Menu Planning Part 3 – Cooking Big

Large family gatherings are big around this part of the country. It is very common for brothers, sisters, cousins, moms and dads, aunts and uncles, PLUS additional friends to all gather once a week at Granny’s.  Especially on Sunday afternoons. In addition, when I was growing up, our house was where all of the kids always hung out all the way through college.

Living and learning the kitchen in those environments, you tend to always want to cook big. To this day, unless it is simple packages of Ramen Noodles, I do not know how to cook for less than a full house.

There are many advantages that come with cooking extra. You may want to consider trying it yourself on occasion to make some of your meals easier.

Cooking for the Freezer

Cooking Big will make it easier to feed your freezer with full meals. There will be many nights ahead when you are too tired to cook or too scheduled to cook. Instead of resorting to fast food and take out, you can pull prepared meals from your freezer without going to extra trouble. If you can anticipate those nights, thaw in the fridge. But in case of the nights you can not anticipate, use microwave safe containers.

Keep plenty of single serving containers on hand for times when you have a little bit extra left. They will be perfect for saving cash at lunch or for ready to eat options for those always hungry teens. I wish I still had their metabolism!

Cooking for Second Day Meals

Try to have several meals in your flash cards that can be turned into something else. Cooking Big one night will take the work out of another night.

It is very easy to turn on the crock pot and turn leftovers into soups or stews. Just add some stock, some extra spices, and maybe a few sliced veggies (or frozen or canned mixed vegetable mix) and you have turned last night’s dinner into another full meal without the work. When you cook meals with noodles, like spaghetti, store the pasta separately from the rest so you can add them at the last minute to keep them from getting mushy. You can add cooked rice at the last minute or toss in unprepared rice at the beginning. (Just a little or you will end up with a rice casserole instead of soups. If you do end up with casserole do not fret, transfer it to a baking dish, top it with cheese and turn on the broiler to get it all melted and brown as if you intended it all along).

You can also purposely set out to make an interesting dinner casserole from the beginning. For years my Grandmother made what she called goo-laash. (I know there are real goulash recipes, but that is what she called it. And I got the spelling from her cookbook.)  You never really knew what you were going to get, but it was always (well almost always) very good. She would just toss in a can of tomatoes, a bag of stuffing, can of cream of mushroom soup, cheese or some other filler to the whole mess to change it up a little and bake it. Then she would serve it in slabs like lasagna with bread or small salad on the side to balance it out.

Many meats, beans, and rices can be mixed and doctored to become an unusual meatloaf, a twist on chili, or filling for enchiladas/tacos/fajitas.

I sometimes use leftovers to add substance to a plain dinner salad.

Almost any time I cook meats, I cook double. Take just about any meat, add mushrooms and onions maybe some peppers and cook them all up. Put aside half before finishing the rest of the meal. You could put the extra in freezer bags or containers. They make a great base for numerous later meals that are just as quick and easy as any Hamburger Helper.

Add a Place At The Table

If you cook big, there is often plenty of food to go around. There is always enough to invite someone to stay for dinner without any extra trouble.

If you have active older kids, foster a way for your home to be the local gathering place. Teenagers are always up for food. Sometimes meal times will be the only chance you will get to stay in touch with the independent creatures they are becoming. If you need to add a place or two to encourage them to sit down more often, it is truly worth it. They will gather somewhere. Why not start early making it be in your home?

Perfectionism Again – or Trying To Turn Shortcomings Into Strengths

There is something else about Cooking Big that I have the urge to share with you. Since it is how I learned to cook, I had a really hard time for quite a while. When I first started trying to cook for two, I genuinely did not seem to know how. Regardless of the ways I tried to scale back, I always seemed to have a lot extra left over. About the time I would start getting closer to correct portions, we would have someone come to stay for the weekend or host  a big gathering which would reset my inclination for Big Cooking again.

I had not figured out what to do with the leftovers yet, so we either had a lot of food waste or ate the same thing several meals in a row. Yuck.

It was just a little thing, but since it happened every time I cooked, it came up often in my head along with the negative self talk commentary over it. I really beat myself up for several years. Before I figured it out, this little fault took more of a toll on my self confidence than I would like to admit.

You can take one small frequently occurring weakness and over time convince yourself you are a failure. Whether it be as a wife, a homemaker, or something completely unrelated.

If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, there are some things you need to know.

First, you are NOT a failure.  It is just a little thing. Remind yourself of all the other little things you do extremely well without thought and praise yourself for them when you catch yourself thinking negatively.

Second, for some reason women are wired to find the faults in themselves much more than men. Some of the most optimistic women I know dwell on negative thoughts of themselves. Maybe it is related to the worry side of nurturing; the need to envision the possible negative outcomes for our children and try to steer them to the best path.  Sometimes knowing a reason for these thoughts and feelings can be enough to be able to short circuit them even for a little while.

Third, you are not perfect, can not be perfect, and never will be perfect. Maybe you can find a way to work with the it like the example in this article to turn your weakness into a unique strength. If you can not, embrace your quirks as a testament of your humanity. We all have our crosses big and small to bear even though we may not ever learn the reason for them. And I believe there is always a reason.

I recently saw a good quote on perfection:

“I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God’s business.” – Michael J. Fox

Several years later, I realize this ‘fault’ has well prepared me for our lives with expanded family, friends, and drop in visitors. Yes, I am that mom that is always trying to feed everyone. But it is now one of the things others know and count on from me. It is now one of my strengths. There is just something about food that makes everyone feel Welcome.