The Reluctant Chef

A hot topic around my office--and in my email inbox--is food. If we're not talking about what's for lunch or dinner by 9 a.m. something's wrong.

My cooking is driven by few things--mainly time and ease. I'm like a four-ingredient cook. If it takes more than about 20 minutes of prep and actual cooking, I likely won't do it. While I like baking more than cooking, baking still has to be quick and easy. It's that whole patience thing that I lack.

A few days ago I was at a friend's house for dinner. She made an incredible chicken dish, good enough to make at home. But when she started rattling off the recipe, I lost interest--too many ingredients=too much to do.

There are times, though, that I have great intentions for cooking wonderful meals. But then I get distracted because I got home too late from work or just plain don't have the energy to hang out in the kitchen cooking. And quite often my weekly recipe roundup gets stagnant. I used to think I could eat chicken breast every night for dinner and be happy, but I've found that not to be true. Not to mention that The Mr. likes a lot of variety.

I'm frequently on the lookout for new, easy, quick recipes that will shake things up in the kitchen, inspire me to cook and eat well, and that don't take up much of my time.

I have found a number of online resources that allow me to search for and print recipes quickly and easily. Some sites offer nutrition information, some will narrow recipe searches by ingredient or low-fat, low-carb, low-whatever criteria.

Kraft has a pretty good-sized section of recipes on its web site that are diabetes-friendly.

You can get great recipes from the American Diabetes Association's Virtual Grocery store.

Diabetic Gourmet magazine offers easy, few-ingredient recipes on its web site.

And have you tried any recipes from dLife yet? Last night I made the apple pork chops featured here. I paired it with a baked potato and veggies. Oh so yummy! And so few ingredients. It took a little prep time, but it was totally worth it.

What's on your menu tonight?

On February 29th, 2008 at 5:12 EST tmana said:

I never have an issue with a long ingredient list per se, but then again I learned cooking from both my parents, both my grandmothers, and one of my great-grandmothers. My dad (who learned from his dad, who was a professional gourmet chef) cooks the most basic of dishes with a seasonings list a foot long...

For me, most printed recipes need to be adjusted; they are usually either too high in sodium, too high in bad fats, too high in refined carbohydrates, etc., so when I use them, it's usually as a jump-off point. (Can you tell I like to experiment?)

Some shortcuts you might want to consider:

(1) cook for several meals at once; separate the extra into meal-sized containers and refrigerate or freeze.
(2) Slow cookers make good "set and forget" soups, stews, pot roasts, chilis, etc. Chop the ingredients (or buy them pre-cut and/or frozen), dump them in the pot, add water or stock, and put on "low" ***before leaving the house for work in the morning***. Dinner will be ready and waiting when you get home.
(3) I find most of my kitchen time is spent cutting up veggies and trimming meat before I ever start heating pots and pans. You can trade time for money by purchasing as much as possible in "ready to cook" condition: pre-cut broccoli florets and cauliflower florets; washed-and-peeled baby carrots; peeled garlic cloves; washed and packaged green beans; pre-cubed stew meat; boned and skinned chicken breasts.
(4) You can purchase premeasured packets of specific seasonings. These come with instructions as to when to add them into the dish you are cooking, and sometimes with entire recipes as well.

As for me, I prefer to do as much from scratch as possible, without regard for the amount of prep time... experimenting in the kitchen is a great stress reliever and expression of creativity... and when it's done, I get to eat the results :)

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