Originally posted by: Ilmater
Here are the kind of recipes I'm looking for:
Fairly quick - the biggest reason we eat out is to avoid cook times
Fairly easy - I don't want ingredients I can't get from a local grocery store (there are a few large chains near me, so it's not THAT limiting)
Good variety - we like chicken, beef, steaks, pork, fish, lots of veggies... pretty much everything... I don't want a beef-only recipe book or anything like that
Healthy is a big plus
Italian or pasta-heavy should be avoided - We both love Giada, so we get enough suggestions on Italian meals from her
I just use the Internet for finding recipes, look for ones with good reviews and especially ones that have photos. There are so many websites...Youtube, AllRecipes, Epicurious, Food Network, Group Recipes, etc.
I use a
lot of kitchen gadgets, they really help speed things up. Some basic suggestions:
1.
One-Zip bags: Hefty & Ziploc both make zippered plastic bags. Be sure to get the freezer kind, both small and large. They are way easier to use than the double-seal bags that never work right. Get a Sharpie marker to keep in the kitchen to label them with. We order our bags in bulk boxes from Amazon.
2.
Steamer: Get a steamer (like a Black & Decker from Amazon) for veggies. We keep our veggies sorted in one-zip bags: peas, carrots (coins, chopped, baby), corn (kernels, corn on the cob), butternut squash, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, etc. Making veggies is as simple as filling the steamer tub with water, dumping in the mix of veggies that we want for the night, and twisting the dial to 30 minutes or so. You can add salt, pepper, herbs, lemon juice, chicken broth, etc. to step up the flavor. Makes good vegetables easily - you don't have to worry about them while you're cooking your other dishes.
3.
George Foreman grill: This is great for thin and medium meats. Thin steak, chicken, fish, burgers, and so on are perfect. You get a nice grilled piece of meat in 10 or 20 minutes, all you have to do is plug it in. I recommend getting a clamshell 1-piece model, the kind without the removable trays (I had a multi-tray model and it didn't cook very well). You can also use a gas or charcoal grill if you want the smokey flavor, but if time or weather is an issue, then the Foreman is a must-have.
4.
Rice cooker: Your steamer can do double-duty as a rice cooker, but I prefer a dedicated rice cooker. The good ones are fairly expensive ($100 - $150), but if you eat a lot of rice it's a great investment. Plus I usually cook rice plus veggies, so my steamer is typically tied up. We rotate White, Jasmine, Basmati, Sushi, and Brown rice and keep them in plastic cereal containers for easy access. In addition, I do oatmeal (steel-cut) in the mornings with it.
5.
Bread machine: We make fresh bread almost every day. RideFree has a great
inexpensive bread recipe for bread machines. We make pre-mix bags a week or a month at a time (with white flour, wheat flour, salt, and brown sugar) so that we can just toss in a bagged mix before bed every night. The bread machine takes care of the rest. 11 cents a loaf, no preservatives, and fully automatic. Takes 2 minutes a night to make and you won't find better toast anywhere!
6.
Deli slicer: We picked up a small plastic deli slicer from Wal-mart (Rival brand) and use it to slice everything, including homemade bread! We also get the small 1/2-1 lb turkey and ham breasts from the grocery store, cook them for an hour, then slice them up for lunchmeat, cubes, mini-steaks, etc. You can do bread, meat, cheese, veggies, and fruit on it.
7.
Mini Food Processor: We just picked up a small food processor for $10.99 from Amazon to speed up chopping. For example, I use onions in some of my breakfast meals as well as in dinners such as meatloaf. A blender would also work.
8.
Wok: If you're interested in speed, check out cooking with a Wok. I highly, highly recommend
Eleanor Ho's kit. She has a starter kit for $145; I'd recommend getting the rest of the stuff as well ($20 mitt, $45 Chinese Chef knife, $50 portable stove). I'm currently learning how to cook oriental food with it and I can 100% recommend her system, despite the expense. If you eat out a lot, it will pay for itself in a month.
9.
Containers: We use 3 kinds of containers: Click-clack, Tupperware, and Smart-Spin. Click-clack makes these great airtight containers with a butterfly hinge; Target sells the Michael Graves collection which are great (but kind of expensive, about $15 for a large container). The two main features are that it's airtight and that you have easy access - a large opening on top. You can keep pasta, rice, flour, salt, sugars, and so on inside. It's the best air-tight system I've come across and beats folding a bag over by a long shot, as far as extending shelf-life goes. Tupperware is great for leftovers. Smart-Spin containers are those small containers that you see on infomercials, they're like $15 or $20 for a big pack from Amazon. They are great for putting small pieces of food in, such as sliced fruit, chopped meat, and so on. They are also nice for lunch containers.
The real key is to make a specific, defined rotating menu. The minumum should be 4 days of meals, although I'd recommend a full week (7 days) just to make shopping easier. Create 7 days of breakfasts, lunch, dinners, and snacks, make a shopping list, and then buy only what's on your shopping list. Here's a sample of what I do during the day:
Breakfast: Slice homemade bread; make eggs or oatmeal; make lunch
Lunch: Eat lunch
Dinner: Make dinner - put rice on to steam, put veggies on to steam, grill meat; throw in bread mix before bed (2 minutes)
Each meal has protein (meat), veggies, and fruit. We go shopping on the weekend and sometimes make double meals so that we can freeze them and have them later when we need a fast meal in a pinch. I've been learning how to freeze meals; you might want to google "freezer meals" to learn more about that.
Once you have a rotating menu, it's easy to change it - add or subtract items when you want to add new foods or rotate new foods in. It really helps with cutting down on eating out because you've given yourself another option - you have a packed lunch every day, you know what you're going to have for dinner instead of wondering "what are we going to have for dinner tonight?", you have healthy snack alternatives instead of junk food. It takes some work because it's a big change for most people, but it's easy once you get the ball rolling.
You don't necessarily need all of these gadgets, but I've found they do help a lot in terms of making cooking easy and fast. I made sure to choose items that are microwavable and dishwasher-safe so that they're not a hassle to use or clean. Invest in one quality appliance at a time so that you're not buying cheap crap that will wear out in a few months or a year. This is a laundry list of what I use on a regular basis:
Bread machine
Rice cooker (rice, oatmeal)
Blender
Mini food processor
Food dehydrator (fruit, jerky)
Mixer (think KitchenAid)
Steamer
Deli slicer
Deep fryer (only occasionally!)
Mini Crock Pot (beans etc.)
Juicer
Citrus Juicer
Charcoal grill
George Foreman electric grill
Wok
Stovetop
Oven
Microwave
Toaster oven
Toaster
I have a whole rack dedicated to kitchen gadgets. That may sound weird and geeky (heck, it is!), but I make great meals on a daily basis and I make them fast. I can throw some chicken on the George Foreman, rice in the rice cooker, mixed veggies in the steamer, Bush's Beans in the small crockpot, and grab some of my homemade bread and have an awesome dinner in 20 minutes with very little effort, then toss most of the stuff in the dishwasher to clean.
Hope that helps, feel free to ask questions
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