Case Study: A Week’s Menus

In this 4-part series, I’m exploring “rolling food prep” as a strategy for pacing: preparing extras of one or two ingredients each time you cook for use in future meals, so that you prepare about half of each meal fresh and assemble the rest from previously prepared ingredients. Part 1 introduces the basic concept. Part 2 shows my typical weekly template for meal planning, which focuses on one type of food a day: beans, perishable produce, meat, “sturdy” produce, grains, and condiments.

In this post we’ll look at how this routine played out in last week’s actual menus in my one-spoon kitchen. Even if the foods aren’t suitable for your diet (or tastes), I hope this “real-world” example is helpful in showing the general balance of fresh effort to re-assembly, and how that balance can help you create tasty, nutritious meals with real variety.

I’ve underlined ingredients that I prepared extras of that day, and italicized the foods I had already made (sometimes weeks before). I’ve also noted how much active time each meal took—not the start-to-finish time, but the time I was actually on my feet doing something—and estimated the time needed if everything were prepared from scratch instead.

Thursday
* Cannellini beans with kalamata olives, sundried tomatoes, and lots of finely chopped fresh parsley; tossed with oil and red wine vinegar
* Roasted, chopped cauliflower and carrots with balsamic reduction sauce
* Pita toasts with basil oil
Active time: 15 minutes (35-40 if all ingredients are prepared fresh)

Friday
* Baked sweet potatoes topped with slow-cooked jammy onions, red peppers, and cherry tomatoes and shredded smoked mozzarella
* Sautéed baby spinach with crumbled bacon
Active time: 15-20 minutes (25-30 if everything is prepared fresh)

Saturday
*Cannellini and summer squash soup (cooked in bean broth)
* Arugula salad with sliced pear, toasted pecans, and lemon-orange dressing
* Pita toasts with basil oil
Active time: 25 minutes (30 if everything prepared fresh)

Sunday
Leftovers

Monday
* Whole-wheat pasta tossed with arugula-poblano pesto and feta cheese
* Tomato-onion soup
(Since I had the food processor out for the pesto, I also shredded carrots for Tuesday)
Active time: 20 minutes (40 if everything prepared fresh)

Tuesday
*Shredded carrot salad with lemon-orange dressing and fennel seed
*Poached chicken breast and rice with sautéed onion and New Mexico red chile sauce
Active time: 15 minutes (45+ if everything prepared fresh)

Wednesday
* Sautéed red cabbage, onion, and apple, with cider vinegar and caraway
* Cannellini beans with sage oil
* Baked sweet potato
Active time: 20 minutes (25-30 if everything prepared fresh)

These were not complex meals (if by some chance they sound impressive, then trust me, they weren’t), but they each had a protein, starch, and three vegetables,* beautiful colors, balanced flavors, and varied textures. If I had tried to prepare every ingredient from scratch each day, I would have had to settle for much less.

Rolling food prep can save anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes of active effort each day, usually averaging half the time it would take to prepare the same meal fresh. It also puts a lot of ready-to-go components at your disposal for no-energy days.

There are alternative strategies for low-energy cooking, of course, from batch cooking to meal services to once-a-week prepping. In the last post of this series I’ll talk about some of them and why rolling food prep has worked best for me.

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* Note: Red chile is a vegetable here in New Mexico rather than a condiment. It is the food of the gods, and we eat generous portions!

A Weekly Template

In the last post, I talked about “rolling food prep” as a strategy for pacing: preparing extras of one or two ingredients each time you cook for use in future meals. The aim is to prepare about half of each meal fresh, and to assemble the rest from previously prepared ingredients.

Keeping track of what needs prepared and what’s already done can be tricky, though. To help with that, I follow a weekly plan or template and focus on preparing one nutritional category a day (e.g., protein, grains, vegetables). While I certainly make other things most days as well, this category is the one I make extra of.

