Meal Planning 101: Week 23

February 25, 2013January 4, 2017Leave a comment

I went to the grocery store for a quick trip and came back with the healthiest things ever! Unsweetened coconut, agave nectar, white grapefruit, cuties, bananas, flax seed, coconut oil, frozen mangos, frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries, Greek yogurt… So good right! And then…

Those pesky Girl Scouts! Right there, right outside the grocery store! I was compelled. I had to. I promise not to eat them all this week. So far I’ve only eaten one of each! See? I can have self control.

Monday:

Leftover Sunny Skillet Breakfast and Fruit Salad

Tuesday:

Ultimate Chicken Tenders, Rosemary Roasted Potatoes, and Steamed Broccoli

Wednesday:

Leftover Chicken Tenders

Thursday:

Broccoli Cheese Twice Baked Potatoes and Caesar Salad

Friday:

Traveling (Hopefully eating with friends.)

Saturday:

Traveling

Sunday:

Sunday Dinner Stew and Rice

Extras:

Smoothies for breakfast, all week.
Coconut Crack Bars for snacks.

Lunch Ideas:

leftover chicken florentine pasta + leftover roasted green beans + strawberries

free lunch! chicken pesto sandwich + apple + unhealthy chips (hey, it was free!)

salad + tuna (used a lettuce leaf “cup” to protect the salad from wilting from the tuna!) + veggies + yogurt blue cheese

more leftovers + cantaloupe

Meal Planning 101: Week 22

February 18, 2013January 5, 2017Leave a comment

Can I tell you about my new cup?? I talked my brother into buying it for me for Valentines Day. It’s a plastic insulated mason jar tumbler! Can I tell you how much more water I drank this weekend with my new cup in hand?! I’m seriously in love/obsessed with it. I’ve also gotten so many comments on it. Talk about a great accessory! It was only $10 from Target. I highly suggest you get one! Or some other drinking device to make you want to drink more water. Totally a worthy investment.

Okay, so today starts week 5 of boot camp. So far, I haven’t lost any weight! Yes, I’m stronger. Yes, I’m healthier. Yes, I have more endurance. Yes, I have muscles I didn’t know I could have. Yes, I have more energy. I’m not saying I’m not happy about any of those things, I AM! I also know in the long run, it’s healthier, the whole muscle burns more fat thing. But I’m determined to be totally focused this week! Sometimes total focus is accomplished best with dry erase boards.

I have this dry erase board on the back of my kitchen door. It’s also pretty close to my refrigerator. It’s basic, but there is something about writing out your plan where you see it that reminds you not to get a pastry at Starbucks and to eat the real, healthy options you have for breakfast!

Monday:

Weight Watchers Crock Pot Cheeseburger Soup and Cornbread

Tuesday:

Skillet Sunny Side Breakfast and Fruit

Wednesday:

Leftovers

Thursday:
Ultimate Chicken Tenders, Skillet Rosemary Roasted Potatoes and Steamed Broccoli and Cheese

Friday:

Leftovers

Saturday:

Grocery Day (Which usually means I eat a most unhealthy hot dog from Sam’s Club.)

Sunday:
Lazy Chiles Rellenos, Tortillas and Guacamole Salad

Lunch Ideas:

Let’s be honest. Despite our best intentions to bring lunch and eat healthy, some weeks are just busy! Last week I had to interview 17 people and had short lunch breaks. Therefore I ate on campus 2 of my 4 days last week. The good news is, I got these cute little Ziplock lunch containers! So perfect for bringing lunch to work. I did get to use them twice last week and going 4 for 4 this week!

leftovers: crock pot hawaiian chicken and rice + sugar pear + roasted brussel sprouts

leftovers: heart meatloaf + stolen ketchup packet from community fridge + homemade shells and cheese + roasted asparagus

Meal Plan 101: Week 20 & 21

February 11, 2013January 5, 2017Leave a comment

I have a confession… I’m a slacker! Okay that’s not totally true, but I feel like one based on the lack of meals I cooked last week AND the lack of blog posts I brought to you. I didn’t even manage to get out a Meal Plan Monday post! I actually didn’t eat horribly last week, BUT I didn’t make most of what I ate. I have to give myself a little credit since it was a ridiculously busy week full of RA interviews and night time obligations, but my blogging and meal making did fall through the cracks. In the name of being honest and transparent, I’m still posting last week’s meals, every eating out night confessed. Boot camp continued on though! I missed once because I was passing a kidney stone, you know, no big deal.

