Cooking ahead

Hello beautiful people!

I’d like to share how I cook ahead for a couple of days. I plan a few meals that would have the same main ingredient than add to that main ingredient to make different meals. It cuts a lot of cooking and prepping time and dinner is ready in 30 minutes or less. In this case I used stew meat. This particular meat I buy at Aldi it barely has any fat on it and when cooked its so tender. I buy two packages.

Sunday night prep

1 large or 2 small vidalia onions
2-3 cloves of freshly minced garlic
1 large carrot sliced
handful of fresh parsley diced

Sauté on olive oil, add washed and dried meat (I dice it even smaller if the cubes are big).
Season with you favorite seasoning I just used salt and pepper.
Once you brown the meat lower the temperature to the lowest, cover and let it simmer in its own juices for 30-45 minutes 🙂

Cool it to room temp and put in fridge to use for next day.

Day 1
Brussels Potatoes Soup
Use 1/4 of your meat for this, because its a soup you do not need that much.
2 cups of washed Brussels
2 large potatoes peeled and cut into big cubes
Warm up your meat then add Brussels and potatoes. Add 2 cups of organic vegetable stock and 1 cup of water. Salt, pepper, paprika, more parsley if you would like, you can add any other vegetable you like (sometimes I add peas and freshly diced tomatoes). Bring to boil then lower temp to lowest and let look for 30 minutes.

Day 2

Beef Stew
Warm up the beef on medium temp.
Finely dice one tomatoes and add to meat and simmer on low.
Add one tablespoon of flour and stir then add 1 cups of vegetable broth. Season with paprika, salt and pepper. Simmer on low for 15 minutes.I serve this with rice or Quinoa pasta.

  
  
Enjoy! 

Maya

Groceries and Meals for the Week

I thought I’d share one week example of my groceries and family meals. I change it up every week and of course depending on the season. During fall and winter crock pot is a life saver so a lot of the meals are made in the crock pot…spring and summer we fire up the grill for whatever we can. Oh how I love summer. I have posted here before that Sunday is groceries and meal prep day. I dice whatever I can, clean the fruits, and store in fridge for week ahead. Saves me on prep time. I grill chicken to use in other recipes however I NEVER reheat chicken in the microwave, only on stove. Reheated chicken in microwave REAKS! I do not know if its the high temp on short time or what but its gross.

CLICK HERE FOR Grocery ListPDF

Monday

Grill!!

We grilled steak garnished with parsley and garlic with side of grilled Zucchini and avocado. I also had my husband grill chicken wings for the boys they prefer it more than steak. I also had him grill the chicken breast for Tuesday….

Tuesday

Made this up lol

Diced onions, diced sweet peppers, diced zucchini, sautéed on a table spoon of olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, paprika. Then add tablespoon of flour stir. Add 1 ½ cup of vegetable stock. Add diced grilled chicken, simmer 5-10 minutes. Serve with brown rice or quinoa. Dinner done in 30 minutes or less 😊

  

 

Wednesday

Chicken kielbasa and kale pasta. Recipe posted before here.

Thursday 

Grilled chicken breast and cut into strips. (This is another big package of chicken so half will be saved for Friday) Cut remaining of sweet peppers length wise, whole onion, 1 clove of garlic. Toss on high head for 5 minutes or less, just to sear it. Mix with grilled chicken and season with fajita seasoning mix or any seasonings you like. Serve with rice or Quiona. I totally failed and forgot to snap a picture but I am sure everyone has seen fajitas before 😂.

Friday

 Salad – cold chicken breast cubed on fresh spinach or whatever lettuce I have hanging around. Cooked and cooled quinoa, boiled egg, mashed avocado, tomatoes and cucumbers. I had some corn and beans in the pantry.  Seasoned with rice vinegar. It’s scarp Friday, whatever we have left over toss it together and make it a salad.

Breakfasts we usually have smoothies, pancakes, omelets. Lunches we have left overs from dinner or I make salads, egg salads, tuna salads. Fresh fruits and veggies at lunch as well. My older son gets sandwiches fruits and veggies, cliff bars, baked chips or sometimes he just eats school lunch. Each week changes. I rarely repeat the same food in the same month. I am not a chef by any means, I cook with my heart. I do not know proper chef verbiage so please excuse if there are funny errors. I make up recipes all the time. Hope this helps someone with planning. It saves us a ton money not eating out and we eat wholesome foods. I buy whatever I can organic, I’d rather spend more money for quality foods then eat out and have shortcuts. I buy rice, dry beans, olive oil, healthy snacks for boys (granola bars, baked chips, chocolate (yes they eat chocolate)) seasonings and whatever else household items in bulk at Sam’s so we do not have to restock weekly. Because I prep ahead dinner is ready and severed by 6 or 6:30 pm, we eat together as family and we have the rest of the night to do whatever :-).  Boys love it. We eat out or order in on Saturdays but it’s usually Chinese.

I would love to hear your ideas or work week tactics. Tips are always welcome so please share!

Healthy Snack Ideas

Here are some of my favorite snack ideas.

Quest Bars

By far top of my list are Quest bars..most of their flavors. I have tree nuts allergies so obviously I eat all except the ones that have that. I buy a ton of them at GNC sometimes they have buy 2 get 1 free. They are pricey but worth it. If you go to instagram and quest page there are a ton of ideas to make out of quest bars. You can check them out here.

Rice Cakes
Ton of different ways to eat these.
I spread a little peanut butter, drizzle of honey.
I also add banana to it or dried fruit like cranberries or raisins.
Peanut butter and diced apples on top.
Peanut butter and Hershey’s dark chocolate chip
Hummus and cucumber slices
You get the idea. You can create your own. I use plain rice cakes for all of this.

Boiled Eggs

Boiled eggs are good protein and satisfying snacks. You can eat it alone with a drizzle of sea salt or..
Remove egg yolk and fill it with
Humus
Mashed Avocado
Salsa or pico
Cottage Cheese
Cucumbers and Vinegar
Slice cucumber and season with dash of Rice Vinegar (or any of your choice) with salt and pepper.

Steamed Sea Salt Edamame

I buy mine at Walmart. Individual serve containers. You steam them for 3 1/2 minutes. They are PictSweet brand. These are addictive so don’t say I did not warn you 😉

Raspberry Kisses

For those days when your monthly friend is telling you to eat sweets or you are just on a sweet kick. Dark chocolate Hershey chips and raspberries.

Dates

There are many benefits from dates. They are high in sugar so I would not recommend a lot, snack on it on the day that you do not consume many fruits.

Grapes and Cheese
Handful of Almonds
Fresh fruits and veggies
Roasted Chickpeas (My recipe here)

That’s all I can think of now. Sometimes I get on a kick and will eat one of the above for a week straight and then switch it up. What do you like to snack on?

Rogan Josh Curry Chicken Dinner..A taste of India

My brother and sister-in-law introduced me to this super quick tasty dinner. One day I stopped by their house and they were having this for dinner. I do not like the taste of curry so I immediately crinkled my nose, but my brother was insistent I try it…and oh my God, it is delicious.

What you need

1 Jar of Rogan Josh (I found it at Publix)
1 package of chicken breast
1 whole onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic diced
1 pinch of curry seasoning (optional)
pinch of salt and pepper to your liking
Sauté onion, garlic and chicken on a dash of olive oil. Once chicken is browned pour the Rogan Josh over it, simmer on low 15-20 minutes.

Side Dish
I steamed white rice and fresh vegetables. Seasoned with sea salt. (You can season however you like)

Dinner prepped in less then 30 minutes.