2/26/2023
This past month I’ve tried to be better about planning meals in advance – from menu selection to grocery shopping, to food prep – and while it works, and I feel like I’m being more efficient with food, it’s a LOT of work.
Which isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker; finding the right cadence to prep throughout the week (rather then doing everything all at once ALL DAY on Sunday) is something that I think will make the process more manageable and enjoyable.
Here are a few that I tried, that worked, and that I want to make again.
- Curried Chickpea Salad Sandwiches from America’s Test Kitchen Ultimate Meal Prep Coobook: This was really delicious and easy to make. Ingredients include chickpeas, mayo, lemon juice, curry powder, celery, and raisins (I was out of raisins, but cranberries made a great substitute!) I loved having this as a topping on a soft, toasted hoagie roll (pictured below, that we got from Look’s Marketplace in Sioux Falls, SD – a great local restaurant/marketplace with the BEST French Onion Soup that I’ll have to describe in another post). But it went equally well with crusty white bread that I made using Ken Forkish’s Overnight White Bread from his book, Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals Of Artisan Bread And Pizza.
- Kofta Meatballs With Couscous adapted from Gina Homolka’s Skinny Taste Meal Prep: I’ve tried a few recipes from this cookbook and have been really happy with all of them so far. This recipe had so much flavor; I was skeptical that the meatballs would be too dry with no sauce or gravy, but there’s so much flavor from all the herbs and spices – it’s got garlic, parsley, mint, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, and ginger. These are supposed to be served up as bowls, but I didn’t want to use that much couscous. I think it worked just as well served up on a plate. The side salad of cucumber, tomato, red onion, and parsley tossed in olive oil and lemon was also good; I didn’t have fresh mint and it might have been better with mint included, but it was fine nonetheless and just as good as leftovers the next day.
- Banh Mi Turkey Meatballs With Steamed Rice adapted from Gina Homolka’s Skinny Taste Meal Prep: Another super-flavorful meatball recipe, this one served atop steamed Jasmine rice. Unlike the kofta meatballs, these included egg and panko breadcrumbs which made them very tender and moist. The flavor was amazing – with garlic, ginger, and scallions included in the meatballs themselves, and topped with a sauce consisting of soy sauce, seasoned rice vinegar, hoisin sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, ginger, and garlic. Served with a side of chopped cabbage, with carrots and radishes briefly pickled in white vinegar, sugar, and salt. Made for a great meal, and next-day leftovers were just as good!
- Egg-Fried Rice With Shrimp from Deborah Gray’s 500 Quick & Easy Dishes: I really love this little book because the recipes are so easy, quick, and (mostly) delicious. No exotic ingredients, and it’s been really helpful to get through pantry items I just didn’t know what to do with. While this isn’t the greatest fried-rice recipe I’ve ever had, it IS super-simple and still quite delicious. The base recipe consists of rice, frozen peas, frozen shrimp, and garlic; I added onions, corn, and garnished with leftover pickled veggies from Gina Homolka’s Banh Mi Meatball recipe (above). Easy and delicious way to use up frozen shrimp (which are hard to cook up and still taste good!)
