You read this blog, and you may start to think, "I would gain hundreds of lbs if I ate this way". Well, that could be a truth, but you do need to keep in mind that if you are, in fact, concerned about this, then you need to portion what you take in. As a single male that lives alone, but loves to cook, I quite often find myself with an ample amount of food. One thing that's important about the way I cook is that everything I make, and by extension every recipe I share, reheats very well the next day, or later on in the week. One of the things that makes portion control easiest for me, as well as feeding myself for days to come, is one of the greatest advances in food technology. The Chinese Food Container.
Now, anyone who has had Chinese in a city knows these containers well. Flimsy as hell, white plastic bottom, clear plastic top. Usually house a noodle dish such as lo mein or chow mai fun. These containers are washable and completely re-usable, and they are FREE. One of the things that makes these wonderful containers great is that they were really designed to house a meal, and are great to keep using for such a purpose. And unlike that expensive tupperware or even those Ziploc brand containers; if your container cracks or breaks, throw it out and go order Chinese food and get another one.
What makes these containers ideal is they are wide and relatively shallow. So, at night, after you make your boneless spare ribs and mac and cheese, and everyone has had his or her fill, and the kids are out watching cartoons, you bust out your containers, and portion out some mac and cheese, some broccoli, and some cut up pieces of rib meat in each one, drizzle some sauce over the top of the meat, and pop it in the fridge. Then, on your way to work the next day, grab one out of the fridge and put it in the fridge at work. There's your lunch for the day, quick and painless. The shallow nature of the container even makes for a very effective plate, and the container itself is microwave safe.
And don't forget the cookies.
What's better than cookies straight out of the oven?? It's too bad that most cookie recipes are intended to make dozens at a time. Our friend, the Chinese food container, offers a solution. See, cookie dough actually freezes very, very well. So, you make your batch of cookies as normal and bake whatever you find to be an appropriate amount for you and the people in your home to have a fresh from the oven cookie. Then ball up the remaining dough into small balls as if you were going to bake them, and put them in a series of Chinese food containers. The shallow design means that you have a layer of dough balls that won't stack on top of each other no matter how hard the container gets shaken, and the cover protects from the drying effects of the freezer. And, when you're ready for more, take the container out, remove as many balls as desired, and bake away. Keep in mind that you'll have to bake them a little longer, and they won't flatten out as much as fresh dough, but they taste just as great.
Included is my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, which is the Nestle Toll House recipe with the chips reduced.
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks of butter, softened (do not melt completely)
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract or 3 tablespoons artificial vanilla flavor
2 eggs
1 cup Nestle Chocolate Chips
Combine the butter and the sugars in one bowl and cream them together. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt and stir well. Beat the eggs into the sugar mixture and then whisk in the vanilla. Stir the flour mixture into the sugar mixture little by little and then add the chocolate chips. Ball up the dough to desired cookie size (the recipe says a Tablespoon, but we all know no one does that) and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375°F for 9 minutes, or until golden brown, and cool on a wire rack then a paper bag. Put the leftovers in a Chinese food container for later. Freezable for up to 8 weeks
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