Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Weekday Dinner Challenge #1

Last month I set a challenge for myself, a 2 Week Cooking Challenge to cook dinner on weekdays.  Sadly I only managed to cook on 4 days as I was feeling under the weather on the 2nd week, but I think I've scored good and I'm satisfied.  Here is what I have cooked on those 4 days.


* Steamed Chicken drumstick
* Stir-fried Shanghai qing with fried shallots
* Stewed pork belly
*Steaming hot white fragrance rice


* Basil Minced Pork rice
* Canned mushroom soup
*Steaming hot white fragrance rice 


* Added leek & beancurd to the stewed pork belly from 02 Sept'13
* Pork ribs soup with some Chinese herbs thrown in
*Steaming hot white fragrance rice 


* Halibut With Tomato, Orange, and Dill with Spaghetti
* Blueberry cake

The meals are sumptuous and the dishes looked like it will take hours to prepare them but they don't.  I have only about an hour to prepare and serve dinner so that is not an option for me.  There are a few tricks I used to make this possible;

#1 Meal planning always happens the day before, I usually choose dishes which are easy to prepare and takes about 30mins to get them onto the dining table; except for the Blueberry cake which I did on spur of moment. 

#2 Soup & stew are prepared either the night before or early in the morning and left in my ShuttleChef thermal pot to be cooked.  I love my Shuttlechef as it uses retained heat to cook the food instead of electricity or fire, this means that I can leave it unattended; in this case goes off to work, while the food is cooking.  One major plus point is the soup or stew will be hot when I serve them that night.

Slow cooker does the same trick too.  If you have none of these you have to prepare them the night before using the "conventional" method of standing guard over the stove for at least 1 hour.

#3 I will move any meat or poultry from the freezer to the chiller compartment and if needed I will marinate them in the morning before popping them back into the fridge.

#4 Get those bottled chopped/minced garlic from the supermarket as they saves you some precious time from peeling and chopping them.

#5 Have a few bottles of dried herbs such as Italian dressing, rosemary or thymes.  Sprinkle them onto the meat to bake or grill and they make great dish to eat with pasta or spaghetti.

I hope I have inspired you to cook more often for your family.  I know I am encouraged to do it more often on weekdays though DinoBoy scrunches up his face when he hears that I doing the cooking as this means dinner will be slightly later but both DinoPapa & him agrees that it tasted milliion times better then "outside food".  

12 comments:

  1. Great meal planning :)
    I do meal plan but am also very much an inspiration based cook and like to be artistic with dinner each day depending on what we all feel like, course that makes for a much more expensive food shop!

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    1. I agree with you Rebecca! Pretty impressively displayed food cost so much more but they taste better too, at least I hope they do hahahha~

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  2. Thanks for sharing your practical strategies and pics.. Fabulous meal planning. I'm going to share with my family.

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    1. You are welcome Tandy, I hope they find it useful too.

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  3. Well done! I think you did pretty well considering you work full time. Enjoyed having a peek at some of your everyday meals for ideas. I also do some of those same tips to make cooking everyday more manageable... I have a thermal cooker too and I make it a point to move the meat from freezer to chiller the night before, which is kinda part and parcel of meal planning

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    1. Hi Serene, I think the thermal pot is my best kitchen investment!

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  4. Good job, cooking every night isn't always easy!

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    1. Its tiring and frustrating too especially with a 7 year old constantly coming/sneaking into the kitchen asking "Mum is dinner ready yet?" :D

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  5. It can be so hard can't it. Cooking meals when you work full time.. as well as running a house looking after the kids... etc. Luckily we don't have a microwave and try to cook things healthily. Maybe I will take some pictures and put it on my blog.

    Thanks for the idea.

    William

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    1. Ya its kinda hard but a Mum gotta do what a Mum gotta do to ensure the family eats well and the house is near tidy and neat hehehehe~

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