I cannot believe it has been 3 years since I wrote in this blog. My, how time flies.
It is funny now to read those few entries I made; I have since left the life of retail (hallelujah for more reasons than one!), don't think so much anymore about having babies or scrap booking, and have taken a fascination to working out.
Today I was asked to share some of my tips on power cooking.
Here you go!
I started power cooking a couple of years ago with my friend, Helen. She is a Pampered Chef consultant and can work a kitchen like you have NEVER seen. Girl has MAD skillz.
I have tweaked my method a bit, as shared below:
POWER COOKING 101
So, the key here is organize, organize, organize.
And pick dishes you like.
Don’t reinvent the wheel.
If you are looking to make a new recipe, take the time and learn it,
tweak it. When power cooking, the most
efficient way I have found to do it is by making dishes with a lot of the same
ingredients and that you have made before.
First thing I do is make a menu based on what is on sale at
the store. If chicken is at a good price, I will buy it and perhaps make
chicken soup, chicken tacos, chicken parm, you get the idea. With beef, I will make a meatloaf, taco meat,
pasta sauce. With steak, I will make a
freeze-ahead stroganoff and fajitas.
Next, make your menu. I usually do this the night before. Take
stock of what you have in your pantry already. The grocery store run will more
than likely just be the veggies and dairy that you need for your dishes.
Time to shop! Try to
buy only what you need and be stronger than the impulse buys! If you are buying a bottle of barbeque sauce,
make sure that whatever dishes you are making will use ALL of it. Because that bottle is going to go into the refrigerator
and die and you are then missing the whole point of this exercise ;)
Prep, prep, prep. Since
you know the meals you are making and now have the ingredients, it is time to
prep. Cut all of your veggies. Chop your
onions, dice your tomatoes, and peel your potatoes. Use them all so they don’t sit
on the counter and rot. If you have more
peppers than you need, slice them anyway. Put them in a freezer and take them
to snack on at work the next day. Mix
your sauces, use your spices and organize everything into its own Ziploc
gallon freezer bag. Get your marinades together if you are using
them. Seriously, this may seem like a
lot of work, but once you get this down, you will FLY through your sessions.
Don‘t try to be super mom.
Sometimes, you CAN use frozen vegetables!
I always make 2 oven dishes, a crock pot dish and whatever I
can fit on the stove top. So, I can more
than likely get thru a crock pot chili, a meatloaf and chicken dish in the
oven, and pasta sauce, soup and pork chops on the stove top.
Time to cook! I have
found when cooking chicken, the fastest, easiest way is to boil it! I use my huge stockpot, heat up some water
(not to boil, just hot enough to steam) and put 6 chicken breasts in it. I always start with potatoes if I am using
them, as they take the longest. I use a
pretty big pot and boil about 6 medium sized potatoes. While those two pots are
going, I will start some ground beef (or sirloin) browning. At the same time, I am prepping my first dish
for the oven. I am also getting my
ingredients together for the crock pot dish.
By the 45 minute mark, I usually have all of the meat
prepped and ready to be paired with the other ingredients.
I’ve also prepped any soup portion of a dish I may be making,
so all I need to do is add the meat and whatever else (beans for minestrone,
veggies and pasta for lo mien soup, etc.)
The hardest part is done.
Now, you can:
1.
Add taco seasoning to make taco meat. Freeze, then thaw on day of use, scoop onto
tortillas, add desired toppings and pair with some chips and salsa or refried
beans.
2.
Shred 1 pound of boiled chicken, put in a gallon
Ziploc and add desired amount of barbeque sauce. Freeze, then thaw on day of use, spread onto
a pizza crust, add some mozzarella cheese and red onions and bake. (BBQ pizza
in about 16 minutes-YUM!)
3.
Cube chicken and put ½ cup into individual
baggies. Freeze to take to work and add
to salad at lunchtime.
4.
Cube chicken and really add anything to it. Mix it with a “salsa” of red, yellow and
green peppers, lemon and a little garlic.
OMG. So good on a carb-friendly
tortilla or just by itself.
5.
Divide oven dishes into separate freezer
containers and take just what you need out for dinner each night. (This works perfect with chicken parm or
meatloaf).
6.
Chili is great because it is so low maintenance.
The crock pot I have makes a pretty big batch; there is enough for one dinner
for Jay and me, and then 3 individual lunches for us as well.
7.
Mash your potatoes and separate them into
freezer containers. Each ½ cup serving
can be paired with a pork chop, frozen then taken out of the freezer in the
morning and popped into your lunch bag. By the time lunch rolls around, it is
thawed enough to pop in the microwave to heat up.
Today's session yielded 10 lunches and 5 dinners and we spent about $55 total. Not too shabby!
