Tag: Kitchen

Weekly food prep

Sunday Meal Prep: February 21, 2016

On By SaraIn Meal Prep, Uncategorized5 Comments

Hey everyone! This week’s meal prep is all about keepin’ things simple 🙂 I was still not feeling all that great when I was planning for this prep (prep posts are staggered by one week, so this was last week) so I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to spend much time in the kitchen. I would say it was a success!

This prep took around 3 – 3.5 hrs of active cooking, so not too bad at all 🙂

Meal Prep

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Our main meals
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Snacks and treats

 

Two main dishes for this week, other than more Pulled Pork for Draz: Slow Simmered Curried Chicken and Skillet Sausage and Veggies. Both of these turned out delicious!

The Curried Chicken is from the Easy Asian Recipes cookbook. I love this book! (Not an affiliate link)

The Skillet Sausage and Veggies is from the Taste of Home Everyday Slow Cooker & One Dish Recipes 2008 cookbook, another cookbook I really love! (Again, not an affiliate link) However, the recipe below is based on the recipe I used this week. Enjoy!

SausagePepperCabbage

I did also spend a little bit of time this week playing around with styling for food photography. What do you think?

Cookie Dough Protein Bites
Sweet Potato Banana Bites

That’s it for this week! What did you prep this week? I would love to hear your thoughts, so please leave a comment below!

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

Weekly Food Prep

Sunday Meal Prep: February 14, 2016

On By SaraIn Meal Prep, Uncategorized1 Comment

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! I am super excited to share this week’s meal prep with you!

You ever have those weeks where you are trying to plan out your prep and it just isn’t coming to you? That was me planning out this week. But in the end it all fell together! It didn’t take me as long to cook as some weeks, but that definitely doesn’t mean it was lacking in taste!

Enjoy!

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As you can see, we have more Island Pulled Pork for this week. Draz seems to be on a new kick! 😛 Along with that, we have one old favorite, one that we’ve had once and a new recipe as well!

I am always happy when we add Jambalaya on to the menu. It’s been one of my favorites for over 10 years! The repeat recipe was Slowcooker Beef and Broccoli and I love how this one turned out 🙂 I do think I used a different cut of beef than last time though. It didn’t fall apart in quite the same way that it did the first time I made it. But that doesn’t really matter, because either way it was really tasty!

This Tortellini Chicken Noodle Soup was delicious! The one thing that I will say is that I wish I would have increased the broth some…It ended up a little thicker than I would prefer for soup. But it was still wonderful and I love the addition of the tortellini!

Not pictured: my grapes and cheese snacks and one batch of our breakfast burritos.

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A little peak behind the scenes…my photography “helper”!

Jambalaya

How was your prep this week? Do you ever have difficulty picking meals when planning out your prep? What do you do if/when you do? I would love to hear your thoughts, so please leave a comment below!

Also, don’t forget that the Jewelry Giveaway ends on Tuesday! So if you haven’t entered yet, head over and let me know which one you want!

Giveaway

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

Weekly Food Prep

Sunday Meal Prep: February 7, 2016

On By SaraIn Meal Prep, Uncategorized3 Comments

(Note: Sorry for the delay. I had some technical difficulties. Hopefully we have gotten them solved.)

Hey everyone! I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend! Things are going pretty well here, except for my body seeming to turn on me 😦 My back is doing quite a bit better (yay!!) but now I’m fighting a rather nasty sore throat. So since I’m not feeling all that great, today’s post is going to get right to the point.

Enjoy!

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Spicy Chicken in Tomatoes 

Red Curry Lentils 

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork: Island Style

Skinny Chicken Enchiladas

Sunflower and Oat Energy Balls

Sorry for the short (and late) post today! But keep an eye out for a post later this week…I have something exciting for you guys!

Did you do meal prep today? What did you cook? I would love to hear your thoughts, so leave a comment below!

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

 

Sunday Meal Prep: January 24, 2016

On By SaraIn Meal Prep, Uncategorized8 Comments

Hey everyone! I am super excited to bring you this week’s meal prep! This week I am highlighting recipes from Eat Yourself Skinny. Kelly creates wonderful dishes that are not only healthy and filling, but full of flavor too! If you haven’t checked out her blog yet, you definitely should!

You’ve seen recipes from her a few times, particularly the Skinny Chicken Enchiladas that have been making an appearance the past few weeks. That one has quickly become one of Draz’s favorites, so don’t expect to see it going away anytime soon. Each week it’s “What would you like on the menu for next week?” and his response has been “Enchiladas!?” each time!

Now, on to this week’s meal prep!

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Along with our Mason Jar Salads, Sweet Potato Banana Bites, my grapes and cheese and the Skinny Chicken Enchiladas, I made three new recipes this week!

