Cook Once and Eat All Week

This post was originally published on Beyond the Gold — NY International Ballet Competition's blog. It's on how you can cook and eat homemade meals all week without spending your life in the kitchen. It's easier than you might think....!

I happen to love the phrase, “Cook once, eat twice.” But in my kitchen, it’s cook once, eat four or five times. I love to eat well, but I am not willing to spend a lot of time cooking during the week unless it’s a family event. So, here are some of my tips for cooking/prepping once and eating many times- these are very simple ideas, but I hope they get you thinking!

I usually pick a day when I cook three or four main ingredients and then have them in the fridge as building blocks for the week. My trick is that I cook them in the simplest way possible, usually steaming for veggies and greens and basic prep (without flavoring) for beans and grains. That way, every time I eat, I can add different flavors to create a whole new dish.

For example:

Ingredients:

• Kale: steamed

• Wild Rice: boiled

• Cannellini beans: soaked for 24 hours, then boiled until soft.

Meals:

Warm or cold

• Mix kale, wild rice and cannellini beans

• Toss with tahini, splash of lemon, ground black pepper, salt

Cold

• Slice up and add cherry tomatoes, avocado, pine nuts (toast them if you like)

• Add cold kale

• Toss with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper

Cold

• Cannellini beans and wild rice

• Add feta, cucumber, kalamata olives, tomatoes

• Toss with olive oil, vinegar, fresh oregano/basil, salt and pepper

Warm

• Saute cannellini beans and wild rice with sesame oil, salt and pepper

• As a side, sauté the kale in sesame oil with some sesame seeds

In addition to these simple ideas, you now have a green, a grain and a protein, all ready to be eaten in any other creative way you want.Some other staples that are great to cook ahead of time and keep on hand as building blocks are:

• Quinoa (good cold, hot and as a breakfast cereal)

• Brown Rice

• Kasha (Buckwheat)

• Steamed broccoli

• Roasted red peppers

• Chard

• Kale

• All beans: so good hot or cold and very easy to dress up in different flavors