12 Dec Inside the Fridge welcomes Elana Natker!

Elana Natker, MS, RD, works in nutrition communications. Elana spent 10 years working in public relations at agencies in Chicago and Denver before deciding to go back to school to pursue a master’s degree in nutrition and become a registered dietitian. That was seven years ago and she’s now in Washington, D.C., living the dream – working from her home office and thinking about food all day long. You can find her blogging at A Sprinkle of Sage or tweeting! Follow her at @ElanaRD.

ITF: Where do you shop for food?

EN: If you ask my husband, he’ll tell you that HE’s the one who does most of the food shopping, which is actually true. On the weekend he’ll take the kids to the local grocery store for most of the weekly groceries and to Costco about 2-3 times/month for other staples and bulk items. Inevitably there are items during the week that we run out of or that I need to get specifically from other places, like pizza dough from Trader Joe’s or fresh ground peanut butter at Whole Foods.

ITF: Do you love food shopping or dread it?

EN: I used to really love it, but now with two kids – one of which is at the “buy this!” stage, the regular weekly shop has become somewhat of a chore. But I love to dawdle down the aisles, especially at specialty grocers.

ITF: How many do you shop for? Ages?

EN: There are four of us: my husband, 4-year-old daughter, 1-year-old son, and me. In terms of adventurousness, I’d say my husband has made great strides since he met me and is open to trying new things, like Israeli couscous and orzo, but he still has some major food aversions. My daughter is also your typical preschooler picky eater – the foods she likes changes from day to day. My son will shovel almost anything into his mouth. And me – I have just a few foods I refuse to eat, including mayonnaise and coconut. And meat with the bones still attached.

ITF: What is your weekly food budget?

EN: Less than what we actually spend, I’m sure!

ITF: How many times a week do you eat out? (based on 21 meals/week)

EN: Eating out can be such a hassle, though I love, love, LOVE going to restaurants and pretending I’m a restaurant critic. We order in only one dinner a week at most. Otherwise, it’s all prepared and eaten at home.

ITF: How do you plan your weekly meals? Create a spreadsheet or fly by the seat of your pants?

EN: We have a go-to list of meals we eat pretty often, written longhand and posted on the side of the fridge. Then every Saturday or Sunday, my husband and I decide what we’ll eat for dinners in the coming week and jot it down on the whiteboard also on the side of the fridge. We try to let our daughter pick one of the dinners, too, so she feels involved (my husband and I do have veto power, otherwise her choices would be macaroni and cheese or sushi). And if one night my husband or I is out of town or has a late meeting, we call that night “silly dinner” and it can be whatever you want. Our most recent silly dinner was chicken nuggets, popcorn and tomatoes.

ITF: What is the most coveted food in the fridge right now for each member of the household? Why?

EN: Ice cream. My husband and I end every night with a small scoop, sometimes on a cake cone. It’s our daily little indulgence.

For the rest of my family, I’d say milk. My daughter and son have always been very good milk drinkers, and I can’t start my day without a bowl of cereal or oatmeal made with milk. Sometimes I have a mini bowl of cereal and milk for a snack later in the day, too.

ITF: What is the oldest item in the fridge right now?

EN: Probably some type of condiment. They tend to collect in the side shelves.

ITF: Do you believe in leftovers?

EN: Believe in them? I depend on them! We have a separate freezer in the basement with emergency meals on nights when we can’t seem to get dinner on the table in time, or if we started cooking and suddenly realized a critical ingredient is missing so we have to bag our plans and quickly find an alternative. There’s a lot of homemade fried rice and leftover soups and stews in there right now.

ITF: What cooking utensil/piece of equipment/appliance do you live for?

EN: My coffeemaker. I’m picky about my coffee and really like it best the way I make it. A close second are my chef’s knife. I use it all the time.

ITF: When you hear the word “homemade” what is the first thing that comes to mind?

EN: I think the term carries more weight than it ought to. When I first think of “homemade,” I think of laborious dinners with ingredient lists a mile long. But when I give it another thought, I realize that most of my meals are, in fact, homemade, and nearly all take 30 minutes to make.

ITF: What are your go-to food/nutrition/culinary/cooking website/s, book or cookbook?

EN: I have a few recipes from a handful of cookbooks in my shelf. I’m neither a cookbook fanatic nor an online recipe searcher. I have my few go-to recipes and otherwise just try to pull together something tasty with the ingredients we have on hand. One of these days I really want to join a CSA and put my creative juices to the test!!

ITF: What was the last meal you cooked from scratch?

EN: Last night I made homemade Thai spring rolls with shrimp, rice noodles, cucumber, carrots, cilantro and lettuce, all wrapped in a rice paper wrapper. Even the peanut dipping sauce is something I make from scratch. They are delicious and a rare treat in our house, but the prep for those dang rolls takes forever, and they’re gobbled up before you know it. But the silver lining is that my daughter, who has been known to eat her weight in shrimp but won’t touch spaghetti, decided last night that she didn’t like shrimp anymore but loved the rice noodles – all on their own, without any sauce! Go figure.

ITF: What was the last meal you cooked from convenience products?

EN: We have a couple of “minute meals” that we do once a week or so, the most popular is chicken-apple sausage with orzo. Take Aidell’s Chicken Apple sausage, slice them thin and grill. Serve over cooked orzo and top with parmesan cheese. We start every meal with a fresh salad, so I’m OK with it being a pretty boring, veggie-free entrée – though I put an extra handful of quartered grape tomatoes on my bowl.

ITF: If one person could cook for you tonight, who would it be?

Umm…anyone? Will they do the dishes, too?

ITF: Anything else?

EN: Every dinner in my house starts with a salad course. I don’t know when or why we started doing this, but I think it was a way to ensure we all got some veggies. It’s actually a lot easier than people realize – I buy prewashed salad greens and sometimes presliced mushrooms and shredded carrots, and then slice up a couple of days’ worth of peppers, cucumbers, and red onion and keep them on-hand in tupperware. Each night it’s really just assembling the salad, and topping with a few grape tomatoes and sliced avocado. I’ll even make a funny face salad for my daughter.

Thanks Elana!

 Email Leah@robinplotkin.com if you’re interested in contributing to Inside the Fridge!