Food Not Friday

Happy Saturday! How was your Friday?  Mine was excellent.  I woke up early, got myself together and started my day.  The plan for my day was to grocery shop and get everything I need to begin making freezer meals.  A few of my friends had told me about this idea.  I didn't originally understand and was put off because I thought I would have to cook all of the food first.  No! It turns out that all I have to do is put the raw meat, firm veggies and sauce in a big freezer bag and toss it in the freezer.  It involves a TON of cutting onions, peppers, potatoes and carrots.  It also involves a lot of can opening.  But I had a good friend helping me, so it went pretty well.  Please keep in mind that these meals are for my family for dinner.  They are designed to make my day flow smoothly because I can't stand looking at the time and thinking, "what are we eating?"  I like to have dinner cooking before my husband gets home.  I like it to be done no later than 5:30. When I lived in upstate NY, I used to time the preparation of my meals to my two favorite NPR radio shows.  Most of these meals contain meat (but I never claimed this to be an exclusively vegan blog). I confess, I am not always exclusively vegan.  I confess further, I miss fish dearly.  I have always been a sushi fan and I miss that "Umami" flavor of the fish.  But, I digress.  This is the list of some of the meals I made.

1.  Steak pizza sandwiches - minus the bread of course.  I used a London broil, onions, peppers, tomato paste mixed with beef broth and pepperoni.  Slow cook for 6-8 hours on low
2.  Maple balsamic pork with apples - a pork loin, balsamic vinegarette, maple syrup (I used breakfast syrup), thick sliced onions and apples.  Slow cook on low 6-8 on low
3.  Cilantro Lime Chicken - 3 chicken breasts, diced red onions, juice of two limes, 1 bunch cilantro diced, 2 cans of black beans and 1 package frozen corn.  Slow cook 6-8 on low
4.  Soyaki chicken - I used Trader Joe's Soyaki sauce and 1 pack skinless, boneless chicken thighs.  I plan to add broccoli at the end of cooking and serve over rice.  Slow cook 6-8 hours on low
5.  Sausage and baked beans - Half a polish sausage, 2 cans of Trader Joe's baked beans, diced green and red peppers, diced sweet onion.  Slow cook for 6-8 hours on low.
6.  Pork carnitas - 6-8 thin sliced, boneless pork chops, 1 bottle of taco sauce, diced red onions.  I added cilantro.  Slow cook 6-8 hours on low.
7.  Beef Stew - 1 London Broil, 2 packs of slow cooker pot roast mix mixed with 2 cups of water, 3-4 chopped potatoes, 3-4 chopped carrots, 2 celery stalks chopped and 1 chopped onion.  Slow cook 6-8 hours on low
8.  Sausage and potato soup - The other half of the Polish sausage, half cup of diced sweet onions, 3-4 chopped potatoes (or diced, but they fall apart after a while so I cut them larger), 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup with the milk added
9.  White bean, spinach and gnocchi soup - I made this with me in mind because I wanted to eat some of the Trader Joe's Gnocchi.  I mixed 2 Chik'n boillon cubes and 4 cups of water.  I added 1 diced sweet onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1/3 bag of white beans and 1 bag of frozen spinach.  The Gnocchi has to be added later, closer to the finish time so it won't over cook.  Slow cook 6-8 hours mostly to soften those beans.

I made more, but can't recall the recipes right off the top of my head.  The goal was to pack 14 meals so that I would not have to do major grocery shopping next week.  Right now I'm trying them in 2 week stints, but my goal is to prep them for a whole month.  One major grocery trip for a whole month would be wonderful and would free up more money during the month.

I did, however, want to show you my Broccoli and Cheddar soup.  No real cheese.  Not an unhealthy option.  I used yellow carrots, nutritional yeast, Chik'n broth, 2 garlic cloves, pepper, salt, juice from 1 lemon, I think that's it.  Well, the remains of some bag of frozen chopped broccoli and some Miso paste.

 I chopped the two carrots, minced the garlic and cooked them together with a little oil.  Then I added, maybe a cup of water, and a Not Chik'n Bouillon cube.  I cooked it down until the carrots were soft, let them cool a bit and then transferred them to the blender.  I added the juice of the lemon, another garlic clove, 3-4 tbsps of nutritional yeast and 1 poorly measured tsp of miso paste.  I mixed it, salted and peppered it, mixed it again.  Then I transferred it back to the pot, added more broth and the broccoli.  It was delicious.

I do very little with accurate measurements.  So, please forgive me.  It was still the best darn broccoli cheddar soup I've had.