Sunday food prep (3) – what went down in my kitchen

Hello!

Happy Monday!

I was getting ready for work this morning, brushing my teeth, and I happened to look out the bathroom window into the back yard.

I saw some random orange spots on our fence and it dawned (ha! no pun intended. yes, I’m a dork.) on me what it was.

I went out to the front and was graced with this beautiful sight!

I’m taking the gorgeous sunrise as a sign of a good week to follow.

My foot is feeling better, the swelling has diminished substantially, and I’m looking forward to getting in some good workouts, regardless of the stinkin’ boot. 🙂

So, I didn’t really do any food prep last weekend – that was PRE-boot – but this weekend I hopped (on one foot) right back into it.

I knocked out a loaf of my favorite sandwich bread.

It’s so easy and delicious!

 

I roasted a chicken the last time I prepped and we used every little bit of it during the week so I decided to do another one.

I was really excited about the thought of roasted chicken sandwiches on homemade bread!!!!

 

Ran a couple of errands while it was in the crockpot and MAN, did it smell amazing when we got home!

5 hours on high and it literally fell apart when I tried to take it out of the crockpot. No shredding necessary.

I made a paste with olive oil, fresh minced garlic (about 3 cloves), 1 teaspoon dried thyme, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, and some salt and pepper and rubbed it all over the bird. I stuffed the cavity with some onion and garlic cloves.

If you have a rack, put that in your crockpot to allow the heat to circulate all the way around the bird while it’s cooking. If you don’t have a rack, you can MacGyver one (yes, that’s a verb) by making a few aluminum foil balls and setting the chicken on them. (Got that tip from Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean!)

We totally gobbled up all the trail mix I made the last time so I decided to make some more.

 

I wanted to make it a little different to keep it interesting. 🙂

 

These little jars are just PERFECT for storing trail mix at my desk. Or, if you’re like my sailor, in your car because you keep forgetting to take it inside with you.

I decided it was high time I tried my hand at some homemade almond butter, seeing as I eat it practically every day – in my oatmeal, on bananas and/or apples, in smoothies, on a spoon…….

Besides, I don’t use my kick butt food processor as often as I probably should so I really wanted to break it out! 🙂

I grabbed some Blue Diamond Honey Roasted Almonds for something different and dumped about 1 1/2 cups into the bowl.

I pulsed until the almonds looked like this.

 

Then, I set the speed to low and, about 5-6 minutes later (with stopping to push the almonds down from the side of the bowl), I ended up with beautiful almond butter!

 

The bonus is – it’s actually cheaper to make your own than buy a jar! For reals.

I’m totally going to be trying some new things – like buying raw almonds, roasted them myself (maybe with some local raw honey?), and then going from there. I’m definitely going to do my own peanut butter, too. So worth it! I can’t even begin to describe the smell of the almonds going from crumbs to butter. I was practically drooling all over the machine!

 Then, I used my fresh almond butter instead of peanut butter in these Oatmeal Breakfast Bars from Erin at The Law Student’s Wife.

 

Had one for breakfast this morning (warmed it up about 15 seconds) topped with Greek yogurt and blueberries.

OM NOM NOM!!!

So, that should keep us pretty set for the week. I did buy a couple of cans of Amy’s Organic Chilis for my sailor for quick lunches or dinners (can you say chili dogs?) when I’m at CrossFit. Plus, we have plenty of yummus hummus and veggies and fruit for snacks.

Talk to me: What’s on your menu for the week?

– jennifer

Sunday food prep (2) – what went down in my kitchen

Hello!

Happy Monday!

Did you have a good weekend?

It rained all weekend over here. Seriously. My grass is so tall!

If it doesn’t stop raining every weekend, my grass will soon get tall enough for this….

source

Just sayin.

We did date night on Saturday – haven’t had one of those in a while!

Dinner and a movie.

Or, actually, movie and dinner. 🙂

We saw Lucy. Have you seen it yet? What did you think?

Then, we went to the mexican restaurant across the street where I had a margarita as big as my head!

And some guacamole that was advertised as “made fresh at your table” but she just brought us the bowl. Guess the guacamole maker didn’t want to push his little cart to each table. Oh well. At least it was fresh!

And not at all spicy. Le sigh. We had to ask for the jalapeno. Oh well. At least the margarita was as big as my head! 😉

Then, I got down to business on Sunday and did some food prep for this week.

Dude, I was EXHAUSTED by the time I was done.

Probably didn’t help that I was doing laundry, cleaning, and trying to pull out a ginormous weed that was threatening to take over my a/c unit at the same time.

First thing that went down were some hard-boiled eggs.

Not for me. Blech.

My sailor and Thing 2 love them. They will be quick grab and go fuel perfect for a sailor’s lunchbox. 🙂

 Then, I made some trail mix.

I like the idea of making our own trail mix because we can control the ratio of ingredients. AND, we’re not stuck with what somebody else prefers or some generic trail mix blend.

I used roasted almonds, shelled pistachios, roasted unsalted peanuts, sunflower seeds, dried berry blend (blueberries, cherries, and strawberries – YUM!), and some M&M’s (my sailor really only buys the trail mix for the M&M’s so he can fool me into thinking he’s eating healthy. 😉  He just doesn’t know I’m on to his little trick.)

We mixed it all up in a big container and then portioned some out into 2 mason jars so we could each have one at our desks at work.

 Pretty fancy, huh? 🙂

 We totally chowed down on Lindsay’s Peanut Butter Banana Oat Muffins last week but I wanted to do something different.

 So, I figured I would give her Quinoa Breakfast Bars a try. HOLY. YUM.

I couldn’t wait for them to cool completely to try one – they smelled so good! They even got a 2 thumbs up from Thing 2!

Shhh….don’t tell that there’s quinoa in them. It can be our little secret. 😉

I took her suggestion and individually bagged each bar for easy grab-and-go in the mornings.

And, they don’t have to just be for breakfast – I have one today for my PM snack with a couple of clementines.

Is it snack time yet? 😉

As you know, I ❤ the sweet potato so I decided I would wedge up 3 and roast them for lunch/dinner combos.

I can seriously eat a sweet potato every day so I’ll be surprised if these actually last 3 days.

 

These are super easy. Scrub, wedge, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, roast at 425 degrees for 25-35 minutes (depending on how big you make your wedges), gobble let cool, put into container for later.

We totally used up all the chicken I roasted last week so I decided to do it again.

Harris Teeter had organic whole chickens in stock this time so I grabbed one and made use of my crockpot.

 5 hours later (on high), I had a perfectly cooked and seasoned bird ready for slicing/shredding.

We’ll use it for sandwiches, salads, etc this week.

 Finally, I decided to make some burgers.

As I said earlier, it pretty much rained all weekend so I was glad I have a cast iron grill pan. 🙂

I used the recipe from my Abs Diet Cookbook.

I had one for lunch today (on its own – no bun) with some of those sweet potatoes, some spicy (for real spicy!) guacamole, and some veggies. Om nom nom!!

So, that’s what happened in my kitchen yesterday. What happened in yours?

Talk to me: When was the last time you had a margarita as big as your head? What movies have you seen lately?