I really want to be more mindful of what I eat and what I cook. And since traditional journaling doesn’t work for me (never has), but blogging certainly does, I thought I’d take pictures in my kitchen every day (or so) and share kitchen notes regularly.
So here’s what’s been going on in my kitchen lately:
:: I have been making salads and experimenting with new (to me), different ingredients (beets!), but I could use more options.
:: I’m thinking about trying this recipe (or something similar, without the cheese)
:: I did some experimenting with arepas (cornbread).
* Baking them in the oven instead of in a frying pan works (just turn them once after ten minutes).
* Adding oil to the dough instead of baking them in a layer of oil doesn’t work
* My first try to make sweet arepas (with cacao and sweetener) was a total miss. It hardly had any taste. Next time use more sweetener (or add banana?) and cacao
:: I’m thinking about adding spices, onions, mushrooms and maybe even a bit of bacon or ham to them so we can eat them as is something instead of using them as sandwiches
:: A few weeks ago I made this very simple dinner that tasted really great, so I’m writing it down to help me remember: 2 boneless chicken thighs, 1 small can of corn, 1 small can of peas, 1 larger can of lentils, fajita seasoning.
:: Last week I found myself preparing a lot of raw veggies for a beach bbq and ended up eating them myself at home
:: I wonder if I could prepare smaller portions like this for a few days ahead to help me eat healthier (I usually don’t feel like cutting stuff when I’m hungry/craving, I just want to eat)
:: I’m thinking about meal planning a lot. I usually just buy a lot of staples and decide how to use them when it’s time to cook, but I feel like I got stuck in eating the same things over and over. And that’s not helping with the whole “don’t snack between meals” thing (if I look forward to a meal, it’s easier not to snack). There are also a lot of veggies in the supermarket that I don’t have the faintest idea of what to do with, so I never buy them. And I tend to buy things and then forget about them. So yes, doing a little bit of meal planning might be nice.
Next week could look like this (though I might switch days here and there):
Monday: steak/ pointed cabbage something (I just realized I bought one last week and forgot about it) I’ll probably combine it with minced meat, onions etc.
Tuesday: chicken, broccoli and probably some other canned veggies, rice (I have a bag of broccoli in the freezer, but it’s a lot of stems and I don’t like to eat those as a single vegetable)
Wednesday: Casabe with this corn/zucchini salad (sorry, Dutch recipe) and some meat (T. doesn’t do vegetarian – maybe chicken or bacon in the salad?)
Thursday: BBQ (2 types of meat, corn, salad)
Friday: fries, snacks (I’d like to add a salad to this and maybe make sweet potato chips) – we eat this every week before we go out and meet friends at Happy Hour (you can get food there, but it’s expensive and not quite tasty)
Saturday: easy meal (probably combining some meat and canned veggies into something edible, like the dish I described above)/ eat out
Sunday: BBQ (2 types of meat, corn, salad)
Well, let’s see how it goes…
What’s happening in your kitchen?