Sausage and Veggie Stir-fry: Her recipe calls for spicy chicken sausage, which I sadly couldn’t find. I did use the Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage of the same brand and it turned out wonderful! Hopefully I can find somewhere that sells the spicy version, because I would love to try it 🙂

Slow Cooker Turkey Chili: Kelly is not exaggerating when she says it is the best turkey chili you will ever taste! If there is another, better recipe out there, I haven’t tried it. Quick to prep, easy, tasty, and healthy?! I think this will be our new stand-by for chili from now on!

Crock Pot Salsa Chicken: I like the versatility of this shredded chicken. So far I’ve used it in a couple wraps with some cheese and it was really good! I want to try it with some taco fillings…I think it will be even better!

That’s it for this week! Expect to see many more recipes from Kelly’s blog in the future. Her recipes are just too tasty!

What are you making this week? Any new recipes? I would love to hear your thoughts, so leave me a comment below!

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

Sunday Meal Prep – January 10, 2016

On By SaraIn Meal Prep, Uncategorized8 Comments

Hey everyone! I hope that your first full week of 2016 went great! Our week had some hiccups, but if anything they just reminded me how happy I am that we do meal prep! I spent a couple days on MUCH less sleep than I usually prefer and let’s just say I don’t function well on less sleep. It was really helpful to not have to worry about what we were going to eat!

This week I tried out a new recipe, plus one that is quickly becoming a household favorite! Enjoy!

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These Skinny Chicken Enchiladas are so wonderful! Enough so that I made some extra shredded chicken specifically to freeze for future batches. Draz is requesting this on a regular basis, and one of the things I love about it is that I can use regular white tortillas for his and whole wheat for mine. One dish fit to both of our preferences!

New this week is Slow Cooker Beef and Broccoli. I don’t think I can say enough about this one! The meat was a little pricier than what we usually purchase, but it was well worth it! The beef just fell apart and it was a very flavorful dish. I definitely see us making this one again. 🙂

And that’s it for this week! What are you making? Any new dishes? I would love to hear your thoughts and what you are cooking up, so please leave a comment below!

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

Sunday Meal Prep – Jan 3, 2016

On By SaraIn Meal Prep, Uncategorized9 Comments

Welcome to 2016! I think it’s only fitting that my first post for the new year is my favorite weekly staple! Meal prepping really transformed my life last year and it’s not a habit I plan on stopping anytime soon. This week is pretty small, what with the holidays and all.

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Not pictured are my usual Sweet Potato Banana Bites, which were made but somehow didn’t make it into the picture. As for our Cookie Dough Protein Bites, we had a bunch left over (too many holiday sweet eaten instead!), so I decided to finish those up this week instead of making more.

Both of this week’s main dishes are new and from Ali over at Gimme Some Oven. If you haven’t checked out her site yet, you should! She has so many wonderful dishes on there!

The Cashew Curry Chicken was so tasty! I’ve never actually cooked with cashews before, but I love trying out new ingredients and this one was a hit. In her recipe Ali talks about blending the sauce or leaving it as is with some chunks. We left it as is and loved it!

As for this Tortellini Soup….If you haven’t noticed yet, I have a serious love of both soup and pasta! This recipe is delicious and combines my two favorite things! This recipe is wonderful and it will definitely be made again! I did make a few adjustments, based on what we had available. I used:

  • dried oregano instead of fresh basil (sad, I know, but sometimes you have to make due),
  • 1 can fire-roasted diced tomatoes and 1/2 can plain crushed tomatoes instead of the 28 oz can fire-roasted crushed tomatoes
  • 4 c homemade vegetable stock and 2 c chicken stock. I didn’t thaw the correct amount of vegetable stock beforehand. On the upside, this was the first recipe I used my homemade stock in!
  • red onion instead of white
  • And a little more sausage than the recipe calls for, but not by much

And that’s it for this week! I hope you all are having a wonderful start to 2016! What are you cooking up this week? Any new recipes? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please comment below!

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

Sunday Meal Prep

On By SaraIn Meal Prep, Uncategorized1 Comment

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas earlier this week!

I decided to mix things up a bit this week and I’m so glad I did! Enjoy! 🙂

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Draz had a roll of pepperoni that he let me take a few slices off of for my grapes and cheese snacks. It was a really nice ‘treat’ for this week!

On a side note, you will be seeing the Peanut Butter Banana Oat Muffins a little less often from now on. I realized that, between those and the Sweet Potato Banana Bites, I was eating sweets up to 2-3 times a day sometimes. Healthy treats, yes, but still more often than I probably should be. So I’m trying out freezing some of the muffins and having them over a 2 week period!

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Turkey Chili Mac with Jalapenos: Half of this went into the freezer. I love meals that can prep me for busier weeks in the future!

Balsamic Pork Chops: I love these! They are really quick to make and so delicious. I served them with steamed jasmine rice and Balsamic Brown Butter Asparagus.

