Meals for the week of August 13, 2012

Hi guys!  I must say I didn't know if I would get this posting done or not.  We all know how hard it easy to come up with decent meals when money is low.  Back in the day my meals would have consisted of hot dogs, noodles, and cereal. Not saying that its something wrong with eating those items, however the nutritional value wouldn't work for me today.  Like I've mentioned before I don't have a problem eating left overs so I only made two different meals and lunch.

Breakfast:
This week my breakfast will consist of a bowl of oatmeal and a banana. Sorry no pictures.

Lunch:
For lunch I will be doing BLT wraps.

I bought a whole iceberg lettuce, 3 slicing tomatoes, a pack of pork bacon (don't judge me), multi-grain tortillas, and a fat free honey dijon dressing.  I only use 2 tablespoons of the salad dressing and it was enough to give it some flavor. Just drizzle it on top before you wrap.

Meal Option 1: Cabbage, Broccoli, and chicken breast.

Here we just have some fresh broccoli cooked in very little water seasoned with salt, black pepper, and a teaspoon of margarine.  I boiled the cabbage without meat.  I used apple cider vinegar, red pepper flakes, and some herbs and spices seasoning.  The chicken breast was baked in the oven.  After I took it out the the oven I added about 3 tablespoons of BBQ sauce and water to a saucepan.  The water is used to make the sauce thin.  I brought it to a boil and then tossed in the chicken.  I stirred the chicken around in the pan until it was all covered in sauce and then I pulled the chicken out and got rid of the extra sauce.  Basically I just wanted to add a little BBQ flavor to the chicken but didn't want all of the sauce.

Meal Option 2: Whole grain egg noodles with veggies and sweet potato. 

So for this meal I will admit I allowed my creative juices to flow and it actually turned out pretty good.  I boiled a half  a pack of Whole grain egg noodles. Once the noodles were done I drained all of the water and set the noodles to the side.  In a skillet I sauteed some red onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, and fresh spinach.  Once I sauteed all of the veggies I then added them to the the egg noodles and then coated it with a very generous amount of sun dried tomato vinaigrette.  I sliced and boiled 1 sweet potato.  For flavor I added 3 packs of Splenda, nutmeg, cinnamon, a splash of vanilla extract, a splash of lemon extract and a teaspoon of margarine.  I guess this is my version of a candid yam.  I've never made yams before however I know they contain way more sugar then the 3 packs of Splenda I used and they turned out great.

I know its not much but its enough to feed me for a work week and I spent less than 30 dollars for everything.  Not to mention, the other pack of chicken breast that I will probably use for next weeks meal.

Enjoy!!!

  

Meals for the week of July 30, 2012

I absolutely favor convenience.  When taking on this lifestyle change I noticed how easy it was for me to get off track without proper planning.  Therefore planning my meals ahead is super beneficial.  I cook however I don't enjoy cooking all the time.  The last thing I want to do when I get in from the gym is figure out whats for dinner and then prepare it.  That's not going to happen.  Therefore, I prepare my meals for the week on the weekend.  I usually do this on Sunday.  Being that I am trying to do all I can to better my health I decided to actually start documenting this part of the process.  It keeps me busy and focused on the goal.  So lets get started!


This week I decided to go with a predominately vegetable menu.  My lunch contains chicken because I had to cook it or it would have gone bad.

Breakfast:

Breakfast will berelatively easy.  I decided to just go with fresh fruit and soy milk smoothies.  All of the fruit is fresh.  I chopped up the fruit and placed it in the freezer on a cookie sheet to freeze.  By doing this I don't have to add ice to my smoothies to get a thick consistency.  Freezing the fruit flat keeps it from sticking together.  Once the fruit was frozen I separated it and place it in freezer bags.  I will be alternating between:

Peach Berry/Banana 
Blueberry/peach
Strawberry/Banana

You have some people out there who don't really eat leftovers and that's awesome if that's what you chose to do.  As for me, I can eat leftovers and it saves me a lot of money.  So for lunch over the next week.  I will be eating a chicken and vegetable soup.


 Lazy me didn't get around to preparing the soup today so pictures are coming later.


I have 3 dinner options for the week.  I will have at least 2 servings for the each meal option.


Meal Option 1: Veggie Burritos and Pinto Beans:  Veggie Mix is mushrooms, bell pepper, yellow onion, and sweet peppers tossed in EVOO and seasoned to taste.  I then roasted the veggies in the oven on 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

I placed the roasted veggies on a warmed whole wheat fajita wrap and topped it with some salsa! 

Wrapped it like a burrito.

Meal Option 2: Baked Veggie Spring rolls and Broccoli:  Once I started on this meal I noticed that I had a nice little theme going. Anyway, the spring roll stuffing is: Napa cabbage, shredded carrots and water chestnuts, green onion and ginger.  (Broccoli not pictured)

I sauteed the veggies in a pan.  Once they were nearly done, I added cornstarch and water for thickening and some soy sauce for seasoning. 

Here is where the recipe went wrong.  I was only suppose to place a teaspoon of stuffing on the spring roll wrap, however I became a little excited and used more. 

I rolled the spring rolls nicely and placed them in a pan and baked them in the oven for about 15 minutes on 400 degrees.

So here is the finished product.  The spring rolls were soggy in some spots but the taste was impeccable.  I will either use less filling or egg roll wraps next time. 

Meal Option 3: Couscous and tomatoe/sweet pepper stuffed cabbage rolls:  First I boiled the cabbage leaves for about 5 minutes.  I just wanted to get them tender enough to work with.

The filling for the cabbage roll:  Whole wheat couscous, tomatoes, and sweet peppers.  

I stuffed the cabbage leaves with the filling and topped with an organic tomato soup.  I baked this dish covered for 40 minutes on 350 degrees.