Monthly Archives: September 2011

why I shouldn’t go to Costco hungry

Posted on September 28, 2011 | 9 Comments

All day I thought today was Thursday. I was sorely disappointed when I realized tomorrow is not Friday. But since it is, in fact, Wednesday, I can join the linky party Jenn is so gracious to host every week.

These are actually Monday’s eats, but they are eerily similar to today’s eats.

Pre-workout snack (as well as post-work snack, I have a problem, I know.)

Some j-hole was behind me in Costco and snickered as I picked up my Cliff Kid Z Bar box, commenting that “no kid would ever eat that.” Ummm, yes they would. If you don’t stuff them with McDonalds and sugary confections they will actually enjoy food made out of real ingredients. Plus, they aren’t for a kid. They are for me. I am a kid at heart, and I love them. Just sayin’

Breakfast

Creamy buckwheat with pumpkin, brown sugar, cinnamon, raisins, pecans, chia seeds and vanilla almond milk.

Snacks

apple from my parents orchard, celery + hummus

and a pineapple 2% chobani

Dinner

curried split pea soup topped with cilantro and Fage non-fat Greek yogurt

scallion potato bread


Late night snack, aka why you don’t go to Costco while hungry – I walked out with two very large containers of Nutella, woops

Saltines topped with Nutella

Yep, saltines with nutella. No, I’m not pregnant. I love pretzels with nutella, but I didn’t have any of the twisty treats on hand.* However, at Christmas, a family friend gave us some saltine toffee treats that I ate in about 5 seconds. They were amazingly delicious. I thought perhaps saltines with Nutella would be a good substitute. Mmmmm, not so much. But oh well, I still ate a few spoonfuls of the good stuff, so I’m a happy camper.

*Damn, I should have gotten those at Costco.

What have you purchased lately out of hunger impulse?

→ 9 Comments

Posted in regular

Tagged , ,

MPM: freezer love

Posted on September 26, 2011 | 5 Comments

When I was growing up, my mom always froze any leftover vegetables at the end of each dinner. Once we had a 4 cup container filled to the brim, my mom would make a big batch of soup. Just like Miss Smart, my mom didn’t like food to go to waste. The soup never tasted the same, and this is probably where my creativity in the kitchen started.

(source)

After graduating from college and starting my first job, I began to make a big pot of soup every Sunday. I followed the same principal of throw in whatever veggie you have, along with a grain and protein of some sort, and I would eat it down all week long. By  Thursday afternoon I was sick of whatever soup I had created, but I was single and broke, so I quickly got over my bored taste buds.

(source)

A few years passed and I finally revisited the idea of freezer cooking. Aside from my staple frozen pizzas, lean cuisines and mom’s frozen vegetable soup, I didn’t have much experience with freezer meals.  But I am so happy my friend Alanna introduced me to freezer cooking. She probably doesn’t even realize she did this, but I thank her nonetheless.  A year and a half I was browsing her blog and ran across her cooking day recap. I was transported to Once a Month Mom* and quickly fell in love with freezer cooking.

*my friend Kelly writes the whole foods menu!

This week’s menu plan is chock full of meals that were either pulled out of the freezer, or will be made in double batches,freezing half for later consumption.

Meal Plan Monday

Monday

Curried Split Pea Soup and scallion bread

Tuesday

Grilled Ahi, Caprese salad, brown rice

Wednesday

Spinach gnocchi with homemade pesto

Thursday

Chicken and Black Bean Burlattas

Friday

Turkey burgers and zucchini sticks

Saturday

Lasagna rolls

Sunday

Zucchini White Bean Soup (subbing yellow squash)

 

Have you eaten any of the meals in this week’s meal plan?

→ 5 Comments

Posted in regular

Tagged ,

Zucchini and White Bean Soup

Posted on September 22, 2011 | 6 Comments

We still have zucchini overtaking our garden. Luckily I was able to squeeze a tiny bit of creativity out of myself this week, and I whipped up a batch of this healthy, filling, end of summer soup.

Zucchini and White Bean Soup

Serves 6 – approximately 1 1/3 cup servings

Ingredients

2-3 large zucchinis, cut into chunks

1/2 large onion (I used sweet, but yellow would work well too)

4 cloves garlic, minced

42 oz vegetable broth or chicken broth (3 14 oz cans)

1/4 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt

1 can white beans, rinsed and drained (black beans would work well too)

1 tsp Italian seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Throw vegetable broth, onion, garlic, zucchini and Italian seasoning into a large pot and bring to a boil.

Cover, reduce heat to simmer, and cook for 20 minutes, or until zucchini is tender.

Transfer half of your batch to your food processor, add half the Greek yogurt, and process until smooth. Do the same with the second half of your batch, adding the last half of the Greek yogurt.

Make sure your lid is on and actually snaps in place…

both times.

Yes, I spilled it once, cleaned it up, and then made the exact same mistake the second time. An immersion blender could prevent this issue. Hmm…add to amazon wish list…

Return to pot, add beans, and heat through. Salt and pepper to taste.

I plan to make a second batch and freeze it for work week winter meals. The first batch went too quickly to freeze!

Enjoy!

→ 6 Comments

Posted in regular

Tagged , , , , , ,