I had almost given up cooking before my boyfriend! I've always been enjoying spending time in the kitchen, but, often time, I just gave in to my laziness. Plus, I had my perfect excuses: 1. I'm a busy phD student; 2. I'm spending most of my "kitchen time" baking.
So I'm really used to a rather simple meal plan myself: homemade bread for breakfast, salad for lunch and yogurt for dinner. (I try to balance the protein and starch in it, so, don't worry, I can totally be filled up.) With all my passion (and time), I made bread for myself and cakes for friends.
However, all these routine somehow changed when I started to take on the responsibility to feed someone- someone who is an ultimate meat lover, who hates salad (I mean, all the green leaves), who would never join my meal plan. Alas, the game completely changed- only I'm still the lazy girl as I've always been. So I came up with a couple of tricks for the "game":
1. Make it simple but fantastic.
If I can pick, I definitely prefer one delicate&delicious one-pot dish than several roughly-made dishes. And it takes much shorter time to focus on one! I had this roommate who could never accept to make herself fewer than two dishes with soup. So every day, I saw her spending a good hour or two cooking when I already finished washing the dishes. For me, it's always good to indulge myself in the kitchen for a long time and make a whole set of dishes once in a while, but it's definitely not for everyday life.
Meanwhile, I've found myself more gravitating towards noodles from rice. One big reason is actually that people (especially Chinese) like to pair rice with several dishes while we only need one topping with noodles.
2. Pick a new "theme" everyday.
One dish sometimes does tend to lack multiplicity- fewer options in one meal. So it is definitively helpful to change the ingredient, and more importantly, flavor (hot sauce, soy sauce, salt&pepper, BBQ...) everyday.
3. Cook a lot when you are in the "cooking-mood".
During weekends, I sometimes tune back to "cooking mode" when I actually want to spend some time in the kitchen. I bake in most of the time, but also prepare for the weekdays. Two weeks ago, my BF and I spent a Sunday afternoon making a big batch of dumplings. I froze them down, which sustained us for another 4 meals!
4. Slowcooker is your best friend.
It is not exaggerative at all that my slowcooker has saved my life! I use it all the time, because it just allows me to do soups and stews without actually spending time. Prepare all your ingredients (pork or beef), throw in the slowcooker, and let it do the work when you are sleeping or at work. I like to start cooking the meat before I go to lab (which takes longer to cook down), and add more veges after I come back and prepare to eat.
5. Be with a boyfriend that you are always willing to cook for. (Seriously, that is the key, right? :))
So I'm really used to a rather simple meal plan myself: homemade bread for breakfast, salad for lunch and yogurt for dinner. (I try to balance the protein and starch in it, so, don't worry, I can totally be filled up.) With all my passion (and time), I made bread for myself and cakes for friends.
However, all these routine somehow changed when I started to take on the responsibility to feed someone- someone who is an ultimate meat lover, who hates salad (I mean, all the green leaves), who would never join my meal plan. Alas, the game completely changed- only I'm still the lazy girl as I've always been. So I came up with a couple of tricks for the "game":
1. Make it simple but fantastic.
If I can pick, I definitely prefer one delicate&delicious one-pot dish than several roughly-made dishes. And it takes much shorter time to focus on one! I had this roommate who could never accept to make herself fewer than two dishes with soup. So every day, I saw her spending a good hour or two cooking when I already finished washing the dishes. For me, it's always good to indulge myself in the kitchen for a long time and make a whole set of dishes once in a while, but it's definitely not for everyday life.
Meanwhile, I've found myself more gravitating towards noodles from rice. One big reason is actually that people (especially Chinese) like to pair rice with several dishes while we only need one topping with noodles.
2. Pick a new "theme" everyday.
One dish sometimes does tend to lack multiplicity- fewer options in one meal. So it is definitively helpful to change the ingredient, and more importantly, flavor (hot sauce, soy sauce, salt&pepper, BBQ...) everyday.
3. Cook a lot when you are in the "cooking-mood".
During weekends, I sometimes tune back to "cooking mode" when I actually want to spend some time in the kitchen. I bake in most of the time, but also prepare for the weekdays. Two weeks ago, my BF and I spent a Sunday afternoon making a big batch of dumplings. I froze them down, which sustained us for another 4 meals!
4. Slowcooker is your best friend.
It is not exaggerative at all that my slowcooker has saved my life! I use it all the time, because it just allows me to do soups and stews without actually spending time. Prepare all your ingredients (pork or beef), throw in the slowcooker, and let it do the work when you are sleeping or at work. I like to start cooking the meat before I go to lab (which takes longer to cook down), and add more veges after I come back and prepare to eat.
Comments
Post a Comment