About Me

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Phoenix, Arizona
Growing up my initials were OP, which was pretty cool in the 80's, right? Then I got married and my initials got updated to match our very texting obsessed era that we now live in (and shake our heads at)...OMG. For those who are texting illiterate, I'll spell it out..."Oh, My God!". I pity the girl whose initials are W.T.F. (I won't spell that one out. You can Google it or email me for an explaination on that one!)

1.18.2010

Menu Planning: Take two

Last week went very well.

We ate well and I had good meals to take to work with me on Tuesday and Wednesday. Usually I just grab some cottage cheese, protein bar, and whatever I spy in the pantry and then supplement that with extra trays at work. Needless to say, I ate like a normal person this week and it was good. I'm especially pleased that almost NO food went to waste. (Just a half of potato. And I made extra on purpose.)
I didn't make the scheduled Thursday chicken dish. Mostly because I wasn't sold on what chicken breast recipe to use and I know Brian prefers Mexican dishes. So I made Crockpot Tamale Pie. We ate it all weekend. It was good.

I started to work on week two during the past week. I had everything planned out and got groceries on Sunday. Then I up and did what I always do and now I'm left with a mess to clean up. Yes, the kitchen is a mess. I dare say, there's not a clean spoon or tupperware available. I made several batches of a granola power bar concoction and a huge batch of black beans. I will freeze the beans in 2 cup baggies to use instead of canned beans. I thought since I have them ready, I should make a black bean based meal. Despite my well planned out menu (which nowhere includes black beans) and specifically chosen and purchased produce...I just had to make something off the menu. Now I'm stuck with this black bean and rice and tomato dish. Sounds good but I was planning on using up the not so fresh broccoli on Monday and then the just ripe and ready strawberries and avocado on Tuesday...you see? This dish throws off everything I've worked so hard for. I guess I'm allowed to make a mistake. I've tried to fit it into the menu but it's just not working. So I'm gonna cook up some hamburger (that I took out of the freezer yesterday....I don't know why...cause bell peppers where a great price? Ugg! I'm making more problems than I'm fixing.)....anyway, I'll cook up the hamburger, mix it with the beans and rice and then throw it back into the freezer. I know, you aren't supposed to freeze things multiple times. Sometimes I can't help it. I rest assured that Brian will gladly eat it when I'm not home to cook something. He's good like that.

Okay, now that problem is resolved, I can go on to my gorgeous menu plan for this week.
(I will add pictures as they come available. Haha...that sounds so formal...you know what I mean...I've gotta cook the stuff first! Duh.)

Monday: Crockpot Broccoli beef with brown rice
Tuesday: (I will cook on Monday since I work on Tuesday and I think the flavors will be even better the next day) Salmon soup and strawberry-avocado salad (with dill! yum!)
I'm really excited about this meal. The salad has some special honey type dressing. I can't wait to make it. And I've heard avocado and strawberries go great together but I've never experienced that before! So excited!
Wednesday: Crockpot Coconut beef with crockpot tomato curried red potatoes (with fresh ginger! yum, again!)
Thursday: Crockpot Chicken and brown rice casserole. This will make good leftovers for Friday or Saturday.
Friday: Free-for-all. I have my first day of all day lectures at school so I may just feel like I deserve to go out to dinner. Don't you think I deserve that? ;)
Saturday: leftovers in the freezer. There's meatloaf or broccoli cheese soup. He's not gonna starve and I'll be at the hospital for 12 hrs. Some hospitals have great and cheap salad bars. Is it lame that I'm looking forward to that?

It's almost 8 am and still dark outside.
Oh, it's called cloudy. This week the weather is supposed to be ....what's it called...rainy? The ground is moist right now and there is something dripping from the roof but I wouldn't say it's raining just yet. I told myself at 7 am that I couldn't start studying until it got brighter outside. I guess I can't use that excuse this week or I won't get anything done. I need to start reading my Critical Care and Psych books and lectures like, NOW.

If you were thinking that I'd really rather go cook, you'd be right!
Alas, cooking may make my husband happy but it don't pay the bills.

1 comment:

Amanda said...

Im glad you are doing so well. Eating right is TOUGH!! I am struggling, but encouraged that you are doing so well!