The plan isn’t rigid. I vary it based on energy and what I already have on hand. Having a framework, though, helps keep meal planning relatively simple while making sure all my groceries get used before they spoil.

Here’s my typical template. (My menu planning week starts on Thursdays, since the trash goes out on Wednesday, and I have a cleaned-out refrigerator to fill.)

• Thursday (Grocery Shopping Day): Beans I generally cook dry legumes from scratch. Shopping days turn into weary days, so first thing in the morning, 2-3 cups of soaked beans go in the slow cooker. At dinner time if all else fails I can just dress them simply with salt and a flavored oil and serve them with vegetables prepped earlier in the week. The remaining beans are frozen on a cookie sheet and then go into a resealable bag, where I can draw out handfuls as needed to round out a meal. I may reserve the broth for soups.
• Friday: Perishable Produce I wash greens and chop or slice things that will only keep a few days. I probably won’t get to everything on Friday, but the produce is more likely to be used before it spoils if it is ready to go.
• Saturday: Meat (or more produce, or condiments) When I buy meat (I don’t always) I’ll cook two or three pounds at once. Leftovers are divided into individual or double portions to freeze.
• Sunday: Day of rest Leftovers.
• Monday: Sturdy Produce E.g., chopped cabbage, roasted beets, shredded carrots—again, I probably won’t get to everything on the same day. Because I’m less worried about these foods spoiling, the next three days get re-ordered a lot.
• Tuesday: Grains Rice, barley, polenta, quick-breads, and their ilk. I usually freeze rice like I do the beans, but other whole grains go in the freezer in small containers.
• Wednesday: Condiments, sauces, etc. E.g., tomato sauce, pickled onions, a basic vinaigrette, or a ginger-scallion sauce—things that keep well or can be frozen. On Wednesday nights I soak beans for Thursday.

Despite the best-laid plans, I usually end up skipping at least one day due to illness. But almost always, the refrigerator and freezer have enough things pre-prepared to make an easy, balanced meal, even on days when I can’t cook anything new.

Of course, this is just one way to pace food prep throughout the week, and it may not suit your tastes and nutritional needs. The template is easily adapted, though. I do find that sticking to a framework of some sort keeps the fridge and freezer well-stocked with ready-to-go ingredients with minimal mental effort.

In the next post I’ll show how this template turns into actual menus for a week.

A Strategy for Pacing

Good pacing is crucial for most of us with energy-limiting conditions. We need to avoid over-doing on low-to-mid-energy days to prevent a “crash,” and on zero-energy days, when all activity is over-doing, we need easy meals on hand.

I don’t know anyone who manages those things perfectly every time—I certainly don’t. But doing a “rolling” food prep helps me come close reasonably often. Basically, I prepare extras of one or two ingredients each time I cook that will go in the freezer or refrigerator for future meals.

• If I’m chopping a stalk of celery for tonight’s soup, I’ll cut a couple more into sticks for snacks tomorrow.
• If making rice, I’ll double or triple the quantity and put the extra in the freezer.
• If toasting nuts or seeds, I’ll do enough to fill a pint jar to have on hand in the fridge.

The question I always ask is, “What can I easily do today that will save me a task tomorrow?”

The aim is to prepare about half a meal fresh, and to assemble the rest from previously prepared ingredients. This makes it easier to do small amounts of work every day, which helps with more consistent pacing. On zero-energy days, the freezer, refrigerator, and pantry are already stocked with a broad range of pre-prepared ingredients that can easily be assembled into a meal.

When I first tried this method, I found it more of a mental challenge than anything, just to keep track of what needed to be prepared and what was on hand to create balanced meals. For me the solution has been to plan meals that focus prep work each day on one nutritional category (e.g., protein, grains, or vegetables). While I certainly prepare other things most days as well, this category is the one I make extra of.

That’s the basic theory. In the next post I’ll get down to brass tacks and look at how I use rolling food prep to plan a typical week.