It's officially fall, ya'll!

How can it possibly be that the summer of 2015 has come and gone already. I am a lover of warm weather and absolutely despise the winter season. Fall - well, I'm okay with fall, but unfortunately I have come to realize that no matter how much I wish and pray that we could jump straight from fall to spring, it just isn't going to happen. Anyways, there are plenty of food related things I love about fall - pumpkin everything, pies, cobbler, stick-to-your-ribs home cooked meals, football & party food... see, lots to love.

I finally have gotten back in the swing of things when it comes to our meals for the week. I actually went a little overly Martha Stewart with both the cooking and baking as well as the home decorating, de-cluttering and organizing last week. I feel so much more productive when the space around me is free of visual chaos and distraction.

Last week's lunches consisted of:

Crockpot Chili

Pasta Salad with Veggies

Brown Rice

Roasted Cauliflower

Sauteed Zucchini 

Oven Baked Salmon

Blackened Chicken

Spaghetti Squash (not pictured)

Brown Butter Cookies

Pumpkin Bread

 

The chili I was able to cook on Monday while we ran errands, and it was ready just in time for a friend to join us for Monday Night Football. The rest of the above items I made on Tuesday in under 2 hours; from the time I stepped in the kitchen to the time all the dishes were done and the lights were out. If you are new to meal planning or bulk cooking, I'm here to say that it doesn't have to be complicated. In fact, it can be really, really simple. I'll share all these recipes with you soon, but for now, let me tell you how I manage my time.

First, I start by figuring out what temperatures anything going in the oven needs to be cooked/baked at. For instance, the salmon goes in a cold oven that you heat to 400 degrees, while the bread and cookies are in the 350-375 degree range. So the first thing I did was prep the salmon and get it in the oven. That gave me 25 minutes before the next items could go in. So in this time I mixed up the cookies and bread, and set them to the side. Then I washed and chopped all the veggies. I started a pan of cauliflower on the stove (I was making enough that this would need to be done twice), and started another pan with the two chicken breasts, and a pot of the brown rice.

When the salmon was done, I removed it from the oven and set it aside. I dropped the temp on the oven and placed the cookies inside, which only take about 10 minutes. In the meanwhile, I set out all my food storage containers and their corresponding lids. The first batch of cauliflower was done (takes about 10-12 minutes), so I split it between two containers and put the second batch on. I also started a pot of water for the pasta and chopped all the veggies (cherry tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, bell pepper) and made the dressing.

The cookies were now done (we are about 40 minutes in at this point) and I removed them from the oven and placed the whole spaghetti squash and the pumpkin bread inside. I set the timer for 40 minutes. At this point, the chicken had finished (about 20 minutes of cook time), so I placed the two breasts to the side. The second batch of cauliflower was also done, so I placed it in another container and added the zucchini to the same pan to cook. The pasta was also finished, so drained it and added it to the veggie/dressing mix. Give this a shake and into the fridge it goes. I then transferred the cookies to a cooling rack and washed the pans.

At this point (about 55 minutes in) the brown rice is done as well as the zucchini, so I placed the zucchini in what would be the 4th container, added rice to all four, and topped each one with either a chicken breast or a salmon filet. Viola - into the fridge they go. At this time I washed all the pots and pans used on the stove top, as well as the cutting board and knife used for the veggies. I gave the counters and the stove top a good wipe down as well.

We are now about an hour and 35 minutes in, and the cookies are cool enough to transfer to a storage container. I have also checked on the squash and bread in the oven, which needed a little more time than the original 40 minutes, but are now finished. I remove both and turn off the oven. The bread needed to cool for about 10 minutes or so before removing from its pan, and then rests for another hour or so before going into a ziplock bag for storage. The squash needed to cool for about 15-20 minutes before it was cool enough for me to scrape out the insides. I place all the squash "noodles" in a large container in the fridge, this way we can add whatever sauce we like prior to reheating and serving. The pans get a quick wash and are left to dry.

So there you have it, just under two hours, and the only thing left for me to do is place one loaf of bread in a bag. I'd call that some time well spent! This gave us 4 full meals prepacked and ready to go, plus enough squash for 4 more meals (once we reheat and add sauce), enough pumpkin bread for 4 days of breakfast, and enough pasta salad for 3 more meals. We like pasta salad as a meal all it's own, but it could absolutely be paired with other items like grilled chicken or a burger as well.

Stay tuned for the above recipes!

Reality

Well, we are just shy of two whole months since my last post. That's semi-depressing, right? A lot has taken place in those last two months. For those of you who know me personally, you know Jason & I got married a month ago (there's the positivity I love, one whole month of marriage under our belt... whoo-hoo!) And with a wedding comes lots of running around, projects, traveling and just plain busyness.

I spent the first half of August in our hometown, which is the area we were married in. Lots of crafts, appointments for alterations, catering, and venue details, as well as a fair share of craft store trips, and figuring it out along the way. I have to say, our wedding day was everything I had dreamed of and then some. Having a great team of volunteers as well as hired help amongst our team made a huge difference. However, it was still a huge leap of faith knowing that many elements of our wedding were things I had dreamed up in my head. With this meant that I had to try to put into words what I was envisioning and make it come to life with all these helping hands. But boy did they deliver. The results were phenomenal and an absolute dream come true. Huge shout out to all the parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and bridal party who busted their butts to make our big day one for the record books.

The second half of August was spent soaking up the sun and sand in Cancun. We spent 10 days in paradise, and to be honest, I could've stayed forever. The views, the temps, the fact that the hardest decisions I had to make each day were Pool vs. Ocean and what type of cocktail I was ordering next.

After arriving back in Chicago and being greeted by temperatures more than 25 degrees lower than when we left Mexico that morning, the harsh reality that 24 hour room service food and beverage had expired was a swift wake up call. We had spent ten whole days (not counting all the hospitality of our families the days prior to the wedding) not thinking even once about meal planning, grocery shopping, or actual cooking. Everything from fine dining dinners to midnight sushi and cheese fries had been prepared for us and delivered at our beckoning call. But that luxury lifestyle is over now. Admittedly, we had been eating lots of desserts, drinking plenty of sugary cocktails and coffee beverages, and as mentioned above, processed items like cheese sauce as well as other less-than-stellar food choices. I don't recommend this as a long-term eating style, but you only live once. Our honeymoon was time to relax indulge and live carefree.

    

I'll get back to my overly organized, meal planning and bulk cooking self tomorrow. :) For now, I'm enjoying the reminiscing.