Speaking of boot camp, a quick update. I’ll never say it’s easy, ever. It’s just not. BUT I do feel better now when I do it, or rather after I do it. One problem has remained consistent… SHIN SPLINTS! Oh how I loathe them! My trainer watched my feet and how I walk and run and discovered the reason for the pain and stress on my shins was definitely my shoes. Pretty pink tennis shoes on sale = not the most supportive shoe. I decided to bite the bullet, sacrifice fashion, and go have my feet analyzed at a specialty store. I now have what I like to call my grandpa shoes. Big, bulky, grey and orange boy shoes! Today will be my first day to wear them. I have high hopes! At least I’ll always have cute nails to make up for the unfashionable boy shoes.

I decided in honor of the February, the month that hosts one of my favorite holidays, I’d only paint my nails shades of pink or red until Valentines Day. It’s been a fun project! I seriously love Valentines Day! I think it’s silly when single people go on anti Valentines Day strikes or wear black for “Singles Awareness Day.” I personally don’t like to think of it as a day that’s only for dates and couples. It’s a holiday that uses pink, red, and hearts to celebrate! How can you not love that?! I will celebrate pink any day for any reason. I also don’t think that love is just for couples! Do you love your friends and family. They deserve to feel loved on a holiday dedicated to love as well!

My meals this week reflect Valentines Day! I love themes and I love when themes can inspired food. I even ordered pink coffee at Starbucks on Saturday to assist me in my meal planning creativity!

Last Monday:

~~Leftover Pasta~~ (So the PLAN was leftover avocado alfredo pasta, but I ended up hating it. So… I ate on campus with an RA. Pimento’s French Dip.)

Last Tuesday:

UnSloppy Spicy Turkey Sloppy Joes (The concept was from Six Sisters, but I used reduced fat biscuits and Pioneer Woman’s sloppy joe recipe but replaced the ground beef with ground turkey.), Garlic Mashed Potatoes, and Honey Glazed Carrots

Last Wednesday:

Out (One on one with an RA. She wanted to do dinner. Pimento’s Ciabata Turkey sandwich.)

Last Thursday:

Out (Had RA interviews from 6:00 – 10:00 and no time to eat. Lenny’s Chicken Philly.)

Last Friday:
Greek Chicken Caesar Wraps and White Cheddar Cheeze Its (More interviews! Quick thrown together meal with a fellow RD.)

Last Saturday:

Random Snacky Leftovers (Slept in, ate “breakfast” at 11:30 and “lunch” at 2:30.)

Last Sunday:

Crock Pot Hawaiian Chicken, Rice, and Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Monday:

Leftovers

Tuesday:

Heart Shaped Mini Meatloaf, 5 Minute Mac and Cheese, Roasted Asparagus, and Skillet Chocolate Bread Pudding (I originally planned this meal for Thursday, Valentine’s Day, BUT I wanted to make it early so I could post the recipes for Valentine’s Day date night inspiration!)

Wednesday:

Lat-Webb Family Fun Night – Dinner “Out” (on campus) and Dessert Crepes

Thursday:

Valentine’s Leftovers

Friday:

Chicken Florentine Pasta and Cucumber Tomato Salad

Saturday:

Leftovers

Sunday:

Crock Pot Cheeseburger Soup and Cornbread

Lunch Ideas:

I’m going to keep doing these. A. No one has complained yet. B. I found a couple of blogs that did this and it helped me!

jar salad + one sliced avocado

sick day – chicken noodle soup, crackers & gingerale (sometimes it’s all you can eat!)

