Streamlining

I’ve written about how smitten I am with my cooking mags each month. I’ll confess, though: I set totally unachievable goals for myself about what recipes I will make. I tag at least 20, total, in a month, and I probably actually make only 4 in that time, between making old and new recipes from cookbooks, past clippings, plus meals concocted with no recipe at all. Still, each month, one of my routines is to go through the month’s magazines, cut out the recipes I still like the looks of, and file the potentials into my three-ring binder, which is getting quite over-stuffed, to tell the truth. I am falling behind!

But I realized that there are certain go-to recipes that I frequently end-up making that really simplify the week because they require very little thought. I should make them more often, and this fall and winter, I intend to do just that. Here are a few:

Chicken soup. Not only does this produce the tastiest broth with the least sodium which I can use in lots of other recipes (I never have enough broth on hand), it gives us a great chicken noodle soup, one of my daughter’s favorites, and leftover chicken meat to use in another recipe. To boot, this is a very economical dish. Using an $8 organic chicken, some onions, celery, carrots, and seasoning , I get soup for dinner one night (if you add half a box of pasta); chicken meat for burritos, chicken salad, a casserole, panini, or whatever another night; and at least 4 cups of leftover broth for use in risottos, rice, casseroles. Very smart. I need to be making chicken soup at least once every other week.

Tomato sauce and Meatballs. These are in my blood. I use my mother’s time-honored beef recipe, except with beef-veal-pork mix. I can almost make them in my sleep. I make a double recipe, baking them in the oven instead of frying them, and putting them in the sauce. I should keep these in the freezer at all times. They are good enough for company, fast enough for a quick week-night dinner, and comforting enough for a relaxing weekend.

Spaghetti with Oil and Garlic, or Spaghetti Carbonara. My kids are crazy about both of these dishes. I can make the sauce in the time the pasta cooks, so they are great for time-crunch weekdays. I always have the ingredients on hand. Simple, simple, simple. Add a little salad or some broccoli, and it’s a complete meal. Done.

If I consistently make those recipes once or twice each month, I will have provided meals for about 8 days, if you include the chicken leftovers. That’s ¼th of the month covered, without a lot of thought, leaving my mind free to peruse and plan from this month’s new magazine recipes!