Saturday's Dinner..more to come

I have decided to change my cooking day to Saturday. Now laundry, groceries, and cooking are on Saturday. I want Sunday to be the "DAY OF REST". Only reading and enjoying the country air out here.

Here is the produce I washed Saturday:

Apples, grapefruit, lemons, avocado, two bags of carrots, tomato, potatoes, asparagus, cucumber, and garlic.
In the background you will see corn tortillas, 3 pack of romaine lettuce, and a large loaf of sourdough bread from Trader Joe's.

Saturday's dinner was Tamale Pie. My Nana used to make this with leftover turkey from our Thanksgiving dinner. She never wrote the recipe down, but I watched her make this many times.

Tamale Pie

Combine: 1/2 C flour, 1/2 C cornmeal, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt. Mix well.
Add: 1/2 C milk, 1 beaten egg, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon minced serrano pepper, and 1/2 C any shredded cheese. Set aside.

Saute 1/2 C chopped onions, salt and pepper to taste, 1 tablespoon chili powder, 1-14 ounce can of diced tomatoes (I added leftover tomatoes I had for salads and cooked this mixture a bit longer), 1 C frozen kernel corn. Cook for 15 minutes. Add leftover cooked turkey chunks and 1/2 can olives cut in half. Add two spoonfuls of cornmeal mixture. Cook 5 minutes.

Spray 8x8 pan with olive oil spray add meat mixture. Top with cornmeal mixture. Cover with foil.

Cook at 350 degrees for approximately 40 minutes until mixture bubbles and topping is done.

Take foil off and add 1/2 C shredded cheese and cook until melted.

Another Time Saving Day

I keep trying to do a better job preparing for our busy week. I try different ideas and try to change what I make.
In this small TinCan and lack of real refrigerator space it is difficult. Sometimes I need to make other dishes during the week when there is more frig space.

Here is my weekend cooking spree.

First we wash the veggies.

I read an article that talked about how to make beans easier to digest and not leave us with so much gas.
They said to soak the beans overnight, rinse rinse rinse, bring beans to a boil and let stand for two hours and rinse rinse rinse. I then cooked these beans with brown sugar and onions and adding water. I cooked them until they were soft.
Hopefully this will correct the problem. We love beans and don't want to take any synthetic over the counter pill to correct this. 

Here is what I made so far this weekend.
Instead of buying chips I bake mine. First I spray each side with olive oil and bake them on my George Foreman Grill.
I store these in my kitchen. If you put them in the frig they will lose the crispness. Besides they go so fast when we have Costco Salsa in the frig.

 

I made a shiraka/olive oil sauce in a bowl with these chicken legs, mixed, and baked.

On the right are cabbage rolls. The filling has ground beef, brown rice, shiraka, cumin seed, salt, pepper, a bit of sugar, and half a bottle of Trader Joe's marinara sauce. I made 15 rolls. Each dish is topped with the balance of marinara sauce with a bit of sugar. Bake and serve.

 

 Remember to keep a sink bowl of soapy water to wash your dishes as you cook. This eliminates the mound of dishes after you prepare many dishes.

My last dish was a no brainier. Blueberry-Pistachio muffins. They make great snacks at work. Yes, there are only 11 left. Hubby got to the muffins before I put them up.

Weekly Shopping Regimen

As I have posted before, I have a regimen I follow on grocery shopping day.

1. Make my Menu on Friday along with what I need to buy at the store for those menus. I include food we need for breakfast, lunches, and snacks.
2. I go to 2-3 stores when shopping. My main store is Trader Joe's, then the local store here called HEB, and sometimes Costco and the Dollar General.
3. At home I wash all the produce and wipe off other containers.

Yes, I even wash the carrots and their bag. I then put the carrots back in the bags. We use 1/2 apple and two carrots each day in our lunches.

Sunday I bake and make meals needed for the week lunch and dinners that take a long time.
This week we will be eating corn beef and cabbage.

• I first boiled a few eggs for our tuna salad
• I put a pot of boiling filtered water on and put the whole cabbage in the water for a couple of minutes. This releases the large leaves for one of my weekly meals, cabbage rolls. The remainder of the cabbage is put back in the frig after it cools off.
• Recently I found a few packets of gelatin and decided to make REAL jello with apple cranberry juice and sliced apples. Recipe below.
• We are having a Cobb Salad tonight with grilled shrimp. I will grill the whole bag and use the second part for my stir fry dinner on Monday.

