Help! I need to cook everyday

nwachim wrote: »

I will really like to enjoy healthy homemade meals but it is looking like i will have to be cooking everyday and i don't know how to keep up that as i am caring for my 5 month old and 21 month old while working from home,do you cook everyday?how do you take care of your nutrition( it seems to be my biggest problem) do you meal plan on the weekends and does this help you to avoid cooking everyday during the weak?

I do a lot in the crockpot that makes several meals, most reheat nicely. Huge time saver since I only have to cook a couple of times a week instead of everyday.

Cook things that make several meals worth and can be frozen and reheated. That way, you can eat delicious homemade food without having to cook from scratch every day. You can use the recipe function here (I like the link for the older method) to put in what you are making and divide by servings. For example, I made a meat sauce for spaghetti recently that made 8 cups or enough for four meals for us with 1-cup servings. I can just put in a serving of that recipe every time I whip it out and nuke it for a fast supper. I don't particularly plan on the weekends, I just make sure there are enough "lazy meals" in the freezer. This allows us to have more variety in what we eat. It may take a couple months or so to eat that spaghetti sauce, but that's okay.

Cook in batches and freeze things like homemade meat balls, fish cakes, etc. I cook chicken 10-pounds at a time for the two of us. Have lots of frozen veg available. Cook a pork shoulder, shred it and freeze. One of our standard meals is pulled pork, microwaved in barbecue sauce, a frozen veg and coleslaw or oven fries.

Since you are working from home, figure out things you can do by throwing them in the oven and ignoring them. There's no need, for example, to cook stew on top of the stove. You can throw it in the oven on low heat and let it simmer for hours without worrying about it boiling over or scorching. Even rice can be cooked in the oven. Set the timer and forget it.

One of the many cookbooks I started to write (never got past an outline and a couple pages) was for cooking for the work-at-home crowd. I worked from home a lot and learned the joys of throwing things in the oven and ignoring them. All you really need is a loud timer so you don't forget to take them out eventually! LOL

It takes just as much effort to cook a meal for eight as it does for two. So double up your recipes and freeze the leftovers.

Get yourself freezer grade ziplocks.

Find some nice slow cooker recipes.

I make a full cookie tray of meatballs from a family pack and freeze them for many meals.

You can do the same with a full pack of chicken breasts.

I do cook mostly every day, but I do try to balance the workload a bit. For instance, I like to do big, labor-intensive cooking on day 1, use leftovers for day 2/3, and provide something "fresh" everyday, such as a new salad or a new veg side. The "fresh" stuff makes everything seem like a new meal everyday.

I'm semi-retired now, but I can empathize with your kids' demands on your time, especially with also balancing work-from-home duties. Maybe time-shifting can help - a friend of my wife's used to defer her "big cooking" until the evening when her home-from-work husband could chip in with the kids, and then the used the "leftovers" the following day(s). As a project manager, I used to remark that return-to-work moms seem to be better at personal time management on my teams. Not a so-PC observation these days, but true in my experience none the less. Skill developed through necessity.

I work full time and have 3 kids and I cook everyday..except Friday They know better.

The crock pot is my best friend.

For example: Tonight due to my son's football schedule we wont be getting home until much later than normal, so this morning I stuck a roast in the crock pot. It will be ready when I get home and all I have to do is whip up a quick side and PRESTO!- Dinner is done!

I will also use the left over roast for our dinner tomorrow or freeze it. I like to make big meals that I can freeze. I'm from NOLA so we love our beans down here...I'll made a big pot and freeze. It makes 2-3 meals.

The other thing I use a lot is a pressure cooker. My fiance's mother got us an electric one a couple of years ago and it is WONDERFUL! It cuts cooking time in 1/2 and you can throw frozen meat in it and still cook it in less time. I'll throw 4 frozen chicken breast in with some water and seasoning, set for 25 minutes and it's falling apart. Shred and now you have chicken tacos or chicken to put on a salad or to made soup with, all kinds of option.

Good luck!

I sometimes meal plan or batch cook and rely on heating things up, but I prefer eating freshly made things instead of leftovers more often than not. My tricks to keeping things easy and quick is to cook smaller pieces. For instance, I always chop veggies in 1/2 inch or less size (you can do this in advance to make the prep each day super easy) and always cut my meats into bite sized pieces before cooking (unless I'm doing a roast or making a proper steak or something, but that's more of a weekend when I have more time kind of meal).

Cooking is a cinch - just come up with whatever combo of veg and protein you like and do a stir fry. Add in the things that take longer to cook first (like carrots) and then keep adding ingredients in order of time it takes to cook until everything is in the pan. Make sure you season to preference as you go. Keeping pieces small means that they cook so much faster - I can do a start to finish delicious stir fry or shrimp and veggie pasta in about 15 minutes. You can use the same method (of smaller pieces) for roasting veggies in the oven. Once of my favorite quick meals is Brussel sprouts, quartered and thrown onto the pan with a sliced hot Italian sausage (frozen). They take about the same time to cook, and I can just throw it in and walk away.

I plan each week and do some prep on Sunday, like cooking chicken to add to salads or stir fires. This week I even went ahead and made a meatloaf recipe, cooked it in large muffin tins and froze them. I love having options in the freezer. Monday I usually cook a large batch of something - lately it has been the sheet pan recipes I have found on Pinterest. Chicken fajitas is my favorite. Then I have fajitas one night, burrito bowls one night, lettuce wraps one night. Sometimes I will just cook the chicken and cook fresh veggies every night.

I am single, so it is pretty easy for me and I have no problem eating leftover or eating the same thing every day for a week. If I get around to cooking multiple times a week, and it is food that freezes well, I end up with a stocked freezer for those days when I don't feel like doing anything.

