sunday:
On Sunday nights we usually have dinner with my parents or in-laws. Otherwise it'll be a quiet night at home with takeaway Thai or a wood-fired pizza with a few glasses of wine.
If you'd like to see what other people are cooking this week, you'll find more meal plans at I'm an Organizing Junkie and Chive Talkin.
Check back later in the week for recipe reviews and results!
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]]>Well you aren't so awesome when it's 9:00pm on a Tuesday night, you're starving and you end up in a drive-thru deciding whether chicken nuggets or a fillet-o-fish will go better with a half-empty bottle of sauvignon blanc.
Being crazy perfectionist when planning your meals defeats the entire purpose. Sure you could plan a week of amazing tantalizing gourmet treats from scratch but unless cooking the evening meal is your only job and you have no other responsibilities whatsoever and you are a superhero or energiser bunny you are just flat out lying to yourself.
The reality is there WILL be days when everything goes wrong, you come home late, a friend calls you in tears because the moron you never liked is treating her like crap again, the power goes off or you just plain can't be bothered. If you don't have days like that then we are probably living in different universes. You need to build stuffups into your planning.
A well stocked pantry (and spaces on your meal plan) can help out in times of crisis or laziness. I'm a big fan of carbs in a crisis but go with what works for you.
Some of my pantry basics:
Rice/Pasta/grains:
- basmati rice (to serve with curries etc - and its low GI - bonus!)
- jasmine rice (short grain)
- carnaroli or arborio rice (for risotto - I prefer carnaroli but arborio can be easier to get)
- spaghetti (I like the Barilla Spaghetti Rigate - the ridges hold the sauce better)
- macaroni or short pasta
- thai style flat rice noodles
- polenta
- couscous
Tinned stuff/Sauces
- Tomato pasta sauce or passata
- Tinned crushed tomatoes
- Tinned diced tomatoes
- Tomato paste
- Tinned red salmon
- Tinned mixed beans
- Tobasco
- Woucestershire sauce
- mustards (wholegrain, Dijon, English etc)
- coconut milk
- coconut cream
- curry pastes (madras, vindaloo, thai red curry etc)
- soy sauce
- fish sauce
Oils/vinegars:
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Grapeseed oil (great for frying)
- Nut oil (unless you're allergic like I am)
- White wine vinegar
- Rice wine vinegar
- Balsamic vinegar
- Red wine vinegar
Vegetables:
- Potatoes
- Onions (keep potatoes and onions well separate)
- Sweet potato
- Carrots
- Garlic
- Fresh herbs (in the garden or a window box)
Basics:
- Plain flour
- Self raising flour
- Caster sugar
- Icing sugar
- Quality salt flakes
- Whole peppercorns
- Bicarb soda
- baking powder
- cocoa
- stock (chicken, vegetable)
- breadcrumbs
Alcohol:
- beer
- brandy/cognac
- plenty of wine
The most important thing in my pantry: a folder filled with menus from fabulous local takeaway restaurants. Why grab a whopper when you can get a pad thai instead?
Some quick and easy ideas:
Yes it would be great to only eat fabulous slow-cooked tomato pasta sauces made from your own organically grown heirloom tomatoes with fresh picked basil and garlic but it isn't possible on a daily basis for many of us. (Grendel, you can stop gloating now.)
A jar of Barilla pasta sauce for $2.50 can be bulked up in a few minutes with a tin of 79c tomatoes, some fried onion and garlic and a liberal amount of quality salt and freshly ground pepper. Add fresh herbs if you've got them. A tiny splash of balsamic vinegar or red wine will give the sauce depth with minimal effort.
You can even buy garlic in a jar now if you don't have access to garlic straight out of the ground or you don't add it to everything like I do. Serve over decent quality (egg) pasta with a liberal amount of grated parmesan/reggiano and a generous glass of wine and you'll be a quasi-Italian Mama in minutes.
A couple of potatoes (I like ruby lou or royal blue but whatever you have is fine) brushed, not washed or peeled and some onion chucked into a food processor with a grating attachment can become potato rosti in a flash.
