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WIAW: The Prep to Plate Edition

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Remember last weekend’s cooking and food prep extravaganza?

As if you could forget; that shit was awesome. It’s safe to say I’m proud of my accomplishments, and considering I sent the Hubby back to school with all of this, I’m allowed to gloat just a little

Hubby's Food For The Week

Besides even if gloating wasn’t allowed, I’d probably still do it anyway. ♫ “Can’t nobody take my pride. Can’t nobody hold me down. Oh no, I got to keep on movin.” ♫ I suspect bragging isn’t really what that song was implying, but I’m not going to let a little thing like details stop me. Pfft; that’d be ridiculous.

wiawloveyourveggiesmonthbutton2

I’ve decided to parlay my mini cooking marathon into What I Ate Wednesday for the week because even though I sent the Hubby back to school with all that deliciousness, you can bet your sweet glutes, I saved some for myself. A girl’s gotta eat, especially this girl; often. It’s better for all parties involved.

Therefore, I give you my Sunday eats, where I turned my food prep into fruition; literally.

My recently washed kale jumped into a blender along with some berries, a banana, and apple juice. I’ve had variations of this smoothie every day this week, and I love it. Quite frankly, I’m hoping for more kale in Thursday’s CSA pickup so I can keep this party going.

Banana, Kale Strawberry, Raspberry Smoothie

There’s nothing like ingesting one of “the healthiest vegetables on the planet” to start your day off right, and then following it up with a round of baked goods. Of course.

I had a slice of the bread on the left, which was a wonderful gift from a friend of mine, and I had three-quarters of the Radish Muffin on the right; specifically the one broken into two and laid out, belly side up for the photo shoot.

Baked Goods Collage

The first quarter was eaten by the Hubby to ensure it wasn’t poisonous because I was a little skittish putting a cup and a half of shredded radishes in muffins. I’d do it again in a heat beat though. Oh and did I mention the Radish Muffins are vegan? Yep, that’s right. Nutritious, delicious and vegan. I shall curtsy now.

I spent the better part of Sunday morning still working on kitchen prep, which included baking half of my newly washed kale and whipping up a batch of Chive Butter Mashed Potatoes. As a result, I sampled some of each; for quality control purposes, of course.

Recipe Testing Collage

By the time lunch rolled around, I wasn’t really hungry anymore.

I ate anyway because I find snacking on dribs and drabs, as much as I love to do it, eventually catches up to me and then suddenly I’m ravenous and ready to take out whole villages with a single bite. In my mind, I just saw myself as Godzilla; I think it’s appropriate. RRRRROOOOOAAAAARRRRRR!

So I ate; more of my newly washed and prepped greens. I split with the Hubby a lovely Spinach Salad with more fresh berries, red onions, chopped walnuts, and some of the richest and creamiest blue cheese I’ve ingesting in quite some time. It’s got fantastic veining. Mmm, veining. Cheese lovers will understand that one.

Spinach Salad with Berries, Blue Cheese, and Red Onions

In addition to the salad, I had a single slice of pizza for lunch. The stir fry I made the day before of garlic, carrots, green beans, hot peppers and Bok Choy became the base, or the sauce if you will, of my Veggiefied Pizza.

Veggie Pizza Collage

I came up with this pizza over a year ago, in a near desperate attempt to get rid of my Bok Choy and Green Beans in a single blow, while still being as humane as possible. I’m happy to report I’ve succeeded, and I’ll even take it a step further; of course I will.

I think this concept would work with almost any combination of vegetables. So the next time you make stir fry, make enough to save for later. One night of work becomes a completely different dinner on two separate occasions. You’re welcome.

Veggie Pizza

In the interest of WIAW and full disclosure, I went to the Breadsmith to pick up my weekly bread (Rosemary Olive this week; yes it’s as good as it sounds), and I happened to notice their sample platter. It’s possible I popped one of these into my pie hole, despite the pumpkin.

