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I think there are many reasons for getting IC, one of which is I think as Americans we have become very accustomed to what is convenient, which does not equal healthy all the time. In examining what I miss most about my old diet, it isn't the food and how it tastes per se, but it is the convience factor of throwing a sandwich together in a baggie rather than taking a whole meal in a container I have to wash... Argh... But obviously I have changed my ways... Here are some tricks and tips to making cooking a more quick, easy and enjoyable way, but still doing it the IC way. BTW, you don't have to spend a fortune at ridiculous upscale culinary stores, most of this stuff I found at Target. www.overstock.com is an EXCELLENT place to shop for cheap authentic kitchen tools...
PROPER COOKING TOOLS
Santoku Knife- We have to do a lot of cutting up and preparing and this tool is indispensible... You hardly ever have to sharpen and it is big and nicely weighted to handle a ton of different jobs.
Rice Steamer- you can cook a ton of rice and walk away. Freeze any extra rice and you have cooked rice in an instant
Food Processor- got mine at Target for about 40 bucks... Get one with a chop and slice attachment. Awesome at making chopped salads as well as slicing zucchini/potatoes, etc. super thin and having gourmet meals even on list 2. Also very good at making sauces, etc
Pressure cooker- AWESOME at making artichokes in about 9 minutes. This is probably the most expensive thing you could buy, but worth it. You can make soups in an instant and roasts as well. I purchased an awesome pressure cooker cook book at Crate and Barrel with great ideas.
Cast iron pots- Distributes heat evenly and you can brown meats on the stove and then transfer directly to the oven for baking.
Debbie Mayer Green Bags- These little bags I found at Bed Bath and Beyond. They can be used over and over and help keep produce fresher longer!
Food Tips
Ok, so here are some great food tips, well I at least think they are great for helping you save time.
1. Get to know your produce person. I know this sounds silly, however, for many people, buying produce that is "good" is intimidating. I learned a lot of tips and tricks to purchasing produce properly. They will also tell you about weekly specials, etc.
2. Rice: I purchase the already cooked and frozen rice at Trader Joes. it comes in brown rice and white jasmine rice. You just throw the bag in the microwave and in 3 minutes cooked rice that serves three! You can also use your rice cooker and cook 4 cups of rice which will last you for a while. You can freeze what you don't use. Jasmine rice and brown rice freeze best.
3. Breakfast- I work at Starbucks at ungoldy hours of the morning and my break usually comes at breakfast. The night before I have to work, while I am cooking dinner, I scramble some eggs, mix in ground turkey, sauteed onions and spinach and throw into a container and put in the fridge. The next morning my meal is ready to go and I just reheat in microwave. I also make quiches using simply eggs, ground turkey, spinach, brocolli, and parmesan cheese with some hashbrowns thrown in the egg mix for a carb. It is more like a frittata. Now you have breakfast for at least 3 mornings.
4. Lunch- keep bagged salad greens around. I make a tuna salad out of olive oil, lemon juice, dill, chopped celery, etc or make it out of salmon. I can make the meat the night before while preparing dinner.
5. Leftovers... I eat a lot of leftovers for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
6. Soup- Make yourself a ton of soup so you can eat for a snack when you are hungry. This will help you from going crazy on a bag of potato chips.
As I think of more tips, I will add to the site.
your tips and tricks are
your tips and tricks are "gold" to me...thanks
c
try to change your attitude toward chopping vegetables ,learn to enjoy it. I can honestly say that preparing vegetables has become a relaxing part of my day. It can be almost meditative. Put on some music and chop away.Make sure you have your kitchen orginzed you may need to redo some things to make it easier. If your always searching or spend too much time running around it's going to be strenuous and instead of putting love into your food your putting furstration. So dance sing put on music and involve the family in preperation.
tools I use to save time
My pressure cooker I make meats in this as well as artichokes cooks large roasts in no time. Artichokes in 10 min.
flexable cutting board.one for meats and one for veggies
Anything diswasher safe ( I do put all my pots and pans in the dishwasher yes even tho it says no all it does is scratch the bottoms slightly still works the same I don't care)
oil spray bottle
lots of colanders for prepping veggies
scoop measuring cups
coffee grinder for spices
food processor can really be a HUGE HELP. shreeded meats go nice in salads
YOU can cook up a bunch of meats on day shred them up and then put them in the vaccume sealer.
One for rice different veggies one for meats make them up in small bags so you can mix match take them with you.
Its great to have one big day to do this I do it while i am doing laundry ect.
crock pot great for making stews, ect.
mandoline slicer or mulit purpose peeler this thing rocks
http://www.simplyasseenontv.com/product_info.php?products_id=32437812
I LOVE My VACCUME sealer this thing is great it doubles as food storage and then i can heat it up in the same container it's small.
I did get myself a 12 volt cooler that gets hot and cold for traveling. I bought mine at big lots for 20 bucks I take it on vacations as well
When its warm I love to use my grill I make skewers
Info
This is all GREAT info! Thank you for doing this. I need to get myself a pressure cooker. I am going to check out those vacuum bags, I am SO annoyed when my food goes bad in the fridge. BTW- Great Pic Nicole, so nice to see a face to your posts:)
Thanks I am glad it helped
Thanks I am glad it helped you. I was trying to put a different pict up but I am having trouble loading it. I guess it doesn't want to let me change picts. It just keeps my old one up no matter how many times I delete it. I know i have my sizes right. You can't see that pict all too well but I give up for now. I will try again when i have more patience
pic
Mine used to do that, and my husband said its because your computer stores the pic in the memory. He did something to delete it but I am not sure what. I will ask him tonight and let you know.
