Comments on: 4 sanity-saving cooking strategies

By: RookieMom Heather

RookieMom Heather — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 23:13:00 +0000

@Kim I like the cooking group ideas too. We might need a follow-up!

By: Kim

Kim — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 20:31:44 +0000

I would love cooking group details! It sounds like an awesome way to go!

By: Jui

Jui — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 21:58:04 +0000

@Heather, funny that you should mention it, but I just tried split mung beans with my son for the first time today. I pressure cooked it to mush and I think he liked it!

By: RookieMom Heather

RookieMom Heather — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 19:45:28 +0000

Freezing cooked lentils is genius. Once your little guy starts on solids, he’ll thank you too.

By: Jui

Jui — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 19:16:37 +0000

Thanks for the great tips. Since the baby (he’s 5 months old now), I’ve been working towards achieving ninja status in the kitchen. I’m Indian and cook a lot of Indian food which translates into ‘lots of vegetables and lots of chopping’. Onions and tomatoes are staples so I use a food processor to chop up tons about once a week and store it in Tupperware. Same for all the vegetables I’m going to need during the week. It all keeps beautifully in Tupperware or even plastic bags (for the drier vegetables) in the crisper compartment. I usually do this on the weekend- it takes less than an hour to prep for the week if you use a food processor. I use store-bought bottled ginger and garlic paste. We also eat a lot of lentils (need the protein!), so I cook batches in the pressure cooker and freeze them in individual zip locks. Come dinner time- I just throw my vegetables together with my spices- ditto for the lentils- and I have a great, home-cooked meal in minutes. We buy Indian bread (rotis) from the local Indian store. The husband’s thrilled and my bottom-less, breast-feeding stomach is happy. It’s a win-win!

By: RookieMom Heather

RookieMom Heather — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:15:04 +0000

@Jess, that sounds wicked cool! I’m a big food gadget geek… I might have to put it on my Christmas list or start trolling ebay.

By: Jess L.

Jess L. — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:09:19 +0000

These are great ideas that I’ve definitely employed lately. Although this is varsity level food nerdery, the best thing we got since having a baby is a sous vide supreme. Vacuum seal and throw in a hunk of meat or fish with a few aromatics, wait a few hours (anywhere from 1 to 48 depending on what you’re cooking, though everything has huge wiggle room), and decant and sear in a hot pan or with a torch whenever you want to eat dinner. Everything is cooked to absolute PERFECT temperature (perfect medium rare steak all the way through is heavenly). Paired with salad (or sous vide vegetables!) and some bread, this is our new favorite ultra-lazy ultra-delicious food strategy. It is an expensive appliance but oh man do we ever get a lot of use out of it!