ahead

Driving home at the end of a long day with questions about dinner hanging in the air = stress for me. Zero-waste means there is no frozen pizza in the freezer. Thinking ahead is truly the best defense. I am not one who loves to spend a day cooking for the week ahead (though it would be really nice to have those meals ready). I have, however, found a few ways to be nice to myself ahead of time + without much (if any) extra work.

After a few shriveled spinach leaves found themselves left in the bottom of the fridge, I knew that I needed a way to eat our greens without the added chore of daily washing + drying. In the past I've washed the leaves of kale or lettuce ahead + wrapped them in a towel. That works great...when I do it. I'm now on week two of putting washed snipped spinach leaves into this lidded glass dish (still a bit damp) ensuring that we have readily available greens all week long. They are easily torn + plopped onto just about every meal we eat. (And not a plastic bag in sight.)

Another simple way to have some pre-prepped food for each meal is to make a double batch of some element of whatever we are having for dinner...rice or lentil stew...saving the rest for another meal. ​With each meal that I make lately, I just consider if there is anything that I can make a larger batch of...to save time later. Not having to cook rice (or scrub the pot) is a nice little gift on busy nights.

Last evening we topped some baked potatoes with pre-made (sounds better than left over, right?) lentil stew + yogurt...yum! This was the third meal we got out of one batch of lentil stew. If I had really thought ahead + shopped for them, I could have made a couple extra baked potatoes for later. Luxury fast food!  :)

I know this is just plain common sense, but for some reason I wasn't doing it. Now I'm so happy that I am.  :)

Love,
​Jane