On Mondays I almost always spend a lot of time in the kitchen. It’s so much easier for me to get the bulk of the cooking done on one day and then I’m not so tempted to eat out during the week and it seems to give me more knitting time.
Sunday I made the Avgolemono Soup and there’s enough of that so that we’ll probably have it one day this week and then freeze the rest.
Yesterday I roasted carrots for roasted carrot soup and I made carnitas in the Instant Pot.
The cooking liquid from the carnitas went in the fridge overnight, then before serving, I’ll skim off the grease, then blend up all the veggies with the liquid.
Sunday I trimmed up the basil in the greenhouse and had quite a few leaves so I made the mozzarella/tomato/basil salad. I drizzled pomegranate balsamic over it and stuck it in the fridge. When it’s time to serve it, I’ll add a bit of olive oil.
It doesn’t seem like a lot but the carnitas will be enough for two meals, the Avgolemono Soup and the roasted carrot soup . . that’s about all the meals we’ll need for the week. Add a few salads and we’re done. We’ll probably go eat fried fish on Friday so my cooking is just about over for the entire week! I like that.
For last night’s dinner, Vince had asked for brisket/potato/coleslaw burritos.
Any time I smoke a big brisket, I divide it up into smaller portions, vacuum seal it and freeze it so all I had to do was take out a bag of brisket, brown some potatoes, and make coleslaw but just before I stirred up the coleslaw dressing, I remembered I had the Asian cabbage salad in the fridge and that has the crunch of cabbage and toasted almonds so I used that instead. That was a super quick dinner and very tasty.
I see lots of hours of knitting time and very little kitchen time for me this week!
vivoaks says
I don’t plan meals, as a general rule. It would probably save me lots of time, too, but I’ve never done it… I suppose if I started doing it on a weekly basis I’d have so much more free time. It’s usually about 3 in the afternoon when hubster says, “What’s for supper?” My answer is almost always, “I don’t know. ”
🙂 I’m too lazy, so even though it would save me time in the long run, I probably won’t do it…
April Reeves says
What are those green things in the bowl with onions and garlic?
April Reeves says
ah – Tomatillos . Never used or eaten them.
Linda in NE says
I’m like vivoaks, rarely plan the next meal. I can understand spending less time in the kitchen, but don’t see myself wanting to spend all that time knitting. To each her own, right?
Nelle Coursey says
I really like the new fish place where Wendy’s used to be. Sam’s. They give you way too much food! Pat and I have to split an order!
Theresa Taylor says
have you ever tried the pomegranate balsamic on vanilla ice cream it is wonderful but not on your program.
Stephani in N. TX says
I started meal planning, weeks at a time, when we were in the Army when first married and payday was once a month. I would buy groceries, break down meat into baggies of what we would need each nite for dinner. When I finished, the freezer would be full out to the door. I learned from my military MIL to save steaks for the end of the month when the freezer was just about empty again so as not to feel we were stuck with beans and hot dogs till the first of the month. I carried over some version of this my whole married life. Now that it’s just me I’m pretty loose at planning meals, not so much planning, not so much cooking. It was a sort of hobby all those years.