jar salad + half of a pita

michelena’s lean gourmet rice & beans + extra leftover kidney beans added + green giant singles corn & peas

leftovers – mostly consumed carrots + unsloppy sloppy joe + garlic mashed potatoes

Meal Planning 101: Week 19

January 29, 2013January 5, 2017Leave a comment

Remember how I always posted meal plans meant for Sunday on Monday? Well I found a new blog who does Menu Plan Mondays. So I’m just committed now to Meal Plan Mondays! It always worked a little better to post on Mondays, even though I usually use Monday also for Meal Prep Mondays. Meal Prep Mondays were never regular posts though, so I’ll just sneak them in occasionally on Meal Plan Mondays. Also, is anyone else as obsessed with meal planning note pads as me?! I can’t pass them up. Ever.

I’m full force back on the healthy train! Boot Camp Week 2 started today. Meal planning healthy meals and grocery shopping for them happened this weekend. Oh how I missed Sam’s Club and my cheap big batches of produce and healthy things!

I also discovered Sugar Pears this week! How did I live so long and never know about the super cute mini pears?! I couldn’t pass them up. To the menu! I’m starting a new thing this week where I bring lighter, smaller meals for lunch instead of leftovers, therefore creating more leftovers during the week, which isn’t my reason, but a not so horrible side effect of my plan. And so, less meals on the menu list, but more things on the lunch ideas and make ahead lists. Fair trade right?

Monday:

Crock Pot Philly Cheese Steak Stuffed Peppers (used this recipe, but altered it for the crock pot) and Roasted Green Beans and Potatoes

Tuesday:

Leftover Peppers

Wednesday:

Leftover Peppers

Thursday:

Avocado Pesto Alfredo Linguine & Roasted Broccoli

Friday:

Leftover Linguine

Saturday:

Leftover Linguine

Sunday:

Crock Pot Greek Chicken, Pitas, Layered Greek Dip and Greek Potatoes (Staff Dinner Party – Greek themed!)

Extras:

I think I was way too excited about food prep and menu planning again and went a little crazy with it! From Saturday to Monday I made the following:

Breakfast Fruit Parfaits layered with different fruits, cottage cheese, vanilla yogurt, and slivered almonds. I actually made 8! The recipe will come soon. I’m hoping they last until next week. None of the ingredients expire until way later, so I’m thinking maybe? We’ll see.
Jar Salads, 4 more.
Cookie Dough Greek Yogurt, for easy healthy take to work after lunch dessert.
Homemade Peanut Butter, so easy! Recipe also coming.
Banana Bread, 5 batches. Ridiculous.

The amount of Mason jars in my refrigerator is just a little obsessive. I just love make ahead things and food prep! I have a problem. At least it’s healthy though right??

Did I mention I made homemade peanut butter?? Still in love with it.

Lunch Ideas:

And lastly, I’ll throw in last weeks lunch pictures to maybe help you come up with healthy, non-eating out, lunch ideas!

microwavable edamame + hummus + 1 pita

bird’s eye mushroom & green bean steam in bag risotto + green giant singles broccoli & cheese* + 1 pita

green giant singles broccoli & cheese* + kroger 90 second cook in pouch red beans & rice

The little Green Giant Just for One sides are one of my favorite lunch items! They are the perfect way to make lunch a little more rounded and have a bit more substance. They have several varieties!

Meal Planning 101: Week 17 & 18

October 11, 2012January 5, 20171 Comment

Is anyone else as excited as I am that stores FINALLY have seasonal creamer?! It just makes everything better. Mornings, coffee, days, motivation. It’s all better because my coffee tastes warm and cozy.

The weather, and maybe the presence of seasonal coffee beverages, definately influence my cooking and meal planning too. It’s been happening already with my baking, but it’s now taking over my cooking! My meals this week are full of stew, crockpot meals, fall salad condiments, and even savory pumpkin. Since I neglected you last week, I’m giving you last week’s meal plan and this week’s! I’ve also been going baking crazy and making things left and right. Expect recipes soon.

