Food and Cooking

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How are you able to cook while working full time through the week? Do you have some kind of strategy? How do you plan your food? (beehaw.org)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Templa@beehaw.org to c/food@beehaw.org

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We want to break out of this cycle of ordering delivery but at the same time, cooking everyday has been a challenge. We also have been trying to develop some sort of routine where we meal prep on the weekends but we live in an apartment with a really small kitchen so cooking and storing food for 5 days doesn't seem doable. Maybe cook for 3 days and then prepare the ingredients to cook again on Wednesday?

I'd appreciate if you could share your strategies and experience. The goal here is to eat healthy and good food.

Edit: Thank you everyone for all your contributions! I am a little overwhelmed by the number of replies so I if I do not reply to you please do now feel bad!!

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[–] EmptyRadar@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

I cook 6-7 nights a week for a household of four adults. I work a full-time job, but it's WFH so I don't have commute time. This is part of the strategy, but I could do and have done it while commuting to and from work each day as well.

Each Monday, I plan out the meals for the week. I write them down. The meals are based on ingredients we have on hand as well as things which are on sale from the local ads, or which someone from the household has requested.

If any ingredients are needed for the week which we don't have, they are added to a mutual shopping list and someone picks them up while they are out.

When I'm done with work, I relax for 30-60min and then it's time for cooking. I bring out all the ingredients for the meal and get them set up near my cooking station. I bring out pans, cutting boards, utensils - whatever I feel I will need.

I try to fill "dead" time with prep for other parts of the meal - that way time is used efficiently. Sometimes I'll rope one of the others into cutting veggies or doing other prep, but i usually like to fly solo. Just some music to keep me moving and maybe a beer.

As I'm cooking, I'm also cleaning up. Utensils which are no longer going to be used are getting rinsed and put into the dishwasher. Pans are getting rinsed and set aside for washing up later. Counters are getting wiped down as needed. The idea is to have as little to do at the end as possible.

After the meal is ready, if stuff needs to cool, that's a great time for a smoke out on the porch. Then back in to eat.

Rinse and repeat. I enjoy cooking, it keeps me centered at the end of the day, and a good meal at least once per day is important. The key things I have learned are mainly to prep everything in advance which you can, to clean as you go, and to buy ingredients which overlap for multiple meals in a week.

Bonus: Make a few extra helpings and freeze them. Freezer containers are cheap, and it's generally only a small extra cost for the additional food. Then you have ready to go meals when you don't feel like cooking.