For example, the amount of cilantro they sell at the grocery store is for a dozen servings of this meal.
I just finished throwing out pretty well every ingredient (except the chicken) given in that recipe, because I was away for 3 days!
Cooking for one sucks!
Seriously tho, this is little bit of advice completely revolutionized my diet. Also, since the frozen veggies are already chopped/peeled/etc, it speeds up meal prep a LOT -- useful on those busy days.
The best thing about frozen veggies is the various mixes you can get. I usually buy a giant bag of brocoli and then a giant bag of whatever mix I'm feeling.
Boiling in water seems to be one of the worst methods, which makes sense because the water can easily leach all of the nutrients[1].
Everyone does agree the best way is simply to steam them.
[1]http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/250016/how_to_cook_...
A recent study conducted in the U.K. showed boiling vegetables that are members of the cruciferous family, including cabbage, broccoli, and brussel sprouts, significantly reduces their anticancer properties.
And MW specifically
If you choose to microwave your vegetables, use as little water and as short a cooking time as possible to minimize loss of vitamins.
Also, look at CSA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community-supported_agriculture) deliveries. In many places (certainly the Bay Area) you can get a small weekly box delivered right to you door for a totally reasonable price!
Also, homemade chicken stock is one of my favourite things (boil a chicken carcass from the butcher with a halved onion, roughly chopped carrot, celery, some herbs, a little salt and pepper, bit of garlic, for a bit over an hour) and is super easy to do, freeze and then use as a base in a ton of recipes, or even just add some pasta and you've got a rough and ready chicken soup.
Cooking need not be difficult. By focusing on good, fresh ingredients you only need a couple to put together a great meal.
Also, great tip: Cook with spice (heat) and lots of flavour. You'll get full faster and feel satisfied longer.
protip: homemade chicken stock makes an excellent base for risotto milanese!
Though the microwave is a misunderstood device. It's fantastic at defrosting frozen items, but it should usually be an intermediate step used to ensure that thawed items are at room temperature when they go into the pan.
It's also fantastic at a variety of simple one-step things. Melting butter, baking potatoes, melting cheese, and other things like that. Used properly, it speeds up and even improves cooking. But if it's treated as a range/oven replacement, yes, it causes problems.
The best way to use the microwave is for meals that will benefit from being steamed, like vegetables. Failing that, regular stirring and occasionally protecting some thinner bits with foil are the way to go.
Metal is not microwave kryptonite, it is the bouncer to the mighty power of NUCLEONIC ENERGY! ... But only where the foil is.
Say you're cooking a piece of salmon, you've got a comma shaped profile with a VERY thin edge and a much thicker body. You can cook the entire thing until the thin edge is almost done, then fold foil only around that part of the salmon. Microwaves will not reflect off and be absorbed by the exposed food instead.
As long as something in the microwave is exposed that can absorb the waves sufficently, no harm will come to you or the microwave.
I made excellent scrambled eggs with ham and goat cheese a week ago in the microwave because that's all that was available. Takes some care to not have it turn into a frittata, but otherwise easy to do.
There are books dedicated to creating freezer meals. I'm not sure if I have enough experience with them to recommend one, I doubt there's all that much variance to them. There are some tricks to the process, but not all that many. I still recommend at least starting with their recipes though of course we branched out once we were comfortable with the idea in general.
The primary effect of working for freezer foods is simply the loss of range; obviously you can not, for instance, freeze a lettuce-based salad. I say that's the primary effect precisely because losing flavor and quality is not the primary effect. Freezer food probably has the single largest quality gap between commercial food and home-prepared food there is. Some meals take a slight hit, many you can not tell, a small number actually have their texture slightly improved by freezing them. If this sounds interesting I strongly recommend trying it, a bit of Googling will probably scare up enough resources to try a couple recipes without even investing in a book.
You can make, in the microwave: * Almost Poached Eggs * Bechamel Sauce, and thus any other sauce in that family that doesn't require second cooking * Almost any grain with a decent microwave rice cooker, including lentils, polenta, oatmeal (Which can be savoury), rice, brown rice, bulgur, pearled barley, beans, cous cous and chickpeas. * Brownies * Poached Chicken Breasts
You just need to be a little less 1-minute-button-pushy.
Since you cooking the pasta fresh it will be just as good the next day. I do basically the same thing with sauce for Indian and recook the rice.
Much of the time I enjoy cooking for 1/2 rather than more, lets you prepare things for multiple days and save time/money.
Tupperware™ may seem expensive in comparison to other plastic products (especially in Australia)… but it really is good value, especially considering you get replacements for free. To quote a friend (who is a Tupperware demonstrator), it's like getting a perpetual license to use the product.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT work for Tupperware™The results: in 3 weeks the bag was a sloppy mess, the container florets had loosened up.
After 5 weeks, the container florets started to bloom.
Then I ate them. They were a little bitter. Cest la vie.
And yeah, the way it works it's basically a perpetual license.
But I can finish vegetables and fruit. I shop once a week and it takes like an hour, and everything I get lasts all week. Get your bannanas a little green and it will be fine. Vegetables usually last longer than that.
I also get a lot of frozen broccoli, green beens, peas, corn. They last forever and are simple to make but very healthy. They also double as ice packs if you hurt yourself.