Busy Bee Meal Prep Sunday (17.02.2019)
It's been two weeks since the last meal prep was posted so let's dive right in. The reason I didn't post last week is simple. I made the same food as the week before - and a little bit less of it all because we were still eating those (frozen) boxes from the week before then.
All right. Here is this week's shopping bounty:
As you can see it's a lot of the 'regular' stuff (staples) but with some variety (a lot of mushrooms and a bit of cheese). The breakdown is as follows:
Vegetables: carrots, cabbage, parsley, sweet potato, broccoli, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, red onions, spinach, paprika, cucumber, zucchini, various mushrooms
Proteins: minced meat (500g used) and two pork schnitzel as well as six pieces of cod (four frozen and two fresh). Also: brown lentils (about 150g).
Carbohydrates (non-vegetables): a 75g bag of quinoa and about 200g of brown rice (not pictured). Three handfuls of whole wheat penne. About 200g of whole wheat flour to make the dough of the quiche (shown below).
And the foods we made out of it:
Left to right:
A big vegetable quiche (better image below simply because it's so pretty!). Three boxes of brown rice with Spanish meatballs. Two boxes (second row at the bottom) with pork schnitzel and potato-cabbage salad. The third row (plus one box with extra whole wheat penne to it): the meal of the week so to speak. This is a stew of vegetables and mushrooms (a lot of different mushrooms) with quinoa and brown lentils. The bottom two boxes on the second-to-last row are small sausage pieces with whole wheat penne on top of a mound of vegetables (you can't really see the vegetables though). The last row: as always the vegetable stir-fry with the fish (cod).
The recipes:
Note! I'm going to skip the stir-fry vegetables. You've seen that recipe a few times by now and the only really difference is the vegetables used. And you can really use any vegetable combination that you like for this. If you want to re-visit the 'recipe' check the bottom of this post here.
1. The Quiche
This was (predictably) the most time-consuming dish to make in all of this. I kept it to the end of the regular meal prep session (about 6 PM) and it took me until almost 8 PM. That being said I don't recommend it if you're pressed for time like many busy bees but if you do have an evening or afternoon and want to have some fun in the kitchen (the cooking kind mind you) then you might as well try it.
Hint! You might want to cut the vegetables you're using (list in the paragraph after next) first and set them sit with salt/on a paper towel/colander to get rid of moisture that'll otherwise screw up your egg-mixture.
The dough is simple (but needs to be chilled a bit so adding more time to the process): about 200g of flour and 75g of butter. This is rubbed together until you have coarse butter-flour pieces that look somewhat like sand. Then you add an egg and knead the whole thing into a dough. As soon as the dough sticks together properly you can roll it out and line your quiche dish. The whole dish then needs to go into the fridge until it's cold.
In the meantime you can prepare the vegetables. I used zucchini, paprika, mushrooms, and spinach. The most important (and most difficult) part is getting the water out. It's not something that I'm very good at. I'm still learning the best method to do it myself. As it was I simply cut up the zucchini before starting the dough and let it sit on a paper tower to get rid of some of the liquid. This worked... somewhat. The quiche turned out well but the egg/vegetable mixture before putting it into the oven was still rather liquid.
Anyway. All the vegetables have been cut and now need to go into a pan. This will pre-cook them and get rid of more moisture (but not nearly enough. It turns out water clings!). I did them in batches myself. The zucchini first on high heat in a non-stick pan. Then they went back on paper towels and continued to weep liquid. The same happened to the mushrooms and the paprika and two onions (one white one red).
While the vegetables were in the pan I prepared the 'custard' (I have no idea why it's called this since custard is usually sweet and tasty and this raw-egg mixture was... well. It was raw egg.). In my case this was five whole eggs, one package of grated goat cheese (about 150g), and one package of parmesan (40g). (I also added about two tablespoons of cream cheese and two tablespoons of sour cream but that is optional.) The eggs and the cheeses are mixed together until they form a nice smooth liquid.
