So, it's Saturday.

BULK COOKING DAY.

I'm making:

A giant pot of black beans to keep on hand for the rest of the week for chilis, sloppy joes, and tex mex fare.

A giant pot of chickpeas to make chickpea/seitan nuggets out of and a nice sized batch of spicy hummus

Veggie stock, to cook my brown rice in to give it a little more flavor

and of course, brown rice.

I THINK this is all I"m making.

I cant' wait to try tweaking my hummus recipe to make it spicy. Mmm hummus.

I like to cook a bunch of stuff on the weekend, then all week I have quick foods I can just heat and eat or use to make dinners that are a little more involved but still convenient.

My hummus came out VERY smooth. Mmmm.

Good for you! Everything sounds yummy.

I have chickpeas soaking today and will cook them in the crockpot tonight. I love hummus too. I also like to blends up the chickpeas and add BBQ sauce- makes a good veggie dip too. The real reason I am cooking them though, is because I want to make "chicken" salad with them. I have some fresh dill that is making me crave chicken salad.

Sounds great Lottie !!! I love hummus !!

I usually cook much more on the weekends as well. I typically don't get home from work mon-fri until 7 to 8 pm and I want something quick that isn't a lot of bother.

Can you post your recipe for seitan nuggets? My husband loves filafel, and I bet he'd like these too.

Hey, so am I! I just sat down to browse 3FC while my chicken simmers.

I simmered boneless chicken thighs with onion, then split into two skillets. One is simmering with canned saag (indian seasoned spinach or mustard greens), and the other is simmering with garlic and chicken broth).

The chicken saag I'm having tonight for dinner.

I'm also going to start some salad sprouts soaking, some dal (yellow split pea soup or porridge) in the crockpot, and will cook some wheat berries on the stove top.

Ooh, that's what I should do tomorrow. I've been having trouble sticking to my plan lately so having ready made stuff would help keep me on track this week.

These things are AWESOME.

I got almost everything cooked but these. And I started at 330! I will have to make them tomorrow.

http://expatlarissa.wordpress.com/20...ckpea-nuggets/

Good idea!

I sometimes have bulk cooking days but usually it is more like 'hey I'm going to make a whole bunch of a couple dishes' as necessary. Right now, I have a large tupperware of beans in the fridge and a large tupperware of brown basmati rice.

Thanks for the link!

yer welcome!

kaplods--what is the calorie count in your saag--that sounds really good

I bought the canned saag at an Indian grocery store, and it has only 210 calories for the entire can. The can is at the bottom of a very messy garbage bag, and I don't remember a brand name, but I believe "feast in a can" was written on the label. The ingredients were mustard greens and seasonings, including fenegreek. There were 15g of carbohydrates in the can and less than 8g of fat for the entire can (which was supposed to contain 3 servings 70 calories each).

So let's see I simmered 1 lb of chicken thighs and about 1 cup of sliced onions in water and broth powder, until the chicken was no longer pink on the outside. I transfered half to another skillet.

I added the can of saag and 2 tsp of butter (not really necessary, but I still had two fats for the day), and a 1/2 tsp of minced garlic, and simmered until chicken was cooked through.


SO, Chicken 240, onion 40, butter 70, chicken bouillon powder 5, saag 210

So 565 calories for the skillet full (making two generous servings).

The key to making it again is going to be finding the can of pre-seasoned saag.


I did make something similar not long ago, in which I simmered the chicken and onions as above, and added a can of spinach and a spoonful of Maggi Taste of India brand tikka masala paste. Very good, but not as much like restaurant chicken saag as much as tonight's dinner was (I regret not buying more cans of the saag - it was $1.99 for a 15 oz can, which I thought was a bit steep for a side dish - but as a base for the chicken it seems cheap - chicken saag helper, so to speak).

I've tried before and never had much luck replicating indian restaurant flavors until the saag tonight (well, I guess I cheated, in that most of the seasoning was done for me).

I make a faux chicken tikka massala that's really good too (good in it's own right, but not very much like restaurant versions). I start to simmer the chicken and onion like above (and often add red and green bell pepper slices), but use the whole pound of chicken and a whole medium onion and 1 to 2 bell peppers. Then I add a can of condensed tomato soup (Aldi or Campbell's) and 1/2 to 3/4 can of water and a tbs of the Maggi Taste of India tikka masala paste, and simmer until chicken is done and the sauce is as thick as I want it.

I love the Maggi Taste of India pastes. I have the tikka masala paste and the biryani paste. I bought those the last time I was in Bloomington (IL) to visit my parents. There's a little indian grocery store there (Puran Grocery). When we visited them last week, I bought a pound of dal and the can of saag. I was tempted to buy a lot more, especially of the seasoning pastes, but I still have about 1/3 to 1/2 of the two I already have in the fridge (since you only use a couple tablespoons at a time, the jars last a long while - although if you use the recipes on the jar, start with about 1/3 of what they call for and add more if you need to. I followed the recipes exactly, and my poor hubby couldn't even eat the dishes, they were too spicy for him. If I use 1/3 what the recipe calls for, it's perfect for hubby but a bit mild for me. At about 1/2 we can both eat it, but it's perfect for me. Usually I season for him, then when it's done, I portion out his food and then add a little more of the seasoning paste and simmer a few minutes longer to distribute the flavors.

The tikka masala is always better the next day, and I'm guessing the saag may be also.

Black bean sloppy joes? Can I have the recipe? Thank you!

It's not much of a recipe. hehe.

I just make sloppy joes the way you would with beef, but I use black beans

Some people use manwhich, but I use a 'sloppy joe seasoning pack' from mcckormic or iga or something. it's usually use add tomato sauce, water, and seasonings! very simple.

or you can always use manwhich or something canned like that.