Re-inventing my cooking

[Alex1fly]

New member, I love discussion forums, and I hope to spend some regular time here instead of my usual spots!

I'm here because I find that I'm kind of losing my verve for cooking. I've long loved cooking all kinds of cuisines and "traveling the world" through cooking and using nutrition to elevate my health. A couple things have happened in life to lead me here. One, having kids - sure I'll involve kids in cooking but it still throws off my routine. Two, having reliable income to where I'm not cooking out of frugality. Three, I've moved and our new kitchen is just not well set up (nor do I want to undertake a remodel, that stuff is crazy expensive). Four, as I age I find that I need to eat less so my expectations of how much and how often to cook are changing.

So I'm interested in meal planning (never done this before, just kinda wing it every time), equipment & strategies for maximizing nutrition and minimizing active cooking/cleaning time (biggest pain point for me), and just generally being around passionate food talk.

Hi!

Alex

 

[Andy M.]

Welcome to DC. I think we all lose our enthusiasm for cooking from them to time. It usually comes back.

Meal planning can happen around the supermarket sales fliers. See what's on sale and build some recipes around those items. Make enough so you have an extra meal or two out of a recipe and can take a night off from time to time.

It's difficult to suggest specific meals without knowing more about your eating habits and preferences.

 

[thymeless]

My basic advice.

• Eat seasonal plants. They're cheaper, readily avalable, healthy, generally quick to prepare.
• Whether it's a salad or not, a custom small batch vinaigrette is an excellent garnish/seasoning for lots and lots of things. Even just plain roasted vegetables. Though roasted vegetables is one of my kids favorite things.

Some Books I think are helpful. These are also just topics/themes you can google so don't think I'm trying to sell you books.

Ratio by Michael Ruhlman. This book focuses on common cooking as a series of ratios. When you understand the base ratio, you can invent on the fly, kind of. IMHO, more importantly, it helps you understand the kinds of things cuisines are built on so you can cook more instinctively but also recognize bad recipes and technique more easily.

Fast Food My Way
More Fast Food My Way both by Jacques Pepin. These are the accompanying cookbooks to two PBS cooking shows by Pepin. But even better are the videos which are becoming available on youtube now. I like the videos because he assembles a multicourse meal in (almost) real time. There are some shortcuts for TV with ingredients separated out and that sort of thing. He demonstrates the necessary multitasking of daily cooking.

On youtube, search: fast food my way KQED

One of Pepin's hints is as soon as he is in the door, he starts a pot of water boiling. Then when he's changed his clothes, the pot is boiling and it's ready to blanch vegetables, cook pasta, potatoes, rice, put a steamer on with some dumplings, whatever. It's just something that's used for so much of cooking and takes up time. And it's something that's not going to get him dirty or make a mess.

In a different vein, you might investigate topics like Skillet meals, sheet pan meals, casseroles--all one cooking vessel ideas. There are a lot of sources out there, and I'll just list the ones I use because those were the ones I encountered first. They're not necessarily better than others.

The Best Skillet Recipes by Cook's Illustrated. I use this one also for ideas for camping where one pan meals shine.

Cover & Bake by Cook's Illustrated

Sheet Pan Suppers by Molly Gilbert--most diverse of the bunch.
Sheet Pan: Delicious Recipes for Hands-Off meals by Kate McMillan
Sheet Pan Chicken by Cathy Erway--probably my favorite, but it's not as diverse in ideas.

Learn leftover dishes.

Fritatta is one of my favorites.
Frico is less versatile but worthy of knowing.

Books on leftovers:
Everlasting meal--this is recent, I've not read it but it looks interesting.
Secrets of great second meals I've read this one and it's OK. I already practiced the techniques that work in my cooking system. Still interesting to see ideas crystallized that I had just kind of muddled along with.

If you have the freezer space, many busy folks do a single day of cooking for the whole week.

 

[Aunt Bea]

Plan the majority of your meals around things that you know how to prepare without a recipe.

Make sure that there is always something on the plate that everyone in the family enjoys and add a new item every now and then.

Make a list of foods that are traditionally good values and learn to prepare each thing several different ways. Ten foods prepared ten ways is a hundred different meals.

Don’t overthink it. A loose plan is better than no plan. When you plot out the family favorites like pizza night, pasta night, taco night, etc…. you will only be left with two or three nights that require much thought.

Watch the daily dinner thread here at DC for inspiration.

Good luck!

 

[taxlady]

@thymeless, those are some excellent resources.

Welcome to Discuss Cooking @Alex1fly.

If you like Chinese cuisine, I suggest that you check out this YouTube channel, Wok with Tak. I have been following him and gotten some excellent ideas, especially for making meals more quickly.

https://www.youtube.com/@wokwithtak

 

[Kathleen]

Welcome to DC!

 

[Badjak]

Adding onto books: https://www.saltfatacidheat.com/

 

[KatyCooks]

Aunt Bea gave some solid advice there about meal planning:

"Don’t overthink it. A loose plan is better than no plan. When you plot out the family favorites like pizza night, pasta night, taco night, etc…. you will only be left with two or three nights that require much thought."

I do this too. I shop weekly and have a shopping list. So I have to think about what I am going to cook in a general sort of way - I like to make sure there are proteins (meat/poultry/fish) and then a variety of vegetables. Then, I look for inspiration online or in cookbooks or magazines - there is always something new out there to try and I have made many great recipes provided right here on DC!

 

[Alex1fly]

Thanks everyone! I'm looking into the things you all listed.

Boiling water when you walk in the door is an awesome idea! So obvious but I hadn't ever thought of it. I'd love to pick up some more tips like this.

 

[taxlady]

Thanks everyone! I'm looking into the things you all listed.

Boiling water when you walk in the door is an awesome idea! So obvious but I hadn't ever thought of it. I'd love to pick up some more tips like this.

I just realized that I often do something similar. I put a pot on the stove on low, that way I can get it to a boil quickly, once I'm ready almost ready for boiling water.

 

[dragnlaw]

I also do something similar. I put it on to boil right away - then turn it down to simmer or even lower- find that much faster as I never know exactly when I'm going to want it.