My grandmother likes to fry the onion first but I often forget.Mix the potato and onion with egg and a bit of flour. Season well and form into flat cakes with your hands. Pop them in the fridge for a few minutes if you remember, then into a small amount of oil over medium heat and flip when the bottom goes crispy and golden.
Drain the rosti on paper towel while you wilt some baby spinach in the frypan (off the heat will usually work) and poach or fry an egg or two. Stack up the plate with the spinach, rosti and then top with the egg. No harm in adding some proscuitto if you have it. Serve with beer.
If you've got time to scoot past an open butcher or fishmonger (lucky you!) on the way home your stocked pantry will convert a piece of protein into a meal, stat.
Fridge and Freezer essentials to follow!
UPDATE: While I'm finishing up my fridge and freezer posts, you might want to head over to Summer Tomato. Darya has written a great post about stocking your pantry for healthy eating.
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]]>The power and beauty in a healthy understanding of where food comes from and how it sustains our bodies and hearts cannot be underestimated.
My childhood memories seem to almost invariably revolve around food.
Photo credit: Delicacies by Marcus Vegas
In one of the first that comes to mind I'm lying on my belly in my grandparents' backyard, the scent of mint and lemons and grass swirling on the gentle wind.
I'm about 7, tanned brown and skinny, the sun warming my face and the grass tickles my legs.
One hand holds a book, the other is reaching for strawberries just picked from the garden, sweet, ruby red, all different shapes and textures, some firmer and some almost jammy from the sun, dribbling their juices.
Time stands still until the strawberries are gone and the spell is broken.
My grandfather has hidden some berries from my ever-reaching grasp and he sneaks them into the house with some herbs and lemons.
A row of sterilised jars, saved from peanut butter and tomato paste, are lined up on the kitchen bench. My grandmother works magic and the jars are filled with spoonfuls of deliciously lumpy, sweet yet tart, rich jam. I could eat it straight from the spoon and I do.
Photo credit: Erdbeermarmelade- Strawberry jam
Later, my grandmother and I make doughnuts, all hands in as we talk as if we are old friends with 50 years between visits, instead of grandmother and granddaughter who talk to each other every day.
There's an index card with my grandmother's handwriting, not perfectly formed slightly forced letters as in my grandfather's hand, written with a ruler underneath to keep it neat, but letters tumbling over each other in their rush to hit the page. Rough quantities and shorthand instructions. It is there in front of us but we work from memory and our senses.
The dough rests and rises, rests and rises, rests and rises.
We chat, slower now, my grandmother has tea in a pretty china cup and I have a tall glass of cadbury drinking chocolate, way too much chocolate powder for the milk, thick bumpy chocolate floats on top. My mother would be horrified to see the amount of chocolate, my grandmother doesn't agree with the instructions on the back of the box, adding more and more and when she turns I add another spoonful still. My grandfather comes in from the garden and laughs at the chocolate on the end of my nose. He gently teases my grandmother and tells her that I'm going to be spoiled rotten.
The jam is injected into the doughnuts and they land in the hot oil, sizzling and turning golden. I have to stand back for this part. My grandmother is scared I will be spattered by the oil and she is wearing a flowered apron. She scoops them out and drains the doughnuts on thick paper towel, dusts them generously in cinnamon and sugar and they're left to cool.
The air smells warm and sweet and we can barely wait. My grandfather tells us to be careful. He suggests that we wait until after dinner to eat them. My grandmother and I wait till he goes back outside and we bite into the golden fluffy softness, bubbly hot jam squirting out, running like lava down our chins. The rest are arranged with pride onto delicately patterned china and are shared, warm with the rest of the family and friends. They taste wonderful but none so perfect as the very first one, stolen and hot with anticipation.
My grandparents' backyard is not huge but the bounty that comes from it, changing with the seasons, is massive. My grandfather tends to it with pride, long ears of corn in green silk, cherry tomatoes heavy with sweetness on vines running up plastic ladders, peas that are popped into the mouth straight from their shells, purple garlic, lemons, chillis, the fragrant green of parsley, chives, mint, basil and coriander, strawberries and more besides.