 

• Next I need to make chicken pasta salad: shell pasta, chicken, chopped celery, can of your favorite beans rinsed, green onions (optional), any other veggies you like, shredded Parmesan Cheese, and Italian Dressing. I also add more seasonings like oregano or basil.
• We plan on using turkey bones for our soup/sand night. I will bake the turkey in the oven and when it cools take the meat off for sandwiches.
• For snack I will make some zucchinis muffins. Remember after you shred the zucchinis you need to squeeze the water out before adding to muffin mixture. Put them in a wash cloth and wring them out.

Well that's my Sunday cooking. Since we commute to work together PLANNING is everything. We are up at 5am and get home at 6pm. Not a lot of time to cook a fancy dinner. My meals are easy and sometimes cooked in advance or a crock pot. Yep, the corn beef, carrots, spuds go in the crock pot and we add the cabbage later. Ummmm I just love this meal.

Jello Recipe 8 srvs

Choose a REAL juice you like. Fruit juice cocktail is NOT ALL JUICE.
2 tablespoons honey or sugar (apple juice is not real sweet so I added cane sugar)
Bring 3 cups juice and sweetener to a boil, turn off heat
Mix together 1 cup juice and 2 packages gelatin. Add to heated mixture
Put in glass bowel
Cool for 3 hours.
You can add fruit, other than pineapple, halfway through the cooling period.

TIME MANAGEMENT

When I talk to my friends about how I plan my grocery shopping or what I do to prepare for my week of 8-5 employment most of them just say I DON'T HAVE TIME. But you really do if you are a good time manager. 

I learned a long time ago from my Nana how to plan for the week. She was a stay-at-home Mom of 4 children. Back when there were no luxuries in the house. She did have a mixer, but it was a hand held mixer.
She didn't do all her chores in one day or a weekend. She spread the duties out in seven days.
Examples:

• Baking and laundry was a daily chore.
• One day she ironed, one day she would scrub the bathrooms.
• She had no carpet so she swept and used the dust mop under beds. (less allergies) 
• Papa was the gardener. Nana picked what she needed for each days meals and canned or froze the rest.

Okay so it was a busy life even for a stay-at-home Mom. If you think you have no time in your already busy life you might want to get a spiral notebook and write down how you spend your time daily. I can GUARANTEE you spend to much time on the computer or apps on your phone, window shopping at the mall, going out to eat, or long conversations on your phone. Wait we can't forget the taped TV programs you just can't live without.

Of course, there are only two of us in our Tin Can. Now that hubby works four 10 hour shifts the time is tighter as we commute.We are up at 5am and home at 6pm. Preparation is the key.

My life:

• I plan the EASY part of my menu for our work week. I might buy one or two prepared Trader Joe's meal, make two meals in the crock pot, and one soup and sandwich during the week. Week ends are based on the weather. Good weather means BBQ and on bad weather days we use our Walmart Grill inside.
• Remember try to plan menu. I make my menu on my Friday break, because we shop on Saturday.
• When we get home Saturday I wash off ALL my produce, even produce with skin.
• I try to do my laundry on Friday, saving the rest of the week for other duties. (Hubby cleans our tin can at the same time)
• Sunday's I bake or cook for the week. Only taking 2 hours.Example: Bake muffins, make salads for lunches.
•   I even brown the roast the night before if I am making a roast in the crock pot, sealing the juices. I also chop up the veggies and put them in a bag. Put the spices and extra stuff on the counter, for a quick get-a-way.
• I also make hubby's favorite lunch the night before. Yep, antipasti. I use uncured salami, pepperchinis, dried tomatoes, chunks of cheese, olives and low-fat Newman's Salad Dressing.
  
  I try to make it simple and fast during the week since I only have three hours after work before I go to bed.
  During the week I have very little time to use the computer. I cook dinner, do dishes (no dishwasher), shower, and try to read a bit before bed. Even after all this I seem to make all of our meals from scratch, even pancakes.
  
  Time savers: make a double batch of waffle mix, cook them all, and freeze some for busy mornings. OMG our mornings are real busy. Breakfast, making lunches, and getting ready for work. All done in 45 minutes. Soooo I better be organized.
  
