I’ll be staying with a couple in Pacifica… to help and guide them to a new level of efficiency, mindfulness and sustainability in the kitchen.
Their goals, wants and desires for the weekend are below.
……..and click here for a sample of our menu plan.
1. to minimize cooking time while maximizing nutrition
In this family, the father (they have two boys) is the one who wears the chef hat. He said he’s fine with the heavy lifting, however, day after day of shopping, prepping, cooking, serving, eating and cleaning is tooooo much. Sometimes it’s too much of a grind.
He’s looking forward to our time together b/c he is sure that there’r ways to cut corners, while keeping with the integrity of their lifestyle… eating right, sustainably, buy locally -supporting small businesses … (food) artisan. They’ve been attempting ways of ancestral eating, never fast foods, very few pre-packaged foods. He wants the best of both worlds – to have fresh, organic, clean foods … and… minimal time in the kitchen.
- I will assess their kitchen and pantry set up, take a look at their M.O. (modus operandi …mode of operation).
- Offer ideas to satisfy his desire to “optimize ways to organize.” He wants to cycle through the food in his fridge without the food going bad before he gets ’round to using it.
- Give them speed cooking ideas, techniques.
- Check out their gadgets to see if they are missing a quintessential item.
2. quick and healthy ways to cook greens, veggies
They want to go to the next level, take one step further (into the world of Alice Waters).
They’ve already hooked into “Farm Fresh to You” … a farm that delivers a box of food directly to their door on a weekly basis. And, they bought, butchered and aged a 1/4 cow, and have it neatly packaged in their freezer. So – now their focus is on how to cook the veggies … and are looking for innovative ways for serving’m.
3. the supporting actor: fish
Meat comes easy for this home chef, so, he wants us to focus on fish. He said he definitely needs to incorporate it into their meals and wants to learn ways to cook it. He suggested tilapia or snapper.
4. the third wheel: starches
Another piece of the meal that he feels needs attention is starches, which often times are over looked in their world and then they find that it’s time consuming to get them into the meal. Starches generally slows him down in the cooking process, so he wants quick, easy ways of including’m in their meals. He’s been gluten free for a couple years and wants to stay that way, he says he feels so much better. They just started eating quinoa, so he’d like to know more about this grain and ways to cook it.