tips

One of the asks from my Blogtastic Blogiversary survey way back when was to share what I eat on a daily basis.

Yesterday, I REALLY tried to capture all my eats… but I suppose I’m just not disciplined enough to make it happen. After I had my carrot sticks in the afternoon, I realized they were all gone and unavailable for a pic. Here’s two pics that made the cut. Yeah… I am terrible at the whole WIAW thing that so many bloggers do.

I managed to snap a pic of my Veggie Delite moments before I devoured it…

Last night’s dinner was 1/2 cup of Skinnytaste Crockpot Bolognese and 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa – - LOVE that Bolognese!

So, rather than giving you the play by play of what I ate yesterday, I thought I’d talk a little bit about how I grocery shop each week. There’s two different goals I have when I go to the store: 1) To pick up ingredients for recipes 2) Buy the staples

Meal Planning

Meal planning is not my strength. I’ve made plans before, and then… I decide I’m in the mood for something else and deviate. It’s what I do. I try to keep my plans pretty flexible as a result. I’ve also learned from my sister-in-law Beth to plan for recipes that kind of complement one another and ones that have similar ingredients.

For example, I could make these three dishes on the same week because they contain common ingredients: tomatoes, avocados, onions….

I keep a list of items that I need to replenish on my smartphone because I always have that handy. I use an app called Evernote, that also links to my iPad so that I can constantly add it to whatever device I’m using. I use Evernote for to-do lists, Christmas gift shopping lists, etc… LOVE that App!

Staple Shopping

There are a few things I pick up every single week at the store. I am a creature of habit, but moreso… I NEED SNACKS! If I don’t have snacks ready to go, it can get REALLY scary at my house and my car can do crazy things like DRIVE THRU on the way home from work. No one wants that to happen!

Here’s a breakdown of what ended up in the cart this week….

Cheese Sticks – I must have been craving cheese. This is a rare purchase, and can take me months to eat… but they’re the cheddar mozzarella mix. Pretty tasty snack!
Asparagus – It was on sale. I ended up with both WHITE and GREEN. After eating it at LaDawn and Dana’s on Easter, I have a taste for it and just want more! Roasted, these make for GREAT sides.

Roasted White Asparagus… Yum-O!

Cucumbers - Quite possibly the most perfect veggie, I eat the heck out of these too… I prep them on the weekends so I have them ready to nosh on… I prefer English Cucumbers to the regular ones.
Bananas - I’ve been eating bananas for my mid-morning snack lately. Love them. Unfortunately, I like them on the greener side… so, again, a small bunch.
Apples and Pears – I take either an apple or a pear with me every day to work as a snack. SO GOOD. I bought four. I usually only buy enough for the week, so they don’t go bad… Trying a new kind of apple my boss recommended this week: Pacific Rose. We’ll see how it stands up to my favorite Honeycrisp. Note: Does anyone remember when fruit was my nemesis when I first started Jenny??

I’ve started displaying my fruit in the kitchen to tempt myself to eat it! Using that new cake plate I bought for the Gooey Butter Cake…

Grape Tomatoes - Another great snack, I literally eat these like grapes. I fill a little bag and take them to work for snacks some days and toss them in salads on others.
Butter Lettuce – I truly believe it’s the most superior of all lettuces… I bought two BIG containers of butter lettuce. Eating them this week with a favorite vinaigrette that I need to share with you guys at some point…
Lean Cuisine Lemon Chicken – I bought two of these… I just really liked it when I tried it last week. Try it!

Note: This list is missing one of my favorite weekly snacks… BEETS! But, I went to the wrong store this week. They’ll be back on the counter and in the snack bag next week!

Tell me about your grocery shopping. What must-haves to do you pick up every week?

Shopping Adventures... Definitely a NSV!

Flatout Spinach Chicken Alfredo Pizza

Weekly Weigh In and Snow Boredom

Over the past few weeks during my food preparation, I realized that I have two techniques that I use when prepping veggies that are TOTALLY worthy of sharing.

These are super-simple tricks you can add into your repertoire and feel like a genius when you do it (or something like that!)

Slicing Bell Peppers

I slice bell peppers almost every weekend to use for my snacks during the week. There’s a trick I use, that I think works wonders in creating clean, uniform peppers. Here’s how you do it:

1. Wash your pepper, and then cut off the TOP and the BOTTOM of the pepper.

2. Make a vertical cut in the pepper and then open it up so it lies flat.

3. Take your knife and run it horizontally along the pepper to remove all of the spines, seeds, and whatnot in one swoop of the knife!

4. Cut your peppers and they’ll be without those weird bends and extra white stuff on them. So easy!

Roasting Beets

This is actually something I just learned! Roasting beets used to be kind of a pain. First, you have to scrub the beet, then peel it, then chop it, then roast. You’d also have to find a way to get that red stain off your hands too that happened during the process.

The NEW technique that I’m using now is simple and brilliant. I roasted two beets in this manner this weekend, and have been adding them to salads all week. PERFECTION.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Scrub your beets. They don’t have to be perfect, but because they’re a root vegetable you’ll want to get some of the dirt off.

2. Place the beet in a piece of tin foil and wrap it up. Note: Do not add oil or salt and pepper. You can do that after you’re done if you need it. I prefer them just roasted, and I don’t think they need them in ANY way.

3. Roast each foil packet in the oven for 30 minutes to an hour at 400 degrees. Note: I used HUGE beets, so I cooked them for an hour, but you want them to be easy to stick a fork in to be considered done. Very similar to baked potatoes.

4. Open the foil packet and grab some paper towels.

5. Use the paper towels to easily rub the skin from the beets, exposing its beautiful beet colors. Note: Remove any deep crevices or eyes that might be in the beet. I also sliced the top off the beet to remove the remains of the stalk.