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.