Cook Less and Eat Better with a Continuous Menu

Be your own sous-chef

A continuous menu repurposes some elements of one meal into the next to reduce wasted food, save time and money and produce tasty dishes. Cooking this way, you essentially become your own sous-chef.

A sample continuous menu, beginning with a simple meal plan

On the weekend, based on ingredients I have on hand, I come up with two or three dishes I’d like to cook during the upcoming week. I try to choose dishes that have some ingredients in common.

In the sample menu below, I’ll focus on dinner, the meal that causes the most stress.

Dinner

Sweet potato, chickpea and kale salad with tahini dressing. I have lots of kale growing in the backyard and chickpeas on hand. My daughter Charlotte has made this delicious, adaptable version of the salad for us. She omitted the brussels sprouts and avocado and she also veganized it with a couple of small changes (she’s mostly vegan).

Vegetarian shepherd’s pie. I have the dried beans for the base and the potatoes for the topping. I’ll need some vegetables for the middle layer. (I’ll make the recipe in my cookbook.)

Roasted vegetable soup. Roasting brings out the flavor. I almost always have honeynut squash on hand in the winter so I’ll roast a bunch. I’ll also roast whole heads of garlic (without tinfoil!). Later in the week, I’ll sauté onions, add the roasted vegetables, garlic and broth and purée everything. I’ll freeze a couple of jars’ of the soup.

Shepherd’s pie in my cookbook

Breakfasts, lunches, snacks

Steel-cut oats. These cook in about half an hour (or longer). So make a big batch, store it in the refrigerator, reheat bowlfuls on busy mornings and save time while enjoying a hot, satisfying breakfast.

Minimally processed steel-cut oats have a chewier texture and nuttier flavor than rolled oats. They are lower on the glycemic index and leave you feeling full longer. Choose from toppings such as fresh fruit, nuts, seeds, shredded coconut, maple syrup, yogurt, a bit of peanut butter… Go here for overnight cooking instructions.

Freezer food. I almost always have a couple of jars of soup or dal or curry in the freezer. These make excellent lunches.

Besan chilla. These rich, savory Indian pancakes consist of besan (flour made from roasted split chickpeas), spices and chopped vegetables. Quick and satisfying, they taste like eggs but contain none. Italy’s version of these are called socca or farinata. Enjoy them for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Go here for the recipe.

Hummus with raw vegetables. Healthy and satisfying. Hummus helps ensure your random raw vegetables are eaten. Go here for a hummus recipe.

Cookies. I might bake these peanut butter and chocolate cranberry granola bars. They are essentially cookies. So good! (Too good.)

Peanut butter and chocolate cranberry granola bars

The sample menu for the week

• Sunday night: sweet potato, chickpea and kale salad

• Monday night: shepherd’s pie

• Tuesday night: reheat sweet potatoes and roast more chickpeas for the salad

• Wednesday night: soup

• Thursday night: shepherd’s pie

• Friday night: besan chilla and green salad

• Saturday night: leftovers

Shop for your continuous menu

Now that you have your menu, make a list of any missing ingredients and go shopping. By basing your meals on what’s already on hand, you’ll eat that food before it can become waste.

Make a list of tasks

Sunday

With my menu in hand, I’ll:

• Cook soaked chickpeas in my pressure cooker for the sweet potato, chickpea and kale salad and the hummus

• Cook soaked black beans in my pressure cooker for shepherd’s pie

• Make tahini if I’ve run out (I also sometimes buy it)

• Make tahini dressing for the sweet potato, chickpea and kale salad

• Prep kale for the salad and set extra aside for more salads later in the week

• Make hummus in the food processor I used for the tahini (no need to wash the tahini-smeared food processor bowl first)

• Prep vegetables and chickpeas. Bake/roast:

  • Cubed sweet potatoes for the salad. Make enough for leftovers.

  • Whole potatoes for the shepherd’s pie topping. Baked potatoes make delicious mashed potatoes and the oven is already on so do double (or triple) duty.

  • Bite-size vegetables for the shepherd’s pie. Choose from parsnips, carrots, cauliflower, winter squash, brussels sprouts and so on.

  • Vegetables for the soup. I’ll roast honey nut squash halves.

  • Chickpeas for the salad. These are best roasted right before serving so set aside some chickpeas to roast for the salad another night.

• Make mashed potatoes and refrigerate them until needed later in the week.

For dinner, I’ll assemble the sweet potato, chickpea and kale salad.

I hope this hasn’t scared you off! Think of this time as an investment that pays dividends on busy weeknights when you have a head start on meals. Put on the radio or your favorite playlist while you prep. And get the family involved!

Monday

On Monday, I’ll cook the filling for the shepherd’s pie in a large cast-iron skillet, top it with a layer of the roasted vegetables, followed by mashed potatoes.

Tuesday

Roast more chickpeas and assemble more of the sweet potato, chickpea and kale salad for dinner.

Wednesday

I’ll make puréed soup with the roasted honeynut squash and homemade scrap broth stashed in the freezer. If I’ve run out of broth, I’ll pull out vegetable scraps from the freezer, make that in about 20 minutes and freeze what I don’t need.

Thursday

Reheat the shepherd’s pie.

Friday

Start frying the besan chilla. While they cook, make a salad with the prepped kale and random vegetables on hand. Toss with remaining tahini dressing or olive oil and wine vinegar.

Saturday

Reheat any leftovers.

Benefits of a continuous menu

Cooking this way:

• Reduces wasted food. If food gets prepped, food gets eaten. Unprepped greens head south quickly. Spend some time cutting, washing and (mostly) drying them, store them in a cloth produce bag or wrapped in a tea towel, and they will keep for about a week. When you need them, grab them.

• Saves time. You’ll save time by prepping lots of food all at once. You’ll also spend less time washing dishes. For example, in my sample menu, I use the food processor twice on Sunday for different tasks but only wash it once. Ditto for the pressure cooker.

• Saves money. You’ll cook more food at once when the oven is on, for example, and conserve energy. But the big savings will likely come from reducing food waste. Every year, the average family of four in the US spends $1,500 on food that goes uneaten.

• Ensures healthier meals. With a continuous menu, you can assemble a healthy meal on busy weeknights rather than ordering take-out. This also saves money. Takeout isn’t cheap!

• Provides tasty meals. With much of your dinner already prepped, you won’t resort to eating a bowl of cereal for dinner when you’re tired and hungry.

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Upcoming event

March 8th to 10th: 16th annual Tufts Nutrition Data Symposium, Sustainability Now! Action-Oriented Solutions for Food Systems

I’ll be speaking at 9am ET/6am PT on the 9th along with Kate Leadbeater from FlashFood. Go here to find out more about this free event and to register.