Lazy Cooking!
My mother always said, if you want to know the easiest way to do something, watch a lazy person. It does seem that necessity is just as inventive as laziness, and with warmer weather upon us we may tend to be lazy about cooking. But let’s be smart about it! jump to recipe
A “movement” at the moment is something called meal prepping. The idea is to get ducks in a row over the weekend (or perhaps in the morning when it’s cooler), so as to eat well during the week, even when feeling lazy or “too tired to cook.” Whether we’re busy with work or just the general busy-ness of our lives, it does pay to be ahead, so that when indolence strikes we can still eat well. Pizza hangovers are preventable!
Although I do cook just about everyday, I’m still grateful when the fridge has treasures that are ready become part a satisfying meal. For example, when I get home from the farmer’s market I try to wash up a few greens, putting them in a paper towel in the bag, and then into the crisper drawer at the ready. Also, if I’m making rice for dinner, I make a double batch, then I have the makings of an almost instant very veggie fried rice or an alternative to noodles in soup, all poised for the plopping.
This week I did some inadvertent meal prepping. I was recipe testing with quinoa and ended up with about 3 cups of the cooked super grain. I had been meaning to try a nice morning porridge with it anyway, and in exactly two minutes I was happily enjoying a bowl of quinoa porridge with mango and coconut. One can only eat so much oatmeal, and I ate my concoction close to cold – a real breakfast boone for the coming months.
Another score this week with all that quinoa was that I had also roasted a couple big sweet potatoes (diced) for dinner, and had leftovers. I mixed them together, adding cucumber and cilantro for a just plain awesome and cooling salad. The dressing was simply lemon juice and olive oil, and I’ll be making that happy accident again.
A few weeks ago a friend treated me to a version of congee, also known as Jook, the hugely popular Chinese rice porridge. Her’s was lighter and not as risotto-like as the traditional, and had nice greens and scallions. It really hit the spot and left me with a lingering hankerin’ – and you know how I am about them!
With leftover brown rice and some nice shiitake mushrooms in the fridge next to my prepped spinach, it was all systems go for a quick bowl of comfort. I needed only to slice the mushrooms and give them a kiss of heat in the pot before the broth went in, along with Tamari and ginger. I added a handful of frozen peas for protein, and I always have scallions because they perfectly finish everything from Tex-Mex to Thai. That recipe will be my next post.
Will you be prepared for those days when you have nothing left to give? It’s too hot to cook? What’s in your fridge?
I love the look of tri-color quinoa, but any will do. There is a “recipe” here, but just like oatmeal, you have lots of choices for dressing it up. Dried or fresh fruit, nuts, hemp or chia seeds, cinnamon, brown sugar, maple syrup - have at it! It is written "per serving" you are making.
Ingredients
- ¾ cup cooked quinoa
- ½ mango, chopped
- 3 Tbsp. flaked coconut
- About cup ½ nut milk
Instructions
- Pull ingredients out of the fridge to get the chill off, or gently heat the milk.
- Mix everything together in your bowl, and devour.
