Are You Kidding? Who Has Time To Cook Healthy?

 

Exasperated? Overwhelmed? Too busy? Frustrated? Dumbfounded? Tired?

 

Do these feelings flood over you on a daily basis? Put on the brakes. Grab a cup of tea and let's have a heart to heart. Did you know that a few minutes of planning can save you hours of time and brain space each day/week/month?

 

When I get overwhelmed with all I have to do, I grab my notebook and pencil and start writing it all down. Somehow the act of brain to paper unloads my heavy burden as I attempt to tame my day. Once the page is full I give each task an ETA (Estimated Time of Accomplishment) and then add up the minutes on the page. This tells me whether my duties outweigh the hours. Another words, can I actually get it all done? If not, I see if there's anything I can move to the next day. Then I give each duty a number of importance and a time frame.

 

30 min. - 7:00-7:30 - Lemon "tea", email and FB
45 min. - 7:30-8:15 - Work out
30 min. - 8:15-8:45 - Water garden
30 min. - 8:45-9:15 - Shower and dress
15 min. - 9:15-9:30 - Eat breakfast
30 min. - 9:30-10:00 - Meditation
30 min. - 10:00-10:30 - Clean kitchen
15 min. - 10:30-10:45 - Choose recipes
15 min. - 10:45-11:00 - Make ingredient list
90 min. - 11:00-12:30 - Grocery shop
60 min. - 12:30-1:30 - Make and eat lunch
60 min. - 1:30-2:30 - Put away groceries
10 min. - 2:30-2:40 - Make quinoa and rice
60 min. - 2:40-3:40 - Prep vegetables and put away

4:00 tea

10 min. - 3:40-3:50 - Prep carrot lemonade juice veggies
10 min. - 3:50-4:00 - Prep beet juice veggies
10 min. - 4:00-4:10 - Prep lemonade fruits for juice
10 min. - 4:10-4:20 - Prep Kale apple juice veggies
30 min. - 4:20-4:50 - Tea and snack time. Answer emails.
60 min. - 4:50-5:50 - Clean kitchen
55 min. - 5:50-6:45 - Plan gluten free recipes for cooking class
75 min. - 6:45-8:00 - Pizza with hubby
13 hours
 

Lately, this has been necessary since I now must make all my food from scratch. Being gluten and dairy intolerant means I can't rely on quick food fixes anymore. Priorities have shifted. So, I thought I would share "A day in the life of a gluten free, dairy free chef".

 

Today is grocery shopping day. The first thing on my list:

1. Choose 7 recipes (1 or 2 new; the rest from my Keeper binder)

 

I have 2 three-ring binders. One I fill with new recipes found online or in magazines or cookbooks that I would like to try. The other is filled with "Keepers" - those recipes which I've tried and which taste good (very important to taste good).

 

I finally have at least 14 recipes which both I and my husband like, so these have become a 14-day rotation. In a month's time we only  have to eat each recipe twice. Again, a time saver since I don't have to rethink "what's for dinner" every night.

 

Next, I make an ingredient list from my seven chosen recipes.

2. Make ingredient list

 

If you're crunched for time this step can be eliminated. Just take the 7 recipes with you to the grocery store and check ingredients as you shop. Not as efficient, but doable.

 



Left overs

Next, of course, is to get the groceries.

3. Grocery shopping

This usually takes me an hour in the store, plus travel time. It's better if my refrigerator is cleaned out (eat all leftovers the night before) to make room for new stuff; and if my counters are cleared.

 

Groceries bought and back home. Now it's time for efficiency.

 

I eat a lot of quinoa since it's gluten free, a complete protein by itself, and is an alkaline food. Since it will stay fresh cooked for the week, I check all recipes, see how much I need, and make it all at once.
 

4. Make quinoa for the week, cool, then refrigerate

 

I do the same with rice (brown or black, depending on the recipes chosen).
 

5. Make rice for the week


 

Another way to save time is to prepare all vegetables needed for your recipes at once: peel carrots, scrub potatoes, wash celery, chop onions, scrub beets, cut and wash Brussels sprouts and broccoli. Once you get going, you get on a roll. If time permits, you could also put vegetables away grouped according to the recipe.

 



5 pound bag of carrots scrubbed and ready to package

6. Prep vegetables and put away
 

 

Since I usually juice at least once a day, I also prepare juice ingredients and package them in ziploc bags per recipe.

