How to Start Cooking Without Taking Your Life
When you’re serious about your fitness goals (whether strength or weight related), often the first step is to get your diet in order. You want to get enough protein to support your muscles , fruits and vegetables for health , carbohydrates for fuel , and total calories that support your activity and your goals without undereating or overeating.
If you’ve ever made it to the end of the day and realized that you’re far from reaching your daily goals, you understand the need to plan your meals and even prepare them ahead of time. The bodybuilder who eats the stereotypical chicken and broccoli for lunch every day might get bored with the food, but he also knows how much protein he’s getting without even thinking about it.
But cooking has its pitfalls. You may be bored with food. Or maybe you won’t even get that far and burn out just from the mental and physical effort of preparing a whole week’s worth of food at the same time. With that in mind, here are some tips for beginners to help ease the process while maintaining sanity.
have breakfast
Before we start cooking, let’s start planning . Most of us don’t mind eating the same breakfast every day, and there’s a good chance you already have a few favorite foods that you can quickly put together before you fully wake up.
So, your first step is to come up with a breakfast that fits your macros and is easy to prepare. We’re taking small steps here, so don’t worry about preparing this ahead of time. Just make sure it’s ready when it’s time for breakfast.
For example, your breakfast consists of yogurt and fruit. It’s easy enough: buy yogurt and fruit. In the morning you can put them together. Or you can prepare something the night before to grab it when you leave the house . I like to make Bircher muesli two servings at a time, as each requires half an apple. So on Sunday evening I will be preparing jars for Monday and Tuesday. I’ll make another pair on Tuesday evening.
Save your takeaway food containers
When we start packing lunches and dinners, we will need something to put them on. While Tupperwares cute little bento-esques might look pretty, you might decide that you don’t really need all those split containers. Or the boxes you buy may not be the right size once you start filling them up. Save money and time by choosing one or two types of takeaway food containers that you have a lot of and save them whenever you get them. I like flat rectangular and round one pint soup containers . (You can also buy them in bulk if you need fresh ones.)
Cook one meal at a time
Once you get into the habit of eating a planned breakfast each day, the next step is to choose your second meal. For most of us, this will be lunch. This way you take care of your first two meals and you can still plan your dinner however you like. (Good if you never get past this stage.)
I also recommend, at least initially, not to plan for seven days in a row. Since I work from Monday to Friday, I like to cook on weekdays and then cook it on weekends. (This usually includes my regular breakfast, some leftover food, and often a couple of takeaways.)
For your first foray, I recommend finding a recipe that makes three servings. Two of these recipes will help you get through the work week, and one extra. You can even alternate two meals.
Important food safety tip: Sunday food won’t be at its best on Saturday. I recommend choosing one of the following strategies:
- On Sunday, cook one meal and divide it into meals on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday; then on Wednesday night, cook another meal for three servings for the second half of the week.
- On Sunday, cook both meals so you can alternate between them. Put three dishes in the freezer. Then take them out of the freezer on Tuesday or Wednesday to start thawing.
Try the recipe before you commit
Ready to start cooking your first meal? Wait: have you chosen a recipe that you really like ? I’m not asking if it looks good in photos. The ideal recipe for cooking is something that you have not only eaten in the past, but also that you have an idea of how well it reheats.
This means you can stay away from recipe sites for now. Pick an old favorite; you can get experimental later. And if you ever get tempted to make, say, a month’s meal on Meal Day, be sure to try this exact recipe first in a weekly batch.
be lazy
Honestly, this is my most important piece of advice. When I started cooking, I spent all Sunday afternoons shopping and cooking. My legs will hurt and other household chores will be left unfinished. Didn’t save time and effort, just rescheduled.
I have gotten better since then. One of my favorite ways to cook food is to buy two bags of Trader Joe’s chimichurri rice and a pound of ground beef, heat each one up and mix it together. The job is done in just 15 minutes and I now have four meals a week, all of which fit perfectly in one of those round soup containers. Does it bother me that Mr. Joe gets half the credit for my culinary prowess? I do not.
If you’re going to do everything from scratch, make it easy for yourself. Buy frozen vegetables as they are already cut. Buy a rice cooker if you find yourself using rice for many dishes. If you want to use a special homemade sauce or seasoning, indulge in this time-consuming item and make sure your other tasks are easy.
For example, most items of the animal and plant world can be thrown onto a baking sheet and fried. I will buy some frozen fish and fresh or frozen vegetables and then roast each one with the right seasonings. (Olive oil and garlic salt are perfect for broccoli, or, frankly, any vegetable.) Mayonnaise- marinated chicken fillet is another protein option that pairs with just about anything and can be mass-cooked. Thanks to the extra moisture, they warm up perfectly.
You get the idea: make a lazy meal, make it no bigger than you can actually eat, and pack it in the containers you already have. Don’t expect everything to be perfect at first; over time, you will improve your workflow.