My fav bread in the banana bread extravaganza was the pumpkin one. A pumpkin chocolate pizookie also happened.

Monday:

Leftover Corndog Muffins and Balsamic Crash Potatoes

Tuesday:

Baked Chicken Fajitas and Mexican Salad

Wednesday:

Leftover Fajitas

Thursday:

Chicken Fajita Salad

Friday:

Dinner at the Mississippi State Fair

Saturday:

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup and Fancy Grilled Cheese

Sunday:

Green Chili Beef Stew (this recipe but with beef instead of pork) and Perfect Brown Rice

Monday:

Leftover Stew

Tuesday:

Pumpkin Ravioli with Thyme Rosemary Brown Butter and Fall Chopped Salad

Wednesday:

Leftover Ravioli

Thursday (today):

Crock Pot Ranch Roasted Chicken and Potatoes with Butter Beans

Friday:

Frozen Pizza and Cheesy Shells*

Saturday:

Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese Bake and Corn*

Sunday (OCTOBER 14TH!):

Chicken Tamale Bake, Homemade Guacamole, Homemade White Queso, Homemade Pico Salsa, Smashed Beans, Jenny’s Grandma’s Apple Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream and Homemade Caramel Sauce**

*My friend Jessica is coming to town and staying with me for a few days! Normally I’d never have two back to back pastas and especially not two back to back macaroni and cheese dishes. However, Jess was my roommate when I first started cooking! One of my first cooking accomplishments was getting her to like macaroni and cheese which she had never liked before. It’s embarrassing to admit it’s just shells and cheese (not Velveeta even, the powder cheese kind) from a box that I doctor up! A. She loves pizza. B. She requested my box mac and cheese. C. She loved buffalo chicken stuff. Thus the Friday and Saturday meals.

**If Sunday looks over the top and fancy, it is! Two things happen on this Sunday, October 14th. 1. It’s my favorite day! It’s been my celebrated favorite day for 10 years now. Wow, just realized it’s our (mine and October 14th’s) 10th Anniversary! Makes the fancy meal even more worthy. And 2. It’s Lat-Webb Family Fun Night with the Lat-Webb Staff! We have FFN twice a semester and it’s just a time for us to set aside time to be intentional and have staff (family) bonding time and have fun. We cook, we eat, we play games, we laugh, we love.

I also make a Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal dish for make ahead breakfast for the week that I think I’ll share soon.

Finally found the perfect no chill, no spread sugar cookie recipe! I went a bit crazy with my mini fall cookie cutters.

Meal Planning 101: Week 16-ish

September 25, 2012January 5, 2017Leave a comment

A day late! But, I was holding a baby for an hour and a half when I would have been typing/posting this last night. It was totally worth it and I don’t apologize! I mean look at him. His name is Kaiden and he’s two weeks old today. His mom is my friend, neighbor, and coworker. She is an RD with me and we both work in the same office. I saw her literally almost every day of her pregnancy. We all watched him grow in her belly and it’s so beautiful to be part of his and their lives. Last night I cooked them dinner and while they ate I held him!

Some vitally important updates totally relevant to the meal plan at the end of this post.

I FINALLY finished moving in to my apartment completely. It’s all organized and put together and beautiful. I even decorated for fall.

It was a simple thing, but this simple thing made me feel so much better about life! I meal planned and grocery shopped and even did Meal Prep Monday! You know all is right in my world when Meal Prep Monday happens. In addition to cooking for Kaiden’s Mommy & Daddy on Meal Prep Monday, I also created a whole pumpkin collection of Overnight Oats! Kaiden’s Mommy loves pumpkin as much as I do, so I made extras for her to have for breakfast this week. Recipes coming (by many requests) this afternoon!

Also, I think I’m going to always grocery shop at night now for a two reasons: less people AND baby carts! They never have the mini carts when I go in the day time. Totally worth the night Kroger visits.

Two more totally relevant (okay not really) factors to my meal planning success. I mean.. who doesn’t feel better about life and more organized when you achieve perfect curls (I got a body wave) and create a nail polish station/drawer?!

