Finding Time to Cook

Friends always ask me when do I have time to cook / bake / roast... as I am normally out of the house by 9am & back after 10pm.

There are 3 reasons why & when I cook.

1. I am inspired!! .. after watching Rachel Ray, Martha Stewart, Queer Eye... No matter what time it is, if I have the ingredients on hand, I will cook up a storm.... sometimes into the wee hours, trying hard not to wake up the neighbours.
2. When someone really wants to eat my cooking!! .. I find pleasure in cooking for others.. Its a 'labour of love' (even if it means hours of washing up). In my school days, we would offer our house for parties, as long as everyone chips in the food bill. I once baked some muffins for the trainers at my gym. One guy was appreciative and commented that usually there's not much healthy food to eat where the gym's located. That prompted me make to a series of simple meals for them over a few weeks... spaghetti, salads, sandwiches... It's nice to see people enjoying food. During the recent CNY reunion dinner, I cooked, cleaned, washed from 8am to 3 am the next day - felt like a marathon, but it was great. Not complaining... already planning next year's dinner menu :)
3. Waste not, want not!! .. As usual, when there is a celebration or festive occassion, we tend to over stock our ingredients. Better more food, than not enough, right? So what do we with the 'extras'? With a little creativity, we will not waste food. We can still get nutritious, tasty meals out of the extras. For example, we over estimated & cooked too much rice. We had rice coming out of both refrigerators at home! So, I took some and added boiled water & some cubed pumpkin and a little salt. Boil until the rice grains breaks slightly & the pumpkin is soft. Great with yesterday's dinner, reheated. When re-heated the veggies tend to be a little soft & the sauce thickens, even dries up & taste is more intense... but that goes well with the pumpkin 'porridge' ;)

There's always time to cook. It just requires :

• a little PLANNING : Stock up regularly used dry ingredients but keep track of its expiry period. That's why I usually don't pour out the ingredients into nicely labelled containers (as recommended by many chefs). It's straight from the pack - because the cooking, shelf life, nutrition details are all there. It saves time. But if I have to, I will snip of the important details from the pack & paste it on the container.
• a little ORGANISING : If I am going to bake tonite, I will call ahead & ask my mom to take out the butter & eggs, so that they are at room temperature by the time I reach home. If I want to make sandwiches or salad for lunch at work, I will slice up the ingredients the nite before. When I return from the market, I'll wash, dry & store the salad leaves in small, tight containers (enough for 1 meal). This will keep fresh for many days & in the morning you can just pop one of it into your lunch bag and assemble the sandwich at work.
• a little CREATIVITY : Create your recipe based on what you have in the kitchen. Be inspired by what you have to work with! Experiment, but keeping in mind the main cooking/baking principles. Dont' be a perfectionist. Cooking should not be a chore, ie. following exactly by the book (except for certain recipes, especially cakes).
• a little COMPROMISE : Use as little utensils & cutlery as possible. Less washing, more time to enjoy the meal. Substitute some ingredients; use canned, pre-cooked (eg. boil a whole pack of chick peas and freeze in small packs, freeze extra soup or stock in small containers), quick-cooking (eg. 2-min pasta instead of regular pasta, instant oats instead of cooking oats).

Eating out, as everyone agrees, has lots of oil (cheap oil, oil that has been re-used over & over - each time this happens the bad cholestrol level rises... you get the idea) and artificial flavouring & colouring. Yes, this makes it look, smell & taste delicious, but only because our tongue is desensitized, constantly being bombarded with chemicals! White sugar does that to you. Wonder why you keep having to add more sugar to make your drink taste good? Try this - go off sugary drinks for a few weeks. Then take a sip of packet drink. Yuck, its too sweet!!

I know, sometimes, it's not possible to cook everyday. If 'ta pau' (take-away) is the order of the day, at least try to combine it with some homemade salad or quick stir fry (in EVOO - Rachel Ray's short form for extra virgin olive oil - the good oil).

For more tips & ideas, http://www.rwood.com/Articles/Finding_Time_to_Cook.htm