Pessin Caroline - Cook When You Can, Eat When You Want: Prep Once for Delicious Meals All Week

What a joy it is to come home each night from work without the worry of deciding what to make for dinner! Nothing offers more peace of mind during the week than knowing you will have to spend very little time cooking at the end of the day, and that you will get to enjoy a delicious and balanced meal that requires minimal cleanup.

These questions each night are familiar to many of us: What am I going to make for dinner? Do I have what I need in the fridge? How will I be able to cook a delicious and healthy meal and spend time with the kids, give them their baths, help them with homework, etc.?

When we feel overwhelmed with the answers to these questions, we often end up giving in to whats easiest: just boiling some pasta, or heating a frozen prepackaged dinner, or opting for deliveryall of which are less healthy and less economical choices!

But by adopting a different approach to organizing your meals and cooking, it is possible to alleviate the stress of making dinner each night for your family.

The idea is simple: during the weekend, set aside about 2 hours all at once for cooking an entire weeks worth of meals.

In this book, we have laid out for you 16 varied and balanced menus, grouped by the seasons. The menus are designed to feed a family of 4, with enough in quantity to feed 2 adults and 2 teenagers. If you have small children, or if you are only 3 people, you can take the leftovers to the office the next day to enjoy as lunch.

Each menu has 7 recipes: 5 entres and 2 appetizers (for evenings when the entres are lighter). We chose not to include desserts because most of us simply eat a piece of fruit or perhaps some ice cream after dinner; and many of us like to leave our sweeter indulgences for the weekends.

With this method, Monday to Friday, you no longer have to worry about what to make for dinner or have to do last-minute shopping, and you will spend 30 minutes or less in the kitchen each nightthats a promise!

TO ACCOMPLISH THIS METHOD OF COOKING, SIMPLY FOLLOW THESE STEPS:

Choose one of the seasonal menus that appeals to you.

Do your food shopping on the weekend (Friday night, Saturday, or Sunday). Each menus ingredients are very common and can be found easily in typical supermarkets. Only in a very few cases will it be necessary to make a quick side trip to a specialty food store or market.

Choose a weekend day, Saturday or Sunday, where you have a free block of 2 hours in front of you. It is best to cook on Sunday, however, rather than Saturday, to ensure everything stays its freshest throughout the week and to cut down on the number of meals you have to freeze.

Before you begin cooking, set out all the listed ingredients on your countertop or work surface. This is a tip for saving even more time because it avoids trips to the refrigerator or pantry each time you need something.

Before you begin cooking, set out all the necessary equipment and utensils that are listed. If you do this, you will have everything at your fingertips while you cook.

Follow the steps of the recipes as they are written, as they were developed according to actual preparation times.

Store the finished dishes and ingredients as instructed at the end of each cooking session. In general, dishes to be served Monday to Wednesday can be refrigerated, while those to be served Thursday and Friday should be frozen.

The result? During each night of the week, all you have to do is follow the instructions for assembling, reheating, or completing the meals with some quick, final steps. In all, you will spend less than half an hour in your kitchen each night. Some nights, there is nothing to do except reheat an entre. Other nights youll need to do some last-minute cooking, some quick final prep, or just combine some ingredients.

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF THIS METHOD?

First, this method offers an undeniable peace of mind during the week by eliminating the hassle of deciding what to prepare for dinner as well as eliminating the need to do last-minute shopping at the end of the day.

Second, this method is a real time-saver because not only will you spend much less time cooking, you will also spend less time washing and putting away the dishes. Use the extra time you gain each night by resting, or spending time with your family.