veggie meatloaf recipes easy image
Bronowyn
I'm 29, and I am having trouble organizing my recipes (and staying motivated enough to do it), to plan my meals for the week. I usually get home around 7pm, so planning for a 2 hour preparation is too late. I've tried many things, but they turn out too fatty, or have too much sodium. We are healthy people, and don't want to have this make us fat. We tend to, currently, eat a lot of frozen stuff or take out. I am a good cook, I'm just lacking time to make a pot roast in the evening.
Answer
Slowcooker is a good idea for meals like that roast.
I love talking about freezer cooking too. You can cook double recipes when you ARE in the kitchen, serve one and freeze one. Slowly you are building a bank of meals in the freezer that can feed you well within a half hour from walking in the door. This is homemade convenience food exactly the way YOU want it.
You can also streamline tasks in the kitchen other ways. It might sound contradictory if you are trying to just get one meal on the table, how can you do more if this is already overwhelming?
Try this: Everytime you are preparing food, in addition to the tasks needed to serve the upcoming meal, do at least ONE extra thing that will speed up a meal later in the week, and at least ONE extra thing that will help you beyond that.
So for example. You come home and your dinner plan is meatloaf with carrots and mashed potatos.
First advance plan is to make TWO meatloafs. You can make two by spending only a couple extra minutes than it takes to make ONE. Then freeze one.
While you are preparing the meat mixture, you can do any number of other things while you are at it.
After you chop the one onion in the recipe, chop 5 more and freeze them. After you make the bread/cracker crumbs for the recipe, make 3 more cups and store them for later. When you get the eggs out, go ahead and mix up tomorrow's omelet and store in the fridge. See?
While the meatloaf is in the oven you can do any number of things too. You can prep fresh vegetables, clean, peel, slice or chop, whatever and have a snack tub going in the fridge. You can make a dessert. You can start a spaghetti sauce with the rest of the hamb from a HUGE package you bought because you were thinking ahead, and freeze all of it.
At first this sounds like a lot of time, but it is an investment of time. You are spending a little more time now to get a lot back later. You are already in a mess, you have the equipment and ingredients out. In time you will be able to serve more complicated recipes than just quick cook all the time, much of which is great but this is even more options. How? Because some complicated step in the prep is done. If you have meat sauce waiting in the freezer, it becomes a lot easier to throw together a lasagna. If you have veggies prepped, you can toss them into a 10 minute stirfry. If you have frozen some cookie dough you can make a single pan of slice and bake that are completely homemade and YOU control the ingredients that went into the recipe.
You might want to rethink the down time in the kitchen, that time when you are waiting for the food to cook. You might find this a good time to hop in the shower, or fold laundry or read mail, or watch tv. Maybe it is a good time to do those things but maybe the time could be better spent if you are focussed on kitchen tasks. You will be there to catch any problems with less attention: pots boiling over, something starts to get overdone, etc. If you are folding laundry you may not catch these kinds of things early. Try to devote that whole time in the kitchen, from gathering your supplies and ingredients to serving the meal, to kitchen tasks: cooking, prepping, organizing, cleaning the kitchen, meal planning, straightening the pantry, etc. This gives you a leg up on the amount of future work in the kitchen.
Slowcooker is a good idea for meals like that roast.
I love talking about freezer cooking too. You can cook double recipes when you ARE in the kitchen, serve one and freeze one. Slowly you are building a bank of meals in the freezer that can feed you well within a half hour from walking in the door. This is homemade convenience food exactly the way YOU want it.
You can also streamline tasks in the kitchen other ways. It might sound contradictory if you are trying to just get one meal on the table, how can you do more if this is already overwhelming?
Try this: Everytime you are preparing food, in addition to the tasks needed to serve the upcoming meal, do at least ONE extra thing that will speed up a meal later in the week, and at least ONE extra thing that will help you beyond that.
So for example. You come home and your dinner plan is meatloaf with carrots and mashed potatos.
First advance plan is to make TWO meatloafs. You can make two by spending only a couple extra minutes than it takes to make ONE. Then freeze one.
While you are preparing the meat mixture, you can do any number of other things while you are at it.
After you chop the one onion in the recipe, chop 5 more and freeze them. After you make the bread/cracker crumbs for the recipe, make 3 more cups and store them for later. When you get the eggs out, go ahead and mix up tomorrow's omelet and store in the fridge. See?
While the meatloaf is in the oven you can do any number of things too. You can prep fresh vegetables, clean, peel, slice or chop, whatever and have a snack tub going in the fridge. You can make a dessert. You can start a spaghetti sauce with the rest of the hamb from a HUGE package you bought because you were thinking ahead, and freeze all of it.
At first this sounds like a lot of time, but it is an investment of time. You are spending a little more time now to get a lot back later. You are already in a mess, you have the equipment and ingredients out. In time you will be able to serve more complicated recipes than just quick cook all the time, much of which is great but this is even more options. How? Because some complicated step in the prep is done. If you have meat sauce waiting in the freezer, it becomes a lot easier to throw together a lasagna. If you have veggies prepped, you can toss them into a 10 minute stirfry. If you have frozen some cookie dough you can make a single pan of slice and bake that are completely homemade and YOU control the ingredients that went into the recipe.
You might want to rethink the down time in the kitchen, that time when you are waiting for the food to cook. You might find this a good time to hop in the shower, or fold laundry or read mail, or watch tv. Maybe it is a good time to do those things but maybe the time could be better spent if you are focussed on kitchen tasks. You will be there to catch any problems with less attention: pots boiling over, something starts to get overdone, etc. If you are folding laundry you may not catch these kinds of things early. Try to devote that whole time in the kitchen, from gathering your supplies and ingredients to serving the meal, to kitchen tasks: cooking, prepping, organizing, cleaning the kitchen, meal planning, straightening the pantry, etc. This gives you a leg up on the amount of future work in the kitchen.
Tired of the same old stuff for dinner. Anyone got any really good quick and easy recipes?
Good Girl
Sick of spaghetti, meatloaf, porkchops. Need something tasty and that doesn't take a lot of time to make. Thanks in advance!
Answer
I already gave this to another questioner:
brush chicken breasts with olive oil, sprinkle with lemon pepper, grill - serve with rice pilaf & steamed veggies
I already gave this to another questioner:
brush chicken breasts with olive oil, sprinkle with lemon pepper, grill - serve with rice pilaf & steamed veggies
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