Week 1

I've always been a relatively healthy eater-- but after going back to school full-time and working two part-time jobs, it's become a little more difficult. Now that 2013 has closed out and 2014 is here- I've resolved to be better about planning and preparing healthy foods in advance. My goal is to make at least 3 days worth of meals by Sunday night.

Most of the food I'm preparing is primal/ paleo- but we will see what transpires over time.

Here's the menu for the week

1. Chicken enchilada
2. Beef Ropa Vieja
3. Baked eggs in a pepper
4. Various snacks and sides: spinach bread, biscuits, roasted sweet potatoes
5. Chicken coconut soup
6. Turkey meatballs with zuchinni pasta

Here's all the food at once!

Instead of making the two crock pot dishes in advance, I prepared all the vegetables, etc. and put them in containers so I could just throw the meat and other ingredients in the crock pot in the morning before work. That is working really well-- now when I get home there is hot food waiting for me! Plus, if I do end up going out for dinner one night or something, I don't have to worry about the food going bad because it's been sitting in the fridge for so many days.

Here's some of the snacks/ sides:

Roasted sweet potatoes: I cubed a large sweet potato, put it in a bowl and mixed with grapeseed oil, kosher salt, and rosemary. Baked at 365 for about an hour... stirring a few times.

 Plantain Chips: Two plantains-- put them in the food processor (slicing disc)... I think these were too thick... next time I'll do 2-3mm rather than 4. 1mm was way too thin. I coated them with coconut oil and kosher salt. De-lish!

Spinach bread- this recipe comes from Mark Sisson's Paleo Blueprint cookbook... I adjusted slightly, 1 16oz bag of frozen spinach (thawed), 5 eggs, garlic powder, salt, and 2 TBSP ghee. Baked at 350 for about 30 minutes. This is super useful if you want to make a "sandwich" or want a side with breakfast.

Here's a picture of meal 1! Chris is not into the paleo thing-- so I made his primal, by adding a little Parmesan cheese. The italian meatballs were delicious! It was very simple-- 1# ground turkey, 1 egg, 1/4 almond flour, then some oregano, garlic powder, rosemary, hot pepper flakes, dry mustard, and salt/ pepper. 

The zucchini noodles... not for me. I sliced them in my food processor and then threw some ghee in the dish and microwaved. They were just really watery. I may try them again, but I think there are better ways to eat zucchini. 

The brown blob on the right side of the plate is a paleo biscuit. This was super disappointing. I would probably make them again, but throw in the some herbs (I'm thinking chives and garlic... or maybe onion and bacon... something to give it some flavor. These biscuits literally taste like nothing). 

Recipe: http://paleomg.com/breakfast-biscuit-sandwiches/

That concludes the first day of food prep and meals for week one! I'm planning to post pictures and evaluations of the rest of the meals this week.. tomorrow- chicken enchilada stew!