Now that I’ve done that thing where I push my life on you while talking about food, I’ll move on to the meal plan! And by the way, I only do this updatey push my life on you thing because as I type, I imagine sitting at my little back yard table, feeling the fall breeze, watching the leaves fall, wearing sweatshirts, eating something pumpkiny, and drinking coffee with you as we chat. You don’t mind right?

Sunday:

Leftover Crockpot Cranberry Chicken, Crock Pot Sweet Potato Casserole (washed & peeled potatoes, cut in half, cooked on low for 6 hours, mashed in crockpot with potato masher, added homemade marshmallow fluff, brown sugar, and pecans and cooked for another hour), and French Green Beans (green beans sauteed in French dressing)

Monday:

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili (with green onions, sour cream, and shredded cheddar for toppings), Perfect Brown Rice and Mexican Cornbread Muffins

Tuesday:

Leftover Chicken Chili

Wednesday:

Mushroom Stroganoff, Chopped Salad and Garlic Toast

Thursday:

Leftover Stroganoff

Friday:

Mango Salsa Tilpia, Wild Rice Pilaf and Butter Beans

Saturday:

Leftover Tilapia

Sunday:

Baked Corn Dog Muffins (inspired by this, but I’m going to use Jiffy and Turkey hotdogs), Broccoli and Balsamic Crash Potatoes (First I found this recipe then I saw this one and I couldn’t shake the idea of having corn dogs – basic kid food – and balsamic potatoes – classy grown up food – together! So I’m going to attempt to combine the two recipes.)

Extras:

I made the new baby family a Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pizookie with Pumpkin Spice Cool Whip (mix a little pumpkin and some pumpkin pie seasoning into a container of fat free Cool Whip) and Homemade Chocolate Sauce.

Made another batch of skinny Pumpkin Fluff to eat with apples.

The aforementioned Pumpkin Overnight Oats for breakfast all week.

I’m feeling bakey, so other things are sure to come from this!

Real Life – Take 327

September 19, 2012January 5, 2017Leave a comment

Can I be real? Like super honest, spill all, embarrassingly real? I keep saying I’m going to post and then I avoid it because I’m ashamed to admit that there hasn’t be a meal plan in two weeks! And there isn’t one this week yet either. My meal plan looks like this…

Sunday:

Eat a cheapo brand lean microwaveable frozen meal that cost 88 cents at 9:30 pm because I forgot to eat while making 150 cake truffles until 3:00 am.

Monday:

Snack on leftover Chick-Fil-A nuggets (from a free meal coupon) and lots and lots of cookies from KT (former tribe aka a sorority if you aren’t from MC world).

Tuesday:

Eat at Chick-Fil-A (from a free meal coupon) again because I forgot to do something with that frozen chicken and was on call and handled an hour and a half long incident.

Wednesday:

Eat more food not cooked by me at a campus restaurant on an RA one on one biweekly date.

Thursday:

Do something with that frozen chicken.

Friday:

PAY DAY! BUY FOOD! PLAN MEALS! Or really… eat out because I won’t actually be able to buy groceries until Saturday.

Saturday:

Groceries! Cook something with newly acquired groceries.

Why the lack of creativity, motivation and mass amounts of Chick-Fil-A you ask? Well a few things.

A. I’m totally out of money. I accidentally got carried away buying cookie cutters and forgot I needed that money for gas to go out of town this past weekend and to buy massive amounts of supplies to make 150 cake balls (and other aforementioned baked goods) then had to dip into grocery money to purchase outrageously expensive gas to travel. I also got a little carried away buying things for my way over the top picnic to celebrate fall-like weather.

B. My life feels totally disorderly! I moved into my apartment at the end of July and life has been so hectic that I’m still not totally settled! Never fear, all the kitchen stuff was settled right away, but my room, hang up clothes, shoes, wall hangings, desk, and closet things are a disorderly mess. I know it’s just one thing, but this one thing makes me feel like nothing in my life is in control or balanced! Remember you agreed to read my embarrassingly real post, this is real! I’m a little OC (as in OCD without the D). When something is off balance, I feel a little crazy and overwhelmed and under-motivated.

