So now that things are becoming a little more routine with Leah, I want to start a menu plan. Cooking a few things on Sunday that can be rewarmed or thrown together on a different night during the week. Particularly for the days that I have to work. I've looked at a few 30 minute meal plans, but I'm just feeling uninspired.
The other problem aside from being a lazy whore, is that I'm fat. And need to get my shit back into shape. I bought running shoes on an insomnia driven whim like 10 days ago (#ImmaAmazonJunkie) and have yet to so much as try them on. I bought new sports bras too. No more excuses!
I know that I need to lose weight. I have done it before and know the in's and outs of it well. I know that a better menu and more exercise will make all the difference, give me more energy to plan menu's and not groan every time I have to get up from picking up Leah off the floor, blah blah blah. If only it didn't require so much effort.
Any chance you'd be willing to share your tips with someone who is too lazy to construct of plan of her own? Recipes are welcome!
You're da Best!
7 comments:
Have a CrockPot? Any meat + any bottled sauce on low for 6-8 hours. Microwave some frozen veggies. If you've got some extra time, make a starch. DONE.
For example, chicken thighs (boneless & skinless) + BBQ sauce; OR chicken breasts (boneless & skinless) + Italian salad dressing. We eat a lot of chicken. :)
For fancy, you can make a roast. Put the following in order in the crock: small potatoes, baby carrots, pearl onions (I just dump from the frozen bag), and the roast. Sprinkle onion soup mix over everything. Pour 2 c. water over that. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. DONE.
If you're going to be prepping things on Sunday, you can just ziploc the meat and/or veg into marinades, and cook when the time comes.
Pinterest has some fabulous quick recipes and lots of CrockPot/slow cooker stuff too. You can also look at A Year of Slow Cooking for ideas.
Oh, and we do pasta w/ meatballs and sauce every Monday. Rotini, penne and ziti are easiest for toddlers to grip. Frozen meatballs, jar of sauce, can of diced tomatoes.
I have found allrecipes.com to be fantastic for meal planning purposes. You can chose healthy meals, quick meals, meals by ingrediant, you need a meal that is X, plug it in the search engine and you are good to go. I even "subscribed" in order to be able to make week long menus and then the grocery list is made automatically, then I go in and edit the list-delete what we already have and add any of our "staple" items (deli meat, cereal for breakfast, etc...) It takes me less time then doing it by hand and makes meal planning do-able.
You should check out Pinterest :) They have TONS of recipes :)
http://palmtreemama.blogspot.com
Fiona posts a lot of delicious, healthy, easy meals. Check out her archives!
Those quinoa/feat/spinach burgers I mentioned in my WWW a couple of weeks back are SUPER quick and easy and delicious (and 235 cal/ea).
Ha! My oldest is 5 and we still have nothing as sophisticated as a "meal plan" going on. We end up cooking 2 meals anyway because we have a very picky eater. But here is what our meals generally look like--we eat out way more than I care to admit: one night of pasta (with either spaghetti sauce, pesto, or just olive oil/parmesan), one night quesadillas (you can put just about anything in them, I like to sub roasted sweet potato for beans), one night tacos. In the summer, lots of grilling of meat and veggies (leftovers can be thrown on pasta, and sliced, grilled polenta is ah-maz-ing), and lots of double batches of soup/stew in winter. And I'm not to good to eat sandwiches for dinner, just keep good ingredients around (grilled sammies in winter with that soup hits the spot). I dunno, my life is too busy to schedule out meals, but you can do a lot with a few basic ingredients around the house. I'm always looking for more inspiration too, pinterest is great, but like every other magazine, blog, etc, it can make me feel inadequate about my perfectly fine cooking. Good luck getting your cooking groove back.
I use www.pepperplate.com. It is super easy to import or copy/paste recipes in, and then you can use it to make a meal plan or even print grocery lists of the ingredients. I've used it for a month and LOVE it. Plus it's totally free, so it can't be beat. I can't eat gluten or dairy and it's hard finding cookbooks that take those food issues into consideration, but this way I can import my favorite allergen free recipes from the interwebz and I'm totally set. I think it also has apps for iPhone, iPad and the like. Best of luck!
Great, easy recipes... The Flat Belly diet book and associated cookbook. Good luck on the getting back into shape. I'm still struggling with it myself, but I am trying to add exercise back into it. You should also use MyFitnessPal to track your food....you'll be unpleasantly surprised at how it all adds up.
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