Once-a-Week Cooking

Pretty Peppers

Now that I’m back to work after baby, I’m trying out once a week cooking. I grocery shop and prep / cook meals on the weekend so that eating during the week can be quick…with much less mess. I’m also trying to prep one veggie to eat off of for the week in addition to chopping toppings for salads throughout the week. I’ve been posting the pictures on Instagram because I love to chop, and I think the veggies are beautiful!

Last week, I made fajita peppers. I sauteed red, yellow, and orange bell peppers and onions in olive oil with fajita seasoning. I enjoyed them during the week on burritos, salads, and mixed in my chili mac. The previous week, I roasted zucchini with herbs and ate it as a side dish for several nights. I also put it in my tacos one night. I made hummus and chopped up carrot and celery sticks for weekday snacks, too. Prepping and even cooking veggies ahead of time makes it much more likely that I’ll eat them (and that they won’t go bad!).

I really enjoyed the huge batch of freezer cooking I did before baby. I promise to do a recap of how it all worked out, and I hope to do that again, too. It’s so easy just to grab something out of the fridge and start eating right away.

If cooking a week’s worth of meals isn’t up your alley, you might try meal planning instead. There are so many resources out there for it if you do a little digging. I follow several bloggers that post their meal plan for the week. That’s a great place to get new ideas.

Chop Chop

New Year – New Kitchen

I’m sure many of you pine for a kitchen remodel, but that’s not what I’m talking about today. I’ve been thinking on several deep cleaning projects to get my kitchen in better shape. Then I came across this post: How to tune-up your kitchen for 2013: 9 easy steps from Simple Bites, and I really got inspired. Here are a few of the things I want to do in my kitchen.

Deep clean the cabinets - Remove everything from the cabinet and wipe away crumbs and dust that have collected there. While I have the items “out in the light” I will consider if it’s something I actually use. If I don’t, I can give it away or yard sale it.

Clean out the pantry and freezer - Throw away was isn’t at its peak and plan meals around what is left. This saves money, makes room, and brings fresher ingredients into your kitchen.

Clean out the spices - Consolidate multiples, throw away what isn’t fresh, and organize so I can actually see and find what I have. Maybe I should employ a lazy susan or tiered shelving?

Clean off the kitchen table and actually eat there - Over the holidays, the kitchen table  was the place for doing crafts, boxing up treats, overflow counter space, filing cabinet for important papers that didn’t have a home yet, wrapping gifts, stray laundry, groceries that wouldn’t fit in the cabinet, etc. As I’ve been doing post-holiday cleaning and organizing I decided that I really wanted to strive to keep the kitchen table open so that we can enjoy several meals there every week. Right now, it’s about 1/4 covered, but we’ve eaten several meals there over the course of the weekend. We agree that family dinners are important as Chicken grows up, but sometimes noshing in front of the TV is too alluring. Baby steps?

Daily dishes - This is more of a maintenance task than anything, but I’ve been trying to run the dishwasher every night before bed. Before baby, Mr. J would do the dishes in the morning, but this routine seems to be working out better these days. A clean kitchen begets a clean kitchen (most of the time).

Assess the counter-top - We all try to keep what’s used very often handy on our counter top, but mine is getting cluttered. I want to assess what’s there, how often I use it, and what might be a better location for it to live. Streamline in 2013!

Ok, I’m sure there is more I could do, but I feel like this is a good start. Do you have any New Year projects in your kitchen or home?

Keep on the Sunny Side

As I mentioned, I’m into sunny-side up eggs these days. I really only ever liked scrambled (usually with cheese), since that’s what I was used to. However, I’ve recently come around to poached and sunny-side up eggs, and I love to pretend I’m Gordon or Graham on Master Chef when I cut into the yolk. I watch for that perfect ooze, just like the pros! I’m really into the creamy, buttery yolk since I can’t eat cream or butter these days (my nursling is allergic).

Here’s a great how-to from Pioneer Woman (she knows her stuff!) and a shot of one of my recent breakfasts:

It’s definitely not perfect, but I’m getting the hang of it. Seen here on wheat toast with spinach.

Maybe one of these days I’ll get the guts to try poaching! I really like Eggs Benedict. I recently had it on crab cakes…yum!