Sunday Special: Executive Chef
The struggle of being the home's primary chef
We’re back with another edition of the Sunday Special. This one is going to be focusing on one of my more important roles in life. I am the Executive Chef here at the H&H Homestead, and handle most of all the meal preparations - from planning to grocery shopping.
This is an important role in any household, and one especially for me because I really like food. Especially good food.
The role is not always an easy one. Especially living in the area I live in with a bunch of excellent takeout options that are only a phone call or online order away from being delivered. Add to that, the struggles of having a full time job and being a dad of two boys and the job is not as glamorous as it seems.
I have found that planning and having options throughout the week is what makes it a little easier to deal with. The planning is key because without a plan, you have nothing to go off of and it also means the decision on what to have is already made for me by me earlier in the week. Does this mean I am rigid and always stick to it? Of course not. But having burgers on hand means the night I was supposed to make shrimp scampi, but absolutely don’t feel like cooking or eating that, I can throw a couple of burgers on the grill and get out the air fryer for some fries.
The grocery shopping and having a pantry that can be accessed for multiple meals at any time is something I have learned that really helps. The key for me is having main proteins that I can make into many different dishes with different styles depending on what I am feeling.
I usually do the meal planning before groceries, that way I can get the food I need for the meals I planned. It also saves me from buying unnecessary things and with the price of groceries rising every day, this is a good thing.
The other key I have found, especially for nights I don’t feel like cooking, is to have meals be able to be stretched. It means making a whole chicken and getting two to three meals out of it. It means making soup or stew and eating leftovers. It means making soup and then adding pasta to it to make it a pasta dish instead of soup when eating leftovers. The more I have done this, the more I realize that leftovers are definitely a good thing, especially because you can re-purpose them in many different ways. When it doubt, a sandwich, wrap, or throwing it on pizza dough also helps.
I’ve tried to stick to a theme of upscale diner food. It’s simple, comfort food. It’s buying some good bread and have grilled cheese and homemade tomato soup. It’s seeing you have leftover steak or meat from tacos and throwing it onto a flatbread and making nacho pizza or cheesesteak pizza.
When it comes to my kids, I never liked the idea of making 3 different meals for everyone for dinner. I know what my kids will eat and will make something I know they will eat based off the ingredients I am using for the regular dinner. For example, tonight I am making chili for dinner, which both of my kids are not fans of. In this case, I take a little bit of the ground beef/turkey and the beans and put them to the side and make them into small tacos or burritos for them. I’m not making them separate dinners, just something different using the same ingredients I use for the main meal.
Does this work all the time? No. Absolutely not. That’s why having chicken nuggets and pasta on hand is always the go to when I know they won’t eat it. The air fryer has saved me on multiple occasions, and will continue to do so.
I’m not going to pretend I have this all figured out. I just know what works for me and my family. I also understand that this is not viable for everyone. I get it. We are in a calm period with evening activities right now. During baseball and soccer seasons, this plan gets refined because I am not able to cook every night when kids have to be out the door before dinner time.
I enjoy cooking, and eating, which is why I embrace this role and try to keep getting better at cooking and at making sure everyone is getting the food that they need to stay healthy.
Over the next couple of weeks, I am going to be sharing some of my recipes for food that I make. Stuff that my kids eat and food that is not difficult to make, but has some good flavor.
Until next time.