It’s 6 o’clock on a Tuesday night and everyone’s getting hangry. But the pantry is empty and so is your imagination. Right. Skip the Dishes it is — again.
With our busy lives, making dinner isn’t always easy, especially mid-week, but it’s important.
Gathering around the table is our chance to connect with each other, to check in on everyone’s well-being, to share the highs and lows of our days. Putting a home-cooked meal on that table brings everyone together — and it also means your family is eating food that is nutritious, delicious and lower in the salt, sugar and fats that make restaurant food so tasty and not always so good for us. And it’s almost certainly less expensive than delivery, whether you’re ordering pizza (what, again?) or a meal prep service.
But planning, shopping for and cooking those nutritious meals can be hard, especially in September, when we’re so busy with work and school and all our many other activities.
That’s why we’re here to help. What follows is the YAM guide to fixing the weekday supper.
This isn’t a meal planner. You can find many of those online, but we often feel that they are either way too complicated, or they don’t fit our lifestyles, or the foods they suggest aren’t really the ones we like to eat. Instead, this is a strategy that you can adapt to your own life, what you like to cook and what you and your family like to eat.
Just follow the three Ps: plan, pantry and prep.
Plan
Before you even start your grocery list, stop a minute and think about how your week actually unfolds. Is there a night everyone is out? A night when you know you’ll be too tired to cook? When your fridge starts to run empty? Are there dietary or cultural needs to accommodate? Will you have guests to feed?
Mondays can be the toughest day of the work week, which means this is generally not the night to try a complicated new recipe. A simple pasta dish and tossed salad would be ideal — nourishing, comforting and on the table in half an hour or less.
Friday, on the other hand, might mean friends popping over for wine and tapas. You might want to stock up on fancy-ish pantry nibbles (crackers, olives, tinned fish, salami, hard cheese), or plan for a second shop later in the week.
Take a little time before you do your weekly grocery run to plan what you’re going to cook. Include dishes that you can cook from pantry items or prep ahead of time. For instance, if you cook a pot of beans on the weekend, during the week you can add a handful of them to a minestrone soup, stir some more into a grain bowl and mix the rest into a pot of chili. (See page 59 for more ideas.)
Gather your recipes and jot down all the ingredients you need.
Check to see if any of them are already in your pantry. While you’re at it, note any staples that might be running low (see sidebar on page 60 for what you should stock in your pantry).
Once you know what you need, reorganize your list by (a) where you’ll be shopping, if there’s more than one stop, and (b) the department where you’ll find the item (for instance, dairy, meat, produce, dry goods). Then off you go, and don’t forget your reusable bags!
Pantry
Your pantry is the key to making dinner easy and a pleasure to prepare.
While it would be lovely to have a gorgeous walk-in room where everything is decanted into glass jars with beautiful blackboard paint labels, that is rarely a reality. What you need is an accessible space stocked with things you actually use. Remember: That space includes your kitchen cupboards, your fridge and your freezer.
You can always add some exotic spices or fancy condiments, but the priority should be the stuff you reach for again and again.
This will vary depending on what you cook. If you make, say, a lot of Thai food, you might consider fish sauce, rice stick vermicelli and curry paste essential. On the other hand, if you’re into Italian cuisine, you’ll want to stock up on dried pasta, crushed tomatoes, olive oil and Parmesan. And if you’re a baker, well, that’s a whole pantry unto itself.
Keep the things you use most often where they are easiest to reach. And make them easy to see — keep labels facing outward and avoid any storage solution that hides the contents. Wicker baskets are pretty, but if you can’t see what’s stored in them, you’re unlikely to use it.
Also consider decanting grains, cereals, legumes, noodles and the like into clear plastic or glass containers that vermin can’t chew through. One handy tip: Label each container with the cooking instructions as well as the contents.
Prep
Finally, one smart way to get a jump on the week is to prep some of your weekday meals over the previous weekend.
You could make a pot of turkey chili, chicken soup or beef stew. Or you could whip up a baked lasagna or enchilada casserole. Then all you need to do is reheat it when you get home from work.
But who wants to spend all weekend cooking? Instead, while you’re already in the kitchen, prep one or two components of the next week’s meals so you can assemble dinner in a snap come Tuesday or Wednesday.
For instance, if you’re making a roast chicken for Sunday dinner, you could add a second one to the roasting pan and use it all week long in sandwiches, risotto, pasta and salad. Or, if you’re grilling ribeye, add an extra steak to the BBQ and use it on Monday in a main-course salad.
Other easy prep: Cook a pot of beans or whole grains for salads, soups and nourishing bowls. Make a jar of vinaigrette for easy salads. Chop some veggies and store them in an airtight container, ready to roast or stir-fry. (For the best taste and texture, choose cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower or kale or non-starchy root veg like beets, carrots and radishes. Avoid delicate lettuces, fresh herbs and starchy root vegetables like potatoes, parsnips and turnips.)
With a well-stocked pantry, a smart plan and just a little bit of prep, future you will thank you.
5 Super Time Savers
These ingredients are the heroes of the kitchen — if you have them on hand, dinner is just a few minutes away.
1 – Cooked Chicken
Roast a chicken on the weekend or pick up a rotisserie chicken at the supermarket to get a jump on the week.
Use it in:
- Soup (make stock from the bones, or just add the meat to store-bought broth)
- Salads (caesar, Thai or classic chicken salad)
- Sandwiches
- Burritos, tacos quesadillas
- Risotto or pasta
- Curry
- Pot pie
2 – Tomatoes
Canned tomatoes are a kitchen workhorse and come in a wide range of formats: crushed, diced, whole or as sauce, passata or paste. We especially love the squeezable tubes of “doppio” (double-strength) tomato paste that are both space-saving and intensely tomato-y.
Use them in:
- Pasta (bolognese, marinara)
- Salsa
- Pizza
- Chili
- Soups
- Stews
- Curries
- Shakshuka
3 – Legumes
Stock up on canned beans or prep a pot of dried beans (black, navy, kidney or cannellini), lentils or chickpeas in advance.
Use them in:
- Soup
- Chili
- Salads
- Grain bowls
- Huevos rancheros
- Countless side dishes
4 – Eggs
Protein-rich eggs are endlessly versatile, essential in many dishes and the perfect extra to many others. Remember: Almost everything is better with a jammy egg on it.
Use them in:
- Salads
- Soups
- Quiche
- Custard
- Sandwiches
- Omelettes
- Frittata
- Ramen
- French toast
- Shakshuka
- Huevos rancheros
- On their own, boiled, poached, fried, scrambled or devilled
5 – Vinaigrette
Make a batch of vinaigrette on the weekend and store it in the fridge to use all week. (See recipe below.)
Use it in:
- Salads (green, grain, potato)
- Roasted veggies
- Bean dishes
- Marinade for grilled meats
Basic Vinaigrette
Use this simple vinaigrette in salads, marinades and so much more.
- 1 cup olive oil, preferably good quality extra-virgin
- 1/3 cup white wine vinegar
- 1 to 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
- Few grinds of black pepper
Combine all the ingredients in a sealable 500 mL glass jar and shake well. Store in the fridge and shake again before using — you’ll only need a few tablespoons at a time to dress a salad. Makes about 1 ½ cups.