Tips for the cook on the run

By the time you leave work, head to the gym, get home and shower, who feels like cooking? You’re hungry, you’re tired, and you wish that dinner could make itself.

How do you solve this issue? You love good food but you hate cooking, or rather, you hate the time it takes to cook.

Here is my solution, from the girl who only loves to cook when she has time:

1. Make a plan with two parts: Make a list, and then go to the market.

It takes a few minutes to do, but not much more than that. Before you go to the market on your rest day from the gym, put together a quick list. I like to do this on the weekend or on Monday. Let’s say it’s Monday.

Here’s what goes on my list:

-breakfast, lunches and snacks for me for the week
-breakfast, lunches and snacks for PB for the week
-2 big dinners with enough for leftovers
-salad ingredients
-ready dinner for that night

Example:
-B, L, S for me: english muffins, bananas, american cheese, whole wheat bread, kettle chips, apples, peanut butter
-B, L, S for PB: eggs, shredded mozzarella, chicken, iceberg lettuce, avocado, bacon, ranch dressing, carrots, apples
-Dinner 1 (Easy): baked salmon, roasted asparagus, white rice
-Dinner 2: homemade cheesesteaks (meat, peppers, onions, cheese, a baguette)
-Salad ingredients: spinach, avocado, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, dried cranberries, walnuts

Then go to the market and buy the foods you don’t have.

Now you have food in your house. It’s a good start.

Here is what the week of dinners will look like:
Monday (market day): baked salmon, roasted asparagus, white rice
Tuesday: summer salmon salad and white rice (made from Monday leftovers)
Wednesday: homemade cheesesteaks.
Thursday: Rotisserie chicken and leftover peppers and onions.
Friday: out

2. Do your prep work.

I get home and even though I’m tired from the market trip I immediately organize everything. First I get rid of anything that went bad in the fridge. Hopefully if you’ve planned right you don’t have much to toss, but it forces me to reorganize foods to their proper shelves. Example: I always keep leftovers and ready foods on the top shelf for easy access. When I’m done I prep a couple of lunches for my husband. Since I work from home I make my lunch when I’m hungry, but PB brings a packed lunch. I will broil a few pieces of chicken breast, assemble his salad and snacks, and put it all in the fridge. I usually do only 2 days of lunches at a time. Then I cut and wash the lettuce and put it in a container with a paper towel on top to help it stay good longer. That’s about it for market day prep work.

3. Cook.

Monday: You’ve already made your list, gone to the market, and done prep work all after working all day. The last thing you want to do is cook. Make market night’s meal an easy one. I chose baked salmon, roasted asparagus, and white rice. You just toss the salmon and asparagus in the oven and boil some rice and you’re done. Easy peasy.

Tuesday: The day after market night let’s say you get out of work at 6 and don’t make it home from the gym until 8:30 PM. You need to plan for that. What I do is try to have enough leftovers from the previous night. I would turn the leftover salmon into summer salmon salad and pair it with the leftover rice. Dinner #2 is done in 20 minutes or less. Since it was done so fast I have a few extra minutes to pack 2 more days of lunches.

Wednesday: After work but before the gym cut your peppers and onions and cook them. Put them aside covered with foil. Set out the pan for cooking the meat and set the table. After the gym: Hop in the shower. Heat up oil in the pan. Slice the baguette into rolls and put in the toaster but don’t put the toaster on. Cook meat. Heat up the peppers and onions in microwave or oven. Assemble dinner. By planning to do a bit of the prep work before the gym, dinner was on the table in no time.

Thursday: Since you finished all the meat on Wednesday (you were hungry) you need a protein component, especially if you are dining with someone like PhillyBoy. After the gym stop by the market for a rotisserie chicken. Eat that for dinner with leftover veggies from Wednesday and a big salad with stuff from the fridge. Pack one more lunch for Friday.

Friday: Celebrate your success with a dinner out.

It seems complicated but it really isn’t. Dinner shouldn’t take more than 45 minutes each night including the cooking and the cleaning up. I probably spend 45 minutes one night and then 15 the next. This system might not work for everyone, but it works for us.

My greatest tips are:

1. Plan, plan, plan. The more prepared you are, the easier it is to get dinner on the table.
2. Don’t be afraid of leftovers. I buy enough for 4-6 people for each dinner so we almost always have enough food for dinner the next night. Sometimes I transform it into another meal and sometimes we eat the same exact dinner.
3. Don’t wait until dinnertime to think about dinner. Try and do some prep work ahead of time. For example, tonight we are having breaded chicken breast and eggplant. I am on maternity leave already so I will be prepping the chicken and eggplant right after lunch and keeping it in the fridge until I am ready to fry.
4. Take advantage of easy supermarket conveniences. My Whole Foods has great rotisserie chickens. When we are low on food, inspiration, and the desire to cook I pick one up and turn it into a great meal.
5. Enlist help. I prefer to do the cooking in my house because I enjoy it. Even so, PB helps me a lot. He comes home from work fairly late so usually his help is with prep work at the beginning of the week and cleaning up after dinner. It saves a lot of time when two people are working instead of one.

***Don’t forget that every dinner does not have to be some gourmet masterpiece. It is fine to have steak, veggies, salad and couscous one night and quick and easy grilled veggie sandwiches and a salad the next. Do what works best for you!

That’s all I have for now, but I’d love your tips for the non-cook cook as well. My friend asked me to write this, and I’m sure she would appreciate as many tips as possible.