I can cook . . . yes

Well, another meal prep for the upcoming week has come and passed.

Previously I have been on point with getting my lunches prepped, cooking and freezing batches on Sunday, occasionally supplimenting with dinner left overs.

This week I decided to try my hand at prepping some dinners for the week. This was inspired by 2 different things. First, I had some misses on my meal plan, when I just came home and could not face prepping then cooking everything. Secondly, the Nativity Fast is starting on Wednesday. I am going to make it part of my next 4 week challenge to have 0 days of breaking the fast (Thanksgiving excluded, obvi), so, with the struggles I faced with meal plans, and with how labor intensive some vegan recipies can be, I decided to set myself up for success.

So, left to right in the photo:

The 2 small containers are lunches for Monday and Tuesday. Those are my last non-fasting days, so I whipped up a batch of Ground Turkey Sweet Potato Skillet. Last time I modified and added zuchini. This time, yellow squash. Portioned out the 2 servings for lunches, and then the husband and I had the remaining 2 portions for dinner tonight. Rather, I had it for dinner and he had it as a snack to hold him over until the frozen pizza was cooked. He would have had to eat the whole skillet to feel full. Damn him and his super over-active metabolism and/or tapeworm! I take heart that he liked it so much so though. He has heretofore stated that he doesn't like sweet potato but was basically licking the plate clean on this one.

The glass tray on the right is some pre-cooked ratatouille. I have never cooked it before, but I have been wanting to. This particular recipe is from my copy of "From the Monastery Kitchen" which is cookbook put out by the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration, and is to be served with lightly pan-fried polenta (which, I likewise have never made but have been wanting to try). So, since none of the ingredients in the ratatouille itself seem like they would be any worse for the wear by pre-cooking and freezing, I whipped it up pretty quickly and will just have to fry up the polenta day of. Easy peasy. And hopefully yummy . . .

The tall plastic container is nothing pre-cooked, but at least pre-diced veg, for a Teriyaki Stir Fry. Got this recipe from The Make Ahead Vegan Cookbook. I highly recommend this cook book - I mean, there are only a few recipes in it that I actually want to try, but the first chapter is actually dedicated to explaning what can be frozen, for how long, what kind of container is best, best heating methods, etc, etc. Added bonus is each recipe tells you when in the cooking process to freeze and how long it can be in the fridge or freezer. So for this meal, the teriyaki sauce wouldn't freeze well, so it just has you dice up all the fresh veg you are going to use and freeze them, thaw them day of and cook quickly with the sauce and serve over rice. So not as quick as fully cooking and just nuking the day of, but not having to spend time chopping before I can even begin cooking still will make my Stir-Friday less of a time commitment.

Ziploc baggies in the back are left over zuch/squash and left over eggplant, diced and ready to grab out at a whim next time I need some. 

So, that is my meal prep for the week. Part of my goal in keeping all the fast days is to try a new recipe every day. But I know myself, and the laziness might take over on nights after particularly stressful days at the office. So I also have a head of lettuce at the ready to whip up haluski, and some perogi's in the freezer, so that I can sub in something that is still ok, and that I can cook in my sleep. So YAH for being prepared and knowing my own short comings.

And now . . . just to clean up the kitchen . ..

And once that is done - I am going to stop being an adult, play some video games, watch some tv, and maybe have a cup of tea and a small treat of cookies. Mmmm, cookies.  . .