Using Eating Well Recipes
June 21, 2010
Because I work fulltime, preparing fresh meals each day isn't a realistic option for me. However, I am not going to let that get in the way of eating healthy, low calorie AND tasty food. To accomplish my weight loss goals I've decided I'll ideally need to pick one weekend day to do my menu planning, grocery shopping and cooking. Since I started Father's Day weekend, I was able to get the menu planning and and shopping done but not the cooking. Still dedicated to success, I rushed home from work Monday night with a plan of attack to cook as many entrees as possible to package and freeze.
eatingwell.com has a great tool for creating menu plans. You can search for the recipes as well as add your own foods. It will calculate your total daily calories as well as tell you how many you should be eating based on your BMI. The shopping list will duplicate menu items if you add something more than once to the week, which you will if you are one person and the recipes generally make more than one serving. But, as long as you understand how many servings you want to make it's pretty easy to ignore the extra copies of shopping lists for each recipe.
In just under 2 hours I was able to prep, cook and package 8 Mini Meatloaves, 6 Tortillini Salads, 4 Quick Chicken Cordon Bleus and the sauce for Creamy Garlic Pasta with Shrimp and Vegetables. That was a lot to do in a short time, but I didn't feel rushed. Here was my attack plan:
- Preheat oven
- Prep mini meatloaves
- Start baking mini meatloaves
- Prep quick chicken cordon bleu
- Pan sear quick chicken cordon bleu
- Swap baked mini meatloaves with quick chicken cordon bleu in oven
- Let mini meatloaves cool
- Start water boiling for tortellini salad
- Chop veggies for tortellini salad (Don't forget to rinse and drain the artichokes and red peppers)
- Add some of the boiling water for pasta to the sundried tomatoes
- Add tortellini to boiling water
- Remove quick chicken cordon bleu from oven and package
- Package mini meatloaves and freeze
- Combine tortellini salad
- Package tortellini salad
- Make creamy garlic pasta sauce and refrigerate
Each morning I pack a small lunch bag I made with the lunch and snack for the day. On days where I plan to go to the gym straight from work, I'll take dinner as well.
Keys to Success:
- Easy way to package single servings (I purchase several packages of Ziploc Disposable Containers)
- Keep your ingredients easy to reach
- Print each recipe and have them on the counter
- Prep while the oven preheats and when one thing is baking, start cooking the next
- Premake sauces to save time on nights when you can cook fresh. It'll speed the prep time
I use this paper stand from the office supply store to keep my recipes in front of me when I'm cooking. It's an inexpensive tool that is very helpful!"
