So there is this Healthy Minds and Bodies Group that I attend… participate in… ok ok, I created it and I do most of the talking… but other people come so it is fun anyway :)

We met recently… last month… the month before last and I’m only now getting around to recapping it.

The original intent was to do some cooking demos. Fast things like chopping onions, cooking whole wheat couscous, cooking lentils, etc. However, instead it turned into a lively discussion about how to get dinner on the table and what gadgets we use to do it.

Get Dinner Done

The biggest tips here revolve around planning in advance. Your dinner prep will go much more smoothly if you know what you’re making ahead of time.

Grocery shop with specific meals in mind, and start thinking at least the night before the meal about how you’re going to get it on the table. This is so important with healthy cooking because you may need to start some beans soaking, cook the brown rice ahead of time, or get some veggies chopped.

I hate running to the grocery store for just a few items, so I tend to shop twice a month at costco, and then 3 times a month at a regular grocery store for fresh stuff. I keep plenty of dried/food storage type stuff on hand, so ideally I never have to worry about those. I plan meals like salads for the few days immediately after a grocery store run, then dishes that use onions, potatoes, canned tomatoes, frozen veggies, etc. for later in the week when the fresh stuff is used up. The same goes for fresh fruit. I make a conscious effort to eat the time-sensitive stuff first (berries, pineapple, melon) and save things that keep better to tide me over until the next trip (oranges, grapefruit, apples, green bananas, red pears) .

As far as preparing things in advance goes, we discussed what things freeze well and keep well in the fridge. Beans, brown rice? Yep. I frequently make a big batch of brown rice and we’ll use it over the course of a week. I recently froze several containers of my black bean soup so that Scott would have something to eat when I was out-of-state. I was concerned the texture would be a problem, but he approved! I’ve started chopping the last half of a Costco bag of onions all at once. That way, none go bad and I have a freezer full of (double-bagged) chopped onion ready to go in quart-sized quantities. Most of my meals start with chopped onion, so this has really come in handy. If you’re going to saute, you can also use frozen chopped bell pepper and zucchini. They defrost with more moisture (like the onions) but that just means you don’t have to add oil to saute (bonus!)

KITCHEN GADGETS

I have a kitchen appliance fetish. There, now that that is in the open, I’ll go ahead and tell you my favorites and how they come into play for healthy cooking.

Disclaimer: You don’t need these things. Really. Don’t let this list intimidate you out of preparing healthy dishes for your family. I only list them here to show you what’s out there so that if you suspect that a certain kitchen appliance might make your life easier, you’ll know a bit more about it.

PRESSURE COOKER – Mine is a 6 qt version by Fagor and it works like a charm. No tricky/dangerous weights that can go flying off and explode your house into smithereens (apparently old school cookers could do that).

I only use mine for dried beans, though I do use the pot (without the pressure lid) to cook other things. For completely dried black beans, it takes about 20-25 minutes at pressure, then I let the pressure fall naturally. This makes black beans in about as much time as it takes to make brown rice. Convenient, eh?

Apparently you can use them to cook meat, and any number of other things… but I don’t. I bought mine at Costco for ~$30-40, but they don’t have them at the Columbus Costco anymore. :(

RICE COOKER – Love this! I have a 10 cup Aroma cooker that makes up to 20 cups of cooked rice. I use it to make brown rice and quinoa most often and it works like a charm. I sometimes toss peppers and onions right in with the rice and it still work perfectly. I am a terrible rice-on-the-stovetop-cooker, so not having to stress about burning the rice or getting soggy rice is so worth it to me. I bought mine at Costco for ~$30. I don’t believe they sell them in the Columbus store right now.

GOOD 6 QT SAUTE PAN – Mine is a poor man’s version of this one but only cost $30 at Costco. Noticing a trend? :) It has an aluminum core in the bottom disk, but otherwise it’s stainless steel, inside and out.


Here are the secrets to a good pan:
- Unless you’re using it exclusively for something like pancakes, skip the nonstick. You can water saute just fine in a good-quality metal pan, and then you don’t have to worry about wearing out, chipping, cleaning trouble, or which spoon to use.
- Look for an aluminum or (even better) copper core. It’s good to find this in a nice thick base on your pan, but the best pans have this metal in the core up the sides of the pan as well. That is because these metals (unlike stainless steel) conduct heat very well, eliminating “hot spots” and greatly reducing the chance of food burning or sticking.
- I like a stainless steel interior because it’s easy to keep clean. Some kind of brushed metal on the outside is nice so you don’t have to worry about fingerprints, smudges, or whatnot. Or, you can, you know… just not worry about them anyway. :)

HUGE STOCK POT – Just buy a big pot. It doesn’t have to be pricey. Mine was $30 at Wal-Mart and it’s a jillion quarts. It’s stainless steel with a (kinda pansy) aluminum disk at the bottom but it does it’s job well: It holds lots and lots of soup.

VITAMIX – So not necessary but so nice to have. I use mine nearly every day. Smoothies and soups are the two biggies for me, but you can also use it to grind flax, oats, coarsely chop veggies in a broth (I guess that’s soup again), make Watermelon Lime Lovin’, etc. etc.

FOOD PROCESSOR – I have a 7 cup Cuisinart that we scored as a wedding gift, and I’m still learning what it’s capable of. Definitely blending chickpeas for hummus, beans and peppers for refried beans, nuts and dates for pop ‘ems, and shredding all manner of veggies for dips and latkes.

KNIVES – This is an interesting one and I don’t think we reached any hard and fast conclusions. Here’s what I know:
- A good knife can make your life more lovely.
- Knives can be expensive.
- If you do spring for nice knives, consider buying just one, and with a 20% off coupon at Bed Bath & Beyond, instead of a whole set. Go for a chef’s knife or santoku. That’ll get you through most meals no problem.
- Keep your knives sharp! Wash and dry them immediately. Most grocery store’s meat departments do complimentary knife sharpening. Call and ask. And don’t tell them you use your knives to chop veggies. It’ll make the butchers feel bad. ;)

BREAD MACHINE – I have waxed poetic on my love for my bread machine already, but essentially I use this 3 times a week or so to make whole wheat bread, and twice a year to make dough for cinnamon rolls.

WHEAT GRINDER – I have this one from BlendTec. I use it about once every 2 or 3 weeks, to fill my flour bin with whole wheat flour. I’ve also used it to grind dried chickpeas on one occasion. My original grinder was defective and they sent a replacement promptly and they paid for me to ship the defective one back. I’ve been using the new one for about a year with no problems. It’s very noisy, but pretty fast and grinds my wheat plenty fine to make nice soft bread. I usually grind ~7 lb at a time, split into two batches to give my machine time to rest, cool-down, put its feet up, etc.

GOOD STORAGE CONTAINERS – I have a whole blog post about our containers, but I really just love them. Having everything kept neat, organized, and visible has made a world of difference in my desire to keep food storage and prepare things from scratch. Here are a few photos from that post:

Moving right along…

Ok, your turn. What do YOU use to get dinner on the table? Leave a comment and let us learn from your experience. :)

This month, we’re going to have an “open garden” meeting where we walk around the neighborhood and do show and tell with each other’s vegetable gardens. Hopefully I’ll be able to share some pictures.

Next month, we’re going on a field trip to a farmer’s market. Nothing formal, just planning on a certain Saturday morning to meet up and buy some fresh produce.

The month after THAT, we’re going to have another real meeting about a topic I’m very excited about: Making your own baby food! I’ll be sure to take good notes because that will be foreign territory for me. :)

Then the month after THAT… we’re not having any meeting at all. Because it sounds as though we’ll all need a break by then! Hehe.