QotD

[msconduct]

23. Do you like leftovers?

Like leftovers? I rely on leftovers. I only want to eat non-ultra-processed cooked from scratch meals, because they are le tasty as well as being le healthy, but do I enjoy the cooking or the time it takes out of my day? I do not.

So when I meal plan, I include three recipes that feed four and we eat them for two days. And I love that second day when I just get the whatever out of the fridge. Sheer bliss and I'm always so grateful to past me for feeding present me today.

It also clears the weekend of cooking, an extra treat, as Saturday is always a "second day" day and on Sunday we always have my sourdough with a speciality cheese (cheeeeeeeese) and depending on the season either a soup or a salad I've already made.

One thing I've learned from doing things this way:

I've seen a lot of stuff about meal prepping where they make you freeze the portions you don't eat on the day. This may be useful if you have unpredictable dinners with family members not necessarily all there at any given meal, but I don't have that problem and it doesn't work for me.

First of all, in my opinion things with vegetables in (and we eat a lot of vegetables) rarely freeze well unless they're something like a blended soup. One meal with previously frozen carrot coins that came out like slugs was enough for me.

And also, there's so much extra faffing required with freezing, what with the putting into containers and the labelling and the finding room in the freezer and the remembering they're in there and the defrosting. We're supposed to be saving time here, not adding an extra layer of labour. Eating the same meal two days in a row is far less complicated.

One weird quirk, though, is that on the day following a "second day" where I didn't have to cook anything, it invariably comes as a surprise that I now have to cook something else. Having one night where dinner's already in the fridge seems to signal to my brain that there's now an unending stream of dinners in there. Considering I've been responsible for cooking for decades, how this can shock me every time is a mystery. But there it is.

Comments

[msconduct]

I've got a slow cooker, but most recipes seem to make you brown the aromatics first anyway, and I tend to think if that stuff's already in there, I might as well continue in the vessel it's already in (I cook most things in an electric wok as it's big enough to get a lot of stuff in at once). I did used to have a slow cooker that browned as well, and I got rid of it because I never used it. I only use my new $20 one for making overnight steel-cut oats. Most of my stuff is vegetarian and I wasn't that thrilled with the texture of the pulses (NOT KIDNEY BEANS HAHAHAHAHA!!!) and I've heard others say meat comes out a weird texture too, so I haven't been that motivated to use it.

[spiffikins]

ehhh they say that - but the only thing I will pre-cook for a slow cooker dish is ground beef, just because I can drain the excess grease off :D Everything else gets tossed in and cooks in the slow cooker - because I feel the same way - if I'm going to use another pan, why not just finish it there?

That's interesting that people say meat comes out a weird texture - because the major selling point for slow cookers is that you can put cheap "tough" cuts of meat into it and get tender, juicy results!

What you don't get out of a crockpot, is anything other than SOFT veggies though - so if you want something with some crunch yet, it is not the right tool! And when I make a soup, I want my veggies to have some solidity to them, yet, I don't want them too mushy - so I tend not to use the crockpot for soups, but more for things like stews and chilis where the veggies can withstand the long simmer times.

LOL - not kidney beans, indeed!