Introduction
A few months ago I introduced Monday Meal Prep and wrote a post about it. And I continued to use the Mondays for meal prep, but failed to create a post about it as slowly writing faded to the background. Maybe you've read that I'm trying to get back into the routine and push myself to do better lately, so here I am also with a new Monday Meal Prep post. I decided which things I would prep on Monday and started prepping the post on Sunday to make it easier on myself as Sunday's the office is 100% for me to use while on weekdays, I have to wait until it's free.
Freezer and fridge filled up nicely
This week starts with a fridge that can be called full, and the freezer doesn't have much space left to add food to either. We have been doing groceries this weekend at several supermarkets and I also noticed that we don't have any plastic containers left to fill with prepped food if we have leftovers, meaning that I should start emptying a few of them from the freezer as well this week. This way we will have a few containers again to use when we have leftovers and I will create new space in the freezer. Win-win situation.
I'm aiming on using some of the frozen meals, combined with some prepped food that I can use at least twice this week in a different combination and on top of that, use some of the frozen meat and veggies to create a good healthy meal on other days. I'm hoping to spend as little as possible this week and work a lot with what's already in the house.
The only way I can make this work is by making a list of the meals I plan on cooking this week, I want to plan at least 1 meal a day, but if possible, lunch as well. After I went through the ingredients, I created this list for the week, and now I can start with the prepping as well.
Quinoa
So, a while ago, I finally prepped the quinoa I had laying around in the cabinet for months at least. I had this idea in my head, that prepping the quinoa would be a lot of hassle and on top of that, we both never tried it (the normal version, puffed quinoa we did) and I was like, what if it's for nothing. But how can I find out if I won't try it, so a month ago or something, I made it and we both loved it!
I roasted the quinoa in coconut oil first, as I read that this would bring out the nut-flavor. Very simple, just take a spoon of coconut oil (I used virgin) and roast the quinoa for about 10 minutes before you cook them.
If the quinoa is done cooking, it will look like this:
I made too much, even though I read about the fact that you only need a little amount per person, I thought I should make a bit more so we can use it in a salad one of the next days without having to prep the quinoa first. This was an absolute winner if you ask me. We ordered food in from the Argentinean restaurant and we had some meat left as it was a big mixed grill we ordered.
The next day we used this meat combined with the quinoa and some extra vegetables, it was so delicious and a different experience than I imagined it would be.
I learned that quinoa is a nice ingredient to make some other ingredients come together, add a bit of dressing if you like and you're good to go. The bowl was so rich in flavors that we both were in awe and immediate fans.
This week, I plan on using the quinoa prepped today in the same style for one of the lunches in the next days combined with whatever we have or I feel like adding. I'm looking forward to it because I can still recall the successful quinoa lunch we had last time.
Potato salad
Some of the potatoes really needed to be processed but I'm the only one in the house that actually loves them. Whenever I have some extra that needs to be processed soon, I make a simple potato salad of them using just a few ingredients.
- Potatoes
- Egg (I use 2 to 4 eggs depending on the amount of potatoes I use)
- Corn (about a handful depending on the total portion)
- Pickle
- Salt
- Pepper
- Parsley
- Mayonnaise
The preparation of this salad is very simple, boil the potatoes and eggs first. About 15 minutes later, I also use a small pan filled with just a little bottom of water to heat up the corn for a few minutes. I always use frozen corn as I can portion it easier.
Boil the potatoes and eggs until their ready and then let them cool off for a while. I never let the potatoes cool off until their cold, but halfway there is ideal if you ask me. This way you can mash them easier than when their fully cold.
Once mashed, I slice the eggs and pickles and add them to the salad. It's usually this moment when I decide how many eggs and pickles I exactly add, because I need to see the salad come together.
I add salt, pepper and parsley and a bit of mayonnaise. The mayonnaise needs to be the right amount, don't add to much, just add a bit at a time until you feel this is the right amount.
Last, I add the corn and egg in parts plus the pickles. I prefer to portion the salad so that we can take one bowl out every time we eat it.
I make sure everything is all cooled off and then keep this in the fridge for three days max. Usually when I have this salad I find a few dishes to add this as a side dish, where I don't have to worry about prepping potatoes that day but can just scoop it out of the bowl, shortening my food prep time for that day a lot.
As per my daughter's request
Who has been quite the challenge lately regarding food, today we had a breakthrough and she requested some vegetables to try again. Now, I know her a bit (lol) and I know if I prep them without covering them up at least a bit using some potatoes, she will stop eating quickly. Therefore I have to make sure it's "soft" in flavor by mashing the veggies through the potatoes.
She wanted to try carrots and green beans, I also noticed we have some peas in the freezer, so I'm going to make a few containers with a potato mashed meal of each of these vegetables mentioned above. She promised she'd eat them when I present them, so fingers crossed. We don't often eat potatoes here, as my boyfriend doesn't really fancy them, but I do so I'm happy to have a week with a few more potato dishes.. Especially if I can just heat them up and save myself some prepping time by doing most of the work on Monday in advance.
The pictures speak for itself, right? Just a simple prepped potato mash with a little bit of real butter and vegetables. I only need to heat it up shortly, easy peasy!
Conclusion
I'm very happy with the results of this Monday Meal Prep! I bet I'm very pleased this week as we have a few appointments and not much time to cook these days. I love having some easy food in the fridge that's already prepped upfront. Not much dishes afterwards either, I already had that part today!