By Barbara Ellington,
Staff Reporter
IF YOU'RE organised you can transform one cook day into a week's worth of no-sweat meals.
You do need to invest some time to organise your shopping and then a few hours (Saturday or Sunday) sweating it out in the kitchen.
But the rewards can be sweet healthy, satisfying dinners at a leisurely pace for the next six days.
Maxine Wilson does. The General Manager of the Palisados Co-op Credit Union, she has one daughter and is currently pursuing an MBA degree. By 8:30 every Sunday morning she has dinner ready for the entire week.
We visited Ms. Wilson in her kitchen one recent Sunday morning while the oxtail was simmering and the chicken sat uncovered in the oven to get some colour.
Her menu consisted of tossed salad, steamed cabbage, baked chicken, rice and peas, mashed potatoes, pineapple juice and sorrel.
"Some weeks it's four meats and when I use potatoes, I prepare three pounds, plus three pounds or rice and enough to last the helper and my daughter during the week. I don't eat when I come home."
Ms. Wilson who also provides Sunday dinner for her mother and siblings, said she got organised in 1994 while doing a banking course because no one else in the family cooks.
"My time was limited and when my daughter Aliah came along, it became even more vital that I be organised," she explained.
At 8:10 a.m. the utensils are washed and she's ready to go upstairs and get Aliah, her daughter, and herself dressed for church at 10:00 a.m. On the way, she drops off food for one sibling and mother and after church she gets together with a study group, relaxes a bit then goes back to church in the evening.
HOW DOES SHE MAKE IT HAPPEN?
"I have to be organised otherwise my week would be chaotic," she said in summing up her reasons for preparing the week's meals in one day.
Her week-day routine goes something like this: She gets up at 5:00 a.m., goes to the gym between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m. then gets her daughter ready for school. This is premium time for the single mother.
"I will not give that up. We bond, she sings to me and it gets me ready for my day which usually ends between 9:00 and 11:00 p.m."
On Thursday or Friday she seasons the meat she plans to cook for the coming week and freezes them till cooking time. Health conscious, she does not use powdered seasonings. Perhaps the only convenience food she uses is canned coconut milk.
ALISON MIKSCH/MARY ENGELBREIT INK Universal Press Syndicate
