Your solution to weekly night meals

Here’s a “mise en scène” for you: It’s Wednesday night, kiddo needs help with homework, you left the office an hour later than usual, your spouse won’t be home for another hour and supper has turned into a daunting task.

Been there, done that!

You can do one of two things;

1. Make casseroles like crazy on Sundays or,

2. Prep your kitchen as if it were a restaurant, with components that will allow you to make a wide variety of dishes in 10-20 minutes.

I want you to consider point #2. That’s where the relief comes from…

Making a bunch of home cooked meals ahead is a lot of work and limits you to a set menu. You’ll feel obligated to eat the meal before they spoil and reheating a casserole isn’t always ideal; All your precious work ends up in a devastating microwave? Ouch! (BTW, I haven’t owned or used a microwave in well over 8 years. The only time I miss it is when my coffee gets cold) or reheating it in an oven can take a bunch of time.

Prep your kitchen like a restaurant.

Instead of spending your entire Sunday baking lasagnas, meatloaves and whatever casseroles you can think of, prepare a handful of essentials needed to cook a meal, then when Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday come around, you can pick and choose what you want and make it happen.

Here are the few essentials a home kitchen should have ready at the start of every week:

1. Cut and prep veggies.

That’s right, peel your potatoes and cut them in small cubes so that you can boil them or roast them in a minimal amount of time. Peel and cit carrots in 1cm x 5cm pieces son you can boil them in 5 minutes. Keep both carrots and potatoes covered in water with a pinch of salt. Clean and cut your brocoli ahead of time, same with mushrooms, peppers, Brussel sprouts… Just keep them in the fridge with a cloth or paper towel on top of the container. No water. Chop some onions, caramelize them if you want. Keep them in the fridge, covered.

2. Garlic confit or purée.

Stop being haunted by the garlic prep… Do you know that most chef don’t ever think of how not to make your hand smell like garlic? It’s something we never talk about. Take one day of the month (or every 2 weeks) and make a garlic purée or confit. Then, as the week goes by, you just add a bit of purée or confit to your pan and there you go, garlic is in and you didn’t have to touch any of it. Garlic confit recipe here. Garlic purée recipe here.

3. Boil stuff!

If you want to take step one further, boil some potatoes and / or carrots. Keep them covered. Boil a few eggs so that you can make a salad for sandwiches, or throw them on a salad. Pre-boil pasta and rice… don’t be scared, all the warning about pasta our rice needing to be thrown away after 2 days are blown out of proportion, it can last 3-4 days.

4. Prepare your meats…

Make patties for burgers, pre-cook a small batch of bacon, cook some chicken that can be thrown into a pasta, sandwich, club house, on top of a Caesar. Cook some sausages for a pasta dish or sammy.

5. Make some sauces.

That’s right, 4 jars of Bolognese will go a long way. A steak gravy is always nice, dressings will go a long way.

6. You’re a salad person? Fine!

Chop and clean some romaine ahead of time, clean some greens, tap dry them gently between a cloth (a dish drying clothes, not terrycloth).

7. Marinate it!

Most proteins only get better the longer they sit in marinade. So don’t worry too much as long as you use the goods within 2-3 days. Marinade fish, steaks, chicken. When ready, all your have to doo is throw it in a pan or on the grill.

So, now that you’ve got the essentials ready, imagine the possibilities…

Got carrots, boiled potatoes, marinaded steaks. Throw the carrots in water for 5-10 minutes, they’re ready. Use the same water to warm up the potatoes while the steaks are on the grill… Transfer your carrots to a pan with olive oil and some spice... Voila, that won’t take you more than 15-20 minutes.

Get your pre-boiled pasta, and throw it in warm water (no oil in the water) while sausages and chopped onions are in a pan, add a couple of garlic confit cloves, add a bit of tomato sauce. The the pasta right out of the water, (no rinsing please!!!!) Add directly to the pan with sausages and Voilà… pasta with sausage. Want veggies in there? What’s stopping you? You have them prepped, just throw them in the pan.

Feeling a sandwich, a salad, a burger, everything's ready. Just combine greens, veggies, proteins and there you go...

What you’ve essentially done is put together an array of components that make a huge amount of meals. Its sort of like cooking with left-overs only in this case, the “left-over” potatoes and carrots were intended.