I plan a week of meals by picking proteins and vegetables, stocking the pantry and fridge, and planning base sauces and preparations that can be used in several different ways. I win the fridgeWin the fridgeWin the fridge is the practice of using every scrap of food before it goes to waste: the idea behind the recipes tagged with it across this cookbook.Read the full essay when I use up all of the perishable ingredients, either in meals or in foods I can freeze for lazier days.
Bites, dishes, meals
In Ratatouille, Remy tastes a strawberry and a piece of cheese together, and his head fills with colour and music. A single bite works like that. A dish is more so: several bites built to go together. A meal is more so again: dishes paired so they play off each other. Planning is dreaming in flavours and pairings, just at a larger scale each step up.
Planning a week runs the same ladder from the top down. I plan the meals first, for pairing and variety. The meals decide the dishes. The dishes decide the bases: the chicken, the beef, the stock, and the vegetables that get cooked on Sunday and pulled apart all week.
An example week for 2–4 people
Pick a few proteins. I plan on about 140 g (5 oz) per person per meal. An example week:
- 2 whole chickens
- 1.36 kg (3 lb) of ground beef
- 1 roast: whatever’s cheap, usually under 2 kg (4.4 lb) unless we have guests
Stock the pantry and fridge.
- 2–3 onions, 1–2 heads of garlic, 3–4 shallots, 1 knob of ginger
- Salad greens and a few raw vegetables
- 3–4 robust vegetables for roasting or steaming (broccoli, cauliflower, etc.)
- 1–2 starches (rice, potatoes, noodles, bread)
- Spices and special sauces
- Salad dressings
- Rice bowl sauces
- Dipping sauces
- Plate sauces
- Oils
Pick one or two dinners for the week that share ingredients. Every other meal builds on the prep for those, so the week uses up what they leave behind without repeating the same dinner.
Sunday prep would typically look like:
Break down and roast the chicken
- Cut each bird into breasts, thighs and drumsticks, and wings
- Set the wings aside for a wing night; the tips go into Chicken or turkey stock with the necks and backbones
- Dry brine 3–4 hours and season however you like (Indian spices, herbes de Provence, etc.)
- Roast on sheet pans to 74°C (165°F)
- For salads, casseroles, and roast veg plates
Braise the ground beef (cook it in a little liquid until tender, then brown it; see Beef base)
- Season lightly
- Let cool and package up in meal-sized portions
- For meat sauce, taco beef, chili, dressed beans
Cook the roast (oven or braise)
- Dry brine for 24 hours (often cooking 1–2 days later), starting this Friday or Saturday
- Slice and package up for lunches (sandwiches, soups)
- Freeze the extra for sandwiches and snacks
Roast the vegetables, 2–3 days’ worth at a time
- Sheet pan, veg, oil, salt, and seasoning
The week
Sunday’s prep turns into five dinners that don’t feel like the same meal five times. The roast covers lunches all week.
| Day | Dinner | From Sunday’s prep |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Roast chicken plates with roast veg and rice | Chicken thighs and drumsticks, roast veg |
| Tuesday | Meat sauce over pasta, with a green salad | Half the beef base, salad greens |
| Wednesday | Chicken salad, or a casserole if it’s cold out | Chicken breasts, the rest of the roast veg |
| Thursday | Tacos or chili | The rest of the beef base |
| Friday | Wing night | The wings, while the tips and backbones simmer into stock |
Each dinner leans on one or two bases and adds something fresh: a salad, a starch, a sauce. The bases do the slow work once; the weeknight cooking is assembly.
When it goes wrong
Some weeks go sideways. “Who wants sushi? How about Cantonese?” You order out, have leftovers, then your plans are delayed. What do you do?
Take your plans, and make a base you can freeze. Some stew, curry, or just a casserole. Use up the bits for stock. This takes a few hours, but the alternative is both the material costs and opportunity costs of wasting a fridge full of food.
The takeaway
Plan from the top down, then cook from the bottom up. Pick the meals first, for pairing and variety, and let them decide the dishes and the Sunday prep. Then cook the bases once and spend the week assembling. If Thursday’s fridge still holds half a bag of spinach and a container of beef, that isn’t a failed plan; it’s Friday’s dinner, or something for the freezer. The week is won when the perishables are gone and nobody ate the same dinner twice.