Skinny Chicken Enchiladas: These are one of Draz’s favorites. One of the things I really like about these is that I can make some for him with white tortillas and a few for me with wheat tortillas.

BalsamicAsparagus

That’s it for this week! What are you cooking?

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

Sunday Meal Prep

On By SaraIn Meal Prep3 Comments

Hey everyone! Welcome to this week’s meal prep! As you’ve noticed, I’ve been trying to keep things pretty simple, healthy and inexpensive. This week I succeeded in all three!

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Shredded Buffalo Chicken salads, a favorite no matter how many times we have them!
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Two week’s worth of breakfast burritos and some leftover shredded chicken for the freezer. Our breakfast burritos have Italian turkey sausage, bell pepper, onion, eggs, cheese and plenty of seasonings. They are delicious!
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As always, our regular favorite snacks!
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Red Curry Lentils with rice, chicken to go with the curry and my new recipe-in-testing Cabbage and Sausage Skillet. I think this curry may end up becoming a staple in our house 🙂
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This dish turned out good, great even, but it’s not quite ready to be shared yet. I still have some tweaking to do, but I am really enjoying exploring the recipe-creation side of things.

That’s it! I hope you all enjoyed this week, and stay tuned for some new recipes soon!

What are you cooking this week? Trying out any new recipes?

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

Sunday Meal Prep

On By SaraIn Meal Prep3 Comments

Hey everyone! Welcome to this week’s meal prep! I decided to keep things pretty simple this week, along with trying out a couple new recipes. I’ve been trying to branch out and try some new types of food. This week was a Indian lentil recipe called Dal. (After making it I realized this is possibly a type of lentil dish instead of a specific dish, so I may be trying out some new Dal recipes soon!)

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The extra rice from the bell peppers and a few of the bell peppers themselves were frozen. All of our salads are Shredded Buffalo Chicken this week!
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Sausage and Rice Stuffed Bell Peppers. I love these! Not only are the delicious and easy to make, but they also freeze great!
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The two new recipes for this week: The Dal was much more tasty than it looks, I promise! From what I read, this can be more soup-like if you add more liquid, but I made it much thicker. I think next time I would make it thinner or serve it with rice. It was delish with a hard boiled egg though! The Easy Supper Casserole was good, but a bit too meaty for my tastes though Boyfriend really liked it!

The recipe for the Dal can be found in a free for download cookbook from this site. There are a bunch of tasty sounding recipes in here, so expect to see more in the future! The Casserole was in the “Steps to Healthy, Economical Meals” free government cookbook on this site. While it was good, I don’t know that I will make this again, at least not without some serious editing!

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As always, our regular snacks and sweets! Boyfriend has been taking the Cookie Dough Protein Bites to work, so I have started prepping them right into the containers when I’m making them.

That’s it for this week! What are you making this week? Have you tried any new types of foods lately?

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

Sunday Meal Prep

On By SaraIn Meal Prep1 Comment

Hey everyone! Welcome to this week’s meal prep! I’ve been keeping it pretty simple lately, focusing on budget-friendly meals, utilizing items from our freezer and making sure to only cook as much as we can eat in a week.

This week I made a couple new recipes and they turned out great! So without further delay, here is this week’s meal prep! Enjoy!

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Our regular sweets and treats. The protein balls are Boyfriend’s new favorite and are actually saving us some money! For our first break he is having these now as part of his snack instead of the Reese’s FastBreaks he was buying 🙂 I love finding these healthy snacks!

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This week Boyfriend actually made a request, so we are having spaghetti! I’m trying my hand at recipe development, so this sauce is a brand-new recipe. While I have improvised and created sauce recipes before, this was my first attempt at recording it while cooking. As such, it still needs some tweaking…but it turned out great (if a bit thick) and filled with veggie-goodness! (It did make a lot of sauce, but if there is some left over we can freeze it or make some more pasta)

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These are based off of the Honey Mustard Pork Chops from the Healthy Eating on a Budget cookbook from this site. The only change I made was I used local Garlic Mustard instead of Honey Mustard. I also simmered the sauce for approx 8-10 min after the pork chops were done to thicken up the sauce. They do mention simmering the sauce in the recipe, but don’t give any sort of timeline, so here is mine!

I made Balsamic Brown Butter Asparagus as a side for these. Check out the recipe below!

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I’m back to having Buffalo Chicken Salads for this week. While I really like the taco salads, it’s nice to keep switching things up…and I do really love this chicken! Check out the recipe on this site. I have been known to use some of the leftover chicken on baked open-faced sandwiches and there are so many other ways you can use it too!

That’s it for this week! I’m really enjoying trying to create my own recipes, so expect this to be the first of many! Hopefully!

Have any of you tried creating your own recipes from scratch? Any tips for a newbie like me? I would love to hear from you!

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

BalsamicAsparagus