One of the things I believe helps, is having good food here at home. The nights we eat badly are the nights I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to make. So, instead of making something, I’ll tell him “maybe we can have Mexican tonight…”
What I want to get into the habit of (and once I do, who knows how long it will last) is to make a weekly menu. To plan meals ahead of time. And to plan them so that the leftobers from Sunday can go into a meal I’d make later in the week. If it’s not a complete meal by itself, that is.
Like make a roast on Sunday, use the leftover meat (and to make sure I have leftover meat, because the roasts I’ve been making are pretty small, I find it helps to not overeat if the food isn’t there… .....I just make sure there’s lots of veggies, like mashed potatoes and the side veggie, he can fill up on those instead of meat) to make tacos or burritos. Shred the beef, cook it with onions and different peppers, red/green/yellow, that stretches the meat quite a ways, I’ve actually been able to get three meals out of one tiny roast. Well, maybe two and a half.
So, last Friday I made Beefy Spanish Rice and had at least half of it leftover. I had planned this, because I figured I’d stuff bell peppers with it this week.
And that’s what we’re having tonight. Stuffed bell peppers.
Since it’s so miserably hot here today, 95.5° in the shade right now, I figured I’d use the crockpot. I found a recipe in one of my many, many crockpot books. I took three small bell peppers (I’m using a small crockpot, not one of the big ones), washed and cut the tops off, emptied them of seeds and the membranes, shredded some cheddar cheese (the recipe called for Jack, but we don’t really use it enough to keep it on hand), mixed half of the cheese with the rice mixture and stuffed the peppers with this. I poured a can of tomato sauce into the crockpot and placed the peppers in the crockpot. It’s set on low and dinner should be ready in about six hours. Before serving, put the rest of the cheese on the peppers and spoon the tomato sauce over them. I’ll serve this with a side of corn, because sometimes it’s fun to play with your food and I can mix it all together on my plate.
One of the things that comes in really handy is having the ingredients you’ll need on hand. I finally broke down last month and ordered some of those green bags, the ones that keep veggies fresh longer and so far, I’m pleased with how they work.
Now that dinner is cooking for tonight, what am I going to do the rest of the week….
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