#mealsinahurry

No medical updates this time, so let's just jump into this....

Meals in a hurry!

We need fast meals here... this means either a meal that can be completed in less than an hour from scratch or pulling something out of the freezer and adding a salad.

 We have already established some "old standbys."

Slow cooker meals

Oh my - I don't believe I ever used my crockpot as much as I have  in the last 4 months! At first I was making these recipes, and we were eating them all week...until we were tired of them and still had food to throw out.  I do not like to waste food, so I quickly discovered that these stews and chili meals freeze beautifully!

Breakfast

Let's talk breakfast.   Yep...Breakfast.  I make overnight oatmeal (see this post), starting my smaller slow cooker (yes, we are now a TWO slow cooker couple!) around 11 pm...setting it on WARM, not Low....  and we wake up to hot oatmeal at 7am. I spoon out my portion then head downstairs to work out. Usually by the time I have finished, John has finished his breakfast, so I start portioning and bagging the oatmeal for freezing.

In Beachbody food planning, the yellow container is 1/2 cup...perfect for oatmeal! I pull out my sandwich baggies, a spoon, and my yellow container, and start bagging leftovers. Each baggy gets one serving of oatmeal, and I let the baggies cool down on the counter. Once a baggy has cooled, I squeeze the air out, zip it up, and fold it in an effort to fit as many servings into a gallon size bag a s possible, labeling the gallon sized bag as well.

Oatmeal, divided into single servings

When we are ready for a serving, we pull one baggy out of the freezer and put it into a microwaveable bowl, adding a little almond milk.Then, adding additional fruit, nuts, almond milk, or maple syrup is easy. Hot breakfast in less than 5 minutes during the work week!

FYI right now I have 5 servings of an experimental chocolate cherry oatmeal - still working on this recipe and 8 servings of apple cinnamon date oatmeal...that is 13 breakfasts!!!!

 

 

 

Dinner

On to dinner! I love my stews and chili.  Smelling them simmering away all day is sometimes tantalizing, but oh so rewarding!

Basically, I treat them the same way as oatmeal.   After dinner, I remove the ceramic part with  the stew, soup, or chili and let it cool. Later that evening, I once again divvy up using Beachbody portion control - this time the red container.

One serving per baggie, and as many baggies in a gallon size ziplock as I can fit, and we have dinners ready to go!   I also tend to make a lot of rice at once and keep a large bowl of cooked rice in the fridge. When it is time for a meal, I select a baggy and thaw it in cool water.   I use my yellow container to measure out the coked rice and add the rice to a microwave-safe bowl, then add the thawed chili, stew, or soup, and heat it up for a minute or so in the microwave.  Add a salad, and we have a healthy dinner. It takes me longer to make the salads - 30 minutes  then to do the rest of the reheating.

 At this point, we have 22 servings of dark rum baked beans (our favorite) , 15 servings of black bean soup, 8 servings of red lentil and pumpkin chili, 6 servings of lentil stew with quinoa, and a whole crockpot full of black bean pumpkin chili to bag up.......  that's quite a few weeks of meals ready for companion salad and bread..... 

Hmmmm.... we need to find a way to grow our own salad in the basement with grow lights, and we will be quite self-sufficient!

Double portion pancakes and waffles

Sometimes we want a change from oatmeal for breakfast, so, on weekends we make double portions of our pancakes and waffles, allowing us to freeze some for use during the week. One pancake or homemade waffle easily fuels me up for my workout!

One word of warning - be sure to let pancakes and waffles cool completely before bagging as the steam condenses and forms ice crystals, making your homemade delights soggy when you reheat.

 Other Speedy Food Techniques

Of course, I also look for quick recipes, saving the frozen approach for evenings when I am either exhausted. I come home late, or I only have a short break for dinner.  The Minimalist Baker provides some great recipes that take 300 minutes or less to prepare, and, to be honest, every dish I have prepared from other sources has taken around an hour or so to prepare and cook....

We love fast and easy meals!

More later . . . .

We can do this!

#national pizzaday

Medical update

John has now lost 25 pounds and several sizes in his jeans. He is now 175 pounds! His shirts all hang on him. I keep trying to talk him into shopping for new clothes, but he refuses.  He has moved into a smaller pair of jeans we already had, but even those are hanging.   He jokes about just adding holes to his belt until it wraps around him twice.

I wish he would let me take a pix of him, but he won't.

sigh....

I am now down to 114 pounds and loving it! I am wearing size 4 suits with great ease, and the working out has helped these clothes hand just right.   I am very happy about this!  In total this has taken several yeas for me as my weight has yo-yoed up and down, never really saying in one place.  To the left is a pix of me at my heaviest and the day this post was published....

Plant-based eating and daily workouts have really worked for both of us!

National Pizza Day!

We have missed pizza....not the gastric distress that accompanied it, but the taste...... So I have been experimenting and wanted to share our favorite pizza recipe with you...oil-free, whole foods, and vegan!

 So here goes....

I am combining pizza crust from the Real Vegan Housewife, caramelized onions from One Green Planet,  then added a store-bought oil free pizza sauce (Delallo Pizza Sauce), and our favorite fixings!

Robin’s E2 Approved Pizza Crust

Ingredients:

1 cup lukewarm water

1 Tablespoon of raw Turbinado sugar  (Sugar in the Raw)

1 envelope of yeast (not fast rising!)

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 Tablespoon wheat gluten

1 teaspoon fine sea salt (if using table salt, you might want to cut the amount in half)

Directions:

Mix the sugar with lukewarm water until somewhat dissolved.  Add yeast and mix.  Wait 10 minutes.  During this time the yeast will "proof" and once those 10 minutes are up, you should notice a bit of foam on top on the mixture.  If there is no foam, your yeast is probably dead (or expired) and you will have to repeat again.  This is vital!!!  In a large bowl, combine the wheat flour, wheat gluten, and sea salt.  Then add proofed yeast mixture to dry ingredients.  I prefer mixing with your hands because your hands can give you a better idea on whether or not your dough is too wet or dry.  The dough should feel somewhat grainy but have a little (not like regular pizza dough so don’t get too picky here!) stretch to the dough (probably due to the added wheat gluten).  

Place a wet towel over your bowl with the dough and let sit for an hour until the dough has doubled. I place this on my gas stove as I feel my granite countertop is too cold.

While the dough is rising, I make my caramelized onions:

Ingredients: 

3 medium-sized sweet yellow onions, sliced fairly thin

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

 Since we do not use oil, we add the onions to a pan and saute in water for about five minutes on medium-high heat. Add the salt and continue to saute until the onions begin to turn golden-brown, about 15-20 minutes.

Next add the sugar, turn the heat down to medium, and continue to saute until the onions are deeply golden and very sweet. This should take about 20 more minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside.

Now it is time to check the dough to see if it has doubled yet.  If not, give it more time and pull out your sauce and other pizza favorites to get to room temperature.  During this waiting time I slice my olives and roma tomatoes, paper towel pat the pineapple, pat dry the black beans, spinach, fresh basil.....

Once the dough has risen, stretch/roll/press (whatever suits your fancy!) the dough into a standard size pizza pan (not the jumbo one!).  Let the dough rest in the pan for 10 minutes.  This will allow the dough to rise slightly again which is what we are looking for.  

From there, you want to add your sauce, toppings, and any herbs you might want to use. 

Bake the pizza at 425°F for roughly 15 minutes (check the crust every 5 minutes or so to prevent the potential of burning!). 

Fix a tossed salad on the side and you have a healthy way to celebrate National Pizza Day!

 We can do this!