NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
January 13, 2000
Sometimes I select certain foods for reasons other than taste, texture or color. Sometimes my choice is based on the necessity of devoting time to tasks other than cooking.
But my need for speed does not run over my desire to enjoy what I'm eating. It's just that when I'm pressed for time, I prefer to have less of a hand in helping prepare what my wife Nicki and I eat. Rather than no preparation required, as is the case with many meal-in-a-box offerings, the foods I prefer in these situations are easy to prepare.
For example, give me a par-baked crust, provolone cheese, fresh mushrooms, purple onion, black olives and some of Nicki's homemade pesto, and I can throw a pizza together almost as fast as Nicki can call a pizza-delivery place. And we can be tearing into our "homemade" pizza long before the doorbell would be ringing to announce the arrival of a "fresh" pie. My efforts usually save us money, too, unless I go shopping for pizza ingredients on an empty stomach.
When I have the foresight the night before to make some tuna salad (with capers and green olives) or chicken salad (with toasted almonds and pineapple) or seafood salad (with water chestnuts and green onions), I can have a submarine sandwich ready to launch within minutes after I've arrived at home with my bag of shredded lettuce and loaf of Italian or French bread. This way, I still can exert a little culinary influence over what goes into my mouth--and portion control also remains in my hands--not in the plastic-gloved mitts of the sandwich "specialist" who happens to be working the drive-through.
I'm convinced that home cooking usually won't disappoint, even when time is tight and even if most of the "cooking" resembles assembly line work. The proof, as the saying goes, is in the pudding, or in this case, the stew. The savory and hearty recipe that follows gives both the cook and the dishwasher some time off.
One-Pot Chicken Stew
Adapted from a recipe appearing on the Searchable Online Archive of Recipes
from the University of California, Berkeley (http://soar.Berkeley.EDU/recipes/).
Yield: 8 servingsIngredients:
2 cups fat-free chicken stock
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 cups diced carrots
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon oregano, crumbled
1 tablespoon basil, crumbled
8 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cubed
½ cup pearled barley
½ cup dry white wine
salt and freshly ground black pepper to tasteProcedure:
Combine all ingredients except salt and pepper in a 4- or 5-quart Dutch oven. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then reduce heat to a simmer. Continue simmering for 45 minutes with the pot covered, stirring occasionally. Uncover and simmer for 30 minutes more. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve immediately.
What's Your Take on This, Julie?
Despite all the interest in a Martha Stewart lifestyle, there's one ingredient most modern-day cooks are convinced they're short of: time. According to a recent survey, Americans ate a yearly average of 139 restaurant meals and 917 home-cooked meals in 1999, compared with 122 restaurant meals and 933 home-cooked meals in 1990. Meals eaten at fast-food restaurants are at a record high, and we're gobbling about 10 percent of our meals in our cars.
While eating out is a form of entertainment and can eliminate preparation and clean-up time, the super-size portions typical of many restaurants may add pounds to our figures while carving away at our budgets. The USDA estimates that we spend nearly half of our food dollar on food eaten away from home, probably because restaurants triple (or more) the price of food ingredients when setting prices to meet their expenses.
But we still long for home cooking--the quick and easy way, that is. Food marketers have recognized our interest in the taste and nostalgia of "homemade" foods. Just look around the grocery store at food product labels or peruse the restaurant menu at a sit-down establishment and you're likely to see an offering dubbed "home-style" or "fresh." Years ago homemakers were thrilled with three-step cake mixes; now the brownies come already mixed in a pan ready to pop in the oven.
We won't be going back to the old days, but there are ways to streamline your cooking and adopt some "speed scratch" techniques--all while preserving your budget. First, organize your kitchen so your food and equipment are conveniently arranged. Plan menus a week at a time, read the recipes and keep a notepad close at hand to jot down items as you need them. Think of leftovers as "planned-overs" and they'll be instantly more appealing and useable in other menus. Consider using the store ads to provide menu ideas and save money. Always shop with a list, and have a snack before you go; otherwise, extra items will likely find their way into your shopping cart.
Focus your efforts on one part of the meal, and consider both active time and total time in food preparation. For example, meatballs take a fair amount of active time to prepare but less total time to cook, while a roast takes little effort to place in a roasting pan but more total time to cook. And when you're in a cooking mood, cook extra and freeze in meal-size portions. Containers of frozen, pre-cooked ground beef, for example, can be used to make tacos, spaghetti or stroganoff in short order.
If you're chopping vegetables for tonight's casserole, chop extra for tomorrow's meal, which could easily be One-Pot Chicken Stew, this week's featured recipe. A serving contains about 235 calories, 2 grams of fat, a full day's supply of vitamin A as beta carotene and about 40 percent of the daily recommendation for vitamin C.
If your days leave you frazzled and your wallet tells you to eat at home, modify your cooking style. And remember these words, attributed to the famous French gastronome Curnonsky: "In cooking, as in all the arts, simplicity is the sign of perfection."
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Sources: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136
Julie Garden-Robinson (701) 231-7187
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