Cook and prep once, eat all week

This past weekend I spent about 4 hours in the kitchen cooking and didn't do much for the rest of the week.   The key is staying organized and being efficient.  How do  I accomplish this?

First, I make a list of what I want to make this week.   This particular list was made based on what I had available in the house, not the other way around.   This saves unnecessary and frustrating last minute trips to the grocery store.  If there is nothing in the house to cook, I make this list as I shop.  The list is based on what is on sale and what sounds good to eat.  On last Saturday, I happened to be at Whole Foods and I picked up some great buys they had for their 30th anniversary sale.  I bought 2 pork loin roasts, lamb shanks, ground chicken, and bacon.  One of the pork loin roasts went into the freezer for a later date.  I also had some leftover ham to use up.

Here is a picture of my list that I made last Saturday.  Also, notice the dry erase board on the right.  This board is our running store list with subheadings for each store we shop at.  Whenever we run out of something, it goes on the list.  It probably sounds stupid to even mention but I can't tell you how many times before this that we ran out of toilet paper some very necessary item and were inconvenienced.  Not making onto the list was cooking the bacon for breakfasts and snacks during the week and also a roasted tomato sauce for the gnocchi.  There is also another small list on the right that is an inventory of the meat we have in the space freezer.

Recipes forthcoming.  The menu this past week:
Sunday -- Braised Lamb Shanks, sourdough bread, butter
Monday -- Tuscan Pork Roast with Potatoes, steamed broccoli with butter
Tuesday -- Homemade Gnocchi (made a couple months ago and frozen) with the Roasted Tomato Sauce and a green salad.
Wednesday -- Leftovers from last week (left was dover sole in butter and Indian-ish chicken from last week and maybe a few other odds and ends)
Thursday -- Chicken Foot Soup
Friday -- Leftovers from Sunday
Saturday -- Italian Sausage and Mashed Pumpkin
Sunday -- Dinner at Dad and Kelly's

Saturday afternoon, I roasted the tomatoes for the roasted tomato sauce.  Saturday night, I mixed up the sourdough dough and let it sit to ferment.  Then I pureed the tomato sauce and put it in the fridge for Tuesday.  This was only about 20-30 minutes total of active working time.

Sunday morning, I made the braised lamb shanks with the girls' "help" and got that in the oven.  The lamb cooked for about 4.5 hours on 240 degrees.   I took advantage of the oven running that long, so I also cooked a tray of bacon for part that time and then a pumpkin for the other part.   Then as the kids napped, I made the ham salad and baked the sourdough bread.  I half-prepped the chicken foot soup and half-prepped the Tuscan pork roast by chopping everything up and getting it ready for during the week (more details to come in those recipes).  This was another 3-3.5 hours and then I took the kids to the park for the rest of the afternoon while the lamb shanks braised.

The list is key to my strategy.   I needed onions for 4 of the things on the list, so I cut all the onions at once.  I needed carrots for 3 dishes and cut them all at once, etc.  I decided to throw some Asian greens in the lamb shanks, so then I cut the stems finely and added them to the chicken foot soup.  You don't need to do this on a massive scale like I did.  Just think ahead about what you need during the week and prep it on the weekend to save time.  I wash the entire bag of apples at once and then grab-n-go during the week.  It's awesome!

As I cut all of the veggies, I put the scraps directly into the crockpot for stock in the upper left of the picture.  I needed stock for both the chicken foot soup and a meatball soup for my sister.  In front of the crockpot is a small bowl for garbage.  I deliberately work in this small area to force myself to keep it clean-ish.  Also, it's easier to work right next to the stove to chop and dump.

A group of last tips that I use to make the process fast and easy:

1.  Keep the cookbooks away from the direct cooking area to keep them clean.

2.  Know where everything is in your kitchen. Sounds easy but it is harder than it looks.   Saves me a ton of time.

3.  Let time work for you.  In this picture, you can see a load of potatoes soaking in that big bowl in the sink.  I let them soak while I cook and then the dirt just rinses right off instead of scrubbing them forever.














4.  Load the dishwasher as you cook, also pictured above.  It is less work to throw it in the dishwasher at the time you are finished rather than throwing it the sink and then moving it later to the dishwasher. I actually leave it open like this the entire time I cook and it's so easy!  One of the benefits of having an infant and toddler-free house.  I really missed being able to do this over the past few years with curious babies.

5.  A couple of good knives are better than a ton of crappy knives. I use two for probably 95% of my cooking -- a small paring knife (appears to be no longer available) and large Santuko.  Both are from Forschner/Swiss Army and were reasonably priced.  What I like about these knives is that they have small grips for my small hands and are light.   I don't know if these are the "best knives in the world" or whatever. What I do know is that is important to find a knife that works well for the person using it and it is important to keep it sharp.  Good knives literally cut my kitchen time by half.

And there you have it -- fresh, fast, healthy, 100% homemade food for an entire week.  Well, I guess I didn't churn the butter for the bread or mill the flour for the gnocchi or grow the rice so it should say 0% processed food?