Convenience Cooking

I love to cook, but that doesn’t mean I want to do it every day.  Some days I am too tired, other days I’m busy, and sometimes I just don’t feel like cooking.  Cooking can be hot, sweaty, tiresome work.

This may surprise you, but I don’t cook a main meal every day.  Instead, I try to make a few large dishes about twice a week, and we eat them over the next couple of days (I do my cooking on days when I have energy and time to spare.)  When suitable, as when making soup, I make enough extra that I can freeze some to have by for a future date.  For example, last night, we had  tasty pasta and pesto dish for dinner, and I made enough extra for us to use it today as well.  But I also made a Nicoise-esque tuna salad, which we can have for lunches or even dinner today and/or tomorrow (it had to sit overnight for the flavors to marry.)  That means I won’t be cooking today, and I can do other things instead.

Today we’ll eat pasta and the tuna salad; maybe tomorrow we’ll eat tuna salad again, but also pizzas made with leftover pesto.  Tomorrow I might grill some vegetables for us to eat over the weekend.    This is a handy way to eat healthfully, but keep cooking time, and cleaning time, to a minimum.  I like to always have something healthful on hand… but I’m certainly not above grabbing a frozen pizza once in awhile!