Written on 30/09/11:
Planning a meal is one of the most important steps in the process of cooking a meal for oneself. If you don’t plan a meal, you pretty much don’t cook in my experience. My planning starts in the morning when I wake up and go through to the kitchen to get breakfast. I fill the kettle up and put it on to boil. While I wait for the kettle to boil I get out a tea bag and a cup from the cupboard and place them near the kettle. I then walk to the fridge and grab the yoghurt bottle and milk out. I place them on the counter. I stand in front of the fridge and look at my shelf to see what I have. Meat, vegetables, eggs such a choice to choose from, if something isn’t there I check the freezer next. My planning always starts with the question: what do I feel like? From this question I ask myself do I want a large meal or a small one. Due to that fact that I am on a diet my planning has to be pretty onto it. This diet allows me to eat protein and certain vegetables so I need to make sure that I have everything I need so I don’t stray from the diet. As the kettle boils I contemplate what meat I want to eat chicken, tuna, steak or prawns such a variety of choice for today’s meal. Today I picked chicken =D
Once I’ve decided what I am eating, I can finally start cooking.
At the end of a long day, I know that all I have to do is walk into the kitchen and start cooking as I have already planed my meal =D
Tonight’s meal is chicken, scrambled eggs and vegetables = YUMMY hehe
I turn the stove on at the wall and switch one of the plates on and place a frying pan on it. As the plate and pan heat up I am dicing the chicken on a board so that it is ready to be cooked. From the fridge I grab 3 eggs, the cabbage, lettuce, green beans, peppers and carrots. I cracked the eggs into a bowl and mix them together with a fork and leave it to sit on the counter. Once the pan is hot enough I place the chicken in it with a couple of drops of oil and stir the chicken a couple of times. While the chicken it cooking I move on the prepping the vegetables. I steam my vegetables in the microwave to get the most nutrients out of them. I grab the steamer and put some cold water in the bottom of it and place the grate on top. Once the grate is in place I add a large amount of green beans and cabbage and a small amount of carrots to the steamer and place it in the microwave to cook. Once the vegetables are cooking I turn back to the chicken and stir some more, I also add salt, pepper, crushed cumin seeds and Italian herbs on the chicken to add some flavour. Yum everything is starting to come together and smell delicious. Once the chicken is cooked, half of it goes onto my plate and the other half goes into a container for leftovers for the next day. I place the eggs into the pan that chicken was in and cook it omelette style =). The vegetables are then placed on the plate once they are done. I then add the eggs to the meal. To top it all off I put some salt and pepper on.
Once the meal is complete I can finally enjoy a healthy home-cooked meal that tastes delicious.
Hey Heather, loving the blog. For me the story sounds more descriptive than reflective. Perhaps a bit more about what you are feeling during the whole planning and executing of the meal is needed. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat story there Heather, you have gone into great detail. I happen to disagree with your opening statement however. Sometimes I find the best cooking is done when it isn't planned. Have you ever heard of left over stew?? I recommend you should try it :)
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work!