Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Bulk Cooking Four Days Later

I realize I forgot to mention a few things I made as part of my bulk cooking. Here they are:
a quadruple batch of granola
a quadruple batch of Isa's Fettucini Alfreda
a quadruple batch of Cold Thai Peanut Noodle Salad (although I subbed steamed kale for the cabbage and sprouts)

While the granola was part of my bulk plan, the pasta dishes were actually for some entertaining we did on Sunday.

So far I've been really pleased with how this has gone. Dinner has been on the table with much less rushing and, as a result, a greater variety of entrees. If there's a kink in the plan it seems to be our weekly CSA pickup which causes us not to have all the vegetables on hand to freeze completed meals. I've had to prep/cook veggies each night.

On the other hand, that's not necessarily a bad thing because of the potential nutrient losses that go along with cooking, freezing and reheating. Besides, I like most of my veggies crisp not limp and overcooked. Finally, veggie prep/cooking just doesn't take as long as measuring out a tsp of this and a tablespoon of that.

Here's a peek at what we've had for dinner so far:
Saturday: Red Lentil Loaf with Gravy and veggies
Sunday: Fettucini Alfreda/Cold Thai Peanut Noodles/Coleslaw made with vinagrette
Monday: Sunday's Leftovers (Hey, I had to work Monday night!) with steamed broccoli
Tuesday: Seitan simmered in salsa and black bean dip (leftover from Sunday) with sliced green peppers and salad
Tonight: I'm trying a new chickpea recipe in the crock pot that includes tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant. More on that tomorrow.

Another challenge I'm having is remembering to defrost things, like pumpkin bread or cinnamon raisin bread. I really should have taken a loaf of one or the other out last night but I forgot. This morning we had just enough for the first round of departures (Jim and the girls) but the boys had to leave enough time to sit down and have granola with raisins and soymilk.

Depite all the food I made, I don't think we'll get more than a week and a half out of it. I'm already putting together my plans for the next round of cooking.

4 comments:

AnnMarie said...

I do hope you can get your kids to help out, but if not, do you have some friends who might be interested? I would be, in exchange for some of the food. (And I'd need only 1-2 servings since it would only be my daughter and me eating it.) I've always wanted to try some larger batch cooking, but don't want to do it all alone. Would love to share it with a friend!

Anonymous said...

wow you truly cook a lot!i dont know who you do to do all of that and work, amazing!

Katie said...

That's a great idea Annmarie.

As for me doing the cooking and working too Johanna, I have to confess, I love to cook and I love me job. Doesn't that just make me a sideshow freak?

Anonymous said...

What a hard worker... unbelievable! And such good food. No need to apologize (even jokingly) for leftovers!!! :)