Let’s face it – regardless of the season, our lives are consistently hectic, often providing a convenient excuse to avoid cooking from scratch. Incorporating quick and easy meal ideas into our culinary repertoire can significantly alleviate the stress associated with preparing dinner.
Our society inundates us with artificial solutions for our busy lives, such as fast-food establishments and prepackaged meals. It’s disheartening when the prospect of quick and nutritious meals is just an idea away. While some planning is necessary, it’s not as daunting as it may initially seem. Moreover, the more you engage in it, the more adept and efficient you become.
Slow cookers stand out as an obvious solution, with numerous recipes available online, in your local library, or within your existing cookbook collection. Recently, a commercial caught my attention, advertising a prepackaged frozen slow-cooker meal that can be easily emptied into your crockpot. While it’s a step above deep-fried fast food, it’s basic cooking and comes at a higher cost compared to making it yourself, with potential preservatives beyond your control.
Casseroles offer another solution, particularly popular with kids. Although it requires planning, preparing multiple casseroles of the same dish at once can save time. Freezing the extras provides an even quicker solution for your busiest evenings. Similar dishes suitable for bulk preparation and freezing include meatloaves, lasagna, shepherd’s pies, cabbage rolls, and more. Choose a convenient day, like a Sunday afternoon, to tackle this task.
In our household, a regular practice involves barbecuing a substantial amount of meat on Sunday night. This not only serves as our Sunday dinner but also provides leftover meat for quick meals during the hectic weekdays. Transforming these leftovers into stir-frys, hot sandwiches, hearty soups/stews, pizzas, etc., becomes more efficient as the most time-consuming aspect, the meat, is already prepared. Food is not just a necessity; it’s an opportunity to celebrate life, nutrition, and the joys of flavours.
Unfortunately, many in today’s society view family meals as unappealing, relegating cooking to a mere household chore. A more fitting example of a chore would be vacuuming – after all, how often do you invite a friend to join you in vacuuming? Such gatherings usually revolve around dinner, lunch, or coffee and a treat. Food is integral to life in numerous ways – providing nutrition, building relationships, and offering pleasure through flavours. The first step toward change is shifting our perspective on food and cooking.
If you search for negatives, you’ll find them. Seek out the positives, and your perception will evolve. While my perspective may be biased, ask yourself: would you rather take pride in making (and enjoying) a great meal or spend your time cleaning the carpet?
Dear Chef Dez:
I like the taste of garlic in different dishes, however when I add it to a stir-fry it always adds a bitter flavour. What am I doing wrong?
Sincerely,
John D.
Abbotsford, BC
Dear John:
If this is the only time you experience a bitter flavour from the addition of garlic to a recipe, I suspect that it is getting burned. Garlic burns very easily, especially if added to the extreme temperature in “wok cooking”. To avoid this problem in the future, always add a different vegetable first to the hot wok to temper it a little before adding the garlic.
Chef Dez is a Chef, Writer, & Culinary Instructor. Visit him at www.chefdez.com
Write to him at dez@chefdez.com or P.O. Box 2674, Abbotsford, BC V2T 6R4
