Meal Preps Week 5 and 6...

Holy crap!

I can't believe we've been at this for 6 weeks already!

Terri and I have found we roll into a pretty natural routine now.  We find it thoroughly amusing that we know what's in each others fridge/pantries.  Example a text I received last week - "Pull the bacon out of your freezer, we'll use that for the Brussels recipe..  Is it weird I know what's in your kitchen?"

Hilarious.

Anywhoo - Week 4 was at T's house this week. Our recipes this week were:

 - Honey Garlic Meatballs.  We've done this before, but had some left over.  So I text T to pull them out of her freezer (again we know each others kitchen contents). And I would make half the recipe than last time.  That was my crockpot contribution.
 - Boiled chicken (thigh meat) then seasoned.  Terri then shredded the meat and we rolled up little wheat tortillas to make tacos and wrapped them separately!  (That's what the green cylinders are in the picture)
 - Turkey Meat Sliders.  Well - I made sliders - T just sticks with the patties.  We used Liquid Smoke to make these.  We figured it'd be fun to try and it was delicious!  Just ground turkey meat mixed with egg, breadcrumbs and the Liquid Smoke!
 - Pine Nut Couscous (From a box)
 - Mashed Sweet Potatos
 - Cucumber Salad I wouldn't recommend this again for meal prep.  It uses Greek Yogurt and it just wasn't good after like day one.
 - Apple Coleslaw Also - this one doesn't last as long, but I added it into my chicken tacos and onto my Turkey Sliders and it gave them some good flavor, but by mid week it wasn't that great anymore.
 - Soy Sauce Green Beans.  This was my suggestion.  I thought it would be a nice change up from our normal garlic and green beans.  Boy was it!  Delish!

I don't to seem to be getting better at not injuring myself.  I didn't realize Terri got a new peeler and I almost sliced my thumb off.  I need to make a mental note to always bring more band-aids to Terri's house.

I did pretty good this week with the food, but got burnt out.  I think it's because a couple of the things didn't keep.  I'm not going to lie - I may have found myself devouring an Arby's Roast Beef Sandwich one day because godammit I wanted something not healthy!  But don't worry - if I don't eat some of the food it doesn't go to waste.  It goes to my landlady who is thrilled.  I do eat most of my meals but once in a while a dinner or lunch plan pops up.  This is when Keri lucks out!

We also have been sticking to our smoothie breakfasts and hard boiled egg & grapes for snack.

We bag up greens for the smoothies.  Either Kale or Spinach.  This week was baby kale which actually went bad so I say stick to regular kale and spinach.

Terri likes to freeze her fruit then mix up with coconut water.  Personally I throw in some ice cubes and juice for mine.

I had a bit of a struggle this week.  I think it's partially due to the fact that I'm fighting food burn out.  I mentioned this in my 1st meal prep blog.  It's hard for me to commit to a diet.  I'm sticking to it though and not beating myself up if I have one week not as good as the others.  Terri is really enjoying it and says she notices the difference.  I don't notice a difference but it's certainly a time and money saver.  I also couldn't do my normal work outs (boxing classes) due to my new tattoo which you'll see in my next blog.  So that was part of it I'm sure.  Back on track this week though!!

So - week 5!

Back at my house.  Which is HOT AS BALLS!  I did another crockpot recipe which the link is below and I freaking LOVE IT!  It's so yummy!!!  I'm using it to make little sliders.  Last time I tried to do chicken in the crockpot it didn't really come out right, but this one totally did and it's soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good!  Terri will stick to just the meat but Jami here is a carb girl so sliders for me!  This week:

 - Pulled Chicken
 - Italian Dressing Chicken
 - Sausage Stew - now, I'm not a huge stew fan but the Oregano in this is pretty damn good!
 - Brussel Sprouts
 - Garlic Couscous (from a box)
 - Cauliflower Mash
 - Corn/Bean Salad - this is my favorite!!!  So friggin good!!!  I didn't think I would like it because I'm not a huge bean fan but OMG.  This must be repeated.

I think I've mentioned this but we always go to Smart & Final to get all our crap.  We're in an out of there usually in about a half hour.  We're getting quite good and knowing what to get and where to find it.

The little meat tray on top is our usual go to to snack on while prepping.

This meal prep day actually did not go well even though we got some yummy foods.  We got a bit of a late start.  The f-ing weather was against us again.  And we had our first major fail.

For some reason I just could not get shit together.  I made the Cauliflower Mash but it didn't come out as good as it usually does.  I also thought we could make zucchini fritters.  Terri is getting smart and making me cook more.  If I pick something out she's pretty much like "you cook it!".  I'm like a little kid that doesn't want to learn, but she's right.  I need to do it and get used to it.  So she left me to my own devices for this damn fritter.  Let's just say I royally fucked it up.  I wasted an entire roll of paper towels trying to get the the water out, which I ended up doing wrong (FYI I'm told to purchase some cheese cloths for this type of chore).  Um - you're supposed to salt it and THEN do this water purge thing.  Did you people know this?  Salt brings out the water?  Sigh.  It was a mess.  Then you had to let it sit.  Then you had to refrigerate it.  Jesus why so many steps!!!  "Did you read the recipe?"  Terri asked me annoyed.  Of course I didn't.  I just assumed Terri read it and would make it.  Lesson learned.  She is trying to teach me.  I'm being the stubborn student and not wanting too.  Well it went from bad to worse.  I started trying to cook it - in a cast iron skillet mind you - with oil and I hate oil and it could burn you and FUCK!  So I put on a coat in the zillion degree weather to protect my arms.  Terri of course took a photo of my ridiculousness while laughing at me.

Fuck these fucking fritters!

 Then nothing was working.  My stove is uneven because my shack is sinking so it's already tricky to cook on the damn thing.  Well, they were getting stuck.  I need a metal spatuala.  Borrowed Keri's.  Still f-ed up.  It was horrible and I was getting madder and hotter.  Finally Terri tried to step in more and they just sucked.  I started yelling at them that they looked like shit and weren't cooking.  Terri came over and calmly picked one up and took a bite.  Not a good face.  I took a bite.  WTF?!  They tasted like a weird chemical or something.  I have no freaking clue what went wrong because there was nothing weird in the recipe.  It had zucchini, carrots, potatoes, wheat flour and baking powder.  Nothing weird right?!  But huge fail.  I threw it all out cursing it and deleting it from my Pinterest.  I was so pissed to spend that much time working on something that failed so hard.  Plus we wasted all that food and money (Which of course Terri pointed out teasingly - "Jami that's like $4")  Fuck that one.  I was not happy.

After some reassuring rubs from my cat (she knows when I'm not happy) and some gentle relax remarks from Terri I calmed down and we fell back into the rest. 

Delish!

Sausage Stew Thing

I have to admit - even though I may not be noticing much of a difference physically, I really do enjoy certain things.  Like when I make something in the crockpot that is really friggin good!  I mean this pulled chicken I made is really really good!

I made dis!! 

Plus - I'm lazy when it comes to cooking so having my fridge look like this every Sunday makes me happy.

OCD dream

So we're still at it!  Terri is making me cook more.  I'm learning lessons whether I like them or not.  I'm saving money and eating more balanced.  The best part of all if it is getting to see one of my besties at least once a week!  This Sunday was even lovelier because after the hot ass meal prep and slight meltdown from my cooking fail, we sat out on my deck with the breeze blowing around us softly cooling us down, drinking some fresh brewed iced tea and had some much needed deep conversation.