Reply #27: A book isn't what you need, [View All]

you need to learn about and borrow a few of the techniques of professional chefs.

Instead of cooking a big batch of an entire meal and eating leftovers, you cook large batches of the elements of a meal and hold them.

I do most of my cooking on Sunday and Thursday nights. I make a big batch of some multi-purpose pasta each of those nights, lightly coat it in olive oil and hold it in a lexan (it's container very much like a large, rectangular Tupperware-style cupcake tray) in the fridge. If I want pasta for dinner, I just toss an appropriate amount of pasta into a pot of hot water for a minute or two (just to let it heat up, it should be pretty much cooked already). Then I either top the pasta with sauce, or I toss it in pesto, or...whatever. I can also quickly build a pasta salad for lunch.

Rice, polenta and potatoes can also be cooked ahead and reheated to order.

On the two nights in question, I also do most of my produce shopping and will cut frequently used vegetables into tiny zip-lock containers, roast a bit of garlic, make homemade stock and freeze it in ice-cube trays.

I like taking a cookie in my lunch bag for an afternoon snack, so I always make a big batch of dough, cook off a half-dozen of the cookie du jour and then freeze the rest of the dough in small batches. At any given point my freezer has at least 4 types of cookie dough.

All told my cooking takes about 1.5 twice a week, and then can be done in as little as 5 minutes on a weeknight. -or it can take longer if I've put on the Jazz and I'm in the mood for getting adventurous. I'm thrifty with my cooking. It is extremely cost-efficient to eat the way that I do.

Because I prepare the batches the way that I do, it's also very easy to accommodate an unexpected guest for dinner. And people who regularly cook for more than one can benefit from these techniques as well, especially if you're dealing with a family of 'fussy eaters' or allergies - where everyone wants something different and your patience and budget cannot handle the load.

Even as I decide to finish this post, a metric fuckload of similar tips are rushing to my mind. Maybe I should write a book...