97 reasons why planning ahead in the kitchen (even just a little) will save your life

The reality is that not a lot has been happening on my stove this week, besides the liver and onion drama, which will live rent-free in our brains forever. You're welcome. If you didn’t catch it, do yourself a favor and go here.

As a chef, this may surprise you that there is not constantly a pot bubbling away on my stove and six other soups and sauces in the fridge waiting to be approved, tested, retested, photographed, scarfed down, or scrapped altogether. This week was about sticking to tried and true dishes that get. the. job. done.

Not every meal is going to be the best-tasting dish you have ever had.

Not every meal is going to be bursting with flavor.

Not every meal is a work of art.

Sometimes I will just eat for fuel (never in a million years did I think I would be THAT person). You know the one who NEVER has cravings, and ‘forgets to eat’? That is a bridge too far, but I will acknowledge that when the to-do lists are long and the daylight is short, lunch needs to have as little drama as possible.

For lunches this week, I gave myself two options. Some sort of egg situation OR some sort of tuna situation. There were NO other options (mentally). This is a great way to ease yourself into the dreaded phrase 'meal prep’. I am not suggesting that you make 16 gallons of chili and eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, until your gut explodes from all the pent-up bean gas. (Bean gas is the most relatable thing I have ever said.)

The reason why we meal prep, AKA plan ahead, is to alleviate the drama of thinking about what we want to eat, and this has so MANY benefits! I know I promised 97, but here are three to get us started.

It keeps you on track with health goals, AKA all about those macros, baby.
It helps you avoid decision fatigue, AKA unintentionally eating out, when there is food at home.
It allows you to focus your brain power on other things, AKA creative pursuits, work, your kids, and your cat. (They are all vying for your attention.)

My no-drama meal is canned tuna. If you know, you know. This is the most versatile dish on the planet (stand by for fact check), and if you are a tuna fan, it SHOULD definitely be on your list of no drama meals. It is a dish made of staples. I did not have to make anything for this meal to happen. I did have to plan ahead and buy things; unless AI can make hummus appear out of thin air, we will still have to do something (thank god).

Same, same, but different! That is the beauty of the no-drama meal. Two ways to tackle your tuna ‘salad’.

Version one: Make a large batch of it with the works, celery, mayo/yogurt, dill, whatever your heart desires, and add that to all your bowls.

Version two: Crack open a fresh can of tuna when you are ready to eat, and plop all the extra bits on top and mix it up in your bowl.

Version two is where I have landed at the moment. It gives the utmost freedom to add whatever you feel like on top, and you are not committed to 5 days of tuna salad that is slowly turning into a soggy sponge the more it sits in the fridge😳.

Acceptable swaps: This is YOUR meal, so you'd better make something you like. Swap canned tuna for: smoked salmon, trout, sardines OR shredded chicken.

What are your no-drama meals?

Now onto the seasonal produce of February and how not to eat yet another roasted vegetable. Well, the truth is we are still going to roast a vegetable, but after we roast said vegetable, we are going to transform it into a luscious, creamy, tangy, herby….wait for it….DIP!

Garlicky Beet Dip with Walnuts

It should surprise no one that this recipe is from our girl Allison Roman. I promise I like other cookbooks, but if we are being real, which we ALWAYS are around here, I had a bunch of beets, and this dip checked all the boxes for bringing a bit of brightness to February.

This dip is a riff on a romesco sauce (roasted red peppers and walnut dip). It has a rich and earthy base, yogurt and a splash of red wine vinegar are stirred in at the very end, and a sprinkle of fresh dill and drizzle of extra virgin olive oil really bring this dip to life!

I proceed to slather the grilled chicken from above with this dip. Whole wheat pita crackers and sliced carrots also got doused in beets. 10/10

How are you bringing a little lightness to your February cooking?

We are taking the kitchen and heading outdoors! I love an outdoor eating situation, and it’s even more fun when you cook it outside and eat it inside, bonus points if it’s next to a cozy fire in a cabin next to a river and some hot springs.

I am out in the field this weekend, and I want to share one of my BEST (outdoor) kitchen hacks! And that hack is……drummroll🥁

Cook your food ahead of time!

💥💥💥💥💥

Say what? Doesn’t this defeat the purpose of outdoor cooking? No, it doesn’t. It will save you, and you will be grateful that you did it.