I have always cooked every day, well almost every day. We eat out about 1-2 a month. Even when working a full time job and having several children in the house I cooked every evening. And I still do it now that children are grown and moved out. It's a rare day that I don't cook a meal from scratch, but we do always have a few meals in the freezer that we can use for days we are short on time. We also usually have some canned venison that we can use for a quick meal base. And we always have a plethora of eggs so omelets are another quick go-to meal for us.

kschwab0203 wrote: »

I work full time and have 3 kids and I cook everyday..except Friday They know better.

The crock pot is my best friend.

For example: Tonight due to my son's football schedule we wont be getting home until much later than normal, so this morning I stuck a roast in the crock pot. It will be ready when I get home and all I have to do is whip up a quick side and PRESTO!- Dinner is done!

I will also use the left over roast for our dinner tomorrow or freeze it. I like to make big meals that I can freeze. I'm from NOLA so we love our beans down here...I'll made a big pot and freeze. It makes 2-3 meals.

The other thing I use a lot is a pressure cooker. My fiance's mother got us an electric one a couple of years ago and it is WONDERFUL! It cuts cooking time in 1/2 and you can throw frozen meat in it and still cook it in less time. I'll throw 4 frozen chicken breast in with some water and seasoning, set for 25 minutes and it's falling apart. Shred and now you have chicken tacos or chicken to put on a salad or to made soup with, all kinds of option.

Good luck!

Crockpot and pressure cooker, yes! Ours is a stovetop, "jiggle top" pressure cooker - oldie but goodie. Neither gts a lot of use in the summer, just because I'm more in a grilling mindset.

nwachim wrote: »

earlnabby wrote: »

nwachim wrote: »

I will really like to enjoy healthy homemade meals but it is looking like i will have to be cooking everyday and i don't know how to keep up that as i am caring for my 5 month old and 21 month old while working from home,do you cook everyday?how do you take care of your nutrition( it seems to be my biggest problem) do you meal plan on the weekends and does this help you to avoid cooking everyday during the weak?

I do a lot in the crockpot that makes several meals, most reheat nicely. Huge time saver since I only have to cook a couple of times a week instead of everyday.

O! Nice,i don't have a crockpot but i can buy one.please can you share some of your recipes?

Pulled pork - just throw a pork roast in the crock pot, cover in water, cook. When you get home, shred and add some BBQ sauce. My favorite is to make a pulled pork salad with spinach, cilantro lime rice, black beans, a little bit of ranch and pulled pork. So freaking good.

Chicken tacos - chicken breasts and green salsa into the crock pot. Cook. When you get home, shred and put on tortillas with cheese and whatever. Yum!

Taco soup - browned ground turkey, tomato sauce, corn, kidney beans and taco seasoning. Cook. When you get home, top with a bit of cheese, and sour cream if you like. We like to eat with baked Tostito scoops chips.

Overall, I try to prep on the weekend after I buy fresh vegetables and fruit. I cut and store fruit such as cantaloupe on the weekend, so it is ready for lunches/breakfast to go.

I clean all my vegetables and leafy greens and store them in airtight containers with paper towels so all I have to do is pull them out and use them. I try to buy packaged kale as that is something I hate de-veining. I make cauliflower rice and portion that out as well. It can be frozen or used throughout the week.

Any meat that I buy I try to buy in bulk as I try to eat organic meat..which is usually cheaper if I do that. I buy a pork loin whole, and cut it into servings to freeze. Same with chicken breasts. I also like to use varied ingredients (i.e., chicken sausage, anything that is on sale that is hormone free, etc) that can be frozen and pulled out when ready to use.

I also hard boil 1/2 dozen eggs on the weekend and peel them so I can grab them for breakfast.

Meal plan is important for me -- I try to make a running plan at the beginning of the week so I can either pull something out of the freezer to defrost ahead of time, or manage portion sizes of something I cook so I make sure I don't waste anything. The latter is key as I was finding I was wasting a lot of food because I was planning something new every night and would have too many leftovers in the fridge. Knowing that I have servings for 2 days for example lets me eat something on Monday, then cook something different on Tuesday, then eat leftovers on Wednesday for lunch or dinner.

Roasting a whole chicken on the weekend is great, which can be used for chicken salad, tacos, or sweet potato hash in the morning if I am starving.

I second the electric pressure cooker. Its amazing. On Sundays, I usually make either chicken or beef. For example, cut up an onion, garlic tomatillos, peppers, jalapenos, throw in some chicken and 12 minutes later you have the best taco filling / salad topping ever. This lasts a couple days or can be frozen and pulled out. I also make a lot of indian food in the electric pressure cooker. Very easy. Garlic, ginger, garam masala, cilantro, salt, some yogurt and chicken and you have some pretty good indian food waiting for you in less than 20 minutes.

Long story longer...meal planning for me is key, with the protein as the focus. Once you have a protein, you can quickly whip up pasta, vegetables, or rice if that is you thing. For me, it is much easier to understand the amount of food that I need to purchase at the beginning of the week or what I have in the freezer to defrost so as I don't have to worry about it when I get home from a long day at the office.

Although the prep on the weekend takes some time, I have noticed I throw out a lot less food and am eating better than I have before as I have a plan and am not straying from it.

Make one-pot or one pan meals where you stick in all your ingredients, and cook either on top of the stove or in the oven. make enough for 3-4 meals. freeze (or use next few days). voila. no cooking next few days except to reheat.

Oh and keep lots of fruits and veggies on hand. One thing I will do sometimes is cut up fresh veggies to have easily available so that I go for those when snacking, instead of something more calorie-dense