National Blog Posting Month
Blogging everyday in November
#NaBloPoMo Day 13 - Meal Prep Sunday
I love being in the kitchen but often I am too tired or find myself too hungry to enjoy cooking. Sundays are different. Some people call them Meal Preparation Sundays #mealprepsundays. This is the one day when you meal plan, prepare and cook your meals or lunches for the week. I love the idea and Sundays are lazy days for me so I was super happy that it was raining and I had time to try a Meal Prep Sunday.
First I use my meal planner called Plan to Eat to plan the meals that I want to cook. I have recipes from the web that I want to try and like to see how the meals will work for the upcoming days. Plan to Eat has grocery lists for grocery shopping but since I am only cooking for two, I don't use that function very often. I did in the beginning when I first started using Plan to Eat. Feel free to visit my referral link to check it out: https://www.plantoeat.com/ref/couponchef Or you can keep it simple and write down the meals on a piece of paper. There is nothing wrong with that!
So I wanted to get started with some baking. I hadn't baked in a LONG time. I decided to make Mini Pumpkin muffins using the following recipe: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/pumpkin-mini-muffins because I had a can of pumpkin puree in the pantry. After I put the first batch of muffins in the oven and was putting away the leftover pumpkin puree I licked the spoon of with the last scraps of the pumpkin purree in the can and YUCK! It tasted awful! Then I looked at the top of the can of pumpkin puree and saw the expiry date. It read October 2015. What a letdown to my first baking experience back in the kitchen! Lesson learned, if you have pantry items that you want to use, check the expiry dates. I learned the hard way.
So I didn't let that stop me from Sunday Funday Meal Prep Sunday. (Just stopped the baking). Take a look at what recipes I prepared for my first Meal Prep Sunday.
1. Easiest Eggplant - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/70142/easiest-eggplant/
I had a lonely eggplant in the fridge that needed cooking up so this is what I made. I figured we could eat this as a snack or to accompany a main dish.
2. Brocolli Apple Salad - http://paleoleap.com/broccoli-apple-salad-walnuts/
This will be a great starter to any meal or to bring as my brown bag lunch.
3. Korean Glass Noodle Chap Chae - http://steamykitchen.com/180-korean-glass-noodles-jap-chae.html
We actually ate this all up for Sunday lunch. Next time I would need to double it up if I wanted more for lunches. Great vegetarian recipe!
3. One Pot Chicken and Mushroom Tettrazini - http://www.jocooks.com/main-courses/poultry-main-courses/one-pot-chicken-and-mushroom-tetrazzini/
This was my Sunday favorite One Pot Chicken and Mushroom Tettrazini! It was the first time that I made a one pot dish and guess what? It worked! We ate this for dinner and there was some leftover this time for our lunch tomorrow.
What did I learn from my first Meal Prep Sunday?
I learned to check the expiry date of canned foods, and also that I might not have actually done meal prep sunday since I do not have a week's worth of lunches in the fridge. I have one lunch, eggplant snacks, and three small containers of salad. I also have ingredients all ready for tomorrow's Chicken Stirfry dinner. All in all, even though there's room for improvement for #MealPrepSunday, it was a successful #SundayFunday because I had fun in the kitchen!