Pumpkin Bread Sample

I went the easy route for dinner and made breakfast instead. I’m glad I did because the Rosemary Olive bread was amazing and those crazy patty looking things are actually my Creamy Chive Butter Mashed Potatoes. I formed them into patties and browned them on a skillet until warmed through. Crispy crunchy and buttery on the outside, and creamy, cheesy and herby on the inside. I’m already thinking these will be a part of dinner tonight or maybe I’ll just roll around in the mashed potatoes. They’re that good.

Fried Egg, Potato Patties and Rosemary Olive Toast

There you have it. A full day of food born from hours and hours of food prep. I’m not gonna lie, it was a shitton of work, but I’m pretty much set for the rest of this week so in my mind, totally worth it.

Strange But Good

Before I bid you adieu, I’m also joining Laura’s Strange But Good link up this week. Bok Choy on a pizza isn’t exactly what my coworkers would classify as “regular” food. They don’t know what they’re missing.

How does your food prep turn into meals? Tell me about a day of your eats. I want to know everything.

Who lives in Cleveland? We should food prep together. Twice as many hands to do the devils work. Have your people call my people. Oh wait, I don’t have people. 

Comments

  1. You ate TWO breads containing pumpkin in one weekend?! The world must be coming to an end.

    I never would have thought to put stir fry on pizza before, but I trust your judgement (and your tastebuds) so I’m keeping it in the back of my mind for the future.

    I personally think rolling around in mashed potatoes sounds amazing, and I’ll be happy to meet you somewhere to do just that 😉 (maybe I should stick to frying them up… that might be more sanitary).

    Reply

    • Sanitary, smanitary. Roll around in those potatoes but be prepared to show after. 🙂

      So much pumpkin for little old me. It’s amazing I survived.

      Reply

  2. I’m so out of it. I don’t food prep at all. I really have to, it seems to help when you are putting together your meals. The most ” prepping” I have is when making bigger amounts, I freeze what can be freezed and then I have spare meals for when life gets too hectic.

    I love breakfast so I’m constantly having it for dinner. By the way your potatoes look delicious, now I have to do them too hahaha.

    One day of food??!! Let me see, yesterday my daughter had a fever so I stayed home and had plenty to eat. Or at least I remember it.

    Breakfast 1- pumpkin bake with chocolate chips and honey.

    Breakfast 2- hahaja fried eggs and sweet potato fries with ketchup.

    I baked some pumkin blondies, Omg, which i constantly ate during the day ( sooo so wrong of me i know)

    Also alternated the blondies with potato chips, they are not mine, they are, or were for my kids lunchboxes, so i was a bad mom And ate them up.

    Made a pizza quesadilla, they are sooo good, And shared with my 3 year old.

    I was planning to cook dinner did my search for recipes but i got so lazy we had Grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner.

    Not my best day for ” healthy eating” as you can see did not have a vegetable at all 🙁

    Reply

    • Some days are like that, and I eat grilled cheese for dinner more times than I’ll say. I usually gorge myself on veggies the next day so it all evens out in the end. 🙂

      Reply

  3. I got my first CSA box this week, and I made an amazing stir fry of bok choy, kale, broccoli, leeks, and lean ground beef + a peanut butter soy sauce. It was INSANE. Although, it doesn’t compare to your pizza. That thing looks RIDIC.

    Reply

    • CSA Boxes for the WIN! I’m so happy someone else in our community is getting a CSA. We need to spread the word and get others onto the CSA train too. We’ll all be mad kitchen prepping machines with a touch of insanity. Just the way I like it.

      Reply

  5. That pizza looks amazing when cooked. It was overwhelming with veggies before. I am jealous that you have something like Breadsmith’s – we don’t have a ton of fresh bread bakeries around us!

    Reply

    • I think so, but I’d say I’m lucky too. When he isn’t in school, he’s my sous chef; always ready to help out.

