More make ahead meals

Last weeks meals were wonderful! They were quick and easy to prepare and made for lots of healthy and wonderful leftovers for lunches.

The fajitas were delicious. The chili worked great! I was a bit nervous about using fresh tomatoes but it all cooked up perfectly in the slow cooker. I added on hot sauce and sour cream to mine and I really enjoyed it.

This weeks menu:

Monday- Stir Fry
I washed, peeled and chopped my way through broccoli, peppers, onions, carrots and snow peas so they are ready and waiting to be stirfried, tossed in some sauce (I'm making peanut sauce, the recipie is in a WW cookbook) and served with noodles.

Tuesday-Lentil soup, pita and hummus
Another recipe that I'm adjusting to make in the crockpot. Cooked the first few steps and then put it in the fridge. Tuesday morning I will pop it in the crockpot to come home to warm homemade soup :)

Wednesday - Chicken, broccoli, cauliflower and pan fried potatoes.
No prep required for the chicken - just stick some real and some soy chicken into the oven. The broccoli and cauliflower is chopped and ready to be steamed and the potatoes are boiled so I will just chop and toss in some evoo on the stove.

Thursday- Left overs! There's always a lot of food left in the fridge by Thursday and everyone is running out to other commitments and stuff so leftovers work for us.

I will post back how it all went and include some recipes for anything that works out particularly well.

Back to the grind tomorrow morning :( Have a great week!

recovering

Time flies. Despite my best intentions, it's been two weeks since I last posted. Just after I wrote that last post I got hit with a really bad cold/flu which just took it out of me for more than a week. Eating was not great in that time - did not feel like cooking. I ate a lot of popsicles but aside from that, I hardly ate. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there wasn't much to report.

But I'm back. And trying to eat healthly to stay healthy. Today I spent 4 hours in the kitchen tonight doing prep for the week. First I started this recipe from the National Post but instead of cooking it I just cooked the onions and mixed the other ingredients and plan on popping in the slow cooker on Tuesday morning. I hope it works ok...it doesn't really look like chili at the moment...I don't really know anything about chili so I found choosing a recipie difficult. I wanted one that was just beans, no TVP because of all things, I don't think chili needs added protein when it's got plenty of beans. I will update and let you know how I found the recipe.

I also cooked some chicken (for the fam) and chopped peppers for fajitas so tomorrow night's dinner just needs to be popped in the frying pan and we're good to go.

It was a lot of work to make the chili, the fajitas, tonight's dinner and tomorrow's lunch and I was disapointed to miss out on any time to relax on a Sunday night but it will be well worth it all week when meals are ready. Next week, I'll start earlier!

For now I'm totally beat so I'm off to bed! Have a great week!

Make Ahead Meals

Where does the weekend go?! After my first week back to work my much needed weekend just seemed to fly by! Friday night I went rock climbing, Saturday I did some volunteer work and then Jeff and I spent the afternoon going for a walk in the beautiful weather and then headed out to dinner to celebrate our first weeks of work :)

Today was spent mostly relaxing, another long walk, some tv....a pretty relaxing day! I also spent some time tonight getting tomorrows dinner all set to go. I am really appreciating how far a little prep work can go to making life easier for the week. By the time I got home from work last week, helped cook dinner, ate and cleaned up there wasn't a whole lot of time to make lunch for the next day, do errands, chores...etc let alone keep up with all my tv shows :P

Sooo i am planning on doing prep work on Sunday as often as possible. Every time I used to read people suggesting to do work ahead of time, I'd think - well isn't it all the same in the end? But today I found spending a couple hours on a lazy Sunday seems a lot easier than on a dark night when your starving and rushing!

This afternoon I threw together a Weight Watcher's macaroni that is all ready to throw in the oven tomorrow and enjoy! (I will let you know how it works although I'm not expecting problems...) I didn't add the tomatoes or broccoli like Mary suggested because to be honest the idea of the cherry tomatoes didn't really appeal to me and I wasn't sure what everyone else would think of the broc. So instead I washed and chopped some broccoli that's all ready to be steamed and served on the side. Pretty excited to try it all and skip out on the clean up tomorrow...

Starting with just one meal this week but if it works well and I get more ideas, I would love to start making two or three meals ahead to save even more time during the week.

What are you favourite things to prep ahead so they are ready quickly while you're busy? (How do you like my first ever question? Thought it was worth a try...)

Have a great week!

My favourite things

So I lied...I said I would post some good stuff soon and then I didn't. BUT I've been busy the last bit because I got a job! After 3 long month I'm finally back to work. The office is only about 10 minutes away from home so the commute is great but getting used to a full work day again is taking it out of me!

I'm maintaining STILL! But hopefully working will help me get back into a routine and back on schedule. I am finding it hard to find time and motivation to exercise after work (I don't think morning is an option for me) but hopefully once I get back into the swing of it I can develop some kind of plan.

But here I am ready to share some good eats with you:

First of all my new favourite salad topper is sun dried tomatoes. Hardly any calories and now less sodium they really add to the same old salad for lunch. They are a brand you can only get at Metro stores but I'm sure there's probably some similar products out there...The next recipe is courtesy of Rachael Ray - I can't decide if I like her or I hate her! Somes I find her easier to watch than others but she does make good food. This recipe for broccoli, cauliflower and ricotta pasta was easy and a crowd pleaser. Instead of choosing between broccoli and cauliflower I just used both! It was a great way to bulk up the recipe and you could hardly notice all the veg. We did find the chili pepper a bit overpowering so I would cut back next time. But I would for sure make this again!

Finally a favourite of mine for fall and winter that I have loved since I was a kid and something that just so happens to be super easy: Spud Spectacular!
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
4 cups potatoes, washed and diced
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup each of onion, carrot and celery, washed and chopped (I usually add more)
2 cups of broth (I use veggie)
2 cups of milk (I use skim)
Seasoning to taste
Cheddar cheese for garnish

-Heat the oil in a large pot, then add butter and melt
-Add garlic, onion, carrot and celery and saute until clear (around 5 min)
-Add potatoes and stock, bring to a boil and then simmer until veggies are cooked (around 15 min)
-Add salt, pepper, parsely to taste
-Stir in milk, heat until warmed throughout - do not boil!
- Serve with cheddar for topping and some fresh bread

Makes generous 5 cups

I usually double it so there is lots because its great and awesome to heat up in the following days.


Well I should be getting to bed but hopefully I will blog again before a few more weeks pass...

Happy Friday, have a great weekend!