separating the shopping from the cooking

[geeksdoitbetter]

one of the things i often forget is that after a successful shopping run, i'm usually too tired to actually cook anything i'd bought

in my head, it seems so possible and normal to sweep by the grocery after work and then come home to make a delicious meal

but, in my reality, it hardly ever works out

i'm trying to be more gentle with myself and letting the shopping day be separate from the cooking day

Comments

[geeksdoitbetter]

i think part of it is, i grew up with these immense multi hour once a month grocery trips

and, going more than once a week makes me feel all weird and profligate

i want to be a hunter!

[0jack]

It is REALLY hard to break from what you're used to doing. It's been 20 years of me running my own household and I still feel guilty that I can't spend a month on canning and freezing every fall, that kind of thing. Framing things in terms of efficiency helps me sometimes. I have to be as efficient as possible—pushing myself is ultimately inefficient. I've noticed that I get more done, in the end, when I work within my capacity and nourish myself well.

If you have storage/freezer space, there's another thing I do, and that is that different staples that require prep have a different week of the month. For example, I try to only buy and cook/freeze ground meat (for tacos, pasta, cottage pie, etc) once a month. Another week, I might buy chicken on sale or a pork shoulder. Once I get this set up, I have lots of variety all week long, but I'm only wrestling with one thing at a time. Once I had that going, I started doing the same thing with pre-cooking and freezing rice, mashed potatoes, corn bread, banana bread, cookies, pasta, and more. Not huge portions, often just some for now and some for one other meal.

One thing at a time. One thing from each family in a week. If I miss a week or two, it's no big deal, I just start again when I feel better. If I have a little extra energy, it's a bonus.

[geeksdoitbetter]

"hat is that different staples that require prep have a different week of the month"

~boggles~

that is brilliant!

[jumpuphigh]

pre-cooking and freezing rice
I can do this?

I pre-cook and freeze a lot of stuff. Right now, in my freezer, I have cake, cubed bread, soup, and curry. However, it's early in the winter still and I've just picked up on my slow cooker usage so in another few weeks, I'll have a few more items in the freezer as well.

[0jack]

I do it, yes. :)

I cook rice until it's just done, then spread it out on a cookie sheet to cool and dry. I often freeze it on the sheet (I put some parchment paper, wax paper, or a clean tea towel down for that) and then bag it. I heat it in the microwave or toss it straight into soup. For fried rice, I thaw it on the counter or in the fridge if I remember to take it out early enough, until it's loose grains, then I fry it up.

Pasta like penne and fusili and rotini seem to freeze best of all the pastas.

[jumpuphigh]

This is so fantastic. I usually just buy the pre-cooked bags of rice from the store but a) they are pricey and b) they have about twice what I want in a packet so I end up just not eating rice all that much even though I love rice. I am going to try this. Thank you

[0jack]

I love rice, too. I think I have six kinds in the cupboard right now if you count wild rice. No, seven!

-Uncle Ben's
-wild rice
-jasmine
-white basmati
-brown basmati
-red
-black

In case you haven't tried it, green & brown cooked lentils freeze really well, too. French lentils are my favourites. Same with many kinds of beans. The lentils and rice can be used in mujadarra (a dish with ghee or oil and caramelized onions and various spices—my teenaged daughter will cut you for a bowl of this *g*) or they can be fried up with onions and garlic, then cooked with taco seasoning and used to fill tortillas. Super tasty and cheap.

[jumpuphigh]

I've never had mujadarra. It sounds like something I need to investigate.

I love the idea of frying them up for use in tortillas. I'm going to try that. *adds lentils and tortillas to grocery list*