Your Sunday (or off-day) Cookup
 

I started a thread like this a while back, and it was interesting to get tips from others on tricks to make meal prep/planning easier. :thup:

I work a pretty physically exhausting job - also mentally exhausting right now - and as many of us find, the key to being successful on this WOE involves preparing your own food. To be successful at that, you have to keep it simple and plan ahead. Do you have a time of the week during which you do food prep for the upcoming busy work/school week? For me, it's Saturday and/or Sunday.

- Important step one: I load up a favorite music playlist that gets me moving :cool: , and I put on a comfortable pair of shoes. (Buy yourself some indoor shoes if you think it's weird to wear shoes in the house. Your feet and back will thank you.)
- Recommended step two: put the clean dishes away from the dishwasher, put dirty dishes in, start some hot soapy water to wash some dishes by hand.

Here's what I did yesterday:
- "Processed" a cooked pork roast - rendered the lard, cooked down the sauce, shredded the meat, made cat food out of some of it, put most of the meat/sauce in the freezer in small containers. This is way more complicated than my usual roast-a-chicken-or-a-hunk-of-beef routine, so I only do it when the pork is really cheap. The spicy lard and broth is amazeballs.
- Made a frittata out of some previously-sliced sausage, peppers and onions in a container. This is easier than it sounds: I sauteed the sausage/veggies in aforementioned lard in my cast iron pan, added an egg/cream mixture, let it cook a bit, threw it in the oven until it was done.
- At the same time, since the oven was on, did some coconut flour tea biscuits.
- Cut up some carrots for DH. He wanted one, so I cut 3 or 4. I like them, too.

Easy meals all week now. :cool:

I cook every day, because I can. But always looking for shortcuts as some days I never leave the kitchen and other chores fall behind.

Recipe for tea biscuits? We are (trying) to go wheat free for November.

I roast big meats. Like a turkey to get many meals. Son is cutting up a pork roast to season and dry into pork jerky for lunchbox. ( Dehydrator was my Christmas present last year.)

Here ya go. I was out of cheddar this time around, and decided to just try them without. All I had was a measly heaping spoon of dry grated parmesan. They worked out better than I thought they would. If I ever went dairy-free, I'd do them again with no cheese.

My dehydrator isn't fancy enough to do meat - just a cheapo from Walmart - but I really like it for zucchini and cucumber "chips", "roasted" pumpkin/squash seeds and flax crackers. I hate the burnt taste those get from the oven, and the dehydrator does a nice job.

I'm glad you mentioned that, because I almost forgot about all of my ground flax in the freezer. :idea:

Have you tried goat jerkey? One lady at the feed store makes it...tons of it and gives it away because she has so much. It is soooooo good!

We also make duck jerky. Havent tried goat. Yet. Lol

Thanks for the recipe.
My dehydrator is a simple one. All meat is sliced very thin and takes a little more time than fruits. Vegies are very fast.

I try to do one big, easy meal on the weekend — chicken soup (sometimes with shirataki noodles, mostly without), chilli (with some beans but not too many, quite meat-heavy), and put into containers. I try to wash and cut up bags of romaine, and always have a bag of shredded cabbage that I can throw cheese, tuna, almond or left over meat on. During the week I try to cook enough for two meals (extra chicken thighs, bbq extra steak or pork chops) and take come for lunch the next day. I also try to have hard boiled eggs in the fridge at all times, I always have unsalted raw macadamia nuts available...a handful of nuts, two hard boiled eggs and mayonnaise / vinegar on that cabbage might sound weird but it’s fast, easy and I like it.
Also pickles!

I love a big pot of chicken soup.
A whole chic is my preference but a bunch of thighs works great too.

I saute all of the chopped or dice veggies first, either in butter or bacon drippings.(don't brown) I always use onions & celery but sometimes I add carrots and a little diced canned tomatoes with herbs like thyme, sage, bay leaves, onion powder and garlic powder s&p. Sauteing first is the base of a rich tasting soup, much more than only boiling.

If I have thighs, I will nestle them in between the veggies to brown a little and release some fat and flavor. (I do pull off the skin as it cooks because it's not that great boiled)

Then I add several cups of water. Bring up the temp in the pot, then lower and cook on very low for a couple of hours. Add more water a little at a time as it cooks down.

I keep lots of it as soup to eat and freeze and also remove some chicken and make chicken salad with celery & green onions, celery seed, dill weed, onion powder and mayonnaise.

mix 2 eggs in a can, add some splenda , fry inside deep olive oil.
crispy awesome sweet desert.
yes i am lazy

Turkey soup and chicken soup made in a BIG pot.

Never run out of eggs, over easy are less than 10 minutes.

"Do you have a time of the week during which you do food prep?"

Sunday for me. Used to prepare a brisket, chicken quarters, HB eggs or pork belly. Now I buy a lot of local beef jerky or "Magnum Fatty" grass fed ground beef from Alderspring Ranch* to thaw and cook up. Lazy, yes!

Sunday traditionally; used to be pancake day for me, so I've come up in the World! -- LOL

*http://onlygrassfed.com/listings/38...ring-ranch.html

I too use Sundays to prepare food for the week. Last Sunday it was a boneless leg of lamb. Usually it's roast - pork or beef. I tend to make the side dishes during the week. Right now I'm missing almost all of my plastic and glass storage containers. This weekend I'm roasting a duck!

I have 2 frozen turkeys in my freezer - those last a loooooong time for me as I'm a household of 1 + 2 dogs.