Hi Everybody,
The first week of meal planning went well. I dipped my toes into the waters by selecting the main meal for the day and went shopping for the ingredients twice during the week, so things would be fresh. Nothing worse than opening a bag of vegetables and getting a glance of a new lifeform emerging from what used to be a zucchini. I can not handle another sentient being living with us. I am not ready for that kind of responsibility in my life.
A Rocky Start.
Things were difficult for half of the first week, as my husband and sister were on nightshift, and I was on dayshift, but we managed to make it work. I choose easy, quick meals to start with to help with the time constraints, because who has the energy to whip up a gourmet meal after 12 hours of work? Maybe chefs but in my experience, after cooking for other people all day the last thing you want to do is spend more time cooking for yourself. I remember a lot of two-minute noodles and toast from my days working in kitchens.
My first week’s menu looked something like this:
Monday: Roast Lamb with Cauliflower/Broccoli bake and rosemary potatoes.
Tuesday: Spaghetti
Wednesday: Veggie Bake
Thursday: Wraps
Friday: Stir-fry
Saturday: Steak Sandwiches
Sunday: Satay Curry.
Great Intentions
Monday went off without a hitch. I was off work, so I had plenty of time for making up a roast extravaganza. As previously stated, I am a vegetarian, but the rest of the family are omnivores, so I just ate the cauli/broccoli bake and had some potatoes. My husband took the leftovers to work with him for the next day, which turned in nightshift.
I was at work Tuesday, so Matt made beef spaghetti for my sister and himself and I ended up making the world famous Tik-Tok pasta: cherry tomatoes and feta cheese. It must be said that I love this pasta recipe, quick, easy and with some spices thrown in, delicious. There was enough leftover that it was tea for Wednesday night, so veggie bake got cancelled. It is the culture these days.
After dayshift Thursday I just wanted something light, so I just made a lettuce and coleslaw wrap with sweet potato zucchini bites that you get from the deli section in Woolworths. I love these things. They are perfect for salads and wraps, which I take to work with me. Plus, they have a couple different flavours so you can mix it up a bit. Part of the planning side of this, is keeping diverse selection of ingredients in the house so it is easy to whip something up instead of reaching for the frozen pizzas hidden in the freezer.
My sister decided to make us chilli con beans for tea Friday night, which was very tasty. I love a good chilli, with the cheese, sour cream and guac. Utter perfection. Not the healthiest with all the fixings but worth it for the taste. And considering our widely different interpretations of what is spicy or not, she did very well. It was my lunch for the next two days at work and all I can say is I am glad I do not share an office anymore.
Matt made us all steak sandwiches for tea Saturday night, mine sans steak but it had a nice gooey fried egg on it. Is there anything better than people cooking for you?
Sunday night’s dinner got changed because I decided that my weeks now end on Saturday instead of Sunday. I have a new diary, and this is how I set it up and besides, who needs all that existential dread that Mondays bring with them. though I cleverly get around this by not having a Monday-Friday job and by having an existential crisis all the time. It is called Self-care.
Leveling Up
The next step in this meal planning business is the prepping of ingredients the day or two before making the meal. This comes in handy for recipes that require a lot of chopping, dicing, slicing and other fancy words which mean breaking whole ingredients into smaller, more manageable components. What sounds easier to you? Tossing a couple of florets of cauliflower out of a container or having to break down the head to get the few you need every day? Hopefully, this will help on days where I want to make vegetable lasagne or pasta bakes. And have the side effect of keeping my fridge from looking like produce bag heaven, where you pull everything out to see what you have and what is still useable.
So, for Sunday I made honey soy tofu stir-fry with fried rice. Once I had all the ingredients chopped and ready to go, it only took about 10 mins. Using microwave brown rice helped speed things along. Unfortunately, my husband and sister are not fans of tofu, which is strange to me because it is the same texture and consistency as scrambled egg, but hey, not everyone has good taste. The important thing is they ate it without complaining. Too loudly anyway. I quite like stir-fries. They are so easy and adaptable for every season, and you can use any ingredients, no recipe needed.
Monday was burrito night. Pork mince for the omnivores and textured soy protein for me, brown rice, avocado, tomato, capsicum, cucumber, onion, cheese, and taco sauce all combined and wrapped up in a blanket. Zambrero should watch out. From start to finish about 20 mins work, not bad.
Tonight’s culinary delight is apricot chicken with couscous. I meant to get in the slow cooker this morning but alas the day has gotten away from me. It is mid-afternoon and I am yet to get to the shops for the all-important apricot nectar and dried apricot. I have no idea what I am having. Probably couscous with more zucchini bites. Yes, that sounds good. It is a plan.
This week is going to be a short one, as I am going away for a couple days to see some family. Until next time, farewell.