Sticking With The Plan

It's now Thursday, I'm still keeping with this week's meal plan.  I thought I'd keep you posted so you can see that it is doable to have home cooked dinners even during the busy week nights.  The salmon on Monday was great, but keep in mind, if you don't like salmon, use a different fish.  There were a bunch of veggies left over and I ate the for lunch on Tuesday.  Tuesday we had a few things going on in the evening so we had the Cauliflower Mac and Cheese for dinner.  It only took 30 minutes to get on the table.

You could even cut time down by buying chopped cauliflower or cutting it ahead of time, like when you're putting the groceries away.  You can rinse the cauliflower, cut half of it up and put it in a zip lock bag in the fridge.  I used parsley and chives this time.

 I get everything together while the water for the pasta comes to a boil.  Again, you could shred your cheese ahead if you think it will save you a few. Once the water boils I melt the cheese into the sauce while the the pasta cooks so they're done at the same time.  9 minutes!

Serve with a nice big salad.  I'm still working on the switch to whole wheat pasta.  I like it with some things but somehow I just can't mess with my mac and cheese.  I'll keep working on it though!

Wednesday morning I got up and got my chicken in the crock pot for chicken tacos.  This is the recipe from 100 Days of Real Food that is the best thing ever. Chop and onion and throw it in.

Lay the chicken on top and season.  I used salt, pepper, garlic, cumin and chili powder.  Put the lid on, turn it to low and walk away for 7 or 8 hours.  Who doesn't love a chicken that cooks itself while you're at work?

Come home to a cooked chicken ready to shred for a variety of uses.

When I pulled it out the breast detached itself from the legs and wings.  This is handy if you like to keep the white meat and dark meat separate for different uses.

The meat shreds easily with a fork or keep it in larger pieces if you like.

There is plenty for tacos, chicken salad and maybe a green salad or two.

I pulled out the bones and removed all the skin and meat.  I put the bones back in the crock with some celery, carrot a fresh onion and some salt and pepper (didn't have much for herbs on hand).

Fill almost to the top with water and turn it on low and let it go over night (if you like to make homemade stock).

I got 5 pints out of it.  I put these in the freezer and use later.

But back to dinner....Chicken and black bean tacos on the whole wheat tortillas we made on Sunday.  They were pretty good but decided the tortillas need to be rolled out thinner.  Not bad for a first attempt.

So that brings us to today, Thursday.  We're having Slow Cooker Pork with Noodles tonight.  I usually make this with a pork shoulder but I had a bunch of pork steaks from our meat CSA so I'm using those instead.  I chose this one for tonight because nobody has to be anywhere tonight (whaaat?).  Not that this requires a lot of attention but I like to add more veggies than the recipe calls for so I'll probably stir fry some carrots and pea pods to go with it. So far so good! I love when a plan comes together!