Have you ever been camping, you have a cooler full of food just waiting to be turned into a delicious dinner, and any of the following happens:

You are suddenly too tired to make your dinner dreams come true, and say we can just have chips and dip for dinner 🙋‍♀️.
You start cooking dinner and realize it is going to take WAY longer to cook than you thought, people are getting hangry, and perhaps more intoxicated, as dinner time creeps to 10 pm.
You realize you forgot something. Oops, no ground beef for our tacos.
You absolutely HATE doing a mountain of dishes in frigid water, relatable.
You can’t for the life of you start a fire in the very moist PNW (being from the high desert), and all you have is a raw tinfoil dinner taunting you from the cooler. (True story, we ate Girl Scout cookies and drank whiskey, it was fine.)

For the dinners on this hot springs glamping trip, here is the game plan:

Dinner #1 - Biscuits and gravy. Why? Because we are adults and we can!

Premake sausage gravy (from scratch). If I were using a packet of gravy, I would make this at camp.
Buy the BEST biscuits in town, freeze, and store in the cooler.

Dinner #2 - Chicken meatballs with ‘good bread’ and Caesar salad

Buy (or make if you have the willpower) the cutest little chicken meatballs. They are pre-cooked and ready to be thrown into a pot and reheated at will.
Buy the ‘good bread’ as requested. A loaf of sourdough that I presliced and also froze. Freezing your bread preserves freshness. Highly recommend preslicing your bread before you freeze it for ease. (Ever try to hack away at a loaf of frozen bread, ya no me either, just asking for a friend.)
Bring a Caesar salad kit and make the salad in the bag it comes in! Seriously, shake until everything is coated in cheese and dressing, and you are ready to eat!

Each of these meals is incredibly satisfying, and we are not spending a ton of time cooking, and there is minimal fuss. And I LOVE to spend time cooking and fussing about meals, but I am telling you, the best laid plans of camp cooking motivation will creep up on you.

(Outdoor) Kitchen hack that’ll change your life: Pre-cook (buy pre-made) a meal or two for ease and have fun with the rest!

Reheat the biscuits in the pan (you may sacrifice a burned bottom, but it’s for the greater good), reheat your home-made sausage gravy, and top with sunflower sprouts for prosperity and a bright crunch!

Note: Biscuits and gravy are a very unphotogenic meal. But taste-wise, it really hit the spot for a cozy cabin dinner, pre-soak in the hot springs.

Another title for this section could be My Kitchen Empties. There is a fascination in the beauty community of what products people, and by people I mean influencers acutally go through to the end. I love watching videos for product inpsiration and I love to see an empty container.

This product is not weird but very wonderful. It is a good old Trader Joe’s find; it’s been around for a while, and I have gone through many a container!

The aioli garlic mustard sauce, it is exactly what’s in the name. A mix of mustard and garlic aioli (mayo), it is creamy, with just enough mustard to give it a sharp kick and plenty of garlic to make you want kiss your cat.

How to use it: Put it on literally everything! More specifically:

Swap with regular mustard when making your salad dressings for an extra boost of garlic and creaminess.
As a condiment on sandwiches
A dip for sausages and roast chicken
A dollop on your drama-free tuna bowl

Also worth noting, I saw the phrase mustard mayo a TON when I was traveling in the UK. I love a good mayo, and I love a good mustard, so it just makes sense to put the two together!

Highly recommend this aioli garlic mustard sauce!

It is going to come as no surprise to anyone who has been around here for a while that what is feeding my brain is, in fact, our darling Alison Romans’ NEWEST cookbook, Something from Nothing: A Cookbook. It came out last year, and it is just lovely. I haven’t cooked that many recipes from it, and the ones I have made are incredibly simple and SO satisfying that I am like wull duh!

I am obsessed with her ideology on sweet potatoes. It is the simplest ‘recipe’ on the planet, but it has catapulted me back into loving sweet potatoes again. It goes like this: roast, salt & pepper, drizzle of maple syrup, smash together and eat. If that sounds like the lamest thing you have ever heard, I highly encourage you to run, not walk, to your nearest sweet potato vendor and load up and get to roasting, oh, and you must not forget the maple syrup!

Recipes that have been on rotation since I got the book:

Crispy Baked Beans with Mushrooms & Parmesan

Tuna Salad Salad

A Caesar For All Occasions

Recipes on deck:

Steak Like Tartare

Crispy Fish with Dill & Fried Capers

Remember to feed your brain as well as your stomach!

Cheers,

Nicole | Butter Cult

Photo proof that we are a real human (and cat) over here cooking, writing, and laughing with you every week.

No Drama, Bean Gas, and Soggy Sponges