Food prepping post #1
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| Photo courtesy of Katie Smith from Upplash |
Do you want to cook but can’t seem to find the time or too tired to cook? Cooking is a lot of work, but it should be done in some form or another if you want to live a healthy and happy life! Is there a way to make it more doable? Yes, I believe that the solution lies in the prepping! “Divide and conquer” would be the method and it has benefited a lot for me! Instead of doing everything at once, you would want to divide the process of cooking into more manageable steps.
The process
of cooking can be divided into : planning, grocery shopping, prepping, and
the actual cooking.
Secret #1: Plan for a week
First, I write down
the names of the main protein for each day of the week in a
calendar. The important thing is to make the plan as easy and simple as possible so that
it is very doable and not a big deal to carry it out. I use a free day
planner I received from my insurance agent!
It is small and it even comes with a pen too! 😊 I jot down the main protein I am planning to cook. For example: beef (Monday), chicken
(Tuesday), pork (Wednesday), tofu or eggs (Thursday), seafood (Friday),
leftovers (Weekend). Then find the simplest
recipes you can think of for each protein. I have posted
“Easy Korean Fusion Cooking Class” in this blog (can be found in the top navigation bar under "Cooking Class") so check it out if you are
interested in learning how to “cook without a recipe”! These (the names of the main protein on the menu for the week) are just guidelines so that you don’t
feel like procrastinating in not knowing what to cook and they can certainly be changed.
Secret #2: Buy all types of protein in one shopping trip.
By buying
all the protein ingredients for the week at once, you are ready for the
week. Research shows that fewer shopping
trips result in less money spent at the stores, so it is a good practice!
Secret #3: Process
the veggies and the meat product so that they are ready for cooking.
Clean and
store all the veggies when you come back from grocery shopping. Meat product can be portioned and stored in
the fridge or in the freezer depending on when you want to use it.
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| Veggies washed and cut and stored in containers ready to go! :) |
Secret #4: Take the initial cooking step as soon as possible. For example, certain veggies can be blanched and stored in
the fridge or freezer. Meat can be
marinated and / or can be cooked and stored in the fridge or in the freezer.
The idea is that you don’t want to start from zero, making cooking an overwhelming, onerous task! 😅
When the chicken is cooked already, it will take a lot less to cook a
dish!
Secret #5:
Regularly stock up on staple ingredients so that you don’t run out of
cooking ideas!
I like to
have boiled eggs in the fridge ready to be used in a salad. Canned tuna can be easily turned into a
meal. Premade salad dressings (preferably homemade) come in
handy; they can be used in a salad or can be used as a sauce for many protein
dishes such as chicken, pork, beef, tofu and many more!
More information on these 5 secrets of successful food prep next Wednesday, July 8, 2020! So please stay tuned~~ :)
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| boiled eggs-- a staple in my fridge all the time! :) |
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