January Challenge Part III: Do-Ahead Dinner

About author / Amy Powell

World traveler; gourmet 30 minute meals; lover of exotic ingredients; winner on FoodTV's Chefs vs City; graduate French Culinary Institute. Her recipes will tantalize your taste buds.

Congratulations on making it to week 3 of the January Eat At Home Challenge. At this point we have made the New Year’s resolution to spend more nights in the kitchen preparing dinner and we have also learned how meal planning can get you organized enough in the kitchen to take some of the stress out of the nightly cooking process.

But even with last week’s tips on meal planning, some of you might still be struggling with motivation or straight up fatigue that is causing you to reach for that phone to dial up your favorite delivery guy rather than to make the effort to put together dinner yourself. We have all been there, to that point of exhaustion where cooking seems impossible. That is why this week we are going to discuss meals that can be prepped in advance, and simply thrown together or reheated once you get home.

Prepping dinner in advance may seem like a lot of effort, but like last week’s point on meal planning, it is simply organization that in the long run will cut down on the total time spent making dinner and thus make your life that much easier.

Think about how you can maximize your time spent in the kitchen. For example, if you are already in the kitchen making breakfast for the kids in the morning, what is a little chopping vegetables for that night’s dinner going to hurt? Or if you have done your meal planning properly, you might be able to cook some extra meat from dinner on Monday night to use in your dish on Thursday night. The following are some great examples of ways to make dinner partially or totally in advance so, come actual dinner time, the food will be on the table in the time it takes to change out of your suit and into your jeans.

Marinades: Marinating meat does not play a huge role in this column normally, as it takes time for meat to marinate, and this column is really about how to save you time. However, if done in the morning before you leave the house, marinating is a great way to add flavor to basic or inexpensive cuts of meat with little effort. Then by the time you come home at the end of the day, all the meat needs is a quick turn in the grill or broiler and it is ready to serve.

What’s more, that marinade can double as a salad dressing for a complete meal. For example, a Thai Sliced Beef Salad might use a marinade with soy sauce, fish sauce, lime juice, shallots, Serrano or Thai chili, and vegetable oil. Put most of the marinade on the flank or skirt steak in the morning, reserving about a third to half a cup. Broil the steak when you get home and served with salad greens tossed with the reserved marinade, adjusting the marinade with lime juice, salt and pepper to make a proper dressing.

Cook it Once, Eat it Twice: Now say you have done the marinade thing with chicken and, thinking ahead to a meal calling for chicken later in the week, you might try throwing twice the amount of chicken on the grill than what you would normally need that night. The extra chicken can now be transformed into a shredded topping for tostadas, chopped as the base for a curried chicken salad, or diced for chicken noodle soup. By cooking once instead of twice that week for the chicken, what might have been an hour dinner prep later in the week can quickly be turned into a meal on the table in under half an hour.

Foods that Get Better With Age: By “getting better with age” I am not implying you leave food sitting in your fridge until white furry stuff starts to sprout. But there are certain foods that benefit by a day or two in the fridge letting the flavors marry. These foods tend to be braises and sauces, dishes that most certainly take time if not a lot of effort to make.

However, this is perfect if you have time on the weekend to cook, say leaving some short ribs on to braise while you clean the house. After a day cooling in the fridge, not only can the layer of fat be easily scraped off before reheating, but the flavors have had time to deepen and marry. This may not be a meal that is technically made in 30 minutes, but when it comes to getting dinner on the table on a weeknight, there is nothing like being able to serve homemade short ribs on a Tuesday after only 15 minutes in the kitchen.

A little advanced planning and an effort to maximize your time will make those nights where once making dinner was stressful, into a nearly effortless task. Less stress in the kitchen means not just more time, but more opportunity to enjoy the end result. And there is nothing quite like a dinner cooked, served, and eaten to the hassle-free enjoyment of you and your family.

Serves/Makes: 4

• 1 1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, grilled or broiled
• 2 stalks celery
• 2 green onions
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 1/2 cup golden raisins
• 2/3 cup mayonnaise
• 1 1/2 teaspoon Thai red curry paste (more if desired)
• 1 lime, juiced
• salt and pepper
• 1 head butter lettuce