Food going bad in the fridge..

Growing up I studied too much and never paid attention to mom in the kitchen!
Now I'm trying to get better w/ cooking so I look in my cookbooks and pick out recipes to try. I make a list for food shopping - get the food in the fridge - and somehow if I don't make the meal right away the food ends up going bad all the time! So much $$$ wasted.

Some nights things just pop up and we end up getting something quick and I don't cook.
My MIL cooks lots of meals and freezes them in advance so it makes her life easier during the work week. Our freezer is VERY small so I can't even fit a lot in it!
It takes a lot of time to cook, and since I have like 1 day off a week sometimes it just seems like a lot of cooking to do in 1 day.
Plus, I'm not too saavy in the kitchen so I have to go slow and read all the recipes very sloooowly

How do you schedule cooking into your day/week? - what foods are the quickest to make?

Re: Food going bad in the fridge..

Ha ha ha...join my club! I know all too well the feeling. My mom hated cooking, so growing up, dinner was sadly pathetic...it's okay, she'll admit it. But my grandmother is a fantastic cook, so I learned from her. But no to apply the knowledge is a whole other story.

I'm a vegetarian and DH isn't. So that makes dinner tough. Plus, I'm so tired at the end of the day.

So, I try to make menus for the week. I buy a lot of premade ethnic food, and make great meals that way. I will make sauce and soup on sundays. DH does enjoy cooking, which helps too. Everyday Food is a great cooking magazine that you may want to check out. It has pretty easy recipes and its from martha!

Re: Food going bad in the fridge..

I find that I toss too much too, but I've gotten better. I try to plan everything out in advance- on Sundays I do a tentative menu plan for the week (which makes me feel like a big geek!) but when I see what I want to make, it helps me to shop if I'm dealing with perishable stuff. Otherwise, I might buy something thinking, Oh, maybe I'll make xyz and need ___ so let me get it now. Then I don't make it and the thing goes bad.

I also make a big pot of sauce (very easy!) every few weeks and freeze it. There are so many variations on things with sauce- different kinds of pastas, ground beef, meatball, chicken parm, etc.

Chicken is also always easy- marinades last a while, so I make lots of chicken with pasta, rice, potatoes on the side. And pasta and rice last a long time, which is good.

Re: Food going bad in the fridge..

I cook alot more in the summer when I'm off, but when I go back to work I tend to work until 7-8pm. So quick meals are the way to go. I take a lot of help from things like Shake and Bake, fajita kits, tacos, frozen veggies, etc... Another easy thing is to grill a bunch of chicken- it can later be used for sandwiches or in salads. Meatloaf is another easy one. And pasta can always be thrown together- You cam make and freeze sauce very easily.

Re: Food going bad in the fridge..

bump