Tag: #mealprep
Hello hello, again, Foodie Friends 🙂 Hope you had a fantastic weekend in! We have a shorter edition of Foodie Adventures, with the new review of Wendy’s breakfast menu, Take-out meal adventures, and Homemade meatball making & recipe!
Hello hello, again, Foodie Friends 🙂 Hope you had a fantastic weekend! In this edition of Foodie Adventures, we headed to Boone, NC to Olde Europe Bakery, making Crock Pot Pulled Pork Al Pastor, and checked out Greenville’s award winning ice cream shop, Molly & Myles!
Making life easier, one meal prep at a time! Want a cool idea for Breakfast on the Go and how to make Southern Specialties faster and just as delicious? Read on for my Meal Prep Tips and Tricks 🙂
Happy (belated) St. Patrick’s day to all my foodie friends! 🍀
What better way to celebrate the day than drinking some green beer (if you’re over 21 😋) and finishing it off with homemade corn beef and cabbage? 🍻
One of the easiest holiday recipes to make, it’s super simple, and all you really need is time to finish this recipe. I’ll post the recipe and pictures on their respective tabs, so let’s talk about how to make it!
Corned Beef & Cabbage
All you really need is three main ingredients — 2-3 lbs. Corned beef (which usually comes with its own spice mix or packet in the store), One head of cabbage, and 6-8 potatoes. I always add carrots for extra veggies (6-8 as well), however, those first three ingredients are the Holy Trinity of Saint Patrick’s Day recipes!
To start, take your corned beef out of the package and place in a big pot with the spice mix (I used a pot I usually make big soups or lobster in), filling the pot with water until about 2 inches of water covers the top of the meat. If your corned beef doesn’t come with a seasoning packet, all you need to add is a clove of garlic, a bay leaf, 1/2 tsp. whole peppercorns, 1 tsp. salt, and 1 tsp. of pepper (to taste).
Wash your potatoes, carrots, and cabbage well. Chop the stump off the bottom of the cabbage and remove the outer 3-4 leaves before cutting.
Chop the cabbage into small wedges, leaving the center intact to keep the cabbage in its shape.
Chop up about 6 to 8 small red potatoes and carrots into small chunks, increasing the amount of potatoes and carrots by how many pounds of meat you’re cooking. For reference, I cooked 2 to 3 pounds of meat, so increase your potatoes and carrots accordingly if cooking more meat (ex: the original recipe calls for 4-5 lbs. of beef = 16-18 carrots & potatoes, and a larger head of cabbage).
Bring the meat to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and simmer for 3 – 3.5 hours. This would be a great time to go out and drink beer with buddies and have some fun before finishing up the recipe!
Once the 3 hours is up, or your meat is fork tender and can pull apart really easily, put the wedged cabbage, potatoes, and carrots into the pot and bring the heat up to medium high. Once at a low, rolling boil, set the timer for another 30 minutes – 1 hour, whichever you need to cook the vegetables until fork tender. It may need more or less time depending on how small you cut your vegetables, and how much water is left after 3 hours. You may need to cook the vegetables on the longer end of time depending on how full the pan is.
After your veggies are cooked, pull or shred apart the beef, and put together Tupperware containers with a little bit of everything if doing meal prep, or just enjoy straight out of the pot!
What was your favorite part about St. Patrick’s Day Weekend? Shout out in the comments below! 🤗
In the next few weeks, I’ll be updating my blog with meal prep ideas from HelloFresh, as my friend gifted us a discount and I’m taking you on my meal kit journey with me (#notsponsored #notanad)! I won’t be posting the recipes from these as they’re already written for us, so check out the pictures tab for the full recipe and more in-depth cooking shots.
Mediterranean Salmon
As (I think) I’ve mentioned before, I’m originally from New England, and I absolutely love seafood, so this salmon dish really caught my eye in the weekly meal lineup.
A long time ago, my parents introduced me to Middle Eastern food, and this Mediterranean salmon reminded me of the times we would go visit this little Lebanese restaurant in Pennsylvania on the way to see family. HelloFresh made it easier to recreate the flavors of some of my favorite food with this recipe!
With every HelloFresh meal kit, it gives you all the ingredients – Minus salt, pepper, and usually some sort of oil or butter. It also wants you to go fetch a few different pans or utensils that you may or may not have to complete the recipe.
For the first part of the recipe, it called for zesting and cutting a lemon into wedges, and taking the dill fronds off of the stems and finally chopping. In the meantime, I boiled about 1/2 cup of water and 1 tbls. of butter in a pan before I threw in the couscous and quickly took it off the stove. It absorbed the water in the next 10 minutes as it rested.
Next was getting that crispy salmon skin!
I salt and peppered the salmon on both sides and put it skin side down in a pan with vegetable oil. It took about 5 minutes on the skin side* and another 2 to 4 minutes to cook the salmon all the way through on the back.
While the salmon cooked, I made the creamy dill sauce, with a combination of the two sour cream packets, half the lemon zest, the juice of two lemon wedges, and a tablespoon of our chopped dill. I salt and peppered that to taste as well!
I also fluffed the couscous with a fork and added the remaining lemon zest, some salt, pepper, and half of the zaatar spice, and stirred until fully combined.
Next was cooking the green beans, which took about three minutes in a steaming bag in the microwave.
Once those came out of the microwave, they went in a bowl tossed with butter, salt, and pepper, to taste.
The only thing left was to Plate it Up! 🤗🍽
I was having lunch catered in the office yesterday, so luckily I only needed four lunches for this week, or else I would have needed to include more vegetables, couscous, and salmon to extend the recipe.** The directions suggested the couscous go down first, followed by the green beans, salmon, and top it with the creamy dill sauce, the remaining dill, and the rest of the zaatar spices.
Let me tell you all something, I LOVE to meal prep. Don’t get me wrong, I love experimenting with recipes and cooking during the week, but with a full time job, kickboxing, and trying to have a social life, it just doesn’t work out all the time.
Enter: Meal prepping. See my Recipes tab for how to make the Lemon Chicken & Asparagus w/Mushroom Risotto, and Rachel Ray inspired Sausage Ziti Bake from yesterday’s Instagram story.
If I’m feeling really motivated to meal prep, I will make two dishes in one night, sometimes staying up until 11 pm to finish crafting my dinners/lunches for the next week.
If you can make food in bulk like this and you don’t mind eating off two dishes for a week or two, it is a huge time and money saver!! If I meal prep something in the crockpot or a big baked/sheet pan dish, it will sometimes last me two weeks from that day. Amazing to not have to go out and spend on groceries if you plan it right. This is a great tactic for busy parents needing to prep school lunches, dinners before dance recitals, soccer practices, band concerts, or just people who only have the energy to cook once a week.
So how was your weekend Foodie Friends? What are some of your favorite things to make for meal prepping? Sound out in the comments below and let me know your suggestions of recipes or places we should visit next. As always, feel free to like, comment, & share 🤗
