I have taken it upon myself to write what I consider to be insightful kitchen proverbs worth living by. I highly recommend that you pick your favorite and immediately begin to stitch it into a needlepoint creation for your wall.
Life is full. Cook extra chicken.
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You Cook Some. You Cook Some More.
Ain’t that the truth?
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And my personal favorite:
Why dirty up more dishes tomorrow
when tomorrow will have enough
dirty dishes of its own?
This is so beautiful. We all want this in our homes.
None of what I am about to tell you or show you is all that impressive. (I’m pretty sure my stitched proverbs have the impressive part of this post covered.) The following tips are simply how I survive in the kitchen. It is what makes sense to me.
When preparing any food, I always think to myself, “Self? If I cooked at least twice as much of this particular food, how might that make my work load lighter?”
It was in asking myself this question that I came up with several ways I find myself working half as hard for twice the outcome. (Perhaps we should stitch that one also.)
Cooking Once, Eating Twice (or More) Ideas
Cooking once and eating twice or more is my most productive way to multitask. Here are a few tricks that worked in my kitchen last week when cooking for my family:
1. On Saturday, I cooked three pounds of hamburger meat with two pounds of chopped bacon and a bunch of onion. I put 1/3 of this cooked mixture away to make Calico Beans another day. I stirred the remaining mixture into two huge Bacon Cheeseburger Casseroles (from {Healthy} Make-Ahead Meals & Snacks eBook) to serve to guests on Sunday.
2. A few days later, I soaked enough beans for two big meals (plus a few leftovers). I cooked all the beans the next morning. That night we had Calico Beans. While that dish was cooking, I put the remaining beans in a large pot and made a huge batch of Chili.
3. For lunch that day, I cooked several plain, boring chicken breasts. I chopped a couple of them up for a chef salad bar to eat immediately. Then I chopped up the rest and made a big bowl of Chicken Salad for the following day’s lunch.
Boring.
But perfect for a chef salad.
And Chicken Salad.
4. I made a batch of Whole Wheat Stir-and-Pour Bread on the night I served Calico Beans. While we could have eaten both loaves in that one meal, I intentionally set one aside to use for the following day’s Chicken Salad lunch.
The thing about bread is that if I let us go crazy with it, we will go crazy with it (I feel a cross-stitch coming on). I want us eating more fruits and veggies than bread, so I’ve found that putting out a limited amount is best for us.
5. Friday morning we scrubbed and baked about 15 pounds of potatoes. We ate some for lunch that day (see #6 below), then put the rest in the fridge to eat in a variety of ways during the next week. This will save so much time and offer so many meal options!
6. On Friday, I also I made a triple batch of Real Food “Velveeta” and Rotel Dip. We ate one round of it on our baked potatoes for lunch that day (see #5 above). I set aside the second round for an easy nacho meal. Then I’ll use the third round for Spicy Mac and Cheese. I love how versatile this dip is…and how delicious.
7. Last but not least, I made three rounds of Gatorade. We had quite a few weekend soccer games and plenty of bottles to fill. I’ve started making at least two if not three or four batches of Gatorade at once just to get on top of our needs. Plus, just like everything else, if I’m already getting out the ingredients and I’m already dirtying a few dishes, I might as well save myself time and energy later by tripling up now!
If you have any athletes in your house, I very much recommend you make this Gatorade. We have gone through many gallons already and have saved sooo much money since I learned to make it. This recipe incredible. (We also learned that it’s very nice to have this on hand if you have a stomach bug going around your house. It’s so much better to replenish electrolytes with than the sugary variety!)