Tuesday, March 31, 2009

making food now for later

this week i'm trying out something new. on friday at lunch i went to the walmart supercentre by my office. there is a lot of great shopping by my office - this could lead to problems down the road as i tend to get carried away and spend money like a drunken sailor. that's not true, but i do buy myself a lot of things.

anyhoo, at the walmart supercentre, they had boneless skinless chicken breasts, unfrozen, on 5 big ones for $9. to me that's cheap, so i bought a pack. i also bought a package of ground turkey. except it wasn't "ground" it was "minced" - which basically means that it looked like sick turkey worms in a package. i just held my breath and put it in the cart.

i decided to do some cooking in advance to see if it would make my dinners and lunches easier during the week. on saturday i used one chicken breast between my bf and i, and he still complained that there was "so much chicken!" i think he doesn't appreciate chicken as much as i do. i think he would prefer a steak. well - since i know the nutritional value of both, i prefer chicken and that's what i'm cooking. this is besides the point.

moving on, on sunday i made the remaining four "chicken boobies" as bi0nic would say. i chopped them into cubes, and just cooked them on a skillet pan on my stove. i used some of the meat in a wrap for lunch, with avocado and spinach, except i didn't get to eat it because i FORGOT MY LUNCH AT HOME. yes, i'm still bitter. i brought it today though.... relax... breathe deeply... ok. i figure they will be good in wraps, on sandwiches, or just thrown in salads.

i used the "minced" turkey to make turkey taco meat, for taco salads. i just browned the turkey, then added a low-sodium taco seasonings package et voila! dinner for four. i'm not sure i would do this again because although it's tasty, each serving is four points and not very volumous, if you know what i mean. i had it for dinner tonight but it got lost in the shuffle - i added too many different vegetables and it dwarfed the meat. live and learn. i have three more portions so i'm sure by the fourth i'll have perfected my taco salad masterpiece.

8 comments:

Shirls said...

I'm a huge fan on pre-cooking, I try hard to make all suppers last for at least 2 evenings, I usually cook Sunday night and Monday night and then we swap the leftovers for the next two nights. I also have cooked 2 or 3 main dishes on a weekend, then divide them all up in small single serving tupperwares and stock my freezer for lunches, a 3 batch of main dishes usually translates into up to 6 months of lunches for me! its a sweet deal, little time lots of benefits :0)

Laura said...

I also am a big fan of pre-cooking. I usually make something on the weekend and have lunch for the week. I bought the latest issue of Clean Eating magazine and made the moussaka. It was pretty good!

I stopped using packaged taco mix ages ago and replaced it with this recipe:
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

It's so much cheaper and tastes so much better, IMHO

Jaime said...

boooobies! hahahaha. :)

I love to precook chicken. Makes life so much easier.

Make chicken salad. Everyone is doing it!

Randi said...

I buy the huge pack but then make recipes out of them and freeze it. Then you don't get sick of chicken by eating it all week. Like you can still cook it like you did, but then, freeze one with frozen veggies for a stir-fry etc. Ground turkey is also really good in chili. You can make "white chili" with white beans and stuff. It's good, google a recipe.

Jen said...

Smart move cooking ahead!! I have been trying to cook bigger dinners so that we each have leftovers for lunch the next day...and i try to make some kind of casserole or soup in case I get sick of the same old!!!

Turkey worms don't sound very appetizing!!!!

Lex said...

Wow, those jeans sound awesome. The pic isn't the best but they sound great!!!

Lex said...

WEIRD somehow my comment for your yoga post ended up on THIS post!

Anyhoo - now for my regularly scheduled post... lol

Precooking just makes so much sense, but I havne't gotten into the habit of it yet.... I am always a leftover person, and if I dont' have lefovers then I'm kinda screwed for lunch the next day... jeepers!

tash said...

I use a fake meat for my taco salad. It's already seasoned like taco meat and takes maybe 2 minutes ot heat up. It tastes just like beef and is delicious! I think it is called St Ives.