  It is possible to be organized. It does take time to get it down. Our weekends you will find us sipping a glass of wine on our deck listening to the birds and watching the cattle.
  Life is simple when well planned.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

George Foreman Griller

It's not really a George Foreman Griller, but a Walmart griller.

Since it has been cold and windy I have been grilling inside and now am addicted.

Dinner: Baked Cod and grilled vegetables.

Mix: Brussel sprouts cut in half, mushrooms washed and cut in half, onions in chunks or green onions in large pieces, or any vegetable you like. Add olive oil and seasonings. We add salt, pepper, thyme, oregano.
Set grill at 350 degrees and close lid. They are done when you can stick a fork in the veggies. I kind of like mine a bit crunchy not gooey.
After cooking you can toss with Parmesan cheese.

While the veggies are cooking:

Mix bread crumbs ( I use Trader Joe's organic bread crumbs) and add spices you like. I added dill, thyme, salt and pepper.
Bake on 350 until golden or cooked through...about 20 minutes. We buy cod parts in the frozen section of Trader Joe's. I just take out as much as I want. It's very easy.
Add Trader Joe's Tarter Sauce with Dill and Jalapenos. 

 

Sorry I can't turn this around for some reason.

Add some spice to your fish dishes

Yes you can make great taco's with a lot less grease on this grill

On The Lighter Side

While on Christmas vacation we got off track on our diet. Sooo back to reality starting this week. No food resolution just a continuation of our Weight Watcher Diet. It's not a diet, per say, its a healthy way of eating.

Hubby will be working early mornings starting in Jan 2015, leaving at 5:45 am getting home at 6 pm, so we will be eating breakfast on the road like My McMuffins or My Breakfast Burritos. Its all a matter of planning. Yep, four 10 hour shifts compared to my 8 hour shift. We commute together so I will bring a book or my knitting to kill 2 hours before I go to work. Fortunately, we work real close to each other.

To Do:

Get coffee pot ready for morning, just push the button in the AM.

Assemble on the road breakfasts and coffee thermos. 

Lunches already made and in frig and lunch boxes ready. (lots of good carbs/protein)

This means intense menu planning including snacks, breakfast, and dinner also everything done the night before.

The key is prep work on the weekend after buying groceries. There are a lot of pre-made healthy foods you just need to read the labels. Of course Trader Joe's is a big help with dinners.

So today was my cooking day. Here is what I did to prepare for the new long week.

1. Tuna salad ( will have this with a low-fat piece of bread or 5 saltines).
2. I hard boiled 6 eggs. Easy for the road and add to a muffin.
3. Batch of muffins (blueberry with home made applesauce instead of oil)
4. Cooked up the ground beef and a few Itallian sausages for chili Monday). Froze the other Itallian sausages.
5. Made salsa for tonight's tacos with black beans.
6. Cooked taco meat with onions for tacos tonight also.
7. Batch of salmon patties for lunches (3 cans of NO PINK COLOR added salmon from Costco).

We purchased three bean salad and pickled beets from Costco to add to our lunches. We also take fresh cut up apples and carrots for lunch and snack.

Yep, preparation and shopping off a MENU is important for these long weeks.

Revised "Famous Taco Salad"

Taco Salad    3 servings   9 Weight Watcher points

15 ounce can black beans    If you don't like black beans buy organic re-fried beans (almost 3 srvs of beans)
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 lg onion chopped
1 cup red wine or broth (wine is 5 points)
1 Tablespoon taco seasoning
1/2 Pound ground beef
2 Tablespoons taco seasonings
3 C Romaine lettuce
2/3 Fat free Salsa
2 Tablespoons diced or shredded low fat cheddar cheese
2 Dollops lite sour cream
1/2 Avocado sliced

 Combine beans, brown sugar, onion, and wine (or broth) in small pot and cook till most of the liquid is gone. Salt and pepper to taste. Let them cool while you brown the meat mixed with taco seasonings.
Build your salad:
1/3 beans on each plate
In order top beans with:
Half lettuce, one serving of ground beef, half salsa, 1 tablespoons cheese, 1 dollop of sour cream, 1/4 avocado sliced.
You can substitute ground beef for any meat.
Hubby adds Salsa Verde to his salad.

I thought I had a pic of this. As soon as I find it I will post it. This recipe is pretty self explanatory. Start with the beans, lettuce, meat and toppings.
Make the meat before hand and just heat up if you want.