Weekly Meal Preparation Ritual

The Weekly Cooking Ritual

www.darrenstehle.com
© 2012 Darren Stehle.
All Rights Reserved.

Introduction
• In this slideshow I will show you an example of
cooking for one person to have a weeks’ worth of
food. I’ve omitted many details, like exact cooking
methods, etc. For the purpose of this presentation I
want to show you what it looks like to cook for the
week.
• I did my grocery shopping the day before and the
entire process took me about 3 hours from start to
cleaning the last dish.

www.darrenstehle.com © 2012 Darren Stehle

Vegetables
For the week I chose to steam Brussels
sprouts, bake sweet potatoes and use the
onions, jalapeño, celery and yellow peppers
in the ground beef stew. Quantity of each
vegetable will depend on how much you eat.
I also bought a 1 pound tub of raw spinach
for salads and to toss in with cooked meals
(not shown).

Wash and rinse all the vegetables.
For the Brussels sprouts, score the core
(make a cut across the core) to help with
even cook-through.


The Meat
2 lbs. extra lean
ground beef for stew,
6 Italian sausage,
boneless & 2 lbs.
skinless chicken
breast and a treat of
bacon for breakfast.

I cooked the bacon
on a pan in the oven
and drained off the
fat 2-3 times and
turned twice.


Flavouring
Flavouring doesn’t have to be complicated. Nor
does it have to be rich and fattening!

I prefer simple things like citrus or vinegars. For
this week, I decided to juice one whole
grapefruit and also use the pulp to use with the
chicken breast. This will help keep the breast
moist.

If you don’t have a juicer, you can peel the fruit
and cut up the segments.


Chicken Breast
In any type of dish,
pyrex, stainless steel,
cast-iron, add the
grapefruit juice, some
rock salt, pepper and
balsamic vinegar.


Putting It Together
I like to wash the
chicken in some cold
water and then place it
in the cooking dish. Turn
the breast a few times
to coat with the sauce
or spices in the pan.

I will cook the chicken at
350° F for 25-35
minutes, or until just
done. Turn once at the
half-way point or at 15-
minutes of cooking on
the top shelf of the
oven.


Sausage
For some, sausage may be
a treat since it’s a fatty
meat meal. I add it to my
diet every couple of
weeks. They will cook in a
cast iron pan in 20-25
minutes at 350° F.

I will eat them with
veggies and maybe some
rice, or with beans and
vegetables.


Sweet Potato
Besides squash, sweet potatoes are my favourite
vegetable. They taste great and they’re filling! I
will bake them just as you see here, on the
bottom rack, turning them every 15-20 min. They
will be done in about an hour, or until they feel
soft to the touch (just don’t burn your finger).
You can also insert a skewer into the flesh. If it
goes in easily, it’s done.

Once cooked, I let them sit for 15-30 min on a
cooling rack before putting them in the fridge. I
will peel off the skin prior to eating.


Preparing The Stew
Onions go with almost
anything. From finely
chopped to cubed or sliced
to make rings, do whatever
is easiest for you.

I will fry the onions with
olive oil until translucent
and then add the next
ingredients.


Vegetables For The Stew
Cut off the base of the
celery to separate the
stalks and cut away the
leafy parts. Give the
celery a good wash: it
often has a lot of dirt
inside.

Slice a few stalks at a time
as shown. You can cut the
thicker stalks in half,
length-wise, to have
evenly sized pieces.


Yellow Peppers
Cute the peppers into
halves, remove the
seeds, the stem and
the excess white flesh
on the inside.

Cut in strips and then
cut across the strips to
cube.


Jalapeño
YUM! I love a bit of ‘hot’ in my
food, especially something like
stew.
Cut off and remove the stem. Cut
the jalapeño in half, length-wise,
and then thinly slice as shown.
If you want the flavour but not the
‘heat’ cut out the seeds and the
white flesh inside the pepper.

IMPORTANT: Wash your hands,
cutting board and knife with soap
and water after cutting any hot
pepper. It’s very easy to accidentally
touch your eye with the hot oil still
on your fingers. If you’ve ever done
this, you know how much it hurts!

Garlic
Who doesn’t love garlic?
Here’s a simple trick to make
chopping garlic easy.
Smash the garlic with the side
of a chef knife. This will
release the outside skin,
which you throw away.
Put some salt on the board
and chop the garlic on the
salt. Pull it off the knife and
flatten again. This releases
the oil and will make it easier
to chop finely.


Chopped Garlic
And here’s the result…


Starting The Stew
As explained in an earlier slide, I fried the
onions until translucent in a large stew pot.
Next I added the ground beef and turn the
cooking element to high.

You want to stir constantly, so that the beef
doesn’t burn, but more importantly so that the
beef cooks through evenly.

The beef is done when it has turned from red
to a dull brown/gray.


Adding Liquid
Next add canned tomatoes. I prefer to use plum
tomatoes: they seem to have more flavour.

In this recipe I used over 2 lbs. of ground beef. I
like to use one large can of tomatoes per pound
of beef.

You can break up the tomatoes with the spatula,
a knife or scissors.


Adding Seasonings
For this recipe I wanted the stew to taste similar
to a spaghetti sauce.

I used oregano, basil, bay leaves, fresh ground
black pepper and salt.


Beefing Up The Stew
I decided to use
kidney beans to make
the stew more hearty.

Stir and bring to a boil
and then reduce the
heat to a low simmer
and cover, or leave
the lid just slightly off
to allow moisture to
escape and for the
stew to thicken.


Things Are Finishing Up
My food is finishing up at different times, which
is fine. While I was preparing the stew, the
sausages were done.


Testing Doneness
The chicken looks done.
But is it?

Using a toothpick or a
skewer, insert ¾ of the
way through the thickest
part of the breast.


Testing Doneness
You can just see the
two holes above the
skewer. The juice
coming out is clear and
buttery in colour. The
chicken is cooked
through!

If the juice is NOT clear
or slightly pink, then
you need to cook the
chicken a bit longer.
Try 5-10 more minutes
and re-test.


Putting Things Away
Almost done!

I’ve separated the
chicken into two
containers, one for the
fridge, the other for the
freezer.


Cleaning Up
A great habit I learned in
cooking school was to clean
my dishes and cookware
while I was cooking.

This cook-off took me about
2.5 hours and whenever
something was completed, I
cleaned the appropriate
dishes. These were the last
dishes cleaned before the
stew, which went on to
simmer for another hour.


So Hungry!
I like to have cans of
tuna, salmon and things
like fresh, raw
spinach, tomatoes and
spreads to make quick
meals.

I just finished cooking and
it was time to eat, so I put
some spinach, a can of
tuna, some pre-cooked
wild rice, salt, pepper and
2 tbsp. of Tzatziki in a
mixing bowl.


Yum!
And voila! It was very
tasty!


Conclusion
• Hopefully you now have an idea of how you
can cook for a week. From scratch or using
recipes, do what works for you.
• Feel free to contact me for assistance at
darren.stehle@gmail.com and visit my
website for more articles at:
www.darrenstehle.com


Weekly Meal Preparation Ritual

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