      Reply

  9. Breakfast for dinner is my absolute favourite thing in the world, although I have to admit that I usually go the sweet route and use brinners as an excuse to eat more cereal, fruit, yogurt, and nut butter 😉 And I honestly can’t believe there’s bok choy on that pizza… I’m a little skeeved out by bok choy, but I love pizza… my mind is all sorts of confused right now 😥

    Reply

    • I’m not a huge fan of Bok Choy either….that was until I put it on a pizza. Then I had it again in Lentil Stew and loved it there too. It’s all about mixing it up and since I keep getting it in my CSA, I really don’t have a choice but to find a way I enjoy it. 🙂

      Reply

  10. I brought bok choy to work and my co-workers looked at me like I had 2 heads. Who knew that was such a strange thing to eat?!

    I’ll food prep with you. We need to get a sponsor to fly us back and forth (and supply us with food). We could alternate weeks and mimosa-making responsibility.

    Reply

    • Aw thanks. I’m glad you found me, and hopefully you’ll stick around for a bit. 😉

      The prep was staged; specifically and deliberately to look halfway decent for the photo so I’m glad you noticed. My efforts weren’t in vain. The muffins were shockingly good.

      Reply

  13. Hold up! Was Sarah’s bread pumpkin too? I thought it looked like pumpkin bread from instagram but wasn’t sure…

    So proud right now.

    Carrots on pizza. Honestly something I’ve never seen before.

    If I’m ever in Cleveland I promise I will pitch in with food prep. Sounds like a blast 🙂

    Reply

    • Yes it was pumpkin bread. You’ve got a great eye Madison. Twice in one day. Can you believe it? I’m even shocked.

      Carrots, green beans and bok choy on pizza. It’s all kinds of crazy over here.

      I would love to have you help me with food prep. I’d happily volunteer to try your baked goods too. You could help me go through all these eggs. 🙂

      Reply

  14. Yay for potato cakes! My grandfather used to make those for us as kids all the time! Delish!

    I SO wish we lived closer together and could meal prep together…oh what a way to start the week! My little sister is trying to eat healthier these days and I’ve offered to have her come over and we cook some stuff at the beginning of the week, but it just never seems to work out with our opposite work schedules…*sigh*

    That salad looks amazing. Seriously, can’t go wrong with blue cheese and strawberries! So jealous you can still find good berries while I’m being “forced” to consume massive amounts of persimmons, pumpkin, and other orange food. Oh and you should know that I’m totally marking it down on the calendar that you ate pumpkin bread and didn’t die! 😉

    PS, is it sad that I magnified my screen just hoping that you were a little immature in your labeling of those eggs? You’ve disappointed me, m’dear!

    Reply

    • Well that settles it then. You just need to move here. Uproot your family and the Man Friend and we can do all our prep work together. I’m sure they’ll understand, especially if we share the wealth.

      The eggs said Hard. There was a double entrende there. I wouldn’t let you down. 😉

      Reply

  15. So much fresh produce all day! After I posted the picture on instagram of my petty veggie prep haul, I actually went out to find blue cheese …. I didn;t even know where to start! I’ll need to pick your brain on that- they had pre cut ones in some packaging, some saying ‘aged’ some saying ‘vintage’ …I like cheese but I ain’t no expert!

    I’m eating tofu and roasted spuds as I type this! 😉

    Reply

    • You need to get a sample of all different types of cheese and just try them. See what you like and run with it. Matter of fact, if your deli has a cheese section, they’ll let you try a nibble of whichever ones you want so you can test it before buying.

      Mmmm spuds. I’m cooking some as I respond. 😉

      Reply

  17. You win the prize for bringing the radish muffin link to my attention. I have a bag of radishes in the crisper and no desire to make 35 radish sandwiches out of them.
    Second prize for the stir fry into pizza idea. That’s brilliant. I’ll have to pry some leftovers out of the kids’ fingers and try that.
    Thanks!

    Reply

    • I’ve got another bag of radishes, and I can assure you I’ll be making these muffins yet again. It’ll be my third time and this is my new favorite way to eat radishes. Salads and sandwiches are so yesterday. 😉

      Reply

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