When I have a busy week ahead, one of the ways I stay on track is to prep as much as I possibly can over the weekend – and that usually means Sunday. This weekend I made a trip to Costco on Saturday, and a quick fill-in trip to the regular grocery store today. I typically don’t buy too much food at Costco since there are only two of us, but there are a couple of things that I do buy there on a regular basis.
Rotisserie Chicken – This is one of the best deals on the planet. They are $4.99 each, and I can do a zillion things with one of these babies! We usually eat it as regular roasted chicken the first go-round with veggies on the side. Then, cut the rest of the chicken up into pieces and keep them in the fridge as a quick “grab-and-go” source of protein. In the winter, I make chicken noodle soup with the bones and the leftover meat or make chicken “hash” with potatoes and onions. Other times, I chop up the leftover meat and make chicken salad or just put the meat over a big salad with chopped apples, cheddar cheese, and walnuts with poppyseed dressing…YUM! Anyway, for just under 5 bucks, I get a bunch of meals!
Organic Salad Greens – Again, amazing deal! This was $4.49 and this will form the basis of lunch salads for two of us for the entire week. That’s right. 10 salads.
There are two stacks of these in my fridge… 🙂 Compare this to last week when I bought 3 bags of salad greens for $2.99 each (ON SALE!!) at the grocery store! I change up what I add to the greens – grape tomatoes, chopped cucumber, shredded carrots, hard boiled eggs, turkey, ham, cheese, chicken, apples, pears, walnuts…not all at the same time of course! Overall, there is enough variety so that we don’t have to have the same salad twice in a week if we don’t want to!
Other than the salads, I wound up making my breakfast for 4 out of the 5 days this week. Hubby and I decided to clean out the cabinets and take stock of what we have in the pantry. I happened to find one of my favorite canned items:
If pumpkin doesn’t scream “FALL IS HERE!!” I don’t know what does! The other thing that means fall is here to me is oatmeal for breakfast. Put the two together and you get one of my favorite breakfasts this time of year – Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal! For the life of me I couldn’t find the recipe I usually use (though I knew it by heart at one point), so I adapted this go-round from this recipe.
Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal
2 cups water
2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 can (15 oz.) canned pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie mix)
2 T. raisins
1 t. pumpkin pie spice
2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
Sweetener of your choice
Chopped walnuts
Bring water, almond milk, pumpkin, raisins, and spice to a boil.
Add oats and lower heat. Stir frequently until oats are cooked through (approximately 8-10 minutes). Add sweetener of your choice (I like maple sugar).
Top with chopped walnuts.
This is a little tiny bowl – just enough to sample and make sure it tasted good. Oh yes. It was good. It was more than good. It was fall in a bowl. I just put this into single-serve containers and it stays great in the fridge. Heat up in the microwave – add a little milk, water, or almond milk to thin out if necessary. Add the walnuts at the last minute so they stay crunchy. This yummy breakfast will definitely help me start the day off the right – and not succumb to some of the other not-so-healthy choices out there in the rush of the morning.
Do you prep on the weekends? What are some of your make-ahead favorites?
Losing It Little By Little 