Lighter Eating Post-Holidays

Now that the holidays are over, it’s time for a major reset. Cooks are burned out, and after all the rich meals and sweets, diners are looking for lighter, lower-fat, lower-calorie meals. The best route is simple, one-pot meals. To me, that’s easier said than done. Most recipes for one-pot meals are loaded with pasta and heavy on the cheese. Plus, this is January, and the produce available in farm stands and supermarkets is limited. What’s a meal planner to do?

Nick Evans, a Denver-based home cook and cookbook author, has a number of suggestions in his 2014 cookbook Love Your Leftovers. The big idea is the creative use of leftovers to dispel the bad rap and serve meals that might even be better than the original. And the overall effort is easier with a little meal planning.

You might set aside an hour or so on the weekend or before you go grocery shopping to think about what you’d like to eat in terms of proteins and vegetables. Then begin a menu for the week. Since the foundational dishes tend to take longer, you might plan to make one or two on a lazy Sunday. For example, I roast a chicken for Sunday dinner. This is the point where leftovers usually get a bad rap. After Sunday’s meal, I carve the rest of the meat from the bones and throw the carcass into a pot of water to make broth. Later in the week, I use the cut chicken for a pot pie or a chicken Waldorf salad like the one pictured above. If there is still some left, I toss it in the freezer along with the chicken broth for a chicken vegetable soup or chicken and dumplings.

A well-stocked pantry

Evans starts with a roast pork butt, then uses leftovers for dishes such as carnitas tacos, pulled pork pizza, bahn mi, pork polenta pie, pulled-pork mac and cheese, or snap pea and pork stir fry. Or if you prefer beef, you could pick up a sirloin roast for a Mississippi pot roast. Use as much as you’ll eat and cut the rest into chunks for a stir fry, beef stew, or Caesar salad later in the week.

Making it easy means having the ingredients and the recipes when you need them. That’s where the planning and a good pantry comes in. Make sure you have enough of the main ingredient for additional meals and check your supply of herbs, spices, vinegars, and sauces, not to mention the extras such as vegetables that you’ll need for the “leftover” proteins.

Frozen vegetables to the rescue

Especially during the cold months when produce shelves are meager, frozen supermarket vegetable packs can be a savior. These days, you can find frozen packages – not just peas and carrots, but fajita vegetables, Asian vegetables, oven toasters, spring mix, and stir fry. For a leftover night, I always have a couple of russet potatoes as a backup. If there’s not enough leftovers for a regular meal, I can bake a potato and top it with cheese, yogurt, and sautéed red pepper, or in a pinch, a bit of canned or frozen chili.

This adds up to great meals and less work. Do you have any other ideas to lighten the post-holiday cooking burnout mode?