I taste everything, fresh and light. I love the zing of the chilli and the sweetness of the peas. At my grandparents' house it is my job to shell the peas and they are popped straight into my mouth, they never make it into the bowl.
I'm reminded not to be greedy and to save some for everybody else.
Photo credit: stevendepolo
The peas I'm served at my friends' houses come to the plate from boxes in the freezer, via the microwave and they are hard and wrinkled and almost grey.
The flavour is muddy, I can't tell the difference between the taste of the peas and the overcooked limp broccoli that must have been picked before I was born.
I follow my friend's lead and move the vegetables around on the plate and drop peas off my fork onto the floor.
Her mother sighs and implores us to eat at least 10 peas each or there's no icecream.
I wonder how these peas relate to the ones I eat with joy.
It is now 20 years later and my husband and I fight over who gets the last spoonful of the jam my grandmother still makes with love for the whole family. It is spread thickly on the bread we make at home and split to share with my grandparents.
My grandfather has Alzheimer's disease now and time is slipping away, but he never forgets to give me little red netted bags of fragrant fresh purple garlic and handfuls of tomatoes from the garden.
The memories and lessons I learned in my grandmother's kitchen will stay with me for ever. We use our sense of smell and touch and taste to cook and tell when something is done. Our hands are soiled with flour or cocoa or egg wash and the timer has no place here. I learn how the texture changes as food cooks and how a change in the food's fragrance will signal that it is ready. I learn how to cook and eat with my heart and all of my senses, not for sustenance alone but for pleasure.
To my grandparents I owe everything - my love of food and pleasure and the extra few kilos on my hips. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and the pit of my stomach.
my grandmother and I, 1981
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]]>This is the second part in the series. This is the bit where you will write a master list. This list is not your weekly shopping list. This list forms the basis for everything in your fridge, pantry and freezer. This list, if written properly, will save you oodles of time.
The trick is not to copy someone else's list (not even mine). It needs to be tailored to the way that you live, work, cook and eat. It is no good building a pantry of polenta, lentils and cous cous if you're a meat and 3 veg kind of guy, even if it sounds like the right thing to do.
A few things about me:
- I hate microwaves
- I am lazy
- I love saving money
- I have a fairly big pantry
- I prefer my meat/fish etc fresh, not frozen
- 2 people live here but other people like to eat here - with no notice
So with those things in mind, I know that my master list is *not* going to include half a cow in the freezer, nor is it going to include microwavable convenience meals in the pantry.
What my list does include, for example: a variety of different oils and vinegars (canola oil, olive oil, extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, balsamic, red wine vinegar, rice vinegar, white vinegar) that are used for frying, as the base for salad dressings, dressing roast veg etc; spices (saffron, cloves, etc); flours, sugars and baking essentials; a variety of different types of pasta and rice, a cheating stash of stock, curry pastes and pickles, coconut milk and cream and much more.
My goal is to not waste food and not waste time at the supermarket.
As you change the way you cook, you will also need to tweak your master list. For example, we were given a breadmaker as a wedding present. Perfect gift for a lazy tight arse really. So I now always have flour and yeast handy to make bread, pizza etc.
A huge quantity of pizza dough takes 45 minutes in the breadmaker - then I roll it out and brush with a mix of eevo, fresh rosemary from the garden and garlic. I pop it into my benchtop pizza maker (which is the best thing ever) for 5 minutes and it serves as a great distraction while I'm getting dinner ready. Or for a quick dinner I just chuck some smoked salmon, rocket, fine rings of spanish onion and crumbled fetta on top of the pizza bases once they've come out of the oven.
There are a multitude of things you can make just from 'stuff' in the pantry - if you follow a basic pasta and sauce with a chocolate self-saucing pudding you'll still be in the good books and you won't need to head out to the shops.
This post is still in progress and is very much dependent on what you want. If you want me to post a list of my pantry/fridge/freezer essentials I will do that. If you want some quick recipes that can be made out of those basics I can do that too. Just leave a comment and let me know.
The next post will be how to plan a week's worth of meals and how to set out the list.
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