Well, sure, it's easy to do if you have an enormous kitchen, an oven with three racks, and scads of open work space (including a balcony with a giant table). This would take me a million times longer in my one-butt galley kitchen.

Great video! Would love to see more photos of her great kitchen!

This was inspiring!

Yeah. I have to agree a bit with Libbet42 on this one. My poor little rental has a decent-sized kitchen, but my oven has only one rack. I've always meant to pre-chop veggies at least, but I never do.

I also find that salad greens last longer if you DON'T wash them before you stick them in the fridge. But that's only because I don't have a salad spinner, I suppose.

Not only do I share Libbet42's sentiment on the size of kitchen needed to do such a thing but also...is it really all that hard to prepare vegetables during the week? Having items cut and prepped makes more sense but pre-cooked? I just don't get it.

I did this years ago when my husband and I had unpredictable work schedules with no overlap time. It was a great way to make sure we had healthy, affordable food when we needed it.
We had a very tiny range (20") so I would usually wash, chop, and then package meals in ziploc bags and we could each grab a bag and cook up a serving as required.

Libbet42, I did this in a tiny kitchen. 5' x 7', three doors breaking it up, 20" range, compact fridge, single bowl sink, no dishwasher, counter space was a wall-mounted folding table. I streamlined the process to work in the space. This might be helpful for other tiny kitchen cooks:

Washing:
Fill the sink with water, plunk in the veggies, wash everything together, drain the water leaving the veggies in the sink (key to keeping things contained and keeping my patch of counter space clear).

Prepping:
Pull things out to chop as your counter space allows. As soon as something is cut up, it goes into a Ziploc to make space for more chopping. I had Ziplocs everywhere - hanging from cup hooks under the cupboards, stuck into a cork board with thumb tacks (only for light things), lining the little head-whacking height shelf above the folding table etc.
Once everything is cut and bagged, pour the oil, vinegar, seasonings, sauce, etc. directly into the bags and seal them up, squeezing out the air. Pop them in the fridge.
Clean up is super easy - just a knife or two and a chopping board to wash!

Cooking:
I'd leave a note on the fridge with the cooking instructions for each thing so that we wouldn't forget what was going on. Pull out a bag, dump the contents into a baking dish or pan, heat and eat. We could often use the toaster oven and not have to heat up the range.

This works well for stir-fries (veg and/or pre-cooked noodle), omelettes and frittatas (eggs and veg keep well together for a few days), casserole type things that aren't too saucy (seriously, you can grate cheese right into the bag and then add a bit of milk or stock when you are cooking to make this work very well). Use your imagination.

That was long winded but hopefully helpful. I think this would be a good way to prep food for tweens and teens too. If they need to eat when parents aren't around it is easy and safe for them to heat up a meal and it beats frozen entrees, pizza, etc. in flavour, health, and cost.

Great video! I find prepping at the beginning of the week helps me eat healthier and guarantees I bring my lunch to work rather than buy it.

Yup, another small kitchen here. That and I share a fridge with a roommate, so I'd feel like a jerk if I used up all the space for my food.

And to rosebud's comment, I very often don't get home until 7pm or later on weekdays. If I don't plan well, I may very well be short on veggies come dinner time.

I can do just about anything in my small kitchen that you can do in a big one, but I have to plan my space use in advance. Kind of the way the oven use has to be mapped out pre-Thanksgiving when you'll have at least 3 cooks using it. If I have a workable plan, I can do anything. Trying to wing a big project in that miniature kitchen leads to blood, sweat, and swearing.

I have a tiny, tiny kitchen and i have to say this is completely possible. I do "cook ahead Sundays" where I make big batches of roasted veg, lentils, grains, whatever, that way I don't have to eat at 11 pm during the week (I work out after work). Great video!

I just let Trader Joe's do all the washing, chopping, and roasting for me. I know it's more expensive and a bit wasteful, and I always start from scratch with special meals, but for weeknights and lunches I swear by the pre-packaged stuff.

This was mesmerizing, but not so much from the techniques (though storing the cooked veggies in mason jars is a neato keen idea!) as much as the truly amazing kitchen. Wow.

Of course, just once, I'd love to see a video that takes place in a kitchen like mine: small, cluttered, and lacking counter space. Oh, well.

Can't wait to hear how this goes. I just read an article about the book and made my attempt yesterday by roasting all my sweet potatoes and squash. Now for the test! I hope I used them all.

I've done this and it is helpful for two reasons. It is more effecient to wash and cut everything once. But it also means that you have a rough meal plan for the week and THAT is genius, especially if you shop at the farmer's market.

Pffff, I'd be more productive all around if I had background music like that following me around.

I watched this video Tuesday afternoon. That night I went grocery shopping and bought more veggies than I would usually would because I decided to roast them and see if I'd use them.

