Organizing your cooking routine boils down to putting meal planning on the front burner—and having a seasonal slant to your shopping and recipe selection.
DAILY
□Prep for the next day’s meals.
WEEKLY
□Plan meals and snacks for the week ahead; make a shopping list (with the goal of shopping for the bulk of the ingredients in one trip).
□Check perishables and replace as needed.
□Shop for ingredients, using the list from the weekly meal plan.
□Shop the farmers’ market; pick up CSA share.
□Prep ahead over the weekend, using the strategies on pages 218 to 221.
□Explore cookbooks and online sites for new recipes to avoid the rotation rut.
MONTHLY
□Focus on in-season fruits and vegetables (see monthly In-Season Picks in Part One).
□Prepare and use freeze-ahead meals.
SEASONALLY
□Rotate cookbooks and cooking equipment (swapping the slow cooker for grilling tools, for example).
□Preserve summer produce by freezing it or making quick pickles and jams.
□Sharpen knives.
twice yearly
□Purge the pantry, tossing out expired items.
□Take inventory of cooking tools and equipment and replace as needed.
If you have
5 minutes . . .
If you have
10 minutes . . .
If you have
15 minutes . . .
Figuring out a way to share a homemade dinner with your family is all about cooking when it works for you.
The Weekend Cook: You don’t have time to cook every weeknight, and you’d like people to fix their own meals when you’re not home.
The Plan: Invest a few hours on a weekend to prep multiple meals. Make hearty soups (page 66) and casseroles, and measure out serving amounts before freezing.
The A.M. Cook: You have more time in the morning than the evening, and you prefer to have a ready-to-go meal in the refrigerator to allow for flexible eating schedules.
The Plan: Prepare easy meals before breakfast, focusing on dishes that take 45 minutes or less and reheat well—think meatloaf rather than steak, sautéed chicken thighs rather than grilled breasts. Frittatas and pasta salads taste great cold or at room temperature.
The Short-Order Cook: Making dinner is a top priority for you, as is keeping a well-stocked kitchen. Rather than sticking to a recipe, you buy what looks good and is well-priced at the store.
The Plan: Do a big shop on the weekend for mix-and-match ingredients: quick-cooking proteins (cutlets, steaks, sausages, and tofu) and vegetables, plus canned tomatoes and beans and assorted grains and pasta.