Into the liquid go the vegetables and the whole pie-filling is mixed again. At this stage it'll be quite thick and probably a bit runny as well (all that liquid from the vegetables!). You can also add spices or fresh leafy greens. I added spinach and parsley.
Your dough should be ready as well. All the cooking of vegetables will have taken up some time and the dough is probably properly cold. It's time to fill the dough-lined form with the filling and pop it all in the oven at about 200°C. It'll be done in about 20-30 minutes and ready to eat!
In general a quiche of this size yields about 4-5 portions.
2. The mushroom-lentil stew
This starts a lot like the lentil stews I usually make and it includes (brown) lentils as well. The basics is to heat oil with onion and carrots at first and then add a liter of water and a chicken or beef bouillon (depending on your preference). The next step are the lentils (I used 150g of brown lentils this time) and quinoa (75g). You can also add a bit of tomato sauce/pureee (and other spices of your choosing) and then leave the whole dish to cook.
In about 10-15 minutes the lentils and quinoa will be 'almost done'. This is when you add any vegetables you like and also the mushrooms. I used a lot of different ones but most prominently brown champignons. The dish is about done when the mushrooms are tender (although you don't want to overcook them since you're going to re-heat this dish anyway) and divides into 4-5 portions. If you like you can add some sausage to it as well. Those go great with lentils.
3. The potato salad and schnitzel
The schnitzel is easy. You buy it and cook it in a pan. The seasoning you use is to taste (salt and pepper in my case) and it's done in some 5-10 minutes. Don't char it though.
The potato salad is also quite simple: a few potatoes and a bit of cabbage with some sour cream, mustard, vinegar, salt, and olive oil. All this is tossed and mixed together and in the end you get something delicious! Two schnitzel = two meals. If you want more meals then simply buy more schnitzel or add another protein you like to go with the salad.
4. The brown rice with Spanish meatballs
There is no secret to these meatballs other than using a found-on-the-internet recipe. In our version we followed this recipe here pretty closely: Link. The brown rice should simply be prepared as you package (In general: one cup of rice to one and a half cups of water) says.
That's about it! All of this week's meals wrapped up and ready to eat.
Do you like these recipes? Do you find them useful and quick? Let me know by commenting below! I'd love to hear from you!
WriteBot.
All right. Here is this week's shopping bounty:
As you can see it's a lot of the 'regular' stuff (staples) but with some variety (a lot of mushrooms and a bit of cheese). The breakdown is as follows:
Vegetables: carrots, cabbage, parsley, sweet potato, broccoli, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, red onions, spinach, paprika, cucumber, zucchini, various mushrooms
Proteins: minced meat (500g used) and two pork schnitzel as well as six pieces of cod (four frozen and two fresh). Also: brown lentils (about 150g).
Carbohydrates (non-vegetables): a 75g bag of quinoa and about 200g of brown rice (not pictured). Three handfuls of whole wheat penne. About 200g of whole wheat flour to make the dough of the quiche (shown below).
And the foods we made out of it:
Left to right:
A big vegetable quiche (better image below simply because it's so pretty!). Three boxes of brown rice with Spanish meatballs. Two boxes (second row at the bottom) with pork schnitzel and potato-cabbage salad. The third row (plus one box with extra whole wheat penne to it): the meal of the week so to speak. This is a stew of vegetables and mushrooms (a lot of different mushrooms) with quinoa and brown lentils. The bottom two boxes on the second-to-last row are small sausage pieces with whole wheat penne on top of a mound of vegetables (you can't really see the vegetables though). The last row: as always the vegetable stir-fry with the fish (cod).
The recipes:
Note! I'm going to skip the stir-fry vegetables. You've seen that recipe a few times by now and the only really difference is the vegetables used. And you can really use any vegetable combination that you like for this. If you want to re-visit the 'recipe' check the bottom of this post here.
1. The Quiche
This was (predictably) the most time-consuming dish to make in all of this. I kept it to the end of the regular meal prep session (about 6 PM) and it took me until almost 8 PM. That being said I don't recommend it if you're pressed for time like many busy bees but if you do have an evening or afternoon and want to have some fun in the kitchen (the cooking kind mind you) then you might as well try it.
