There are things that I do naturally, that it occurs to me today, not everyone does…. I cook 3
days of meals, by really only cooking 1 time then adding to daily. People always ask me about Cooking for 1 person, saying it’s the most difficult thing to do. Well I’m here to tell you it’s not difficult at all and you can make things stretch. Actually now that I think about it, you don’t have to worry about anyone else but yourself you can make your own decisions without considering anybody but yourself. So to me this is heaven… A little slice of heaven.
And I always know that if I have leftovers I can stick them in the freezer, especially small amounts and then do a variety of food one night for dinner by pulling out all the little small bits (1/2 cup to 1 cup) and warming each of them up in one pan. We’ve gotta start thinking two and three dimensionally with food, especially if we wanna save time, save money, and eat better. There’s just no doubt about it. And something new that I’m cooking up is a cooking portal that revolves exactly around that concept. But more about that later.
How does the dish to the left look to you? Yummy? Well, I can tell you this is most Mac & Cheese flavored dish I have ever made. Look at the picture. Taste Mac & Cheese. This is Day 3 of the original meal I made Day 1. Want my secrets? I’m always happy to share.
Start with a craving…. in my case for no apparent reason, I was craving Mac & Cheese. So I made one. For those of you who haven’t made their own Mac & Cheese, start with a roux which is fat and flour, equal parts, that you mix until it’s like sand, then add milk (I add Oat Milk) and cheese (regular or vegan cheese) till creamy. I’ve been trying to get myself off cheese which is an almost impossible thing for me to do. But a little later I’ll tell you a trick I did on Day 3.
There are spices that I add to it that normal people don’t like garlic salt and onion salt a little bit of turmeric to give it a more yellow color and the antioxidants to go with it. I actually have a turmeric ginger spice that I sometimes use which is fun. (I add that to my oatmeal in the morning, and I can tell you, it’s YUM)!
And then I pick anything I’m craving …. so if I want a cilantro flavor I throw some cilantro in either fresh or dried. But you know if you throw in fresh you do that at the end right? Oh yeah. That’s how it’s done.
Then, I am thinking: “Let’s add some chopped pimento to it”. That’s they used to do in New York City when we had a cafeteria style restaurant (Horn & Hardart, I think it was called) where you would open the little booth and take the food out and then pay for it. And everyone thought their Mac & Cheese was amazing.
My thinking process continues: “Let me eat some and take a cup of this out (to help me eat less) and store it in the fridge”. So I taste the rest of the Mac & Cheese and think to myself, “Let’s do a tasting”. I think I will caramelize some onions with some mushrooms. I use the variety pack of shrooms that gives you all kinds of health giving choices including Enoki, Oyster
and Lion’s Mane. I grate or thinly slice garlic. That’s another way of adding flavor and bumping up the value nutritionally of what you are eating. As you may know, lions mane has absolutely no flavor and takes on the flavor of whatever you create. So that’s always a plus. And it feels like a meat. So if you are cutting back on solid protein, this is a great way to do it. Once these are all caramelized I add a little bit of bone broth to it just to bump up the flavor more. I combine that with the Mac & Cheese. And now we have Mac and Cheese flavored with vegetables saved for a tasting now and Day 2.
On Day 2, I combine the leftover cup of Mac & Cheese, with a little bit of shredded chicken, (also leftover). I use Gruyère with an old baguette I have ends leftover from Praegger Brothers, our local baker in San Diego. It’s one of those breads that I have to purposely buy only once a month. Otherwise every day I’ll be eating bread and butter or making sandwiches, daily. By the way, I think that comes from when I was a child and they sent me to camp over the summer. We had an 11:30 AM and 3:30 PM break for 15 minutes. They called it snack time and what did they serve us? Bread (yes white) bread and butter. Once you start eating that on a regular basis you always crave it. And with a baguette, I go back to my days in France and really reignite those cravings! Roadside Cheese, Wine and a fresh Baguette. lol
So what’s the real point I am trying to get across here? I think we’re talking about starting with something naughty and developing it into something that’s actually healthy for you and satisfies your cravings and your bodys’ need for vegetables.
And there’s one more trick that will be easy for you to do. I think the key to mindful eating is to watch your ‘trigger points’. Like I can’t keep much dark chocolate in the house, and I definitely cannot keep it on my desk or in my purse because that’s what I’ll do. I will eat the chocolate until it’s all gone. So really start thinking about eating cheat items out and not bringing them into the house. If it isn’t there you can’t eat it right?
Anyway getting back to my Mac & Cheese which is now topped with leftover shredded chicken, a little Gruyere and the crumblings of a baguette, all the time just cooking it in one pan on the stove top with a cover and adding bone broth when I need to soften things up. Day 3 is a whole other story. I warm it up and taste it and the flavor is ah-mazing. But I only have maybe a cup of it left so what do I do? I chop up broccoli and asparagus and throw that in and that’s what you see in the picture. But it’s still carrying the Mac & Cheese flavors.
It’s a full plate of food it’s still got some of the stuff I started with but day after day the pasta gets smaller and smaller and the vegetables get larger and larger. In doing that over a three day period I’m giving myself a lot more vegetables and so the Mac & Cheese that I made on the Day 1 which is pretty much naughty, naughty, (even though I rationalize and have a salad with it), turns out is not all that bad after all when you think about the added days of more vegetables than just the first with Mac & Cheese, still getting that craving met on Day 3. And instead of continuously adding more cheese? I use either a slight shred of Gruyère or Parmigiana Reggiano which packs a real punch for flavor and you use very little cheese. And that’s what you want to start looking at. If you like Gorgonzola or Blue Cheese those also pack a big punch for very little cheese.
So that’s Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3. And you can use this concept with anything you cook. The thing that I like best about it is whether you’re starting with a protein or Mac & Cheese, by starting with a really good flavor profile and then every day adding fun vegetables that are packed with flavor and nutrients you can create three meals in a row without really cooking more than the first initial time because basically you’re adding vegetables and some bone broth and covering it to soften them up in the mix. You are saving time, saving money and eating better.
Heads up! I am in the process of creating the actual cooking portal call Chef Marian Kitchen Confident, connected to Instagram and Facebook. Yes! That’s why I have been on here a little less often. Creating really keeps me busy!
If you’d like these kinds of tips and you are looking to join a community of people who cook,
starting with decadent ingredients and slowly substituting in ingredients your body can actually process, you’re gonna love my cooking portal. Looking forward to having you take a workshop with me and then join my founding membership. But that’s a month or two away. I’m jumping ahead of myself! Please take this concept and use it with whatever food you crave. Every single day just try to add more vegetables into it and get more creative with it. You can do it! I really support this kind of eating.