C. I forget that I’m a grown up, you know I’m 29, almost 30. And sometimes I do crazy things like stay up all night with 19-21 year olds to win free Chick-Fil-A coupons for a year. Thus the massive amounts of Chick-Fil-A splurges and a really BAD (read unhealthy) back up plan when I don’t have meals planned!

Here’s the good news. Besides the fact that I have a wonderful job and the best RAs who love me and each other. I mean look… Even when we’re being silly and holding flowers for a pointless picture, our hands form an unknowing heart! But, God has blessed me with a really good friend that I can be way more real than I even am in this silly dramatic post. She understands me, life, our common life stage, and God pretty well. She reminds me that it’s okay that I’m a little crazy and don’t have it all together. She gets that my brain works in an overwhelmed all or nothing way and helps me see the big picture instead of all the little details that freak me out. She helps me plan baby steps that I need to make to get orderly in one thing so I can feel good about the rest and remember that I’m a lot better at life than I let Satan coax me into believe I am. So we made baby step plans! Saturday we FINISH settling my apartment so I can feel in order and be balanced! I know it sounds crazy, but this one thing will remotivate me to eat healthy, meal plan, exercise and spend time doing things that make me healthier, like spending time with Jesus and making time for myself. It’s officially on Google Calendar! That’s pretty solid.

Now that we got that out of the way, I feel better about posting other things that aren’t meal plans until next Sunday (or Monday morning) when a meal plan WILL appear!

Overnight Oats

August 28, 2012January 5, 20173 Comments

You know how I have all those weird seasonal food aversions? No soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, or hot coffee unless it’s cold out. No watermelon, or any melons for that matter, unless it’s hot out. I also kind of feel this way about oatmeal. I LOVE a bowl of warm cozy oatmeal in the fall and winter, but I’m not a huge fan in the summer.

I kept seeing cold overnight oatmeal on Pinterest. I didn’t buy into it at first because I thought the texture might be weird and most recipes called for chia seeds, which freaked me out a little. Chia pets. Chair seeds. They are the same things. I’m not a picky eater, but that made me hesitant. Since then I’ve discovered it’s normal and okay to eat chia seeds. I’m not scared of them, but still haven’t tried them. Apparently they are really good for pregnant women. One day when/if I get pregnant, I’ll add chia seeds to my oats. For now I’ll save my self a trip to a health food store.

All that to say, try these! You don’t have to have the fancy chia seeds. My pregnant friend made them first (with chia seeds) and highly recommended them to me. We have similar food likes, so I trusted her recommendation. I’m in love! I got obsessed and game up with EIGHT flavor combinations. I’m gonna work on a pumpkin version next week. This is one thing that will not be a seasonal food. I love them for summer to take the place of hot oatmeal, but I love them so much I will definitely eat them year round.

Base Recipe:

1/2 cup old fashioned oats (NOT the instant kind)
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 cup non fat Greek vanilla yogurt

Directions:

Pour yogurt, oats and milk in a pint sized mason jar. Shake it until all ingredients are combined. At this point your jar will be about 3/4ths full.

Add your toppings of choice, and shake until mixed. You may have to shake a little extra for some toppings. If it’s not combining well, stir in the toppings to combine all ingredients.

Refrigerate overnight. I made four at once and they were good up to 4 days. I don’t think I’d go more than 4 or 5 days because fruit and non-fat yogurt can produce excess water.

For pretty presentation you can save out tiny bits of your toppings to garnish the tops.

Each base recipe is 7 points on Weight Watchers. Extra points for different topping combinations are listed below.

Peach Melba

2 small nectarines (or peaches) diced
2 tablespoons raspberry jam

Add 2 points for jam.

Peaches and Cream

2 small nectarines (or peaches) diced
dash of cinnamon
drizzle of honey

Add 1 point for honey.

Strawberry Banana

1 medium banana, diced (I sliced it, halved the slices, then quartered the slices)
2 tablespoons strawberry jam

Add 2 points for jam.

