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AmyHeartXVIII
A modern-day Jumi
1761.92
AmyHeartXVIII is offline
 
#1
Old 06-07-2014, 01:54 PM

I have some cooking questions, so I'm posting them all here at once. When you reply, feel free to reference which part you were referring to. Thanks so much! (I promise you I did NOT intend for this post to be this long when I started! )

Part 1: Meal Prepping and Freezer Cooking
So I've really been focused on cooking from home and not eating out this year. I like cooking anyways, so it's been really fun. But school is getting more demanding and I know I won't have as much time as I normally do when I start working full-time. (And my social life is growing.) For once cooking is starting to be a bit more of a hassel than I would like.
I've always been interested in meal prepping and freezer cooking. I know typically meal prepping is for singles looking to lose weight or body build and freezer cooking is usually used by Wives and Mothers with large families, but there's got to be a way that my family-of-two household could utilize both of these methods. I'm going to start looking into it myself and, with any good research, it's nice to get some direct advice from those who have more experience with your topic.
On that note, what is your experience with meal prepping and/or freezer cooking? Any other methods that are pretty cool that I might want to try? Do you really dislike one or both of these methods? If so, why?

Part 2: Seasoning and Beans
One of my long-term nutricianal goals is to cut down on salt content, and I know a big part of that is seasoning the food well with everything BUT salt. What are some good seasoning combinations for different foods- especially meats?
Also I am a meat lover, but I'm really starting to appreciate my garbanzo beans. Right now I only eat them as a morning mash but they're really filling, don't upset my stomach, and I can count them as either protein or veggies! So I would like to incorporate more beans into my cooking, but there's one problem: I don't like beans. When I was younger I didn't care for beans at all, but that was mainly because of the "try it, you may like it this year!" ridiculousness that my parents always forced us kids through during holidays until I was about 10.
Now a days I'm willing to try some things again, and see if it was just the way that they had been cooked when I was younger that I did not like. So garbanzo beans pan-fried with tomatoes, olive oil, and garlic is marvelous! It gets rid of thier "beany" flavor that I did notice when I tried to boil them one time. Bleh! Do you know any good recipes for beans where they lose most of thier "beany" flavor?

If you've gotten through all that and are still with me, fantastic! All your comments are appreciated, thank you so much for taking the time to look at my ponderings!

Cherry Who?
Spooky Scary Skeleton
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#2
Old 06-13-2014, 01:00 AM

For Part 1, my main experience is with chopping vegetables and freezing them to throw into dishes later. This is excellent for things that are kind of labor intensive for preparing and which don't come frozen from the store (I did this with cabbage - pain in the ass to cut up!) But I have not had amazing luck with freezing leftovers. It my experience, it kind of killed the freshness. I refridgerate leftovers and eat those all the time, but I did not have a good experience with freezing them.

Part 2: For seasonings, look for mixes. I know, I know, you think "but everything in here is something I could buy by itself"... but it never really works so well to try to mix stuff up yourself. Not when you're a beginner, anyway. Look for mixes that sound appealing, and ignore what it says it's for (things meant for chicken work just fine with any other meat!). Also, look for things with garlic. Not only is garlic tasty as hell, it's a flavor enhancer, so it might help you not miss salt so much.

For beans, trying getting some hummus and mixing that in with things. It's made from chickpeas (garbanzos), but it's a creamy dip, so it'll give you the nutrition but in a different format.

AmyHeartXVIII
A modern-day Jumi
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AmyHeartXVIII is offline
 
#3
Old 06-18-2014, 02:04 PM

Cherry Who, thanks for the tips! I'll look into veggie-freezing and premixed spices, but I'll pass on the hummus. I tried it once, since I already knew I liked chickpeas, but the amount of tahini makes it taste sour to me. Thanks for the advice! ^_^

Cherry Who?
Spooky Scary Skeleton
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Cherry Who? is offline
 
#4
Old 06-19-2014, 05:16 AM

Sour? Goodness. It's supposed to taste creamy and warm, not sour! I'd guess you had some really bad hummus. If you're ever feeling adventurous, I'd recommend trying another brand/recipe/restaurant. It's certainly not meant to be sour! But if you like chickpeas, using those is just as well.

 



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