Preparing food ahead of time

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12 July 2005

Written by: paperboy Posted under Diet and Nutrition,

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Unless you have sufficient quantities of prepared diet-type foods on hand (stored in the fridge and never more than two minutes away from micro-resurrection) chances of dietary success are slim. Excepting the Kitchen Adepts, when normal folks discover that they are hungry, its too late! Hunger is an impatient demon and demands to be satiated, quickly, immediately. Are you really going to go to the trouble of dicing vegetables, grilling proteins and assembling a healthy, balanced meal while starving? Lets be realistic and say, no way. If, however, youve gone to the trouble to prepare different foods ahead of time, then eating a balanced, tasty (theres the key!) meal takes three minutes. Simply pull three or four Tupperware containers from the refrigerator, scoop out a portion of each, micro for a couple of minutes and BAM! Hunger is satiated and with all the right stuff. If you find yourself hungry and nothing good is around, likely youll end up eating junk food. It is so easy to wolf down a thousand calories of sugar and saturated fat in a matter of minutes. The key to avoiding binge eating is having great tasting food already prepared ahead of time. I classify preferred foods into three broad categories: protein, fibrous and starchy carbohydrates.

Protein
Turkey It is easy as hell to roast an entire bird in the oven; it takes two to three hours depending on size. Or use the indirect method on the Weber grill. I roast a smallish bird in 2.5 hours. The clan favorite is hickory-smoked turkey done on the trusty Weber. Cook until the meat thermometer registers 170-180 degrees. Pick at the bird carcass all week long.

Chicken Roast whole chickens (ala turkey) or marinade pieces and store them until cooking time. I will de-bone and flatten chicken pieces on Sunday afternoon and store the raw bird pieces in a sealed container. It takes less than 5-minutes to stove top cook a de-boned or pre-flattened bird piece in a little olive oil in a Teflon pan. Dredge them in whole wheat flour or cook plain. I use my outdoor Weber grill or propane gas grill year round for slow roasting or quick grilling chicken.

Beef Beef and gasoline prices have shot out of sight and I find myself eating less beef. When beef, shrimp and orange roughly cost roughly the same, I find myself eating a lot more fish. I love rib-eye or fillet and can grill a steak on my propane grill inside five minutes. Let the steak sit on the counter for 30-minutes before cooking as this allows the intracellular fat to soften. I usually coat the steak with a little olive oil and salt and pepper right before grilling. For medium rare hit an internal temperature of 140-degrees. Always let steak sit for five full minutes before cutting.

Fish
Thin fillets like flounder, haddock, cod and trout are a snap: it takes five minutes to stovetop cook a fillet in a Teflon pan with a little bit of olive oil. Salmon, shark, tuna and the thick steak cuts takes longer. These can be grilled, baked or slow roasted ahead of time but only hold them for three days no more than that.

Shellfish
Shrimp take less than 10-minutes to steam a batch of crustaceans. I like to pan fry jumbo shrimp still in the shell in oil over a hot flame. Delicious and quick. Scallops are another favorite. I make a basmati rice then mix in shrimp, a vegetable mixture of roast carrots, onions and peppers and scoop out a serving every day until its gone. Great eating. Shellfish cook quick so dont murder them or theyll end up rubbery.

Fibrous carbohydrates

Salad bags So easy, so quick, so self-explanatory

Broccoli flowerets I buy a giant bag of broccoli tops at Sams Club for about four bucks. I roast the crowns over high heat in oil in a deep pan. The tops caramelize and develop a wonderful nutty taste. Steaming vegetables is bad news as all the flavor ends up in the water. Steam leeches the flavor from vegetables. I go through a bag a week.

Green beans Delicious slow cooked in a slight bit of oil in a Teflon pan. Long slow and low heat softens the beans and intensifies flavors.

Red/green peppers Love them. Same stove top procedure as above, I pull them apart with my hands.

Onions Vidalia onions when available, reds are great also. I slice them thin with a $10 vegetable razor slicer I purchased at a mall cooking store. Store the onion slices in baggies and pull them out for salads or quick cooking.

Little baby carrots Great, great, greatI put them on salads, eat them as they are or dice them and caramelize them along with sweet peppers, jalapeo peppers and onionsI make a big pan of this mix and store it and then serve it as a side with fish, bird or beef.

Starchy carbs

Rice Steam it or use the rice-a-roni method. Either way stores easily

Potatoes Not eating too many as of late. Bake them along with roasting bird

The idea is to take an afternoon and prepare a goodly amount of food for use during the coming week. For example, I might start the cook-a-thon off by roasting a turkey in a 350-degree oven. While the bird is cooking I make a pan full of roast broccoli followed immediately by a pan of roast peppers, onions and carrots. After the medley has finished Ill start the slow-cook green beans. They will simmer along with the roasting oven-bird. Now I set the rice steamer going (takes about 45-minutes) and head outside to the grill. I might grill some shrimp or scallops, perhaps some marinated chicken parts. When everything is done, I place it in individual Tupperware containers and store in the refrigerator. Steaks and fish fillets are purchased and ready to go: flatten or de-bone bird pieces and store in the ice box. All are now ready to be eaten within 20-minutes. A great side benefit for the time investment on Sunday is (everything can be done within 180-minutes.) you buy back an incredible amount of time during the week. Now when you come home after a nerve-wracking day at work, instead of having to deal with preparing some hasty, half-ass meal that tastes terrible and takes a spastic hour to bring together, things are different! Now, within 15 minutes of commencing, youve got a great tasting (theres that word again) meal on the table thats satisfying, healthy and pushes you another step towards the transformation goal line.

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