Tips
These tips are very helpful. Cooking rice or anything else in the plastic bags or containers isn't a good idea though. as the chemicals from the plastic can leach into the food.
it's only reheatng it. But if
it's only reheatng it. But if you didn't want to do that you can still open them and put them on whatever plate yoru going to eat them. I just like the idea that i do not have to microwave them where I am going. I have often reboiled them for a few short min. I rarely use plastic myself and I see where your comming from though. I prefer the plastic to the microwave. Even at the coffee shop there is that HOT water. I put the bag inside a large cup and ask them to put some of that Hot water for the coffee in my cup. I submerge my meal in the water for a few min and then toss the water out. It doesn't get as hot as if I boiled it but it gets it warm. I mean that water is boiling temp. Also I don't do this everyday. Where I am there are no IC friendly places to eat. I just recently found a gluten free pizza place and I look forward to eating there in the future but they still use yeast and a few things that I can't have. I was happy to see sugar was on one of them.
I think this is harder on
I think this is harder on list one then list 2 and further. Like if I am out and hungry I can stop at the store grab an avacado run by the deli pick up a spoon and kife and it will hold me till i can get home. I am looking forward to nuts and yougart. I usually will also grab a few florets of brocolie.
Back when i was in school I had to travel an hr each way. I started my day at 8 am and i didn't get home till 6 pm. I would live out of my car those days. IN the morning I would put my laptop in my car a change of clothes because the mornings were cooler always in my car. I brought a snack I always carried a can opener on me just in case i needed some tuna or trader joes had that chicken in a can if I was in a pinch. I just left an exta one in my car.
The health food stores usually have premaid rice there so I would grab some veggies and throw it all together with the tuna or chicken if i hadn't time to plan.
Panera has a microwave there so I have brought my food in there in the past. That is where my 12 volt coler comes in handy. Most of the time it was me bringing my leftover dinner and then preping a snack for the day.
Making the large amounts of meats and starch sides then switching up my veggies has been the big thing for me when i am bussy
OH I love getting a boiled egg when i am out you can get this just about anywhere.
most of the time I would just bring last nights dinner with me and a snack for the day.
french fries
Thank you for all these tips and tricks! i never thought of freezing brown rice. In any case, someone had mentioned wanting to find some french fries they could eat. I actually make my own. French fries are not the healthiest thing no matter what b/c of cooking the potatoes at a high temp but once in a while I eat them. I slice the potatoes longways after scrubbing them then cut into fries. I put them in a bowl with salt and olive oil (again, cooking olive oil at a high temp not the best) then I toss with my hands and spread out on a cookie sheet. I put them in the oven at 400 degrees and scrape and turn them every 20 minutes or so. Cook until desired crispiness is achieved, this can take well over an hour so plan on it taking some time. but they are goodicnot4me
Thank you so much for taking
Thank you so much for taking the time to put this all together. These are all great tips, Since I basically just started with Matia, this is great that you are taking the time to help out the new people on the site. Your help is immensely appreciated.Many Belssings to you,Becky
A few hours for cooking veggies!
This is all great info! I ONLY began cooking b/c of IC and Matia's diet. So I have learned alot about cooking and kitchen skills in the last few years. One SIMPLE idea that I feel is key to me eating properly is to take a few hours one day in the week (I do Sundays) and make as much veggies as I can freeze/refrigerate for the week. I am a serious sugar addict so I am always fighting the urge to "grab something quick" that is most likely NOT a veggie if it's not right there for me to eat. I make enough for an ARMY and it's all gone come Friday! It seems like you can never have enough prepared veggies around. I'll make, for example, broccoli, mashed cauliflower, spaghetti squash and cut up a ton of zucchinis so that I can cook them quick (they don't freeze well) and put it all in the fridge or freezer. I make other veggies too but that's just what I did this week. It's honestly a little exhausting BUT there's no excuse for me to not eat my veggies during the week. They are RIGHT THERE in the fridge staring at me waiting to be eaten or packed up! And I do love veggies so instead of cheating or eating too much spelt bread/berries/whatever, I go for the veggies in the fridge first. It's a huge commitment to take so many hours on one day but it makes a HUGE difference in how I eat for the week. I feel SO much better when I eat alot of veggies. Sorry this is long for a very simple idea but it's really helped me stay on track so I thought I'd share.
Mashed Cauliflower
I like the mashed cauliflower idea. Do you use a potatoe masher or a blender? Do you add water?
For mashed cauliflower I cook
For mashed cauliflower I cook in chicken broth and then use butter as my "cream"... It is very good
I also just purchased a juicer from Target. The Waring Pro is on sale right now for 59.00 and you get a 10 dollar gift card back! You can make all sorts of different things from it. My kids love home made apple carrot juice.
Cooking ahead is great. Another thing I cook ahead is "grilled" chicken. If weather is nice, I just put a ton of chicken breasts on the BBQ and grill them up so I always have some ready. I put left over in fridge or freeze it. I also cook a ton of ground turkey and have that on hand to make scrambles, salads, and quick spaghetti or soups (like homemade minestrone in a flash)
I think blender could work
I make mashed cauliflower like this: - Steam cauliflower (in a about 1/2 an inch of water in the pot and salt). Doing it in chicken broth sounds like that could be good too tho!- While that's cooking I sautee onions and garlic in butter in a skillet- When the cauliflower is done, I put it in the food processor with the onion, garlic, butter, salt, organic garlin and onion powder AND I add touches of olive oil depending on how "thick" I want it. Sometimes I don't use any oil at all. I don't measure anything, I just add a little at a time until I get the flavor I like. My whole family LOVES it. Good thing since I am a terrible cook!! It's so easy. It's become my signature dish to bring to pot luck type things too.