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".