Sunday Food Prep

Happy Monday! I am in the middle of enjoying my lovely day off, thanks to the President’s Day holiday! (To those of you working today, you have my sympathies.)

With the snow day on Thursday we almost had a five day weekend, which would have been awesome – but I’m definitely thankful for a three day weekend instead of the regular two! And given that this is the last major holiday until Memorial Day – ugh – I tried to make the most of my time!

Kevin had to work on Valentine’s Day (we celebrated on Thursday instead), but I did make homemade pizza and took in it to work to surprise him for dinner. Unfortunately for me he worked again on Saturday, and so  I used my evening alone to catch up on some homework for my Perspectives class. I had fallen hopelessly behind (definitely not used to being in college anymore – was there this much reading involved when I was an undergrad??), so it was nice to have some uninterrupted time to really dig in to God’s word.

I attended church on Sunday morning, came home, and immediately got started on my weekly food prep. You may remember from my Whole30 recaps that I’ve been spending a few hours on Saturday or Sunday prepping food for the week ahead so that Kevin and I always have quick and easy meals to grab and go. Because Kevin’s job isn’t conducive to a sit-down meal I like to pack him foods that are easy to carry – hard boiled eggs are great, sliced chicken breast, meatballs, and chopped fruit or veggies. I also like to keep some snacks on hand like bars (I like Kit’s Organic bars by Clif – the berry almond and cashew flavors are whole30 approved!) and beef jerky packs (try PrimalPacs – also Whole30 approved!)

Here’s what I had on hand when all was said and done (about four hours of work):

You’ll notice most of my stuff is protein – I prefer to cook my vegetable sides the same day I’m going to eat them, so when I do my food prep I stick to protein, sauces or condiments, and vegetables that still taste great as leftovers – hence the gigantic bowl of cauliflower fried rice. Here’s what I made:

Curried meatballs: I combined ground beef, diced onions, garlic salt, curry powder, cumin, salt and pepper and baked in a 375 oven for about 25 minutes.

Cajun hamburger patties: Kevin loves taking hamburger patties to work, so I seasoned a bunch with my favorite cajun spice blend and cooked them on the stove. Normally we’d grill them, but the three feet of snow piled up between us and our grill on the patio sort of deterred me.

Hard boiled eggs: I use hb eggs to make the easiest breakfast ever, to have sprinkled with salt and pepper as a snack, or to whip up a quick egg salad if I have homemade mayonnaise on hand.

Baked Chicken Breasts: Again, these would normally be grilled if it weren’t for all the snow. I started brining my chicken breasts based on this recipe from Melissa Joulwan and then I play around with whatever seasonings I feel like using. This time I seasoned half the chicken with a moroccan seasoning blend, and left the other half plain. Brining the chicken takes a while, but trust me, it is so worth it. The chicken comes out deliciously moist and flavorful and pretty much tastes good with anything.

Cilantro Pesto: Recipe for this delicious condiment coming soon! I originally bought cilantro to try to make cilantro-lime cauliflower rice and made fried rice instead, leaving me with an overabundance of cilantro instead. But worry not! I scoured my pantry and decided to make pesto instead! (Hint: it’s the perfect condiment for the plain baked chicken breasts I just mentioned.)

Cauliflower Fried Rice: This has been one of my favorite side dishes lately, I think because it’s so versatile and I eat it with everything. Plus, a head of cauliflower is $3.49 at the store and makes approximately three hundred servings, so it’s a total win.

Chopped peppers: I should have done this with onions as well – Kevin and I use diced peppers and onions in just about everything, so dicing them up in advance saves so much time when you’re actually getting ready to cook.

So there you have it! I finished all my food prep just in time to wolf down some dinner, grab my books, and head off to class – it certainly made for a busy Sunday!

Kevin and I started our Monday off with something we haven’t done in a long time – coffee on our patio!

The temperature outside this morning hovered at about 26 degrees, but with the sun shining brightly we decided to brave it and it felt SO good to be outside! Plus having coffee on our balcony/porch/patio in the morning is a huge part of Kevin and my relationship and with the polar vortex hitting the East Coast it’s been months since we’ve gotten to do it, so it was an extra special indulgence!

All in all it was a great weekend – here’s hoping the rest of the week is just a nice!