Bojana Snijders-Nikodijevic - The Plan Prep Plate Method - Simple Dinners for Busy Families

Copyright 2018 by Bojana Snijders-Nikodijevi

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Photography Barbara Zonzin 2018

Interior and cover design by Cyndee Sugra

First Edition, 2018

ISBN 978-90-827611-0-8

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

G rowing up in Serbia, there was always fresh, homemade food in our house. Even though she worked full-time, my mom cooked for us every day. But how did she do it? We all know family cooking can be a chore its hard and often thankless work. When I was old enough to understand, I realized that my mom cooked at night, after we were tucked up in bed.

Our relationship to food is one of those things that can bring us joy or, equally, make us feel like failures. As a modern society, we have let good eating slip down our collective priority list. Processed foods have found their way on to many families tables, along with unrecognizable fine print ingredients. Have we forgotten that nourishment is one of the pillars of health and happiness? Deep down, we all know the importance of good food but the demands of parenthood, work and modern life have made cooking for our families a daily struggle.

Im on a mission to empower busy parents to take family meals back into their own hands.

I want us all to enjoy weeknights filled with quality time with our children, while still eating healthy, delicious, home-cooked meals as a family. This can have far-reaching effects bringing families closer together, enabling us to raise healthier children and create a stronger, happier society!

I am a mother of two boys and I am a chef. Figuring out food prep has been a long and challenging journey for me. However, you dont need to be a chef to share in what I have learned. Actually, you dont even need to like cooking! I know you cannot spend every night cooking, like my mom did. Drawing upon my experiences as both a busy working mother and a professional chef, Ive developed a simple and sustainable method to transform how you cook, eat and enjoy your evenings. I call it the Plan, Prep and Plate method. But before we get into all that, let me tell you more about myself.

MY STORY

My mom is a natural cook. She learned to cook from her mother, just as her mother did before her and just as I did, too. A wide variety of dinners wound up on our table, from traditional favorites like sarmice (dolmas) and prebranac (baked beans) to exotic, travel-inspired food. She even brought back ingredients from China; her Chinese dish is the one we still eat at family gatherings. Mom made pizza from scratch, when hardly anyone in Serbia knew what pizza was. I would play with the dough or lick bowls clean while she cooked.

In my twenties, I moved to the Netherlands to finish my masters degree and escape the political situation in Serbia at that time. I met my husband and pursued a career in strategy and finance. I was ambitious, driven and ready to conquer the world. When we started planning a family, I naively thought parenthood would not have a significant impact on my career and ambition. I was so wrong! My attempts to have it all and do it all well drove me to burnout, one of the most challenging and vulnerable periods of my life.

A high-flying job, long office hours and demanding clients left me hardly any time outside of work. From the moment I arrived home until my sons bedtime, I had one or two precious hours at most. I wanted to play with them and be the fun mom. But I also needed that time to cook for them, just like my mom did for me.

Children need both quality food and quality time with their parents. I could not choose one over the other.

That rush hour around dinner time was always a challenge. Everyone was tired and hungry, with tantrums and tears the order of the day. Every evening I felt exhausted. I never got enough sleep. Then one day, I could not get out of bed any more.

Burnout.

As with many challenges that force you to re-evaluate life, that burnout was a blessing in disguise. My boss at the time suggested I take some time off, and do something fun likebake a chocolate fondant. Chocolate fondant? Google took me to a website full of complex baking recipes. The challenge of getting them right was just what I needed to take my mind off the other areas of my life, where I was struggling. Soon, I started to see the patterns. The logical brain that had once led me to study engineering was reengaged. I read cookbooks, cooked and developed a deep understanding of food.

Cooking rescued me and became my superpower.

One day on TV, I saw a casting call for MasterChef. I had always watched this show, loving the improvisation and the passion the candidates demonstrated. Hungry for learning and change, I applied. Imagine my joy when I was accepted! After three months of the cooking roller coaster that is MasterChef, I made it to the final week.

With the doors of the culinary world flung open, there was no going back to the office. Following MasterChef, I trained in some of the best kitchens in the Netherlands, observing how Michelin-starred chefs operate. I realized that all of the creativity, the beauty, and the deliciousness that comes out of those kitchens is, in large part, due to the organizational system they use.

Hmm. Why were only professional chefs using this system?

This was my A-ha! moment. Busy parents like me need a system like this to get us through the daily dinner rush! As I took those lessons and developed them into a method suitable for home cooking, I knew I had to write a cookbook for the people who need it most modern busy families.

MY BELIEFS ABOUT FOOD

The Plan, Prep and Plate method is built upon the organization principles I learned from working in professional kitchens. But watching my mother cook when I was a little girl taught me food is more than just fuel for our body it is an expression of love.

I dont want to be dogmatic about what is healthy. No single food is the enemy, nor is it the Holy Grail. You will not find trendy diets here. Kale is not the Earths one gift to humanity.

For food to be delicious and nourishing, it must be varied, balanced, and made with love.

Hands-down, the best way to satisfy all of these criteria is with a home-cooked meal. I believe in sharing family meals and in teaching our children to eat nutritiously. We try to avoid industrially processed foods. Savory foods, from sausages to salad dressings, are often loaded with sugar to make them taste better and last longer. While I dont skimp on the sugar when I bake with my children, I do not think we should eat it in all our food. Sugar consumption should be our deliberate choice, not a choice made for us by big industries.