Theresa Albert-Ratchford - Cook Once a Week, Eat Well Every Day: Make-Ahead Meals that Transform Your Suppertime Circus into Relaxing Family Time

THERESA ALBERT-RATCHFORD

Cook Once a Week

And Eat Well Every Day

Dedicated to Guy and Jameson. From my first disaster, Jerk Tofu, through breast milk, baby food and Red River Cereal, all the way to Sushi for fireside supperboth of you have tried every bite, gave honest opinions and gave me the courage to go on.

Heres the secret to a meal planning system that will save you hours thinking about meals, grocery shopping and the kitchen. Cook Once a Week simplifies things by providing you with a weekly meal plan of surefire family pleasers. Most recipes are designed to be successfully doubled and the balance frozen for future use. Suggestions for making leftovers into brand-new meals (these are the Grab and Go part of the recipes) are included to stretch three cooked meals into fiveone for every night of the workweek. The best part of the process is that each weekly plan is designed to be cooked all in one afternoon. Using no more than three hours on a Sunday, you can prepare not only that nights dinner but also the meals for the rest of the week. The economy of motion never looked so good. The idea is to get as much done as possible. If you have to be in the kitchen anyway, why not let it be the only time you lift or clean a pot all week!

All of your nutritional wishes have been considered. Cook Once a Week has few trans fats, has lower starch and carbs (we use whole grains) and keeps healthy fats in healthy proportions.

Cook Once a Week is designed not only to simplify and make meals healthful but also to reduce the cost of doing so. Buying only what you need reduces the feeling-guilty cycle of buying with the best of intentions, letting things rot then throwing them away. Our shopping lists include everything you need to get the job done (deliciously!) and nothing more. This is a much smarter way to shop.

We know that todays busy schedules have you at home for supper about three nights per workweek and the rest are grab as you can, so we have planned for exactly that with a little for leftovers. A quick, nourishing lunch or two is just one of the bonuses of our system. Everything is based on a family of four, which is a round number, so you can scale up or down as needed. Kids under eight usually eat half portions, kids between the ages of eight and 12 can count as about three-quarter portions, and kids over 12 are anybodys guess from zero to two portions. Youll have to figure out the adolescent stomach as you go alongjust like their clothes and music.

We have included an entire chapter of recipes for kids to make with you (see Bonus Kids Week). If youve got little ones, we suggest that this meal plan be your first foray into your new system for two reasons: the meals are utterly kid friendly and the recipes are the easiest of them all! Some families will use the Bonus Kids Week over and over again, venturing only into the other chapters when they have company or host a big family dinner. For fussy eaters, perhaps your best bet is to make these kids meals and freeze everything in single-serving sizes. Kids can microwave them only after they have tried the rest of what is put on the table. No hassling or arguing; simply suggest that they get one of the meals that they made and microwave it. As long as your microwave oven is within reach, any child over three can do thiswith supervision.

Our experience with kids tells us that they are much more likely to eat something that they have invested in, and we do suggest that the Sunday cook-a-thon include them as soon as they can hold a knifewhether youre making the Bonus Week meals or any others. You can start them around age two with a plastic lettuce knife and let them cut up salad greens, then graduate to a serrated bread knife, which is easier to handle and harder to cut oneself with. By age three, they can handle a small paring knife if watched and guided well. I have taught many six-, seven-and eight-year-olds to use a ten-inch chefs knife safely as long as they are the kind of kid who can keep their eye on the job.

How to use this book

Each week has a work schedule that outlines how you are going to accomplish a weeks worth of healthy cooking in three or so hours. Getting everything prepared on Sunday so that cooking the evening meal on any day later in the week is a simple, one-step process is the foundation of this book. The work schedule will help you plan the preparations, and the end result on a busy week night will be almost like stopping for take-out on the way home and warming it up in your own oven. Except cheaper, healthier and yummier!

Heres how to get going:

• When starting a meal plan, set out all recipe ingredients in groups around the kitchen. You dont need any special equipment or a large space by any means. The idea is that you use your space well: one side of the sink for veggies, one side for raw meat; one side of your stove for cooking one dish and the other for cooking the second dish or prepping something else.

• The recipes are in order of what you start first so you can read each weeks recipes from beginning to end and just keep moving until all of your ingredients are off the counter and in the pots. Once you get going, it will become clear what needs to happen next. For instance, when you hit a point in the first recipe that says simmer for 20 minutes you can move on to the next recipe and get it started. By having stations around the stove, you can see what goes where and you wont have to keep checking the recipe and running to the fridge. Your first attempt will be the clumsiest but dont give up! Like anything, the routine will become, well, routine. Each week is designed to ease you further into the process, starting with the simplest and moving to the more complex.

• A note about garbage: always keep a large bowl for discards at the back of your counter space when working. This eliminates the unnecessary steps to your waste or compost bin over and over again. Emptying one container at the end of the cooking session is much more hygienic and efficient than making several dozen trips to the trash. Place one bowl next to your stove and one next to your sink directly in front of you.

• Assess your storage needs. If you want to store your soups in single-serving sizes because your family eats at different times, then please do so. If you are the set-the-casserole-on-the-table kind of household then be sure to freeze it all in one container. The reheating instructions are intended to be flexible and you can adjust the reheating times up or down depending on your needs. It is always better to freeze in shallow containers because the freezing process happens more quickly, keeping food fresher, and the reheating process is faster.

As you go along, you will find that you always have one or two dishes in the freezer for quick meals. When you find that a dish is a hit with the whole family, be sure to double it next time you make it and freeze for future use.

We have provided you with grocery lists for each week. Each list has all of the ingredients that you need for that week, including the Grab and Go options (usually for four servings). Once you are sure which meals will go over with everyone (and we have plenty of variation ideas for the fussiest members) you can photocopy the list to increase the amount of each ingredient as needed to double or triple a recipe. Or visit www.cookonceaweek.ca. You will find all the shopping lists there for you in downloadable form.

When you have a complete list of all that you need for the weekly plan (including your up-sizing, if necessary), you can photocopy this plan multiple times so you can use it over again throughout the season. Try keeping a binder with these shopping lists and tracking your grocery bills. Family life being the circus that it is, we are sure the other copies will get misplaced, splattered upon or chewed by the dog. Do yourself a favour and keep this copy. Dont lose sight of this page of crucial information!