hi ladies, Back to 3fc after a bit of a break. i have been thinking about Vegetarian options and portioning out for entire weeks. Does anyone do this? Make a specific day a cooking day and get all the prep and portion out of the way?
Besides those crustless quiches (which seem to be everywhere), what portioned out veggie options have you experimented with?
I wish I had a travel salad bar at my fingertips EVERYDAY.
I've found on a lot of veg blogs and veg cookbooks talk about this. Of course I can't find an example of one at the moment...but here is a basic run down:
Cook 2 types of beans. (experiment with different kinds so you don't get bored)
Cook 2 types of grains. (same as above)
Make 2 soups.
Make 2 sauces/dressings.
Cut veggies and fruit.
Voila! You can combine all of the above to have different meals.
Last week I kind of did this. I spent about 3 hours in the kitchen after visiting the farmer's market. I made a quinoa salad, chickpeas, brown rice, lime dragon dressing, potato leek soup, cut up all the fruit, and made a raw pasta. I've basically been eating those things since Tuesday. I put together the chickpeas and brown rice with the dragon dressing and when I cook it I've been adding kale and other veggies to it.
These sites recommend using dried beans because they are cheaper. Take longer to cook, but IMO they taste a lot better. Also, you can make a large batch and freeze half of it. Same with soups.
These sites recommend using dried beans because they are cheaper. Take longer to cook, but IMO they taste a lot better. Also, you can make a large batch and freeze half of it. Same with soups.
I really like dried beans. Am not always organized to remember to soak them, but I found some dried beans at the farmer's market (local, of recent vintage, even better than the stuff at the supermarket though a bit more expensive). Generally, 1 cup of dried beans will make 2.5 cups of cooked beans. I've been cooking 1 to 1.5 cups of dried beans and dividing these, making things like a bean or lentil salad (cut up veg, lots of whatever is fresh, with a dressing that is primarily herb and citrus based) for lunches, and using the others for dinner.
Soups can be portioned out; so can beans and rice. I made enchiladas this weekend, with corn tortillas, roasted veg and black beans. It is easy to portion those out based on the ingredients and the tortillas, but I also made a few servings in individual ramekins. Instead of rolled enchiladas, I layered pieces of torn tortilla with my ingredients/enchilada sauce. I will definitely try that again.
Curries with beans or lentils and veg, served over rice are also great, though more of a winter food for me.
Also: I'm definitely not a raw-fooder or even a vegan, but that recipe for the zucchini noodles and cashew cheese looks delicious. I may have to try some new techniques.
I'm definitely not a raw-fooder or even a vegan, but that recipe for the zucchini noodles and cashew cheese looks delicious. I may have to try some new techniques.
I strive to be vegan and strive to be more raw (I can easily go a week without any veggies if I'm not paying attention), but I tried another raw "pasta" recipe last week (spiraled zucchini and beets with a cashew sauce and basil and cherry tomatoes) and holy batman it was awesome. I really like the choosingraw website because she has evolved her diet over the last several years and she isn't completely raw. I love her recipes.
I cook soups, chilis, curries, etc. and freeze them into portions. I also freeze different kinds of beans (Puerto Rican style red beans, dal with cauliflower, etc) so that I can just make some instant brown rice and microwave my dishes on days when I don't want to cook. Pasta/veggie or rice/veggie mixes can be frozen in portions, and so can burritos (zucchini/cheese/bean are my favorite), veggie burgers, and veggie nuggets, and any kind of "meat"ball as long as you freeze them on a tray then transfer to a freezer bag so they don't stick together.
I believe Hungry Hippie has a blog post on how she preps her week too.
I generally make a weekly food plan on Friday or Saturday, then shop for ingredients on Sunday morning and cook Sunday night. I try to make enough to last me two or three days so I don't have to freeze anything (I never like the taste of defrosted microwave meals, loses all texture) and then I just cook two or three nights a week instead of every night.
For work lunches I always make either a huge salad or some kind of bowl dish that can be microwaved - pasta, curry, stir-fry, rice.
Then for dinner I'll make something that's more "meat and three veg" or anything that needs an oven - baked tofu and vegetable sides, a burger and home made oven fries or pita pizza.
One of the things I have found super good during a week is if after the normal Sunday-Afternoon-Prep day's food is starting to make me a little suss about having it (I never like food that's been left or unfrozen for more than two days) is that I work Monday-Wednesday on a Sunday and then Wednesday night as part of 'Hump Day' I get my Thursday-Saturday lunch meals ready.
One of my favourite meals though which you can do the day before (technically you can last them two to three days if you wrap individually after making in glad wrap tightly and store under or on top of a moist tea towel in an air tight container - though I always just have mine the day of or the day after I've made them) is cold rolls. They're filling without actually having too many calories, they're very simple to 'cook' (barely even!), they can have whatever flavour you want, they're gluten free and they can be as full or as lean as you like.
whiteonricecouple dot com has a really good example of how to go about making the rolls (at whiteonricecouple cot com forward-slash spring-rolls-summer-rolls-how-to-roll/roll-fresh-spring-roll-rice-paper ), though all you really truly need to get started is some rice paper (any size and shape), maybe some vermicelli/rice noodles and whatever you want inside! Personally, I have spring onions, corriander, mint, bean sprouts, thin strips of Quorn (which is a personal haven and saviour for me, actually), thin strips red capsicum/bell peppers, slivers of cucumber and a tineenie-tiny dash of wasabi-mayo (my guilty pleasure with these).
I love my crockpot! I make a big batch of curry and freeze it into smaller portions then pull it out as needed. You can make a chickpea and spinach curry, lentil curry, potato curry, etc. The options are endless.
Week menus for a busy workin gal
