How do you manage all the chopping/grating/dicing?

faithrainbow1

Hi all, I'm pretty new to paleo and I am blown away by all the prep time that the recipes I've found online can take. Not only that, but they lie about it! A typical slow cooker recipe I found claimed 10 minutes prep time and 8 hours in the slow cooker, but the ingredients list included half a dozen chopped or diced ingredients, not to mention searing the meat on all sides (in batches if needed). This recipe would take me over an hour to prep from scratch!

How do you all deal with all of the chopping, diving and grating that so many paleo recipes call for? I realize that this is a lifestyle change, but did you triple your time to prepare every meal? Do you just accept that a lot of your time will now be spent at the cutting board? What are the short cuts that I'm missing?

Thanks in advance!

zakgirl58

I have gone back and forth with some Paleo recipes. I usually look for recipes that only have a few ingredients. Makes it simple.

madwells1

Hehehehe. I guess you don't like to chop!!!

I personally LOVE to prep. There is nothing like me spending a good hour or two in the kitchen chopping vegetables, deboning chicken and making spices for whatever dish I am making. For me I try to think of it as 'me time' and find it relaxing. Note, that I have really nice sharp knives and love using them over the food processor.

As far as searing. I never sear anything for the slow cooker or the pressure cooker and don't think it adds that much to the dish for the time spent. Note that I add a bit of baking soda as this creates the chemical reaction of the browning and always seem fine with that.

I don't know how much you hate the prep or what you are trying to do, but I am sure that you could cut down time during the week by prepping only on the weekends anything you may use during the week. For example, prep the following for the week:

1. Sliced peppers and onions and put in fridge
2. Cut up melon and other fruits
3. Cucumbers
4. Garlic
5. Buy spinach/kale prepacked (costs more but worth it)
6. Clean herbs
7. Chop cauliflower/broccoli into florets


Then, when you cook dinner, you may only need to chop up a tomato or something depending. It becomes a little easier if you plan ahead and know what you are going to cook. This way, if you know you will be late during the week, you can try to do things up front. If you don't, you probably will order pizza because you are tired!!

faithrainbow1

Ok, I guess I could do it better if I spent a weekend afternoon doing prep work. And I went to the grocery store yesterday and found some items (chopped onions, squash) in the frozen section. But yes, I get home between 5:00 and 5:30pm, and I have a hungry family to feed, with a four-year-old who needs to be in bed by 7:30pm. So I can't spend 60-90 minutes cooking each night. I really want to figure out how to make this work...

madwells1

faithrainbow1 wrote: »

Ok, I guess I could do it better if I spent a weekend afternoon doing prep work. ...

You will find that if you make a meal plan on the weekend, you can really cut time during the week.

Also, if you don't have an Instant Pot (no I don't work for them) you should look into it. The pressure cooking setting has pretty much changed my life as proteins are so much easier to quickly cook.

I use my Instant Pot all the time during the week as it cooks everything really fast. I can't tell you how this thing has changed my life. I can make curries in 10 minutes and homemade vegetable soups in 5. I am definitely a convert to pressure cooking.

feisty_bucket

That's cool if you wanna do recipes and all that, but you don't have to. The veggies I cook with are four different types of frozen (spinach, broccoli, kale, "mixed"), half-cup each, with zero chopping. I microwave them for two minutes while starting some meat in a pan, then throw 'em in too. If you get the frozen veggies started that way, then they're ready by about the same time the meat is. Otherwise, you might get some still-frozen bits.
Towards the end I'll add in a couple of eggs and seasoning & sauces and then it's all done. Maybe ten minutes.
I've made something like this mostly every day for many years; no big deal.

When people make cooking too complicated for themselves, they're way more likely to burn out and quit. It doesn't have to be like that. What's good food? Meat, eggs, veggies. Simplify every part you can.

kimberwolf71

I no longer specifically eat paleo/primal, but I would fail miserably if I was preparing the evening meal on a nightly basis. With our schedule, there are a few nights we barely have time to eat, let alone cook! I don't just "food prep" on the weekend, I MEAL prep by batch cooking. I try to keep the ingredients separate (i.e., avoid large casserole type meals), so we can switch the items up on the plate over a few days for a bit of variety.

During the winter months, I usually do a large egg-type dish for breakfasts (quiche/fritatta), fam jam supplements with fruits, yogurts etc. I make a pot of soup for my work lunches that I usually supplement with fresh veggies or something. Suppers, I often do something like taco meat, pork carnitas, shredded chicken and make a variety of sides that compliment the meat well. Maybe one stew/chili crockpot meal to help switch things up. Following week, we repeat but with completely different flavored selections!

KAWAM

I'll join in with the chop/prep on the weekend group, although my go-to veggies during the week when I haven't prepped are kale fried up in coconut oil/salt or the pre-packed & chopped stuff. One of my favorite primal cookbooks recommends making the weekend food-prep event fun with music. I like listening to old episodes of The Splendid Table or America's Test Kitchen. Kinda sets the mood and makes me feel as if I know what I'm doing.

sarbar71

I invested in a lot of tools to help with this. I bought a Kitchenaid stand mixer, and then bought the food processor and spiralizer attachments. Those help speed up the process a lot. I also bought an Indoor countertop grill, an Instant Pot and an Air Fryer which all help with cooking times. I now have very little counter space, but couldn't be happier. If your big pain point is chopping you can buy one of those small choppers for around $20 and it will save a lot of time. Good luck - it is a process, but one that is worth it!

Cheesy567

You mention a family to take care of, that also means you have helpers. Start strengthening that delegation muscle!

Frozen veggies are pre-chopped and often cheaper and fresher than produce from the produce department. Check at different stores, I’ve found that selection can vary a lot.

Many stores have pre-chopped and sliced veggies available. Check out Trader Joe’s if you have one in the area. (I’m in a rural area and the options for this are limited, but if I’m in the metro area for some reason I’ll plan my shopping there just to take advantage of the selection)

Call your grocer’s meat department and see if they’ll pre-cut your meat to order. Mine will, for free, and package it in the weights I want too. It’s ready for pick-up when I get to the store, no standing around and waiting. I’ll order whatever’s on sale that week, and freeze the extra in 2-pound packs for future soup in the IP. Getting your meat pre-cut is awesome, saves a TON on clean up (there is no clean up!). If you buy your meat by the bird or half-cow from the farmer, ask and see what their butcher will do for custom cuts.

MyEvolvingJourney

There's so many packaged prepped veggies if you want to buy them. I sometimes do because it's a timesaver. But they often cost more than just buying the veggies and doing it yourself. I do buy frozen cauliflower rice and a lot of other frozen veggies. But when it comes to things like spiralized zucchini, it's much cheaper to do it yourself. But it is more work. Whatever works for you!

WholeFoods4Lyfe

I meal prep and try to plan recipes that have similar ingredients. For example, if I'm making chili and fajitas in the same week, they both require onions. So on Sunday when I'm meal prepping I'll dice up one onion for chili and slice up one for the fajitas and store each in their own baggie/container. If I'm turning on the grill to make burgers, I'll also throw on some chicken breasts to eat for lunch during the week. And so on and so forth. But even when I don't meal prep, I've gotten very good at multi-tasking, so I'll have my meat searing while I'm cutting stuff up, stuff like that.

GCLyds

Frozen veggies also make things easy.