The Christian Homekeeper™

Of course you knew, if you know me at all, that once I start a new venture, I absolutely HAVE to find a faster, more convenient way to get it done. So, I did.

We’ve been eating whole foods for about 5 years now. It was a slow and easy transition for my family. No more cream-of soups, no more prepackaged anything. We didn’t quit cold turkey, but we eased into it and now we all really love the way we’re eating.

The problem was the time I spent in the kitchen, and I really love to cook. But the time was hedging into other areas so I had to find a way to make it more streamlined. I always had before used the crockpot for most everything. There is an art to using the crockpot correctly. Each crockpot has its own temperature variations and its own way to be used. Once you find that, you can make most anything.

One thing that was a difficult transition for me was learning to use whole foods recipes in the crockpot. I utilize the crockpot constantly, especially in the summer… no, especially during the school year….well especially during the holidays……… Most of the time. Not all of the time though, we’re making another transition toward more raw vegetables, fruits and nuts. But the crockpot is the tool I use most often in the kitchen.

All the preparing and chopping and cooking though takes a slice out of my day every day, so I searched around and found several good ideas for trimming down the time spent in the kitchen. This plan is a combination of several other plans, this works for me. Maybe it will work for you too if you need something streamlined and easy.

What I like to do is to prepare really BIG portions of the main dish and then refrigerate it in smaller meal-size portions.

Here it is in steps:

1) Plan your menu. Write down your shopping list. Stick with whole foods recipes as much as possible and you will not believe how much less your grocery bill will be. I thought it was going to take a spike upwards, but what happened is that as I learned to make better choices, made less complicated meals, the grocery bill went down.

2) Fix yourself a place in the refrigerator to store the week’s meals.

3) Prepare all the beans and grains you will need for the week. This isn’t difficult at all. Just cook large portions the way you normally cook. I use the pressure cooker for beans, a rice cooker for rice and a pan on the stove for grains like quinoa. Once they are cooked, I let them cook completely and put them into freezer bags in the amount needed for each meal, or you could put the entire batch of each grain in a large freezer bag and scoop out what you need at each meal. Pop them into the frig.

4) Divide up the meats you have purchased into meal sized packages. If you are using the crockpot, don’t cook the meat ahead of time.

5) Wash and then chop up your veggies for the week. Place each chopped veggie in a freezer bag. You don’t have to dole it out in meal sized portions, just scoop out however much you will need when you need it.

6) Sauces and Seasonings. These are made just before cooking, so just be sure you have everything on hand. I usually buy or make the same type of sauce and seasoning ingredients week to week such as: canned tomatoes, coconut milk, soy sauce, sesame oil, broth, herbs, spices.

You’re done! That’s all I do every week. I can vary the meals vastly and still use the same system. The first time I did this, I looked around the kitchen in confusion! How could dinner already be done?? How could I actually have TIME on my hands? LOL

What I really appreciate about this system is that the initial preparation time is not overwhelming. Its not difficult to repackage meat and cook grains, wash veggies and package them. And then the meal preparation is a breeze.

OK, enough said about HOW to do it. Let me share some recipes with you and let me encourage you to take these recipes and run with them. Make up your own recipes, I did. Go to Wardeh’s site and look at her skillet dishes for more inspiration.