What We're Eating this Week

A few years ago, I was tired.  Too tired to cook dinner every night.  Tired of missing out on the fun stuff because I was stuck in the kitchen. There had to be a better way.  The answer?  Bulk cooking. After a lifetime of shunning leftovers, I began to embrace them as my pathway to a better life.  I'd cook a big dish every few days, and we'd have dinner on the table 10 minutes after we got home. 

Fast forward to 2009: Ben's in the final throes of med school pre-requisites, research projects, applications, interviews and triathlon training.  I'm working, beading, running...and still cooking...most meals. It's time to get seriously efficient with meal-time.  Almost all meal preparation in our household happens on one day each week.  Usually Sundays. I'm really good at making a gigantic mess, and usually two or three dishes that end up being our meals for the entire week. Sometimes there's enough to freeze for future weeks.
 

We found that vegetarian meals tend to taste better the next day.  But meat can taste great if it's slow-cooked or used as a component in a soup or stew.  This dish is from Julia Child's The Way to Cook--a variation on the "Zinfandel Beef".  Cooked in my Le Creuset.  C'est magnifique!

We divide each dish into multiple one-serving containers, and when they're cool, Ben closes them up and stocks the refrigerator.  This week, we're also eating Black Bean Chili with Butternut Squash and Swiss Chard, a recipe out of "Bon Appetit" that capitalizes famously on the crops we got from our farm share this week.

Ben may be slammed with school work, but we both still need to eat healthy, homey meals.  Bulk cooking allows us to do that--even if we can't always eat together. 

That's what we're eating this week. What are your favorite leftovers?