May Challenge: The Prepared Cook

[Gaelen]

Sometimes the challenge about eating is more than planning one dinner--it's planning what to have on hand so that on-plan dinners (and other meals) are possible. When you're standing in front of your refrigerator playing 'ready, set, cook!' it's too late to wonder what you should have picked up at the store on the way home. ;)

Lately, I've been picking up Everyday Food on the supermarket checkout stand. The May issue showcases a regular feature called "Shop Smart: 1 bag, five dinners," showing one way that the menus for five dinners can come from a single shopping trip (with a little planning...) ;)

The magazine has nutrient values for all the recipes, so it was easy to figure out that only one of the five "Shop Smart" recipes was obviously not PP compliant--Mozzarella and Ham Panini. Still, the family could have panini while the low carber had a Mozzarella and Ham Low carb wrap, or the whole family could have low carb wraps of the main ingredients. Some of the suggested sides increase the carb counts of the meals, but again--non-low carbing family members could have them, or you could leave them out.

All of the dinners serve 4-6, and none of them take more than an hour to pull together for the table (most take less). They include:
Roasted Salmon with Lemon Relish (with a baby spinach side dish--36g protein, 12g ECC per portion);
Thai-Style Steak Salad (23g protein, 10g ECC per portion);
Mustard Crusted Turkey Breast (with roasted carrots and broccoli--38g protein, 9g ECC per portion);
Mozzarella and Ham Panini (with cherry tomato salad--25g protein, 35gECC with panini per portion--switching out the bread would make it fall in line);
Baked Shrimp with tomatoes and feta cheese (with orzo and green beans--40g protein, only 10g ECC without the orzo side dish!)
You can check out the recipes at this link: http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jh...leType=recipes

So, before YOU play 'ready, set, cook!' every day,

Where do YOU shop, and how often?
What was in your shopping cart this week?"
What meals will you make from those ingredients? (not necessarily your challenge recipes)

[kevinpa]

Speaking for myself, since I started eating this WOL, I sit down every friday evening and take inventory and plan my meals for the week. 90% of the time I go shopping Saturday morning and cook 80% of the weeks meals on Saturday and Sunday. Any trips to the store during the week are for milk products or what I call pleasure or experimentation cooking items.

[Mitra]

I do my main supermarket shop on Thursday morning, calling at the butchers and the cheese shop on the way home, and I usually pick up some extra veggies, and sometimes a chicken at the farmers market on Saturday. Usually I chat through with my husband on Wednesday night what we'll eat for the next few days, so it's planned and shopped for at least through to Monday.

I try to make each major meal I cook do at least two meals. We still have some leftover roast chicken from Tuesday, and I cooked the bones up to make stock yesterday. There's enough lamb left from last night for two more meals, and we always have sausages on Friday (special request from my husband, who says he knows it's the start of the weekend when he has sausages :) ). I cook a couple of extra sausages because they're useful to have in the fridge for breakfast, snacks or lunch.

This week's setup was:

Tuesday - roast chicken (and we had a small starter of melon and parma ham that were leftover from weekend visitors);
Wednesday - braised lamb with fennel;
Thursday - chicken reheated with a sauce made from tarragon, cream, and chicken stock);
Friday - sausages;
Saturday - lamb - with maybe a tomato sauce and a yogurt sauce, rather than the original fennel & onion;
Sunday - probably parmigiana di melanzane;
Monday - we'll finish up the lamb, but I haven't decided yet how I'll do it.

[Gaelen]

The local paper features a "Cook of the Week" every Sunday. As part of the interview, they ask every cook a set of questions like the ones James Lipton asks his guests on The Actors Studio. Since I spent most of yesterday "editing" my own kitchen, I was thinking about how differently I'd answer these questions today than I did in 2000.

What herb or spice do you ALWAYS have on hand?
In 2000, I answered "fresh garlic."
Today, while I still always have fresh garlic on hand, I would say "cinnamon and fresh lemons." I use cinnamon several times a day, and I use lemon to perk up flavors instead of salt.

What is your favorite kitchen tool or gadget?
In 2000, I said "my chef's knife and my George Foreman grill." ;)
Today, although the GF still has a place on my kitchen counter and gets used two-three times a week, and I even take my own knives camping, I'd answer "my Braun immersion blender."

I use my immersion blender every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I like it so much that I bought extra beakers, and even bought a second blender because I was afraid if the first one broke, I wouldn't be able to replace it. A couple weeks ago when QVC offered a today's special value from Rocco DiSpirito, it was...the heavier duty wattage version of my little Braun, in colors, and I almost bought another one...:) It's easily the best $14.99 I ever spent (although they're up to $19.99 now.)

What cookbook or cooking resource do you use most often?
In 2000, I answered The Moosewood Cookbook by the Moosewood Collective, edited by Mollie Katzen.
Today, that's still a favorite, along with many of the other 300+ cookbooks in my library, but I'd have to answer "www.epicurious.com and www.foodtv.com" now. Food on TV has come a long way from four or five cooking shows that only aired on PBS at weird times; now online recipe clubs, author's and magazine cooking sites and the Food Network's recipe and technique collections (videos included!) make finding a recipe or understanding a method or an ingredient instantly accessible. Don't get me wrong; I've still got cookbooks handy. There are half a dozen piled on my coffee table right now. But I've got Mollie Katzen's website bookmarked, too... :)

What are your favorites ... ?
What herb or spice do you ALWAYS have on hand?
What is your favorite kitchen tool or gadget?
What cookbook or cooking resource do you use most often?

[Mitra]

What herb or spice do you ALWAYS have on hand?
I can only have one? :tear: At the moment I seem to keep running out of cumin. Garlic does get used a lot, but I'm not counting that as a spice - I'm going to call it a vegetable :D. Probably the one I'd really miss the most is parsley. I use masses of flat leaf parsley. And black pepper. I also use cloves, nutmeg, mace, allspice, cinnamon, saffron, fennel, paprika (usually the smoked sweet one), ginger and vanilla several times a week. And thyme, oregano, mint, rosemary, coriander (cilantro) are pretty much permanent fixtures too.

What is your favorite kitchen tool or gadget?
A good knife is the first priority. I use the vegetable peeler and the grater quite a lot, too. And my small spice grinder. I wouldn't like to be without my mincer, though it isn't in daily use (it's an attachment to my kitchenaid, and gets used far more often than the mixer). I have a stick mixer, and it is useful, and used fairly often, but isn't one I'd consider essential.

What cookbook or cooking resource do you use most often?
Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking and Marcella Cucina, Paula Wolfert, Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean and The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen (I have several other books by both of those two, but those are the ones in constant use). Modern Cooking for Private Families by Eliza Acton (1845), and English Food by Jane Grigson. Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle and Julia Child. Like Gaelen, I have many (very many) other cookery books :o but those are the ones that are in use all the time.

We don't have a TV, and haven't really taken to any of the internet sources as a main resource, though I do use them.