Lyndsay and I both have full time careers in addition to Vegetarian Menu for the Week. We are both career women and we absolutely love creating recipes for all of you each week. What we do, we know saves you time and money, but we also know that creating meals each night when you get home can be taxing and tiring. My background is in restaurants and catering and you start each shift off with prep time or what is traditionally called ‘mise en place’. Preparing for the shift ahead of you is how a restaurant chef can put out meals as quickly as is possible.
Applying your own ‘mise en place’ to your week will save a little bit of time each week. My set up is a little different because we create several recipes in one day, but the idea is still the same. There are time saved by purchasing some things already done, and for busy families, I say go for it!
Before wwe.vegmenufortheweek.com I would spend a part of my Sunday preparing for my week. I would have certain items already prepared and other things, partially done.
Vegetable Cutting
- Garlic – I tend to purchase several bulbs at a time. I peel them all at once, pop them into a mini chopper with a few tablespoons of olive oil and blitz. I put them into a jar, covering the surface with a tiny bit more olive oil to keep the garlic from oxidizing. Fresh minced garlic can be stored in the fridge for a few weeks as long as the surface is covered with oil. You can also choose to purchase garlic in oil, just pay attention to what oil is used.
- Onions – organize your vegmenufortheweek recipes so that you can cut a few nights worth of recipes in advance.
- Washing – for vegetables that need to be scrubbed and not just rinsed, do this in advance so that all you have to do is pull from the fridge and use
- Chop up your herbs and freeze them … you will make sure nothing is wasted and can throw them into hot dishes and all the flavour is there! – this one comes from Christine from Calgary – thanks for the tip!
Cooking Starch
- Beans often take the longest to cook. Using canned legumes saves time, but if you may prefer to cook your own. If this is the case, cook your beans off on a day when you have more time.
- Undercook brown rice and wild rice in advance and freeze, pulling from the freezer before you head off to work in the morning and allow thawing in your refrigerator. I only recommend this process if you are going to use in a hot dish.
- Cook noodles al dente (direct translation ‘to the tooth’), meaning not soft, but no exactly hard either. My suggestion is to cook 2-3 minutes less than package instruction. Cool the noodles on a baking sheet and drizzle with oil. Once cool, place in a covered bowl in the fridge and your pasta is ready to be tossed in whatever sauce we have planned for you. This is not recommended for pasta salads as your pasta will be too hard to serve at room temperature.
- Peel potatoes in advance and soak them immersed in water and place in refrigerator. Not recommended for more than 2-3 days in advance.
Garbage, Recycling and Composting
- Line a large bowl with a compostable bag and place on the counter next to your work area or in the sink to have handy as you do your prep work. You can tie up the bag and drop in your composter or in your green bin for recycle day.
- Have your recycle bin and your garbage bins accessible to your work space rather than having to go back and forth.
One dish items – Casseroles, Lasagnes etc...
- These are items you can prepare in advance and freeze. It is up to you as to whether or not you cook in advance and reheat or freeze uncooked, thaw and cook. If budget allows, double up the ingredients once in a while and prepare additional dishes. Wrap well and label with name of dish and date of freezing. This will give you a back up dish when you are in a pinch!
Cooking utensils and necessities
- Get everything ready to go before you start to cook:
- Fill pots with water
- Place cutting board on no slip matt or damp cloth
- Have plates and bowls ready to be filled
- Have herbs, spices, salt, pepper, oils, condiments and ingredients within arm’s reach
- Be ready with containers with lids ready for left overs. Makes packing lunch a quick morning process
Clean as you go
- This is one I really do struggle with. It is not that I don’t know to do this; I just plow thru the cooking process and clean up after. The problem with this is that when I cook, I may have 5-6 recipe tests on the go and then the most exhausting part of the process is the clean up! Do as I say, not as I do!!!
Being prepared and organized is always the key. We all move at a different pace. Having spent so much time cooking over the years, my knife skills happen to be quite sharp, no pun intended...well actually, that was intentional! If you live in an area where there is a gourmet food, kitchen or butcher shop that offers knife skills classes, sign yourself up. Not only will you learn how to hold a knife and cut well, you will also learn what knives are best for what purpose and generally, you will reduce the risk of cutting your appendages.
Happy cooking!
Laurie and Lyndsay
No comments:
Post a Comment