Once a Week Cooking

Ever since I started my new job back in January, my free time has been increasingly limited and I've been quite exhausted after work. For the first few weeks it was tortuous to come home and have to get something together for dinner and more often than I care to admit I just gave up and we either ate out or dinner consisted of milk and cereal. One week got so bad that cereal was even my go to lunch option. Not healthy. Not at all.

To do something about this I decided to try cooking a weeks worth of lunches and dinners over the weekend when I had much more free time and energy. I started slow only doing 2 recipes at a time on Sunday but now I can easily make 4-5 meals plus a tasty treat.

In all I spend about 4-5 hours cooking but it has varied based on what I'm cooking. There are really easy ways to shorten that time too like having one recipe use the crock pot and having another be a stove top only recipe.

Another benefit is that all of the prep work is consolidated. Instead of getting everything ready to chop vegetables each day, I just get it out once chop everything and then I only wash it once too.
A few tips I've picked up on as I've done this the last few weeks:

• Read all of your recipes before starting and get a feel for what order to work in.
• Start by getting out all of your dry ingredients so you don't keep going back to the same cabinets half a dozen times.
• Rinse off utensils and cookware after using so food doesn't dry on
• Have some fun music or a podcast going!

Food for the week.

Here's a brief example of what and how I cooked a few weekends ago.  I made 4 dishes: egg salad, And Noodles, Stuffed Shells, and Tacos.

I started by cooking pasta and quick soaking beans. While that was on the stove I mixed up the sauce for And Noodles and preheated the oven. After the noodles were done they went into the sauce and then into the oven.

Using the same pasta pot I started cooking the shells. I also started the eggs to hard boil. Then I got the cheese filling ready for the shells. By the time the shells were stuffed and ready to go in the oven, it was time to take out the And Noodles so I only had to preheat the oven once instead of twice. I chopped up the vegetables for the tacos and egg salad while the beans finished cooking and then used the pot from boiling eggs to make some brown rice for the tacos.

At this point all that was left was letting the food cool before I packed it into individually sized portions in tupperware. Since I'd ben rinsing dishes off as I went and the dishwasher was empty all I had to do was load it and the kitchen was clean.


It's gotten a lot easier for me over the last few weeks as I've perfected my routines and it also helps if you do all of the grocery shopping a day or two prior since Sundays at the grocery store are always crowded.

Happy Birthday and my New Job!

Yesterday was a great day.

I was supposed to start my new job last week, but it got pushed back until yesterday.  I wasn't sure how it would go, and of course I had some nerves about it.

I spent the whole day in safety training, and I'll be spending the next five days plus another two after that doing more training and orientation.

Everyone was so genuinely nice.

In my last job, safety training was important but really dull.  Really dull.

It was decidedly awesome and fun.

The safety guy was entertaining and full of crazy random stories.

He reminded me a lot of Ron Stoppable.

I got to use my new frog bento lunchbox.  (my lunch was a bit lame, but I was unprepared)

My birthday cake was argyle and was delicious.

All around a fantastic day.  Probably the best birthday yet.

Tutoring & Another Job Possibility

Hi everybody!

I thought I would just give a little update on my life over here. I recently started tutoring an adorable seven year old girl, and I hope to add a few more kids in the future. She is very bright and talkative, she just needs a little help building confidence in herself. She is a little behind in her studies because she has moved round a few times and the curricula are different.

While we were reading the other day, I discovered that we had picked up a book by one of my favorite authors for children: Jon Scieska. He's the author of the books The Stinky Cheese Man and The Real Story of the Three Little Pigs. Abby and I loved these books as kids. The book we read was Cowboy and Octopus. It wasn't as good as Math Curse, but it was still very funny.

Also, on the campout near Ta'if I met a fellow who works at Saudi Oger here on campus, and he wanted to talk to me about some work he might have for me to do. I will try giving Oger another shot, I hope this time will work out better than the last.

Saudi Oger gives me an answer!

As you may, or may not, know, I have been trying to get work here on campus for quite a while. So far, I have been talking to Saudi Oger, which appears to have been a mistake. About three and a half months ago I went in to start my training for the position of Lab Coordinator. Everyone assured me that I would have a contract worked out within a week or two. I worked/trained for three days before I decided that I would rather have a contract before putting in nine hours a day, six days a week.

I submitted my application on the second day of work/training, so I figured I would only have to wait a week for my offer. I ended up waiting two months to get the offer, and that was with me calling at least once a week, often more like once a day, to push things along. When they finally sent me an offer it was for 12 months of work at about $7.50 per hour. While the pay rate would have been insulting anyways, I simply couldn't work for 12 months. I could have if they had gotten me an offer in a timely manner, but not after so much delay. I sent back my comments, and waited some more. And I called and I called. Now, more than a month later, I have an answer! They said that it was just not worth it to hire a person for eight months, especially since it would take them another month or two to work out the details, and by that time I would only be able to work six or seven months.

Needless to say, it has not been a good experience. I have another company that I am going to start trying to get work with now, and hopefully, as they are run out of the United States, they won't have the same issues as Saudi Oger.

I should say that I am not totally surprised by this whole ordeal with Saudi Oger. We have disappointing experiences such as this almost continuously here in Saudi Arabia, and it seems to be mostly just a cultural difference. It seem to be a difference between individuals taking responsibly for their own work and not having to be badgered to get things done. It isn't completely their fault, the flow of business here just seems to go much more slowly; no one seems to mind if things never get done.