Hint! You might want to cut the vegetables you're using (list in the paragraph after next) first and set them sit with salt/on a paper towel/colander to get rid of moisture that'll otherwise screw up your egg-mixture.
The dough is simple (but needs to be chilled a bit so adding more time to the process): about 200g of flour and 75g of butter. This is rubbed together until you have coarse butter-flour pieces that look somewhat like sand. Then you add an egg and knead the whole thing into a dough. As soon as the dough sticks together properly you can roll it out and line your quiche dish. The whole dish then needs to go into the fridge until it's cold.
In the meantime you can prepare the vegetables. I used zucchini, paprika, mushrooms, and spinach. The most important (and most difficult) part is getting the water out. It's not something that I'm very good at. I'm still learning the best method to do it myself. As it was I simply cut up the zucchini before starting the dough and let it sit on a paper tower to get rid of some of the liquid. This worked... somewhat. The quiche turned out well but the egg/vegetable mixture before putting it into the oven was still rather liquid.
Anyway. All the vegetables have been cut and now need to go into a pan. This will pre-cook them and get rid of more moisture (but not nearly enough. It turns out water clings!). I did them in batches myself. The zucchini first on high heat in a non-stick pan. Then they went back on paper towels and continued to weep liquid. The same happened to the mushrooms and the paprika and two onions (one white one red).
While the vegetables were in the pan I prepared the 'custard' (I have no idea why it's called this since custard is usually sweet and tasty and this raw-egg mixture was... well. It was raw egg.). In my case this was five whole eggs, one package of grated goat cheese (about 150g), and one package of parmesan (40g). (I also added about two tablespoons of cream cheese and two tablespoons of sour cream but that is optional.) The eggs and the cheeses are mixed together until they form a nice smooth liquid.
Into the liquid go the vegetables and the whole pie-filling is mixed again. At this stage it'll be quite thick and probably a bit runny as well (all that liquid from the vegetables!). You can also add spices or fresh leafy greens. I added spinach and parsley.
Your dough should be ready as well. All the cooking of vegetables will have taken up some time and the dough is probably properly cold. It's time to fill the dough-lined form with the filling and pop it all in the oven at about 200°C. It'll be done in about 20-30 minutes and ready to eat!
In general a quiche of this size yields about 4-5 portions.
2. The mushroom-lentil stew
This starts a lot like the lentil stews I usually make and it includes (brown) lentils as well. The basics is to heat oil with onion and carrots at first and then add a liter of water and a chicken or beef bouillon (depending on your preference). The next step are the lentils (I used 150g of brown lentils this time) and quinoa (75g). You can also add a bit of tomato sauce/pureee (and other spices of your choosing) and then leave the whole dish to cook.
In about 10-15 minutes the lentils and quinoa will be 'almost done'. This is when you add any vegetables you like and also the mushrooms. I used a lot of different ones but most prominently brown champignons. The dish is about done when the mushrooms are tender (although you don't want to overcook them since you're going to re-heat this dish anyway) and divides into 4-5 portions. If you like you can add some sausage to it as well. Those go great with lentils.
3. The potato salad and schnitzel
The schnitzel is easy. You buy it and cook it in a pan. The seasoning you use is to taste (salt and pepper in my case) and it's done in some 5-10 minutes. Don't char it though.
The potato salad is also quite simple: a few potatoes and a bit of cabbage with some sour cream, mustard, vinegar, salt, and olive oil. All this is tossed and mixed together and in the end you get something delicious! Two schnitzel = two meals. If you want more meals then simply buy more schnitzel or add another protein you like to go with the salad.
4. The brown rice with Spanish meatballs
There is no secret to these meatballs other than using a found-on-the-internet recipe. In our version we followed this recipe here pretty closely: Link. The brown rice should simply be prepared as you package (In general: one cup of rice to one and a half cups of water) says.
That's about it! All of this week's meals wrapped up and ready to eat.
Do you like these recipes? Do you find them useful and quick? Let me know by commenting below! I'd love to hear from you!
WriteBot.
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