 

7. Carrot lemonade: Wash 6 carrots, 1/2 small lemon, 1 apple, 1 stalk of celery - ziploc it. Make two.
 

8. Beet juice: Scrub 1 small beet, wash 1 large cucumber, cut a 2" piece of fresh peeled ginger, cut pineapple in quarters - ziploc it. Make 2

9. Pink lemonade: wash 2 apples, wash 1 small lemon, scrub 1/4 beet - ziploc it. Make 2

10. Kale apple juice: wash 10 kale leaves, wash 1 apple, wash 1 cucumber, 1/2 whole lemon - ziploc it.

 

Now all seven juices are ready for the week - no more thinking required.

 

Another time saving tip I've found is to make sure I make twice as much for dinner as we need from each recipe, then we have leftovers for lunch the next day. Double for your trouble.

 

Wow, lots of prepping done. As a reward, it's time to order pizza out. Yup, I can get a gluten free, no cheese, delicious, vegetable pizza down the street at Stone and Paddle where one of my sons works. Sometimes I get a quick visit with him if he's not too busy.

 

Every time I'm able to do this prep routine at the beginning of my week, it leaves lots of brain space left for the rest of daily living, like blogging, teaching cooking classes, and making new recipes.

Now let me hear from you. What timesavers have you found helpful to make your life less overwhelming?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Viewing Italy through culinary eyes

Some of my earliest memories are of watching my Italian grandfather in his beloved garden tending his vegetables: lettuce, tomatoes, eggplant, swiss chard, zucchini. He also had roses, fig trees, pear trees, raspberries, and a grape arbor. Not only did he garden but he was a great cook as well. He was the epitome of “farm to table” long before the term was in vogue. 

"Grampy!" I'd say, "How do you cook that?"
"Why do you want to know?" he'd ask.
"Because I love your cooking!"
After giving me a quizzical look he'd say, "Watch me". 

So on the rare occasion I would catch him in the kitchen, he would let me watch him cook and revealed his culinary secrets to me. He would make fried squash flowers; zucchini, peppers and onions; and chicken and egg drop soup. He loved fresh salad with a simple olive oil and vinegar dressing. His special technique was to rub the inside of the wooden salad bowl with fresh garlic before adding his salad greens and tomatoes. He would then toss the salad with oil, then add vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. The ingredients were always so simple, but so amazingly good. I never knew why until I took my first trip to Italy. It was because he picked them perfectly ripe right from his garden! What Italian’s have practiced for years, we in America seem to be re-discovering; the practice of “Farm to Table”.

Grampy's been gone many years, but his memory was strong as I traveled the Italian countryside. Everywhere I looked I could see the influence of Grampy in my life - the beautiful gardens and fresh vegetables, the grape vines, and even the clustering of Italian men chatting excitedly in Italian, hands waving as I saw him often do with his many brothers. He always loved to eat fresh out of the garden and I had the privilege of doing the same during my internship in Italy, especially at Poggios with Gabrielle.

 Gabrielle is the owner of a lovely Italian bed and breakfast in Orvieto where I stayed during my internship. She did not speak English and I was only learning Italian; but with hand gestures, facial expressions, and my Italian/English dictionary we managed to communicate. She showed me how to make Buccatini all'Amatriciana with fresh tomatoes straight from her garden.

She also taught me how to make potato gnocchi and sauce it with homemade pesto she made from her own basil. Gabrielle shopped for her meats and fruits every day at markets and farms around town. She loved the land and she loved the pleasure of eating and drinking the fruit of her labor. If she didn't grow it herself, she knew a neighbor who did. In Italy many herbs grow year round.

 

The winters aren't as harsh and the herbs don't die. Rosemary grows into large shrubs and bay leaf trees are as abundant as the maple trees of New England. No matter where I stayed in Italy, there was fresh food and herbs, literally, at my fingertips.

People have asked me the secret of Italian cooking, hoping to gain some hidden revelation or some new technique. But the secret is very simple. Italians love fresh ingredients enough to grow their own, even if it's just a garden plot in the back yard. And they eat regionally. If they live in the

Umbrian region where pork, wild boar, turkey and truffles (tartufo) are prominent, that’s what they specialize in that. If they live near the coast, they specialize in seafood. Each town has an open air market. In the cities, the fresh markets are open daily. Italians shop nearly every day for their

food. They eat it fresh and they make it from scratch. They take the time to make their food and they take just as long to enjoy it, every

day! They work long days but every noon they come home for dinner and enjoy the fruit of the land and mamma's good cooking - buona cucina. After dinner and wine they go for walks, every day, together. It's called the passagiata. Then they go back to work.

The Italian lifestyle consists of close families, good wine, fresh food and beautiful farmland.

My husband and I will be going back to Italy soon. Even though I will hate to leave that beautiful country, I hope to glean more culinary knowlege and bring it back to share it with you.

Arrivederci for now.