it’s that age old question, isn’t it? Through the years I’ve had various plans to answer the question. Serious meal planning and big shopping trips, daily menus and daily trips, a meal planning service that creates one big shopping list. 
While I’m still using the latter (see my post e-Mealz), I’m finding that I want to use fresher ingredients and do more “from scratch” than the service calls for. On busy days, it’s nice to have it all pulled together, but on days like today, I can do prep at various times during the day, and I like to do something a little bit more than open 6 cans.
Last night’s dinner? I remembered how fun it was to make chapatis with Camille years 
ago. Searching Vegetarian Times, I found a recipe for Aloo Palak, so I decided to make it Tuesday. But then I forgot the coconut milk while at the store (story of my life) and Rob wasn’t going to make it home early enough. While getting out the rice, I saw the back of the box had a recipe for chicken fried rice, and, amazingly enough, I had bought some vegetarian chicken strips that day and had lots of leftover veggies in the fridge. Dinner.
Last night’s dinner was made sort of as planned, but not without issues.
Help me overcome (some of) my cooking problems:
I hate running to the store for ingredients,
I always seem to have forgotten to get some necessary ingredient even when I do go stock up.
I always lack the proper tool, pan, dish and have to improvise. Which might work if I had experience, but usually contributes to my disaster.
I have little experience, which makes timing and knowing if things are going right or wrong difficult. The pan gets too hot, too cold, too much oil, too little oil.
I hate cleaning up after cooking, and I hate having a messy kitchen.
I don’t know what to do with the leftover ingredients — what do I do with a half can of coconut milk???
Let me start by saying I applaud you for aspiring to reach beyond the Standard American Diet (S.A.D). While it is much easier to open a box or take something out of the freezer, using fresh food is the best health insurance I know of, and tastes so much better. I think my best advice to you is to take a deep breath and relax a bit, and don’t try to follow recipes to the letter.
Focus on Technique rather than Recipe
A recipe might call for multiple techniques and prep processes and can get quite time-consuming and can lead to a very messy kitchen.
Rather than trying to select a recipe you think you might like, try picking a technique you want to try to master. For example, grilling seems so easy, but it takes time to understand how to get even heating, keep foods from sticking, keep veggies from going mushy, etc.
Sauteeing, frying, and stir fry all use similar heat sources and pans, but are quite different and require separate skills.
If you select your recipes and focus your cooking efforts based on the pan you have (even if you decide to buy a new pan) then your recipes will fit your equipment and your frustration level should decrease.
Focusing on a couple techniques at a time should make your shopping easier as well, since your cooking will require similar ingredients for a short time. Learning how various ingredients react in the same pan will add to your overall experience and understanding as well. So say your recipe calls for one type of fat like coconut oil and all you have in the house is butter and olive oil, you can make that substitution and see what happens using the same pan. Cuts down on your variables, if you see what I mean. If you are planning on making several types of curries in one week, your half a can of coconut milk makes more sense, because it will get used up in future variations before you move on to your next technique.
Say you go on a waffle iron kick, and experiment with sweet and savory batters, use them to make sandwiches with, put them on the bottom of a casserole like a crust, get creative. But get to know that waffle iron and what proportions of ingredients make the perfect batter before you move on to your next conquest.
If you have a very specific end product in mind, or you are baking, you do need to follow the ingredients and measurements exactly. Unless you are familiar with the chemistry behind why certain ingredients cause certain reactions, you don’t want to go leaving anything out.
The same holds true here though, learn one technique at a time to get comfortable with it and then move on to the next one.
Stocks are the basis to any great recipe, especially soups and sauces. I just made a big pot of stock the other night and froze quart conatiners of it. With a well-made stock as a base, every recipe has a better shot at being flavorful and delicious. The key to delicious vegetable stocks is to roast the veggies in the oven until they caramelize and almost turn black before putting them into the water. Add aromatics like garlic, parsley stems, thyme, peppercorns and bay leaves. Don’t add salt until the stock is done. Plan on making enough to freeze meal-size portions for later on, then your cooking time is shorter when you get ready to cook your meal.
Recipes often require several techniques to accomplish the end result. It can be very overwhelming. By learning the techniques you can then take on any recipe with confidence!
Wow! I can’t compete with that last response! I do have a recipe that is vegetarian and you can make it in 20 minutes. You can make this recipe more complicated by making your own pasta or crushed tomatoes. Here it is:
PENNE ALA VODKA
3/4 chopped onion
olive oil
1 – 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes (I like Tuttorosso New World Style)
1/4 cup of vodka
parsley (to taste)
½ cup of heavy or light cream (I like heavy)
16 oz penne pasta (you can use any pasta, cheese ravioli is also good too!)
Add a little oil to small sauce pan – enough to coat bottom. Saute onions. Do not let them get brown. Add tomatoes, parsley and vodka. Cook on medium-low heat for about 15 minutes.
Boil Pasta
Add cream and stir often. Cook about 5 or so minutes and bingo your done.
Combine and enjoy.
Good Luck!
I only have one thing to add. If a recipe calls for a half can of coconut milk,(or chopped tomatoes, egg whites, almost anything) you can always freeze the remainder to use the next time you need to make that recipe. Just stock up on some small freezer containers and make sure to label them or you’ll end up with a whole freezer full of unidentifiable objects.