My cousin in the US was surprised to know that we go to the market everyday to buy fresh ingredients for the kitchen. He said that in his home, they cook a big volume of food that usually would last for 2 days. They are used to reheating the food in the microwave or in the oven toaster before eating. It saves them a lot of time since they cook only once every 2 days. I don’t know if that will be applicable here because we are not used to eating leftover. But I understand the logic of my cousin because they have no housemaid in the US and they value their time so much.
Only two days? I know of someone who cooks for the whole week. It is a good way when circumstances do not permit daily cooking. Although most nutrients may be lost due to frequent reheating but there is few other optiin when you consider saving and eating out. One may supplement with fresh fruits.
Cooking in big volumes favours foods that have keeping quality and if you have a refrigerator. In my country, there is a dish called "githeri" which is our staple food here in East Africa. It consists of maize and beans which take a long time to prepare. So cooking in bulk saves a lot in terms of fuel. Roasted traditional foods such as sweet potatoes and arrowroots should also be cooked in bulk. It makes sense to use cheap fuel like charcoal when cooking in bulk to save on costs.
I was always brought up in a home where my mother would go to the market or shops every morning and cook fresh meals every day, but I do think that times have changed now and there won't be many households that do that anymore. People have far busier lives now and society as a whole as changed so much, and whereas like my mother's only job was to look after the home, cook, clean and prepare the food for the family, these days usually all the family work and so don't have the time to be able to do that.
I noticed that most people here are everyday cookers but I like saving time and cook for two days aswell, I don't do this all the time but it sure does help a lot. I have known of people who don't like left overs but I love left overs, with them different meals can be made the next day.
I can't afford to cook every day, when I say afford, I am not referring to money but time. This is what I do, I make my stew in large volume just keep it in the fridge. I don't go about warming it everyday, no that will kill the nutrients. Any time I need stew for my rice or other food I would go there to take some which I send to the gas cooker to warm. I do not like using microwave because of the radiations. Each stew I prepare can last me for up to five days or one week.
I meal prep once a month, like cook my dried beans, make my broth, prep my veggies that can be frozen, make to go breakfasts, pie crusts, noodles, pizza dough and freezer lunches. I try to get as much done at the beginning of the month as possible. It is really not for time for me but to have healthy meals for lunches when we are in a pinch. It works great for us and makes making meals so much easier.
In Nepal, we don't have housemaid either. However, we don't cook food in large volume and eat over the days. Sometimes we eat left overs when the food is excess, but we don't cook just because we want to save time in cooking. In fact stale food, even though it is preserved in freezer is not well accepted practice in our culture. We buy food in large volume and don't visit the market every day however.
We don't have a housemaid either, but do have farm fresh veggies every week so we get a steady & cheap supply of vegetables. This week veggies have gone up about .50 to .99, so the farm fresh veggies stand at our doctors and right in the middle of town makes for fresh veggies, so I go when I need to get vegetables. We have a very small household of 2 so cooking is almost everyday. Anyway we don't like leftovers much. We buy frozen pizzas my Mother loves them. I doctor them up with extra pepperoni and cheese, so it tastes best top it with a vegetable dish and we're all set.
Here, I know families who cook each meal just before having. However, I cannot make like that but there'll be no leftover either. For me, it would be twice a day affair. I can understand the time constraint in a fast paced life but then priorities of life should prevail, and I guess food is third most important priority of any living being after air and water. Reheating of food deprives us from having the vital nutrients of food for which we thrive.
I always eat leftovers and they sometimes taste better after reheating. I don't use the microwave, though. I put everything in a large pot and heat it on a stove. The food usually lasts between 2 to 5 days depending on how much it is. It saves a lot of money and time.
Cooking for two or more days will never work in our household as there are kids/teens/boys who will eat as long as there's food. Hence, in my house, there is no such thing as leftover food. Everything is consumed in one sitting. We don't go to the market on a daily basis but we cook on a per meal basis everyday. It saves us on the reheating cost and the need to switch the refrigerator/freezer to a higher setting to maintain the quality of the cooked food.
We generally cook for one time but keep the leftover to use in next meal time. However we do not cook anything intentionally in order to store it for further use. We keep enough stock of raw food for a month and vegetables and fruits for a week. Milk is the only item that we buy at daily basis or in some cases on alternate days. No, we never cook and store intentionally as reheating is not our idea of eating food.
I guess one of the benefits of having a smaller family is not having to do this all that often. I always struggle when it comes to getting the serving sizes right and following the recipe, doing the math and that whole process.
