I'm new to cooking and food prep—really, really new—so this will certainly be an exercise in ELI5 for you all. I don't prioritize food variety so I'm going to be eating the same good-tasting things every day: an omelet in the morning, a salad at lunch, and a bowl of legumes and buckwheat at night, with fruits and nuts as snacks throughout the day. Please, don't worry about me getting bored—I eat the same stuff every day already; I don't want that to distract from the post. I'll post my full list of ingredients below. My goal, that I'm sure is shared by many of you, is to expedite the food prep process as much as possible and be as efficient as possible with it, so that I can get on with more important aspects of my life.
I'm doing my research into how long foods last in the refrigerator and in the freezer, and the storage methods for various kinds of food. I find it all a bit overwhelming because I'm trying to figure out the optimal routine of purchasing the food so that all the food gets used and none of it goes bad. The timescales of freshness, the conditions of storage, and related factors vary across the 20-something ingredients I plan to assemble. This leads me to have questions that are kind of case-specific for my situation, which are difficult to find on the Internet—for example, the interactions of certain ingredients in the same container while being stored. Again, this knowledge is very non-intuitive for me, being very green (pun intended) in the realm of cooking and food management. I could really use some targeted answers to my specific questions below. I want to freeze as much of my food as possible, as I understand that it prolongs the food's lifespan. My meals are as follows:
Breakfast:
- Three eggs
- Mozzarella cheese
- Tabasco
Breakfast questions:
- Can I cook my mozzarella omelets for a full 7 days all at once, then put them in the freezer, then thaw overnight in the refrigerator when I'm going to eat them the next day? Is that the most efficient way I can do this?
- Will a frozen omelet retain its flavor for that length of time in, say, a small tupperware, or does it need to be vacuum sealed or in a sealed bag? Or will it not retain its flavor in the freezer no matter what it's stored in?
- Can I get away with doing this on a larger timescale than that (say, every two weeks), considering the cooked eggs, the melted mozzarella, their interaction with each other in storage, and the method of storage itself (tupperware, sealed bag, etc.)?
- If freezing is not encouraged, do I just have to bite the bullet and cook my omelets every three days and keep them in the refrigerator, so the eggs don't go bad?
Lunch:
- Kale
- Spinach
- Parsley
- Dried cranberries
- Carrots
- Onions
- Walnuts
- Gorgonzola cheese
- Parmesan peppercorn dressing
Lunch questions:
- Note: I'm not going to put the dressing on until I'm ready to use it; that much I know
- Can all of the other ingredients besides the dressing exist together in a tupperware container in the freezer, thaw in the refrigerator overnight, and still taste okay and fresh upon consumption the next day? Emphasis is on the leafy greens here (spinach, kale) — can they freeze and then still be used in a salad? And can they freeze together? If so, how long could a salad last like that? Is there one or more ingredient (say, the gorgonzola) that is best left out of the salad mix until I'm ready to eat it?
- If the ingredients' interactions in storage are numerous and problematic (e.g. something in the salad making the kale spoil faster or something), do I keep all of the ingredients separate? Is it okay to mix some (like carrots, onions, walnuts) before storing those together in the freezer? Which items can go in the freezer and which ingredients am I forced to put in the refrigerator? For how long? Again, I want to stress the importance of both minimizing the trips to the store and preparing as much salad as possible at the same time, while maintaining a sense of freshness. If none of the vegetables can be frozen, for instance, okay then—I'd just like to know.
Dinner (a bowl of):
- Buckwheat
- Kidney beans
- Chick peas
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Apple cider vinegar (a little bit)
- Garlic powder
- Crushed red pepper
- Parmesan cheese
- Tabasco
Dinner questions:
- My instinctual strategy is to mix the buckwheat, kidney beans, and chick peas in bulk during initial prep, store the mix in the freezer, then thaw in the refrigerator the night before, then add the rest in when I'm ready to eat. Is this a viable strategy? How long could I store such a mix for? Tupperware? Sealed bag? In what quantities should I store the mix so that everything freezes quickly, like 16oz? [I understand that you want to freeze small portions so that it freezes quickly.] How long can such a mix last for?
- Could I even go further, in regards to efficiency? Could I add the apple cider vinegar and extra virgin olive oil and crushed red pepper and garlic powder and Tabasco during the bulk prep, and store altogether, then thaw and add cheese when ready to eat? Can the cheese be frozen in the mix too?
- If this is not a viable strategy, what is? I assume I should cook my beans and chick peas in bulk, instead of buying them canned?
Fruits & nuts:
- Apples
- Blueberries
- Clementines
- Strawberries
- Pomegranates
- Almonds
Edit: formatting
Submitted June 08, 2017 at 11:45PM by kevinsolomon http://ift.tt/2sjI4Xn MealPrepSunday
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