Banana Nutella

1 medium banana, diced (I sliced it, halved the sliced, then quartered the slices)
1 tablespoon Nutella (one really is enough, Nutella is SWEET)

Add 3 points for Nutella.

Banana Peanut Butter

1 medium banana, diced (I sliced it, halved the sliced, then quartered the slices)
1 tablespoon reduced calorie peanut butter (2 if you like more)
drizzle of honey

Add 2 points for 1 tablespoon of peanut butter + 1/2 teaspoon of honey.

Banana Chocolate (for those who like chocolate, but not Nutella)

1 medium banana, diced (I sliced it, halved the sliced, then quartered the slices)
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 packet of Splenda

No extra points! 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder is zero. According to recipe builder you’d count the points for bananas in recipes, but I say if they’re free as a snack they are free as a topping!

Banana Nut

1 medium banana, diced (I sliced it, halved the sliced, then quartered the slices)
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup chopped nuts

Add 2 points for honey and how every many points for the nuts you choose.

Apple and Cinnamon

1 apple, diced
1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Parkay spray butter

Saute diced apple with a little Parkay spray butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar until they loose a tiny bit of their crispness. Add 1 point for brown sugar.

Stir into base recipe. Shake to combine completely.

Meal Planning 101: Week Oops (14)

August 27, 2012January 5, 20171 Comment

Oh Julie (my blog’s name)… I know. You’re right. I know. It’s been too long. Over a month. Okay, almost two months. I know I should be ashamed. I -am- ashamed. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me? What if I told you that since July 4th (my last post) I’ve been in a wedding, packed up an apartment, moved back into my new/old apartment, unpacked an entire apartment worth of stuff accumulated over the last at least six years, visited family out of town, went through two weeks of RD training eating frozen things, went through ten days of RA training that lasted from 8:00 am until at least midnight, usually later every day while eating provided things, made so many burlap and cloth flowers my hands almost fell off, got a massage because the stress knots on my back were so bad they made my hands go numb, had two panic attacks, a couple of emotional break downs, a dad frequently in the hospital and a mom in the hospital twice, and went at least a whole month with no more than six hours of sleep a night? Could you maybe forgive me then?? What if I also added that my lack of meal planning and healthy cooking and posting hurt me as much as it hurt you?! It’s true. Girl to girl I knew that one would get you. No girl would ever wish weight gain on another girl!

My apologies that you had to experience that conversation between Julie and I. She was mad. She had a right to be. We had it out and now we’re good. It’s just real. Flaws, weight gain, lost motivation, busyness, crazy panic attack/emotional break down moments. It’s real.

Other things are real too. Found motivation! It’s real. Knowing yourself well enough to know that meal planning, OCD grocery shopping, blog post organizing, and cans of pumpkin actually do bring you motivation and make you happy, that’s real too. I’m so happy to be typing right now! I don’t even care that that huge paragraph written to my inanimate blog that I affectionately named Julie was ridiculous and cheesy and over the top, because it feels good to be typing in this white and orange box. I missed you blog, typing, readers, recipes, cooking, prep work, meal plans. I missed you a bunch! This reunion is sweet.

You know what else is sweet? Hot tea. Literally and figuratively because I like mine with two spoons of sugar. In our absence I discovered I like it. I do believe the reason I never liked it before was because I hadn’t had England’s best tea, PG Tips. We’re pretty close now and I’m happy about that.

Now that I got all my excessive typing and words out of the way, let’s get to business shall we? A meal plan! I missed many things about cooking and meal planning, but one thing in particular. Meal prep! I was so happy to cut up my bundles of green onions and find the new perfect bottle to store them in. (Remember my favorite trick to never let green onions go bad?)

Sunday:

Crock Pot Apple BBQ Chicken, Perfect Brown Rice, and Not So Fried Okra with Spicy Scallion Dipping Sauce

Monday:

Leftover Apple BBQ Chicken

Tuesday:

Leftover something because I’m making a somewhat time consuming dessert for a premature fall party/birthday celebration the next morning.

