The past month has been terrible from a "you are what you eat" standpoint. Being incredibly busy at work, vacation, then coming back to even longer hours at work has meant we've been doing a ton of eating out. And not a ton of healthy seasonal cooking at home.
This is why yesterday I pulled out all the items in my pantry cupboard to take stock of what we had on hand, and then made a week's meal plan that made good use of what we had on hand. I should note that I had no idea I had 8 cans of enchilada sauce in that cupboard. This is one of the primary drawbacks to using a deep, tall shelf next to the stove as a pantry, but when you're a renter in a high price city, you make do.
Here's what I came up with to help thin out the cupboard, and stop eating out so much:
- Sat: mus sa mun curry with beef over rice
- Sun: bean and beef enchiladas
- Mon: chicken stir fry
- Tues: Bean and cheese quesadillas
- Wed: lasagna (make sauce ahead on Sunday)
- Thur: pork chops
- Fri: eat out for dinner
I also made sure we had a ton of yogurt and healthy cereal for breakfast, and plenty of tasty yet healthy snacks to keep me away from the cheese. This reminds me I really need to figure out how to make my ideal spicy trail mix. I love that stuff.
Today, I'm doing some prep work (making pasta sauce and a chicken+bean soup), making some sides (bean salad, potato salad, corn muffins) and mixing up chocolate chocolate chip cookie dough for the freezer. That sounds like a fine way to spend a Sunday don't you think?
Easy Pasta Sauce
- 1 TBSP olive oil
- 1/2 a red onion, coarsely chopped
- 1/2 a white onion, coarsely chopped
- 15 baby carrots, roughly chopped
- 3 15oz cans tomato sauce
- 2 TBSP garlic, minced
- 1 tsp oregano
- salt and pepper to taste
Add the olive oil to a stockpot and heat on medium. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until they become partially translucent. Add in the carrots and cook for another 5 minutes. Add in tomato sauce, reduce heat, and simmer on low for 1 hour.
I'll be using this for my lasagna this week.
Chicken and Black Bean Soup
- 1 32 oz container Imagine organic chicken broth
- 1 TBSP olive oil
- 1/2 a red onion, coarsely chopped
- 1/2 a white onion, coarsely chopped
- 15 baby carrots, roughly chopped
- 1 boneless skinless chicken breast fillet (i.e. half a chicken breast)
- 1 TBSP garlic, minced
- 1 Tsp poultry seasoning blend of your choice
Pour chicken broth into stockpot and heat on medium high and bring to a boil. Sprinkle chicken breast with your favorite poultry seasoning and salt and pepper then add to the hot broth and poach, removing once meat is white all the way through. Cool chicken until it is at room temperature, then shred into bit size pieces. While your chicken is cooling, reduce heat to low and add in your separately olive oil sauteed onions, garlic and carrots (I did mine at the same time for the pasta sauce then split the total cooked mixture in half). Add back in your shredded chicken and simmer for an hour.
Makes 4 servings. 5 points plus per serving.
