Save-It-Forward Suppers

A Simple Strategy to Save Time, Money, and Sanity

Cyndi Kane

• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9780063042704
• eBook ISBN:
  9780063042711
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Culinary Arts

Meal prep without burnout! Transform leftovers from each meal into a fresh new dish and put a home-cooked dinner on the table every night with 100-plus recipes and 15 easy weekly menus, in this first cookbook by Cyndi “Hyacinth” Kane, often seen on Ree Drummond’s hit Food Network show and blog, The Pioneer Woman.

Foreword by Ree Drummond

Whether you enjoy cooking or not, it can be exhausting to cook a new meal from scratch every single night—especially if you have a family to feed. Batch cooking is a way around this but means that half your meals will be reheated leftovers, which gets unappetizing after a few days. Instead, Cyndi Kane uses her “Save-It-Forward” method to cut down on cooking time and food waste and still feed her family something new every night. She reserves components of each meal she cooks to play a part in her meal the next night, reimagining her leftovers without rehashing them.

In this beautiful, practical book, she provides 15 weekly menus for getting dinner on the table 5 to 6 days a week with as little fuss as possible, and her quirky, chatty tone makes meal prep fun, too. Each week is themed for the sort of week you expect to have, such as No Time to Spare, Mad Skills, and Simple Meats and Veggies. She follows four principles for each meal she puts in front of her family. Each dinner needs to meet the following criteria:

• delicious (of course!)
• kid-friendly but not boring
• relatively healthy
• budget-friendly

Each recipe is accompanied by beautiful watercolor illustrations showing the finished dishes and visual menus showing the Save-It-Forward connections between each meal. Some of the recipes (and transformations) included are:

• Italian Sunday Gravy and Pasta (and Lentil Soup with Simple, Cheesy Spaghetti Squash)
• Skillet Smoked Sausage, Cabbage, and Potatoes (and Breakfast-for-Dinner Burritos)
• Stuffed Peppers over Pasta (and Italian Frittata)
• Shrimp Packet Dinner (and Cajun Chowder)
• Italian Beef Tips (and Mexican Beef Stew)

Readers will feel like dinnertime superheroes with these low-stress, super-practical, time-saving meals!

Week 1

Simple Meats and Veggies Week

Since you might be new to this save-it-forward way of thinking about meal prep, I want to keep this first week very streamlined and straightforward. Each day, you’ll either be saving forward components for another meal or, even better, you’ll be enjoying a meal in which you have nothing to cook because all the components have been saved forward.

For a gentle introduction to the method, we’re starting with a week of simple meats and veggies, but don’t worry—you didn’t sign up for a monk’s life when you bought this book! These meals are flavorful, economical, and healthful, and you’ll even get to reward yourself with a pizza at the end of the week because you’ve eaten so darn virtuously all week long.

Week 1, Day 1

Roasted Everything—Chicken, Broccoli, Onions, and Potatoes

Is it strange for me to say that I’m not crazy about the opening recipe in my cookbook? Here’s the deal: I’m just not a gal who craves a big hunk of meat; I prefer it as a lesser player in a meal starring grains and veggies. The carnivores in my family, however, violently disagree with me, choosing meals that a caveman would relish. So, it’s a dance—the yin and yang of cooking for a family.

Olive oil, for rubbing

1 tablespoon spice rub of your choice: a combination of garlic and onion powder, seasoning blends, paprika, cayenne pepper, and so on

2 teaspoons table salt, plus more to taste

1 teaspoon ground black pepper, plus more to taste

One 5- to 6-pound chicken (or larger or smaller, depending on your family size; a SAVE-IT-FORWARD item)

1 lemon, cut lengthwise into 6 wedges

3 medium yellow onions, 2 cut lengthwise into wedges (a SAVE-IT-FORWARD item)

2 to 3 pounds potatoes, peeled (if thick-skinned) and cut into 1½-inch cubes (a SAVE-IT-FORWARD item)

2 medium bunches broccoli (about 2 pounds), cut into 1-inch florets

Special tool: extra-wide foil (optional)

1. The chicken will be placed on a lower oven rack and the veggies will be on a higher rack, so adjust your racks accordingly. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Cover two sheet pans with foil to make cleanup easier (extra-wide foil is helpful!).

