Clever Cooking
Do you ever cook a large quantity of something so that you can have a break from cooking for a few days? I believe there is a word for this, and I’ve heard of a book that advocates doing intensive cooking for a day or two and then freezing 30 meals so you just have to heat and eat the rest of the month.
Well, I’m not THAT organized. 
But I have discovered the convenience of cooking up a crockpot of soup or a stew and then doling it out into Tupperware or other plastic containers, in about meal-sized portions, and putting them in the fridge or freezer to give me some “quick meals” or lunches for a few days. If I get tired of these meals I can always insert a different menu for a day or two, or just put the portions in the freezer and happen upon them one day when hunting for a quick meal.
Doing a big pot or crock full meal takes a bit of fore-thought, but is not hard to do. Normally I try to come up with some idea in this direction on the weekend, but I was away a lot this past weekend, so last night while I was trying to toss together a quick supper, i also chopped half an onion and tossed it in the crockpot. I rinsed some beans and lentils and dropped them into the crock too. I checked the freezer and found one package of hamburger meat. As it defrosted in the frying pan with some water to steam, I scraped off chunks of the meat to go into the crock. The last part I left in the pan to form supper with some macaroni, and a can of mushroom soup, and some frozen peas. Meantime, in those moments of waiting for supper, I put a can of tomato soup into the crock and some salt and some dried summer savory.
I took a peek and figured it just needed some more water, so I poured some tap water into the empty mushroom and tomato soup cans and rinsed that water into the crock. Then I put the lid on, made sure the crock was turned on, and forgot about it for the rest of the evening, while I had supper, did dishes, and went to the computer for my evening’s work.
Well, somewhere after 10 pm the wonderful smell tempted me to go check the crockpot and taste my “whatever stew.” Yum!! I turned it off, and when I was about to go to bed, it was cooled down enough so I could spoon it into my containers. I get four generous meals out of that, plus what I had left over from my skillet supper. I can always add variations (rice, pastas, more water for soup, or other spices) as I warm them up, but I’ve done most of my cooking for this week. Into next week as well, if I spread them out.
Is that clever as you, or what?