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The previous couple of weeks I’ve shared our menu plan after the fact. What we planned to eat and what we actually ate. And I had fully intended to do that again for this week. BUT… my week sort of fell apart. I usually make new menu plan on Sunday but last Sunday we had one of my older girls over and I didn’t get the plan done. Usually that is no problem and I would just make the plan on Monday. However, the plan didn’t happen or Tuesday or Wednesday. By that point I decided to forgo the plan for the week and just wing it for the rest of the week. I have to say that whenever I do decide to wing it I am fully reminded that I work much better with a menu plan! Especially during busy times like now– it is tax time and makes for a busy few weeks for me getting everything together and making my deadlines. This week, I’m back to planning.
Because of my extra work load I’m going to do things a little different. Several months ago I bought a bundle of books during a special. One of the books included in the bundle was Well Fed: Paleo Recipes For People Who Love To Eat by Melissa Joulwan. Even though this is an ebook for people who eat Paleo I found it to have some great recipes and ideas. I especially love the batch cooking suggestions. I’ve actually tried the suggestions in the book (on a smaller scale) a few times. I’ve been cleaning and cooking up our greens as suggested in the book and in this post with great results. Cooking up all of the greens at once and then reheating what we need for dinner in duck fat or ghee is super quick and easy. Melissa not only precooks her veggies but also her meats. Read more about how her weekly cooking in this post. These ideas are very similar to those shared by Wardee at GNOWFGLINS in posts like this.
For this week I’ve already cooked up some ground beef and stashed it in the fridge. I also bought tortillas at the Natural Grocers– these are not soaked, soured or sprouted but are made with ‘better’ ingredients. And I’ve put black beans on to soak. I’ve also pulled some stew meat and a package of antelope steak out of the freezer. Monday afternoon I plan to take an hour to cook up veggies (greens, red cabbage, spaghetti squash) for the week along with doing the steak in strips for stir fry or fajitas. The stew meat will become a Crock Pot Dish (from my eBook Design a Dish) most likely Tuesday night.
While the Well Fed eBook is Paleo and we are not, I still plan to borrow her ideas for quick dinners by doing what she refers to as ‘hot plates’ in the book (she also talks about it in this post referring to it as ‘diner style’) but adding in rice or quinoa or millet. Using my rice cooker I can easily put these on to soak in the morning and flip to ‘cook’ about an hour before dinner for a quick addition to the meat and veggies.
This week shouldn’t be too terribly different than most weeks. In many ways this is very similar to my usual Stretchy Beans. I cook up a big pot of beans and a big chunk of meat early in the week and turn that into several meals. The big difference is that I usually have an idea what I’ll be turning those meals into in advance. 🙂 We’ll see how this week goes without that part of the planning in place.
Have you tried doing a big cook up like this early in the week and then just reheating as needed? How does it work out?