Get Ready

 Sunday  came and I had nothing pressing for the rest of the day. Oh sure I could have picked any room in this house and found some cleaning to do, but who wanted to clean? Not me! Instead I had a fridge full of produce, some newly purchased proteins and a meal plan for the week already stirring around in my noggin. 

It seemed like a perfect day to get ahead of the week and do some chopping and stirring while listening to some guilty pleasure podcasts. I took a page from Rhonda at If You Do Stuff, Stuff Gets Done, and chopped and diced salad and slaw fixings, then cooked a few things that could easily be made ahead  of time to be stored for later in the week.

Now the chicken chowder is made with the exception of adding cauliflower (keto substitute for potatoes)

and the cream. It smells delicious and I can't wait to try it, but for now it is headed to the fridge.

The Hungarian goulash is all put together and somewhat cooked but still needs a much longer cook time. I stuck it in the freezer for later in the week when I will thaw it and put it in the crockpot on low, to spend the afternoon simmering.

Spaghetti sauce is made and will just need to be reheated while noodles boil or zoodles get nuked.

I did get the collards cooked, but that is all I prepped for the vegetable dinner. I might go ahead and pre cook the squash, but then again I might not. The day is getting a little later and I am really ready to clean the kitchen and. move on to watching an episode of The Crown. 

All the salad fixings are washed, dried, sliced or cubed and living in little containers in the crisper drawer. I did wash the lettuce and spun it dry but I am tearing  the leaves on demand. They are currently wrapped in a kitchen towel inside an opened plastic bag so air can circulate around it. I did not make the dressings for salad because it takes just a few seconds  to whip one up and I like it better than making it in advance and having it cold. I have enough coleslaw made for 2 meals, but it is not dressed. I tend to season it differently based on what we are eating, so I made two different dressings that are waiting for coleslaw nights..

The cornbread I mention is not really cornbread at all, but is the keto substitute. Fortunately TheHub likes it and it has the taste and mouthfeel of real cornbread. One recipe of it will last more than a week, so it all went in the freezer to be thawed and eaten on demand..

I also had to make keto rolls for me. They do not taste and feel like real dinner rolls so I will buy some of those from the bakery for TheHub, but I did make a recipe of them to freeze.. They are decently tasty if they have butter on them, or to use instead of a bun for a hamburger, but  they serve mainly as a vehicle for other flavors and not as a stand alone "bread".. 

Now the only thing I have left is some sort of keto dessert and keto cookies. TheHub will actually eat some of them and I have tried several to cull the recipes to ones we liked well enough to make again. I am thinking crustless cheesecakes, and peanut butter cookies. Both freeze very well and actually pass the taste and mouthfeel test. It may happen tonight or I might make them tomorrow. It works either way, right?

So now I am all cooked out and ready for the week. This is going to be my test to see if advance cooking is really worth it to me. Since I tend to rebel against any plan it might feel too confining, or maybe I will love it. One way or another I will figure it out.