I know some of you chicks are really organised and I'm trying to cook up/ or if not at least plan in advance.

I'm mainly on wave 2, but wave 1 on the 2 days per week I'm not exercising hard this week as I need a major kick..

Please feel free to share....

Ok I'll share

I made a yummy balsamic chicken last night. Balsamic chicken, over fresh spinach, musrhooms, radishes, one slice of cooked turkey bacon, green onions with a warm shallot dressing. On the side a quinoa polenta topped with a sauce made from onions, garlic, zucchini and canned tomatoes. This week is also leftover seafood lasanga, recipe here at 3fc in the main recipe forum, but Sonoma-ized with less cheese, whole wheat lasagna noodles and more veggies.


I always cook and plan in advance because I know how easy it is to come home tired and eat the entire refrigerator while i am waiting for dinner to cook!

I'll share, too.

I am still working on the planning/organizing thing. I feel like I am spending too much time dealing with food, but not nearly as much time as I used to.

I have gone through almost every recipe in the book and tabbed those that hubby really liked and/or were quick and easy to prepare. I am also starting to go through the recipes above and will do the same thing. So we eat some of the same meals once every couple of weeks or so. We eat Wave 1 meals every now and then even though we're on Wave 2.

For breakfast on weekdays, I just eat cereal with 1% milk. Either Kashi Go Lean Crunch or Trader Joe's 100% shredded wheat (plain). It's fast. I am very dull for weekday lunches and have pretty much the same thing every day: about 3 oz of cooked chicken, 1 c. mixed greens, .5 c. some other vegetable, 1 T hummus, all stuffed into a whole wheat pita. Also have fruit. But I like it and it's quick and easy, so it works for now.

So dinner is where I get my variety. Recently we had Shrimp with Serranos (p. 206) which hubby loves and is very fast. I toss extra vegetables in with the shrimp while it's cooking and serve on pre-cooked brown rice for a very quick meal. On Saturday we had the Greek-stuffed Roasted Pork Loin (p. 255) which hubby really liked. It was quick to put together, though it took about an hour to roast. I added a greek salad recipe that I found in Sunset magazine (will post above) and Wasa whole grain crackers. Last night we had a tabbouleh and halibut recipe from Sunset magazine (will post) and I added grilled asparagus. All three meals were yummy and pretty easy.

This week I am trying an egg/vegetable dish one night and will add a slice of whole grain toast with peanut butter; a tilapia recipe from above and will add quinoa (pre-cooked) and veggies; a burger recipe from the book and will add a salad; and Chicken and Asparagus Saute (p. 259) with some grain.

On Saturday or Sunday I spend several hours pre-cooking brown rice and other grains and chopping/slicing vegetables and fruit for snacking and meals. I also pre-cook chicken breasts so I always have it available for lunch or a quick dinner. I used to bake them in the oven, but really liked the flavor of the chicken in the Chicken and Asparagus Saute so that's how I pre-cook them now (without the vegetables). I also spend an hour or so figuring out our dinners for the week and making a shopping list. The time spent is worth it; don't have to think about dinner and don't waste produce like I used to.

As you can imagine, this takes up a chunk of time on the weekend, but I now think it's worth it because the food is so good. Hope this helps. Sorry for the length!

Sherry/ LindaT- I'm salivating reading your recipes. I've just been lazy and have not been cooking from scratch as much as I could've and it's easy to get bored of chicken salad.

I can see a cook off happening in my kitchen this week- anyone else please feel free to post!

I made the 5 can soup today for lunch. I'll probably have that for another lunch this week as well.

I also made the chickpea snacks, I had to stay down in my office so I wouldn't eat them all.

I'm off to the store to get baby spinach and other veggies for salads this week.

Main meals will probably consist of boneless chicken, fish, shrimp and venison. I haven't decided exactly what yet.

I posted my Moroccan Meatloaf in the recipe subthread - it was really yummy yesterday.

Tonight I took a small beef filet and seasoned it with Kansas City seasoning, grilled it on all sides in my grill pan. In a separate saute pan I combined 1 small onion sliced, 5-6 large fresh mushrooms sliced, 1/2 cup red bell pepper, and about 3 stalks of asparagus cut in 2" sections, tossed in 2T of Brianna's Santa Fe dressing/marinade which is great for this purpose - just 25 calories in 2 T. The vegies were the bed for the princess tenderloin filet and wow talk about great. Of course while you're eating this way, you are really hungry and good food tastes so good. I buy a whole tenderloin when they are on sale - they come at my market cut into 4-5oz portions so it's perfect to freeze and take out one at a time.

A good day today.