I had my usual grocery order delivered this morning. I didn’t order quite as much as last week, which was a simply mammoth amount of stuff! I’ve still got quite a bit left over from last week as we’ve been out a bit and I didn’t get round to cooking and eating it all, but it will all be used up in the end.
I began by prepping a large leafy green salad with additions. This turned out to be a lot larger than I’d anticipated so I expect we’ll be eating salad till it comes out of our ears this week!
I began by separating the Little Gem lettuces and reserved a few of the better looking leaves for garnishes. I washed all the lettuce and a bag each of rocket and baby spinach, and divided it all into two large bowls.
I got out my Veggie Bullet machine and set it up for shredding, and did nearly half the carrots, and most of the cabbage.
You have to remember to put a bowl under the spout. Once, shortly after I got the machine, I forgot, and ended up with stuff all over the kitchen! That machine is fast…
You can see how much I ended up making – so much than none of my cooking bowls were large enough and I had to use the washing up bowl!
To the green leaves I added some peppers, red onions, cucumber and the carrot.
All bagged and ready for the fridge.
By this time it was lunch time, so I added a bit of the new salad to the small amount that was left over from yesterday. I also added a few cooked chickpeas and some brown rice, and dressed it with some Chef AJ’s Yummy Sauce and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
Back to the grindstone after lunch.
I used my chopping tool to prep the mushrooms.
I always wipe the mushrooms and then wrap them in a flour sack towel which allows them to breathe in the fridge. This way they don’t go all slimy and revolting the way they do if you store them in plastic.
I used the same method to chop the carrots. You have to slice them first because unless you cook them a bit, they are too hard for the tool to cope with, but it does save a bit of work.
This is all today’s veggies prepped and bagged…
with the exception of the cauliflower which I forgot about – I did this yesterday. When I ordered my groceries they said they had no cauliflowers so my hubby went out and bought me some yesterday.
I left some of the veggies unprepped – just washed, and ready to use. I don’t always want everything diced small. I bought the aubergine to use in some vegan pate – a new recipe I am keen to try this week.
This is all the new fruit that arrived this morning, washed and ready.
So what was left over from last week? It looks quite a lot, but it will soon get used up.
Last week’s fruit. There’s always quite a bit from the previous week. I get through a lot of lemons because I use one every day to make my rehydration drink. I never want to run out of fruit!
I always leave some bananas to get over-ripe and spotty. I absolutely hate eating them like this, but my hubby prefers them ripe. I have discovered that over-ripe bananas mixed with things are a lot sweeter than the under-ripe ones, and they are very useful for sweetening things. Every few days I make some more of my favourite breakfast which requires a sweet ripe banana, and you can also freeze them.
I freeze them separated on a tray with a non-stick liner. If you cut each banana into quarters, you can easily judge how much you need for a recipe – if it calls for half a banana, you just take out two portions.
So that’s my basic meal prep for the week. I’ve got lots of things ready to make up into recipes, and knowing I can just tip in some already chopped carrots, for instance, makes life a lot simpler and preparing the main meal a lot quicker. I can batch-cook recipes too, but I have decided not to try and do this all on one day. The first time I did this, I not only chopped and bagged masses of veggies, but tried to make up half a dozen recipes too, and it was completely overwhelming!
The final task of the day, which sorted itself while my hubby and I sat down with a cup of tea, was to put my Ninja Foodi on to pressure-cook all the trimmings to make some delicious veggie stock – what Chef AJ calls pot liquor. You set the machine and forget it, and it turns itself off once the timer comes to the end. I added my usual flavourings to give it a bit more pep – onion and tomato powders, garlic granules, and some herbs – bay leaves, dill and oregano. It always tastes delicious, and slightly different each time, depending on what veggies I’ve prepped during the day.
Time to go and get the evening meal on now. Guess what we are having. Yes, you are right. SALAD!!