Wednesday:

Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes and Crock Pot Roasted Veggies

Thursday:

Leftover Sloppy Joes & Veggies

Friday:

Lazy Spaghetti, Tomato Bread, and a tomato heavy salad that will resemble this one but with some lettuce mixed in.

Saturday:

Leftover Pasta

Extras:

Make Ahead Healthy Breakfast Sandwiches – I used ham and bacon. Can’t wait to eat these all week! Post coming soon.

Pumpkin Fluff Dip – To dip apples and grapes in. Back on the healthy food way of life! This means healthy snacks. I also made fat free ranch dips to dip cucumbers, celery, baby tomatoes, and carrot chips in. I’ll probably blog this pumpkin dip too since it was my first can of pumpkin for the season!

Pumpkin Bread Pudding – Minus the raisins. Making this for my friend’s birthday and premature fall celebration party along with Caramel Sauce and Pumpkin Whipped Cream.

Proof! This was Sunday night’s planned meal made on Sunday night. The Not So Fried Okra was a disappointment! I really want to be able to like okra in other ways that aren’t fried or fake fried and coated in cornmeal. These were broiled and I hoped that meant no slime, but it didn’t. The sauce was yummy though!

Summer Holiday Foods

July 4, 2012January 5, 2017Leave a comment

Tomorrow is July 4th! I always say I’m not patriotic. Don’t hear me wrong. I’m VERY happy and thankful for my country and freedom, my dad’s a vet! I’m not anti-patriotism at all. I just don’t consider myself patriotic. But somehow… I subconsciously wore red and/or blue yesterday and today! And all I can think about is BBQ and watermelon.

If you’re like me and only have the one day off in the middle of the week, you might not have made any big plans. Therefore you might not feel BBQing a whole lot of meat (and your grill might be broken like mine). Or maybe you want to eat a healthier holiday meal! I made this meal a couple of weeks ago and when I ate it, it made me think of summer holidays. It was so good and so fresh. So if you haven’t planned what you’ll eat tomorrow yet (or if you just need some meal planning inspiration for any summer day), be inspired!

Easy! Thaw some frozen tilapia fillets. Spray each fillet with a little olive oil cooking spray. Salt and pepper each side, heavy on the freshly cracked black pepper. Slice a lime or two into rounds and bake with the fish. Squeeze a couple lime halves over the fillets. Bake at 375 for 14-17 minutes. Serve with lime wedges, garnish with some fresh cilantro. An average sized tilapia fillet (4 oz) is 3 points cooked. Lime, seasonings, herbs, and lightly sprayed olive oil cooking spray are all zero. Healthy and so yummy.

So easy. So fancy. So yummy. This would be EVEN better with grilled corn. I roasted mine in the oven since the grill is broken. Butter is not healthy, but corn is! One medium ear of corn is 2 points. And you only need a little pad of compound butter per ear of corn, which I estimate to be about a half of a tablespoon. 1/2 tablespoon of butter is 1 point. So a whole ear is 3, not bad for this treat!

Compound butters can be anything! They are so fun to make and slicing into your compound butter will make you feel like a real chef. Let some butter sit at room temperature. I did less than a 1/2 stick because it was just for me and my leftovers. You can do a whole stick and it keeps for a long time. It can also be frozen. I mixed finely chopped cilantro and scallion, softened butter, a little cracked black pepper, and some lime zest. Place your mixed butter blob onto some plastic wrap. Wrap it up and shape it into a little log. Chill until hardened or until you’re ready to use.

And then this! My very first quinoa experience. I loved it! This was a perfect first dish to try quinoa in. I used her recipe exactly except I used a normal quinoa, not tricolor, I added a chopped avocado, and I used roasted corn instead of raw. Quinoa is a super food! It’s really good for you and actually a grain.

If you’re gonna use paper plates, use happy festive ones! Even if you won’t just be staying cool at home and have a holiday gathering to go to, I promise your friends and family won’t hate you if you come with any of these dishes in hand. Happy 4th! Eat some watermelon and watch some fireworks.