Be Prepared
How can I not strongly bring this up and straight into your mindset? To Be or Not To Be Prepared, that is the essential question! Are You prepared? Answering this with a Yes, will prevent you from looking into an empty fridge and find your hands touching the void of empty cupboards. Also, you will prevent yourself from having to score something, Anything, for your empty stomach. So: Preparation is Key in the Kitchen!
ProActive KitchenWise
Looking ahead in (seeding, harvesting) buying, storing and pre~paring your meals is simply the most wise thing you can think of / organise / do, for your physical and mental health = wellbeing. Being Proactive KitchenWise can and will save you time, money, energy and frustration. More over, it will help you to remain calm, being peaceful and feeling satisfied over and over again. 🙂
Sooo, so much to gain and to invest your valuable time and attention in. Let’s go for that?
Preparation can mean that you:
- Keep stock
- Update your stock list
- Update a grocery list
- Cook in advance
- Spare leftovers for lunch
- Think ahead while shopping
Keeping in mind that:
- Once you know your own Taste Pallet and Personal Favorites, you can keep a certain stock of Always Available Goods.
- I personally like writing on a blackboard what I have in the fridge and freezer.
- It’s useful to put a Little List in the kitchen on which you keep track of every missing item.
- Once you are preparing a Meal that takes Extra time and effort, make some more.. Then see if it is suitable to warm up another day. If so, do that the next-other day or eat it cold or (if suitable) freeze it for later.
- And when you prepare dinner, look forward to the leftovers (prepare enough 🙂 Especially mediterranean dishes can be great for lunch without warming it again.
- If you don’t want to lose time and energy shopping for food frequently (I prefer weekly), it takes thinking ahead about the (fresh) products to buy and about what they need to be conserved and come wholesome meals.
Lets’ dive in the last one some more, it’s a favorite topic of mine 🙂
Thinking ahead about what the products need, to become wholesome meals. I mean, different vegetables need different kinds of care. Some you can keep for weeks, others for just a few days. But even the leafy ones, you can keep for at least a week, IF you treat them right.
Which is: you have to package them airtight, so the water doesn’t evaporate. This starts already in the shop! Don’t let them wilt before getting them into your fridge. Save yourself the effort of bringing them back to life again or the pain of throwing them away! You can avoid these scenario’s simply by not using paper bags but plastic ones (you will re-use).
The not~worth~while kind of preparation.
Then, we haven’t covered the preparation of a cooking session yet. Are you the kind of person that will not cook until everything is measured, weighed, in place and in order, following the (strange) instructions that make you warm the oven, while you just started cutting the onion? Well, that’s the not~worth~while kind of preparation. The pleasurable way to cook is somewhere in the middle. Think of helping yourself cooking like a professional would mean: preparing ‘mise en place’. Maybe too much of a high goal for what you're going to eat. But no doubt, it is proven smart to make space, clean the working place and check the recipe and your stock first, before you do anything. 🙂
What's a good time to learn about timing?
Once you get more routined and secure of yourself, you will know what to do first while starting up some other activities. It’s mostly a matter of timing that needs to be learned in practice, by experience. Of course, because Preparation in the Kitchen is Key, this will be a favourite topic of mine also in my upcoming Courses. Check it out 🙂
