Who hasn’t happened: stared at an empty refrigerator for five minutes, closed the door, walked away, ordered pizza. Postponing the question of your own nutrition until the last minute is a bad habit. Doing everything on the run, we often fail to make a choice in favor of healthy products. If you prepare everything in advance, you will save time and money, and significantly improve your diet, says Casey Moulton, who has developed a new approach to home cooking. Ready to learn how to make 15 meals in two hours? Then start implementing simple tips.
1. Cook once a week
Pick one day a week and make the most of shopping and cooking. Cutting vegetables for one meal takes 10 minutes, cutting for 15 dishes at once takes 40 minutes. Simple arithmetic. Most cooked food stays fresh for a long time in the refrigerator.
2. Cook simple meals
Chef Candace Kumai recommends choosing familiar recipes and using familiar ingredients. There are people who strive for variety, but experiments should not take you out of your comfort zone. Introduce new items gradually, as your skill grows.
3. Consider the expiration date
Some products store worse than others. Berries and greens like spinach spoil quickly and should be eaten early in the week. Salads should be seasoned before eating to keep them fresh. But the cabbage can be left for later. Remember that avocados and apples cannot be cut in advance, because they oxidize in the air.
4. Fill the freezer
Even when planning a meal, everything happens in life. It’s best to keep half a dozen prepared meals frozen. Soups in portions can be stored for up to three months. Place each container in a bag and write the date of preparation with a marker.
5. Repeat dishes
What’s wrong with eating Greek yogurt four times a week? Nutritionist Jaime Massa believes that food can be repeated if it gives you pleasure. It’s a big time saver to prepare a large portion and eat it throughout the week. Let it be a quinoa salad and a large pot of chili, or whatever.
6. Don’t forget to snack
It is not necessary to cook full-scale dishes all the time. But you need to take care of snacks so as not to be tempted by an extra cake for a colleague’s birthday. When we are hungry or stressed, crackers, almonds or dried fruits should be on hand. If the office has a refrigerator, stock up on yogurt, cheese, and chopped vegetables.
7. Cook multiple meals at once
Almost every ingredient requires washing, chopping, seasoning and cooking. It’s better to do everything at once. After going to the supermarket, process the food, turn on the four burners and go. Combine the ingredients and all you have to do is stir the food.
8. Use spices
If the dishes are repeated throughout the week, then various spices can play a decisive role. Casey Moulton recommends the following technique: the base should consist of salt, pepper, onion, garlic and olive oil. Other herbs and spices can be added to it. One with basil and one with curry, and you get two very different dishes.
9. Optimize your kitchen utensils
Investing in new cookware can pay off. Think about whether all the pots fit on the stove at the same time? Oils and vinegar should be stored in dispenser bottles or aerosol dispensers so you use them less. It is necessary to have a sufficient number of plastic containers and freezer bags. And, of course, they do not save on knives.