Mize En Place

On average weekday do you cook dinner? I'm sure you do now because, you are a master meal planner... While meal planning can be a great way to  save time, keeps stress about what's for dinner to a minimum there is one component of cooking all that time that take more time that you realize. I'm talking all the chopping, slicing, and measuring that happens before any real cooking takes place.

This isn't a challenge for every recipe but, for new ones, ones that have a numerous amount of different ingredients, or large volumes of the same ingredient it can take more time than you think to prep everything. That is where mize en place comes in. What's that? It's a French culinary term which refers to the set up required before cooking AKA the organizing and arranging the ingredients that a cook will require for the meal they are preparing. While I am far from a professional chef it helps me when I am cooking a meal in the evening to have sliced, chopped, and measured things in advance. Most of the time that means incorporating meal prep into my morning routine which while seemingly cumbersome can make a world of different when I get home after a day of work and the last thing I want to do is spend fifteen(+) minutes slicing two pounds of  brussel sprouts of whatever is on the menu for the evening. Remember, I said you wouldn't like me when I'm hangry...