Strategies for Eating in the Chen House

Food requires strategy.

Well, in our house it requires strategy. I don't like to spend money in restaurants because I don't like paying for the extra labor, unless it's some kind of special event and the restaurant is nice. Restaurants don't always serve what satisfies my appetite, and if they do it usually costs upward of $10 for a single meal.

Also, when you're in school and work, when your husband commutes to work and needs nourishment, thinking about food at the last minute doesn't work well anyway.

So here's what we often do. Every few days we will make a relatively large batch of food - enough to have fed my family growing up (7 kids) for one meal. It could be a large batch of vegetables, grain, meat, or a combo of some kind.

These we just warm up at the moment we're hungry or we will freeze several servings of one meal or another to be used when needed. This is nice because then Rex can grab a meal to go if he is commuting to Milwaukee. I don't usually use these frozen meals since I have largely been studying from home ever since the school year began. That being the case, I can just warm up what is in the fridge and determine the portion sizes based on my current appetite.

I like this approach to managing food because I don't have to cook every meal, I only have to clean up after every meal. I also don't necessarily have to cook every day, but most days I prepare some kind of food.

We learned this approach from some friends of ours. In their family, both the parents are working on PhD level and beyond kind of work and they have a young daughter. They recently had another baby, so I'm sure they are busy in another way now. The daughter goes to daycare during the day, but the parents with their demanding schedules pack meals that have been prepared at the beginning of the week. They will make three types of meals and freeze about 12 portions at once. They then just grab the meals as needed throughout the week. No worries about food going bad because it's frozen, no worries about food not being there when its needed.

That reminds me of another way they inspired me. Before getting married, there was a time I got stranded in Milwaukee while visiting Rex because of a snow storm, so I stayed at their house for the night. In the morning I was given a bowl of lentil soup. As a child my mom used to make lentils, but they weren't prepared in a flavorful way, but my hosts had created a very tasty dish. I have since incorporated lentil soups into our meals on a more regular diet. Rex loves them, they are a good source of energy, and when you add the right kinds of spices and other diced or chopped vegetables, it becomes truly delectable.