8 Tips for Teachers Who Have a Passion for NOT Cooking

Now that the school year is in full swing, many teachers find themselves a lot less interested in spending time in the kitchen. Perhaps it’s the weather, the stacks of papers, or just general exhaustion from spending nine hours in the classroom that makes our dinners increasingly less inspired. If this sounds like your situation, read on. We’ve got a few tips to help you revive your enthusiasm for cooking, even on school nights. 

8 Tips for Teachers Who Have a Passion for NOT Cooking

There’s nothing wrong with leftovers—get over it!
For some reason, many cooks are under the impression that they have to serve fresh-out-of-the-oven meals every night. That’s ridiculous, especially because so many dinners—lasagna, chili, meatloaf, for example—actually taste better the second night. Cut out one night of cooking by doubling a recipe and saving it for another night when you can’t bear to step foot into the kitchen.

Try Sunday afternoon cooking instead
Sunday afternoons are usually lazy days for us since we try to get most of our grading and prep done on Saturday. On a friend’s recommendation, we’ve started a new Sunday afternoon routine: We put on a good record, pour a glass of wine and take to the kitchen. Our recipes vary—most of them are simple—but we cook three main courses (this takes about two hours), place them in Tupperware containers and store them in the fridge. Now all we have to do when we get home from work is reheat them. 

Change the way you serve your dishes
How many bowls do you use to serve your dinner? For example, do you heat vegetables or baked beans on the stove and transfer them to a fresh bowl before serving? If so, you’ve just given yourself another dish to clean. You’re not serving Oprah or Gordon Ramsey, so stop worrying about presentation. Throw a hot pad on the table, serve your food straight from the kettle, the Pyrex, or the skillet, and save yourself a lot of unnecessary cleanup time.

Fresh vs. frozen vegetables
Buy frozen vegetables. They are already cleaned and ready for use; they’ll also save you money since they won’t wilt or go bad in the fridge if you don’t eat them right away. If you’re concerned about losing nutrients with frozen vegetables, keep in mind that frozen produce—if frozen and stored properly—offers a similar nutritional profile to fresh since it is usually picked at peak ripeness and frozen immediately after harvesting.

We don’t claim to be food connoisseurs, but we do know what we like and we can’t taste the difference between most frozen and fresh vegetables. There are two exceptions: stick with fresh asparagus and broccoli.

Stop doing everything yourself
Our cooking exhaustion has more to do with doing everything than it does with cooking. If you’re cooking dinner, there’s no reason you should be setting and clearing the table and doing the dishes. Trade off with your kids or your partner/spouse. Whoever cooks gets to walk away scot-free after dinner. Whoever doesn’t cook has to clear the table and do the dishes. While you’re at it, put those kids to work. Have them make the salad, heat the side dish, clean up, prep and, if they’re old enough, cook entire meals.

Make smarter choices at the store
Fresh garlic and herbs are tasty, but they have a limited shelf life; furthermore, they tack on more prep time. Instead, buy fresh crushed garlic and ginger in jars. Herbs are also available in tubes that you can keep in the freezer. Fresh lemon and lime juice can also be bought in bottles and stored in the fridge. Are you still grating cheese? Skip it. Buy pre-grated cheese and store it in the freezer to increase the shelf life.

Cook with a friend
If you are a bachelor or bachelorette—heck, even if you aren’t!— make a cooking date with a friend. As we suggested above, put on a good record, pour some wine, talk and take your time preparing the meal. Not only will you get a fresh cooked meal, you’ll get to catch up.

Eat out once a week and split something
We like to reward ourselves at least once a week by going out to dinner. To save money, though, we stick to Thai and Indian restaurants. The portions are usually enough for two or three people, so we always split an entrée with someone. Like we said, this saves us money, but it also keeps us from overeating.

We’re always looking for new ways to maintain (and reclaim) our enthusiasm for cooking, so please feel free to share your ideas with us!