This video was a great suggestion! It is now Friday afternoon, and my husband and I have had 1. roasted veggies as a side for Tues. dinner, 2. roasted veggies in tortillas for Wed. lunch, 3. roasted butternut squash and pasta for Wed. dinner, 4. Wed. dinner leftovers for Thurs. lunch, 5. roasted veggies + couscous for Thurs. dinner, 6. Thurs. dinner leftovers for Fr. lunch.

Sounds boring, now that I've written it out. But, seriously, at least 3 of those meals would have been take out, dinner out, or boxed mac and cheese if I hadn't roasted all those vegetables on Tuesday night. All meals since then have been a breeze and nutrious. Great inspriation!

ApplesandOnions, if you don't think you'll get through them you can puree them and freeze them in small portions. Great to use later in pies or cakes, soups, lasagne or pasta filling, or even just seasoned and served as a side.

Pre-roasted is a good idea for me because as much as I love roasted veggies just-out-of-the-oven, I usually get home around 8pm during the week and that's too late for pre-heating to 450 plus roasting and only then starting to eat.

This reminded me that I had once looked for an additional oven rack for my apartment rental one-rack oven. I just checked the sears.com website, and they have a variety of replacement racks for sale, although they're fairly expensive. But there was also a three level rack to put in your oven that was under $30 - so that might be an option for those w/o enough oven space...

i dunno, seems like when i roast something and put it in the fridge and reheat to eat later its just a mush mess, even if i properly store and cool it in a sealed container.

I agree with adamwa...there is nothing better than fresh roasted broccoli straight out of the oven with a little fresh parm sprinkled on top...the next day nuked it's edible and still tasty, but it certainly doesn't make my eyes roll back into my head like it did the night before.

Nice job! Thanks for doing this. I can adapt some of the suggestions to my lifestyle. I liked the use of mason jars for storing veggies in the fridge.

Wow - I really loved this video and the music and the food and now I wanna go to a farmer's market to get some greens :)

It is a great video. I have a two person kitchen with limited counter space but this past Sunday morning I poached and shredded eight chicken breasts, cleaned and cooked arugula and washed lettuce for the week. I also cooked a huge pot of white beans that had soaked overnight and made hummus and soup. The huge crock pot of chili I made will be eaten more than one this week. Practice. That's the thing.

Fantastic! I finally had time to watch the video and am so glad I did. On weekends, I do a lot of cooking for the week ahead, but this book/method could help me take my efforts to a whole other level. I don't have a huge prep area, and my oven is only semi-functional, but I know I can develop my own approach to suit my needs and style of cooking. Thank you for this.

That was a beautiful video! Roasted veggies always have my attention!

Sadly, the local libraries don't have her book. :( I'm going to have to hunt it down or order it on Amazon. The message sounds like something I'd be interested in hearing... 'Diet for a Small Planet' is one of my faves.

Fabulous kitchen, good ideas, great video. Not sure why everyone feels the need to whine about when they get home from work and how small their kitchens are? I have a small kitchen and I often spread big batch cooking all over my dining room table when necessary. Thank you AT for the inspiration!

Those that get home late need to be a step ahead. (ask me about my years as a reporter doing the never ending night meeting)

However, AT, since the tech guys love Apple, could you get videos that show on iPad?
I like the soundtrack. :-)

awesome video! i need to do this more. i always buy vegetables but sometimes never get around to using them because i get lazy after work.

Thie video and article were a game changer for me. Thank you!!!!

I was inspired to take on the new year's resolution of "cooking more." Specifically, I will make 1 new recipe a week and 1 tried and true recipe a week. It's a bit daunting but this past weekend I actually created 3 new recipes and tonight is 1 "tried and true" recipe.

I also took the author's recommendation and ordered An Everlasting meal. It inspired me to return to my intuition in cooking.

I was also reminded me to "do less watching and more doing." I'm a Food Network and Cooking Channel junkie. I've reduced my "fix" to weekly Bitchen Kitchen episodes.

I've found that I'm getting more cooked and more importantly more dishes washed in a timely manner.

Thank you!!!!

With 3 teenagers in sports and band, a husband who teaches two nights a week in addition to his regular "9 to 5" I KNOW for a fact this works! I did stop prepping things for a while and was shocked at how much our grocery bill went up as well as how poorly we were eating. So I'm back at it again. Yes I'm a stay/work at home mom but trust me my days are filled to overflowing because of that.

So kuddos to Tamar Adler and her book!

Oh just a note.... you can always check out used appliance stores as well as repair shops for oven racks and refrigerator shelves. It may take some time but we have never failed to find what we were looking for as long as we were patient. And no we've never lived in big cities..... smaller cities and towns along the lines of Fairbanks, AK; Youngstown, OH; Kokomo, IN; Omaha, NE; etc.....