Day 95 – What’s Next?

Happy Holidays… the 100-Day Challenge is complete!  This is a recap of how it went and what’s coming next.

100-Day Challenge, by the Numbers

• Actual length:  75 days (from Day 10 – Day 85)
• # of meals cooked:  24
• # of dishes memorized:  3
• Money saved by not eating out:  $716.71

2016 – Goals

I’m feeling great about my progress and want to keep my momentum going into the new year.  Here are my high level goals:

1. Buy groceries in larger quantities and freeze/store them for future use.  For the past few months I’ve been shopping for groceries the same day that I cooked, and it was stressful.  Going forward, I want to keep the shopping/cooking process as low-stress as possible.
2. Prepare proteins into Single Serve Portions and freeze them for easier mid-week cooking.  The Pioneer Woman suggested this and I want to see if it makes my life easier.
3. Spend Sundays preparing meals for the following week. Lots of people swear by this and I want to try it out.  The idea is to simply reheat the pre-prepared meals when you’re hungry.
4. Re-learn the fundamentals.  I want to start my cooking journey all over again, making sure I cover the basics.

2016 – Monthly Plan

I created a learning plan that covers the first part of 2016.

January:

• Learn how to be a smarter grocery shopper
• Re-learn how to cook eggs
• Read Cooking Basics for Dummies

February:

• Learn how to eyeball measurements
• Re-learn how to use a knife
• Cooking Equipment Deep Dive 1: Nonstick Pan
• Read The America’s Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook – “Everything you need to know to become a great cook”

March:

• Learn how to Meal Prep (an entire week’s worth of food)
• Learn how to make some Filipino Food
• Cooking Equipment Deep Dive 2: Pot
• Read Learn To Cook: A Down and Dirty Guide to Cooking (For People Who Never Learned How)

April:

• Freezer Meals
• Cooking Equipment Deep Dive 3: Sheet Pan
• Read The Can’t Cook Book: Recipes for the Absolutely Terrified!

May:

• Cooking Equipment Deep Dive 4: Slow Cooker
• Read How to Cook Everything The Basics: All You Need to Make Great Food

2016 – How I’ve Been Preparing

• Invested in 12 Mason Jars to use for Food Prepping.
• Updated my Bucket List.  In addition to Restaurants to Try, I added sections for Dishes to Make and Techniques to Learn.
• Started exploring a new resource to help me learn: Cooking Blogs.  I looked through 600+ of them and made a list of the top 10%: 61 Blogs for Aspiring Cooks to Follow in 2016 (myself included).  I’ll be following these closely next year.

Looking forward to keeping my momentum going!  See y’all in a few days when I’ll be wrapping up the 100-Day Challenge (and 2015) with some final thoughts.

OTHER POSTS IN THE 100-DAY CHALLENGE SERIES

Day 1: Intro to Me & My Goal
Day 4: “Why Learn?” and My Cooking Background
Day 7: What Should I Learn to Cook FIRST?
Day 10: Pasta + Meat Sauce (Tomato Bolognese)
Day 21: Pasta + Meat Sauce (less Tomato)
Day 28: Pasta + Meat Sauce (Beef Stroganoff)
Day 35: Oven Roasted Chicken Thighs
Day 42: Pan Roasted Chicken Thighs
Day 49: Pan Roasted Chicken Thighs (coated with flour)
Day 56: Pan Roasted Chicken Breasts
Day 63: Miso Glazed Baked Salmon
Day 70: Miso Glazed Baked Salmon II
Day 77: Miso Glazed Baked Salmon III
Day 84: Final Exam
Day 95: What’s Next?
Day 100: Final Thoughts