2. I consider preparing chicken a straight-up biohazard situation, so I take several steps in advance so everything is in place before I get started. Chefs call this mise en place, and this is the perfect time to take a tip from the pros. Pour a bit of olive oil in a small bowl. Mix the spice rub, salt, and pepper in another small bowl. You don’t want to touch your spice jars with your radioactive chicken hands.

3. Remove all the icky stuff from inside the chicken—you know, that bag of who knows what that is. I discard it because I don’t want to think about it anymore, but I bet some of you are less squeamish and cheerily repurpose it. I applaud you! In the old days, we were told to rinse chicken, but that’s not the new protocol because it drips biohazard liquid everywhere.

4. Dry the chicken thoroughly with paper towels. Carefully separate the skin from the breasts (which will ensure a crispy, pretty skin), rub the chicken with oil, and cover it with the spice rub.

5. Place all the lemon wedges and half an onion, in wedges, in the chicken cavity.

6. Place the chicken on a wire rack (if you have one) in the middle of one of the sheet pans, breast side up, and set the pan on the lower oven rack.

7. Roast the chicken for 15 minutes to create a crispy, pretty skin, then lower the oven heat to 375°F and roast for about 15 minutes per pound. To test the doneness, if you have an instant-read thermometer, insert it at the inner thigh, not touching the bone, and it should read at least 165°F. I generally can’t find my thermometer, so I just see if the juices run clear in the thigh area.

8. While the chicken is roasting, toss the potatoes, broccoli, and remaining onion wedges separately with a bit of olive oil to coat lightly, then season with salt and pepper. Add the potatoes on one side of the second sheet pan, the broccoli in the middle, and the onion at the other end so you can remove one vegetable at a time if they cook at different rates.

9. Stick the veggies in the oven on the higher rack to roast. Check them for doneness after 30 minutes and roast longer, if necessary. When each veggie is cooked to your perfection, perhaps at different rates, remove it to a serving platter. Personally, I like mine very browned—particularly the broccoli!

10. When the chicken is done, give it a 10-minute rest, if you can shoo your family away. In terms of carving your chicken, my recommendation is to let everyone snag their favorite part, whether that’s the breast, drumstick, thigh—whatever! Though you will save forward the remainder of the chicken, various bits and pieces will be fine for that purpose, so let your family have what they want tonight.

SAVE IT FORWARD—CHICKEN: After your family demolishes the chicken, finish the demolition by removing the rest of the chicken from the bone, placing it in a container, and refrigerating it. (Use the bones and skin in the stock tonight; see To Do Tonight). You’ll need 1 to 2 cups of chicken for Hearty Chicken Stew later in the week. If there are additional leftovers, they can be used for chicken fried rice (see Lunch Bits and Bobs).

SAVE IT FORWARD—POTATOES: If you have leftover potatoes, add them to Almost Niçoise Salmon Salad later in the week.

SAVE-IT-FORWARD—ONION: While you are chopping onions, chop one for tomorrow’s Brown Rice Pilaf. No need to shed tears two days in a row!

TO DO TONIGHT: Place the chicken carcass and skin right into the crock of a slow cooker for Overnight Chicken Broth. You’ll be using 12 cups of broth this week, and this recipe will make at least that much. With just a little effort, you’ll save enough money for a couple of tr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Foreword by Ree Drummond
• Introduction
• Week 1: Simple Meats and Veggies Week
• Week 2: Surf ’n’ Turf ’n’ More Week
• Week 3: Big Ol’ Honkin’ Ham Week!
• Week 4: No Time to Spare Week!
• Week 5: Get a Grip Week
• Week 6: Ancient Grains Week
• Week 7: Effortless Party Week
• Week 8: Grill Week!
• Week 9: Comfort Foods from Across the Pond Week
• Week 10: Pantry Item Week
• Week 11: Shortcut Week
• Week 12: Veggie-Forward Week, Spring-Summer Edition
• Week 13: Mediterranean Week
• Week 14: Veggie-Forward Week, Fall-Winter Edition
• Week 15: Mad Skills Week
• Essentials and Extras
• Acknowledgments
• Universal Conversion Chart
• Index
• About the Author
• Copyright
• About the Publisher