Rethinking Weeknight Dinners

By Sidonie Maroon, Culinary Educator for The Food Co-op

Instead of planning a different meal every night, try theming your week. For instance, if the entire week is Mexican, the leftovers and groceries will complement each other. Like a coordinated wardrobe, this approach reduces decision-making because everything goes with everything. You can piggyback one meal onto the last meal’s components without starting from scratch. You'll know which basics to prepare over the weekend, this allows you to assemble rather than cook when you come home tired for parts of the week.

Decide which cooking techniques you’ll use for the weekly theme. For example, a Mexican themed week can also be an oven-focused week with sheet pan and casserole dishes. Knowing the theme will guide you, simplifying the tasks and creating more space to add fun and delicious touches like homemade salsas, avocados and chopped herbs.

Decide Once

Reduce your mental load by deciding once for repetitive decisions. Try keeping your Mexican grocery list for next month.

I make indexes in Google Drive for cooking projects, like a “Weeknight Dinner Themes Index,” with a subheading for Mexican. Create links to your Mexican grocery list and recipe pages.

Now everything is decided and conveniently in one place, and all you have to do is put ‘Mexican’ in the search bar and everything for the week is at hand.

Deciding once keeps you focused on what matters, like buying seasonal and local ingredients or cooking from scratch. When decisions are made ahead, the expensive and unhealthy quick options are no longer a temptation. The plan is in place, so you can move on to cooking.

The decide once tactic is fabulous for organizing  the helpers on your family team. Plan ahead who the sous chef, dishes and table setter will be for Mexican week.

Cook Smart

The intelligent cook minimizes hands-on time and avoids babysitting food, like standing over the stove. The number one time consumer is cutting vegetables. You can shorten prep time by using a food processor to shred and chop, or try a manual vegetable chopper, which can halve your chopping time.

Eliminate stovetop sautéing by oven-sautéing for better results and saving up to 20 minutes of hands-on time! My favorite time saving appliances include the Instant Pot, Vitamix, and food processor. If these seem expensive, consider the money saved from eating at home, making investments in equipment savvy.

Good cooks also buy in bulk, cook in batches, freeze sauces and pastes, assemble ingredients, clean up as they cook, think ahead, and most importantly, stay present in the moment without attempting to multitask. If you want weeknight dinners to flow and feel relaxing, invest in cooking skills! Cooking skills will give you confidence and ease which is what we want in the kitchen.

By rethinking weeknight dinners you can transform them from a chore into a manageable and even joyful part of your day. Embrace weekly themes, use leftovers to build the next meal, and enjoy the benefits of deliciousness shared with the ones you love.

Sheet Pan Chicken Mole with Roasted Vegetables 

Serves 4

20-30 minutes hands-on time

20-25 minutes roasting time. 

This straightforward oven mole will make a family favorite weeknight dinner. It takes about 20 minutes to assemble, including making a side of roasted veggies. I like to use sweet potato, onions and zucchini.

2 lbs boneless chicken thighs

Dry Spice Mix

1 ½ teaspoons sea salt

1 teaspoon fennel seed

3 whole cloves

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon whole black peppercorns

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1-2 tablespoons coconut sugar (personal preference)

¼ cup dehydrated onion flakes

Sauce

2 cups water or chicken stock

2 dried Ancho chilies, stem and take out the seeds, tear into pieces

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

¼ cup roasted tahini

⅓ cup pepita seeds

⅓ cup raisins

¼ cup avocado or olive oil

4 cloves garlic, chopped

Plus a Selection of Vegetables to Roast: I used onions, sweet potato and zucchini 

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F. Prepare a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and a large

9 x13 rectangular casserole with parchment paper. Read through the recipe and assemble the ingredients.

1. Prep the roasting veggies, rub with olive oil and salt on the baking sheet, and roast for about 25 minutes, stirring once.

2. Add the spice mix ingredients to a spice/coffee grinder, and grind into a powder.

3. Thinly slice the chicken thighs as you would for teriyaki.

4. In a high-speed blender (Vitamix), on high, blend the sauce ingredients together with the dry spice mix. Note: You can blend the sauce in a regular blender but you’ll want to strain it through a food mill to get the chili skins out.

5. Mix raw chicken with the sauce in the lined casserole. At 425 F Roast for 20 minutes, on a middle oven rack, or until the meat reaches 170 F. I like to stir at least once while it cooks.

6. Serve hot with the roasted vegetables. I cooked the vegetables and meat sequentially because I use a large toaster oven, but if you’re using a regular oven they can go in at the same time.  

Pickled Onions

Cebollas Encurtidas para Panuchos

Makes 2 cups (weeknight)

4 cups sliced white onion rings

1 cup bitter orange juice or substitute

½ cup water

1 tablespoon dried Mexican oregano

1 hot chili finely sliced (optional)

Blanch onions in boiling water for 1 minute

Drain and add bitter orange juice, seasoning and water

Set aside and let season for two hours

Keeps in fridge for two weeks

Bitter Orange Substitute

1 teaspoon grated grapefruit zest

½ cup orange juice concentrate

Juice of two limes plus zest

1 cup fresh grapefruit juice

Chopped Mexican Street Salad

(weeknight)

1 small white cabbage (finely shredded)

1 small red cabbage (finely shredded)

1 small bunch red radishes (thinly sliced)

4 medium carrots (grated)

1 large bunch fresh cilantro (chopped)

3 minced pickled jalapeno peppers

4 lime juice plus zest

Sea salt to taste

Handmade Tortillas

(Weekend)

1 cup corn masa harina

1 cup gluten free flour blend ( ⅔ sorghum flour ⅓ potato starch + ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum)

2 tablespoons flax meal

½ teaspoons sea salt

1 cup boiling water ( 1-2 more tablespoons water as needed)

1)    Mix dry ingredients

2)    Add boiling water and make into golf ball sized

3)    Press with tortilla press between oiled parchment and griddle immediately

Mole Negro

(Weekend)

1 3-4 lb whole chicken roasted or poached (shred chicken)

1 quart rich chicken stock made with bones, skins...

Chilies

(take seeds out and break into pieces)

5  negro chilies

5 pasilla chilies

5 New Mexican chilies

Grind spices and herbs together

3 whole cloves

3 whole allspice

1 tablespoon coriander

1 tablespoon toasted cumin

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon Mexican oregano

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Fry in olive oil or chicken fat with chilies

¼ cup sesame seeds

¼ cup cashews

¼ cup almonds

¼ cup raisins

2 small onions chopped

2 heads garlic peeled and minced

Add spices and herbs, add tomatoes, add cocoa and salt 

1 can 28 oz fire roasted tomatoes

Sea salt to taste

¼ cup cocoa powder

Continue to cook until well mended.

Puree with chicken stock to consistency wanted and run through a food mill

Mole Verde

(Weekend)

1 3-4 lb whole chicken roasted or poached

1 quart rich chicken stock

Toast

1 cup sesame seeds toasted

½ cup pumpkin seeds toasted

Grind

3 whole cloves

5 peppercorns

3 allspice berries

Add and saute with above

One head garlic minced

8-10 medium tomatillos chopped

2 poblano chilies seeded and chopped

8 romaine lettuce leaves roughly chopped

1 bunch swiss chard leaves chopped (reserve stems for stock)

1 bunch cilantro chopped (reserve stems for stock)

1 bunch parsley chopped ( reserve stems for stock)

Add stock and cook until well melded and delicious

Puree in Vitamix or powerful blender in several batches