I am able to whip up good wholesome foods quickly because my kitchen is set up to do so. All the ingredients are easy to get to and available. It's easy to get to my bowls and pots or pans. When things are down in the storage room or in the clear, far back of the cupboard we are less likely to dig around to get to it. Human nature I guess. I know I'm a culprit of this for sure. I don't have a lot of time. I work everyday, usually 30 hours a week. I have 4 children who demand every second after school with piano, dance, basketball, scouts, homework (ahhh... the homework). Most of the time I have 20 minutes to prepare dinner. Remember, I make everything from scratch. I don't use boxes or mixes or processed foods. Things in my kitchen are organized and easy to get to. If I know I'm wanting to have beans the next day, I'll soak them overnight and then start cooking them in the morning. I have general meal ideas already set up so the ingredients are already either in the fridge or in my cupboard. It's important to have plenty of the basics; onions, garlic, and herbs (see post about herbs).Find a system that works for you. One thing I've always tried to do is plan ahead. If I see the flour bucket low, I'll grind the wheat before I need it. If I see that my jars of nuts or grains are getting low, I'll refill them before I need it. This is primarily what I do on Sat when I'm doing my deep cleaning in the kitchen. This is really how I can be so successful with preparing good food with very little time. Here's a few pics of my kitchen. Try having open shelves. I love it. I also keep everything in jars or cans; so I don't have to worry about mice getting into them or plastic leaching. I also like how it looks.
Here's my pantry cupboard. Everything is marked and easy to find. All my baking products, nuts, seeds, grains, beans, legumes etc. go in here. I have larger buckets of them in my storage room but have these in my pantry for easy access
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I took a first step and bought coconut oil because I have been reading alot about hydrogenated oils so I figured I would take this next step. Now what do I do with it. I am not a fantastic cook, but I can follow a recipe but when it comes to adding, deleting, substituting or just flat out throwing it out I have no clue..soooo..do I just start cooking with the coconut oil in place of vegetable/shortening in the recipe. I already cook with Olive Oil so do I use the solid coconut oil (thats what I bought, it is probably wrong but let's pretend it was right and work with it until it is gone :)) in place of shortening/butter etc. in my recipes and still use olive oil to saute and cook my chicken with? Thanks Mel. BTW it was great to get your blog and to catch up on what you have been doing. We are kicking butt in basketball this year -- whahooo!
ReplyDeleteExcellent question. I'll post about Oils to help my readers understand what's possible. Just so you know. I use coconut oil instead of frying with olive oil. Coconut oil can handle the high heat and olive oil can't. What I mean by can't is if you heat Olive oil up to high it will actually start hydrogenating it. So that's awesome you went and got the coconut oil. You got the right thing. It's solid when it's cold. When it's warmer temperatures it will liquify just like butter. Which is why it's great in recipes where butter is called for. I'll post about it!!!There are different types of coc oil if you don't like one kind it doesn't mean you won't like them all. Some types have a bitter taste or you'll notice an after taste. The kind I have is awesome because my kids can't tell a difference. I miss bball and vball. We are in ward where there's NO sports. Too many old people.haha
ReplyDeleteI love everything she cooks, and she'll tell you that I'm the pickyest eater on the planet. So if she says try it, don't worry about it turning out deeeeeeeelicious!
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