Weekly Prep Time in the Kitchen

People love going out to eat.

Aaaaaaannnnndddd...

Why not?

We sit down at a nice restaurant
or fast food place,

get served,
eat in peace,
pay
and leave.

Simple....

Well, maybe not...

The time it takes
to get in the car,
drive in traffic,
wait in line
or wait to be seated,
get served,
pay a small fortune,
tip the server,
and drive home...

that just seems like a whole 'lotta' work...

How about some really simple solutions to

ALWAYS

have delicious food at home that only takes minutes to prepare and clean up?

Restaurants open way early in the morning to prepare all the food ahead of time so by the time you and your family walk in their front door, it only takes them a few minutes to put the food in front of you...hot and ready to enjoy...

Here is a gentleman
cutting up peppers

at a local
Mexican restaurant...

Also, large
walk in refrigerators
are stocked full

of fresh food organized
so that 'prep time' is easy.

The solution is to set up your kitchen

to function like one in a restaurant.

Here is a video on how to set up your kitchen to run like a well oiled machine:

Set aside time during the week
and on the weekends for
getting food prepared ahead of time
in order to make cooking meals faster...


Prep time includes:

Boiling pasta and rice.

Making salad dressings.

Defrosting and marinating

chicken, pork and steak,

but do not cook it

until the night you eat it.

Store it marinating in the fridge

in a plastic bag.

Making soups all at the same time.  

Cutting up vegetables for salads.

and making a dessert of the week...

These easy steps help to cut cooking time so that we can all make meals from scratch in 30 minutes or less instead of opting for meals out. The baked chicken

 can be used for dinner on Monday with mashed potatoes     

and green beans,    in pasta on Wednesday with a creamy Alfredo sauce ,

and the leftovers get made into chicken salad for lunch on Friday.

The steak can be made into Beef Broccoli on Tuesday

   with Fried Rice       

and steak and potato soup on Thursday. The pork roast can be served with gravy on Friday

and made into a wonderful bean soup from the stock and leftover meat on Saturday.

  Learning the art of 'prep time' saves a ton of time money and effort in the kitchen the whole week... Check out all the recipes on Facebook! Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Makeoverslife/175447350176?ref=ts#!/media/albums/?id=175447350176

Making salads simple...

Salads are delicious and

we can get as many as vegetables as we want in one meal.

When we come home hungry

or open the fridge on a relaxed Sunday afernoon,

the thought of cutting vegetables, cheese,

and making salad dressing is the last thing we want to do.

Sooooooo....

We reach for snack food instead.

Seeing beautiful salads

on The Food Network

or in glossy magazine spreads,

we think to ourselves,

'Wow! That looks absolutely delicious

and I would love to make that.'

There is a solution.

There is an art to preparing food as fast

as you would get it in a restaurant...

at home.

Here it is:

Cut and bag vegetables as soon as you get them home

from the grocery store.

Don't wash them. The veggies will spoil.

Cut carrottes, celery, and peppers and bag them separately.

Cut one head of lettuce and bag it, too.

Mushrooms, radishes, and 

cucumbers have to be eaten as soon as they are cut.

Thus, only cut them when you need them.

Store the chopped veggies in a bowl in the fridge.

When it's time to make a salad...

Voila!

All the hard work is already done and

the salad takes only a few minutes to assemble.

Last is the salad dressing.

If you've ever peaked at the

ingredients in processed dressings,

it would be quite a surprise.

The ingredients are very unhealthy.

On the other hand, salad dressings made at home with olive oil, vinegars, mayonnaise, cheese and spices taste amazing, are very healthy,

cost A LOT LESS $$$

and they store in the fridge for up to a month.

A great one to try that is a basic dressing

for almost any salad:  balsamic vinaigrette.

Check out the video on YouTube on how to make it...

 

A fun anytime of year dressing is

Raspberry Poppyseed Vinaigrette

Here is the recipe:

                                                                 
                            10-12 FRESh RASPBERRIES 

                                        ¾ CUP OLIVE OIL.

                           ¼ CUP WHITE WINE VINEGAR.

                           2 TABLESPOONS POPPY SEEDS.

                                          PINCH OF SALT.

IN A FOOD PROCESSOR,

BLEND ALL INGREDIENTS EXCEPT OLIVE OIL.

AS THE FOOD PROCESSOR IS BLENDING, POUR OLIVE OIL IN VERY SLOWLY.
CONTINUE UNTIL DRESSING THICKENS SLIGHTLY.

Check out more salads and salad dressing recipes in the photo albums on Facebook. Here is the direct link: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150199640390177.439062.175447350176&type=1

 Antipasto Salad

 Caesar Salad

Cucumber and Tomato Salad