Chapter 5 Preparing Simple Recipes 87 Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Simple recipes can make cooking an option for someone who might otherwise pick up food from the nearest drive-through. Simple recipes could be described as those that have short ingre- dient lists and just a few directions. Such recipes are well suited for cooks with limited experience. In addition, buying fewer ingredients helps save money. Reducing preparation steps helps save time. Simple recipes are available for every type of food product. Search online using terms such as “15-minute meals” or “5-ingredient salads” to fi nd dozens of results. Snacks, sandwiches, pizza, and beverages are among the most popular foods for which simple recipes abound (Figure 5.1). Making Every Recipe Simpler Some recipes are designed to be quick and easy to prepare. However, following a few tips can help simplify the preparation of any recipe. Keep ingredients you use frequently on hand all the time. When possible, store ingre- dients in forms that are ready to use. For instance, many recipes call for chopped onions. Keeping whole onions in your pantry will make it possible to prepare these recipes. Keeping chopped onions in your freezer will make it easy to prepare these recipes. Other prepped ingre- dients you might want to keep in your kitchen include minced garlic, shredded cheeses, and premixed seasoning blends. When getting ready to cook, begin by reading the recipe you want to prepare. Be sure you understand all the directions and have all the needed ingredients. Then gather the ingre- dients before you start to cook. Note whether the ingredients require any preparation. For instance, do carrots need to be sliced, or do nuts need to be toasted? Complete these tasks at the beginning of your food preparation time. Then measure the amount of each ingredient required for the recipe. Getting ingredients ready in this manner is what chefs call mise en place (MEEZ- ahn-plahs). Taking these steps streamlines recipe assembly. When you are getting ready to cook, gather your equipment along with your ingredients. This will help you be sure you have all the tools you need. You do not want to be in the middle of preparing a recipe when you fi nd out that a necessary utensil is dirty, broken, or missing. For some people, one of the biggest deterrents (obstacles) to cooking is cleaning up afterward. Facing a cluttered kitchen can be discouraging, especially when you would rather be enjoying the food you made. One way to streamline cleanup is to fi ll your sink with soapy water and wash dirty dishes as you go. Keep counters wiped while you work, too. This will keep the amount of time you spend cleaning up after cooking to a minimum. Snacks When searching for simple recipes, a number of snack recipes would likely top the list. When you think of snacks, foods such as salty snacks and cookies may come to mind. However, a snack can more accurately be defi ned as a light meal. Traditionally, people thought of snacks as small amounts of food they ate between meals. In today’s busy world, people are more often choosing snacks in place of regular meals. With this being the case, making healthy choices when selecting snack foods is especially important. Svetlana Foote/Shutterstock.com Figure 5.1 This simple, healthy snack mix recipe consists of a variety of dried fruits, nuts, and seeds.