Our new mealtime guide will help you get fresh food on the table fast.
Introducing our new mealtime guide.
While my friends and contemporaries were suffering through low-level admin jobs, I was learning knife skills to earn a culinary degree. As they partied late into their weekend nights, I was feverishly cooking around the city. They created intricate blueprints and legal documents as they rose up their corporate ladders. I created recipes as I rose up mine.
You’d think, then, that I’d now be better prepared to feed my family. Yeah, you’d think. But with two kids under 5 demanding my every free second — and the endless struggle to balance work and home life — I face the same struggles as everyone else. Regardless of who’s winning the mommy wars, the lean-in debate or the hipster/normcore battles — or who has the culinary experience behind them — our common denominator remains the same its been for generations:
How do we get dinner on the table? Fortunately, times have changed, especially for those of us in the Bay Area. We sit squarely at the intersection of food and tech, and the culinary landscape is entirely different than it was a few years ago.
From online grocery shopping or prepared-meal delivery services to thirdparty restaurant delivery apps, it’s actually easier than ever to find inspiration.
It’s why, as of Monday morning, I’ll be launching a new regular online feature called Cook Your Week, which will build on that inspiration to provide three options for dinner.
This online format will allow me to take this adventure in real time, as I dig a little deeper into these apps and services to figure out the pros and cons; come up with new recipes inspired by my CSA box, Good Eggs deliveries and even those 10-minute Trader Joe’s runs; and sift through The Chronicle’s recipe archives to pull out seasonal, fast favorites.
And for the skilled — or passionate — cooks who still count their supermarket trips as coveted “alone time,” there will be plenty of seasonal recipes.
Some will be quick recipes and ideas to use the ingredients that end up in our kitchens — whether picked up at the grocery store or dropped on our doorsteps — while others will be even quicker ideas using our various devices (phone-to-table, if you will), for those nights when we just can’t get it together. I’ve never been a big fan of true meal planning. Would I love to find five reci-pes that interest all family members, make a shopping list, get to the grocery store to buy it all and prep on Sunday so the week ahead would be easier? Sure I would. I’d also love to sleep. Like, ever. But figuring out three meal options that don’t necessarily need to be tied to specific days — and relying on some third-party help — feels much more feasible.
The tech space, in fact, is flooded with options for dinner. You can take the guesswork out of planning with pre-measured, ready-to-prep boxes from Blue Apron, Green Chef or the like. Or get a finished meal within 10 to 20 minutes of your first hunger pangs (or upon arriving home to chaos), thanks to apps like Sprig, Spoonrocket and Caviar’s Fastbite option.
“We’re really about on-demand, ‘ I’m hungry right now,’ ” says Nate Keller, founding executive chef of Sprig. The service provides prepared meals using organic, locally sourced ingredients and delivering them almost immediately. Keller has three kids — including twin baby girls — and says that for people like him, “It’s a fantastic option. You don’t have to plan your day out.”
Another benefit of many of these services is that you can be a short-order cook without feeling like one. You can order four different dishes at a time from well-known chefs who now cook for the masses at Munchery, or you can order-in from restaurants across the city by using any of the food delivery apps — Caviar, Grubhub, Eat24, Order Ahead and Doordash among them.
Is it worth it to get one salad and a piece of cake for a grand total of $30? Uh, no. But I’m willing to bet that down the line I might be able to find that salad on a different app for a better price. And some of these are so fleeting — I spent a month smirking as I skipped the line at Blue Bottle with my Square Order app, only to find out one day the company had shut down the service to focus on their other ventures. It was a sad, caffeine-free day.
I’ll wade through all the technological noise for one fast — and, more importantly, easy — meal each week. As I do, I’ll evaluate and share the results. Plus, I’ll tell you what I’m ordering or making in case you need some inspiration.
That’s not to say I won’t be cooking from scratch, but I now have the ability to be a little more spontaneous. With online farmers’ markets like Grubmarket and Good Eggs, you can get a few fresh items — and plenty of ideas — to finish meals quickly in your own kitchen.
Take something like a steak and spring vegetable saute, for example, which starts with Prather Ranch dry-aged stir-fry beef. It comes sliced and vacuum-sealed and costs $8.99 for a ¾-pound pack on Good Eggs.
Throw it in a pan with crispy seasonal snap peas — or just about anything else that looks good — add a few pantry seasonings like soy sauce and togarashi, and dinner is on the table in minutes.
Might some of the products be a hit on the wallet? Absolutely, which is why they’re not for every night. But as most busy parents or career-focused people will tell you, managing expectations is all about figuring out how much your time is worth, and acting accordingly. It’s also about asking for help. Just ask Sara Farner, who, despite a culinary background, has joined forces with her Moraga neighbors to cook one meal a week for other families so that she’ll receive a few back. Farner isn’t as interested in the apps and delivery services, noting the packaging waste and high costs. “But the neighborhood thing has been a godsend,” she says.
In this era of airing how difficult our lives are on mommy blogs, and direct sales companies that peddle everything from skin care products to organic seasonings — prep party, anyone? — there’s a team mentality that allows us to divide and conquer. I’ll explore this as well.
And for the skilled — or passionate — cooks who still count their supermarket trips as coveted “alone time,” there will be plenty of seasonal recipes, like the simple and fresh asparagus and egg toast, or what I consider to be the most amazing, foolproof pan-roasted chicken..
So follow along, and don’t hesitate to reach out and give me your own suggestions.
And for the skilled — or passionate — cooks who still count their supermarket trips as coveted “alone time,” there will be plenty of seasonal recipes.