Cook-apoolza Sunday Red Stick Style!

Sorry Raimster for stealing your title, but obviously great minds were thinking alike...and in unrelated news, we both decided to spend Sunday cooking.  ;)

Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of my recent endeavors.  So fire up the ol' imagination and let's get started!

I have been struggling in recent months to be creative with meals, while adhering to the busy lifestyle of a fun-sized accountant.  I want healthy, home cooked meals filled with variety and a dash of intrigue.  And I want it to be fully cooked and ready on my TV tray with my most recent Criminal Minds DVD queued to where I left off as soon as I walk in the door from a long day at work.  No amount of hallucinogenic drugs will help here, so I've been trying to find some other means of obtaining my goal.  My slow cooker is most certainly a God-send, but even that is beginning to become a little redundant.

So I was excited to pick up a recent Rachael Ray magazine that boasted "One Day, 20 meals!"   http://www.rachaelraymag.com/food-how-to/grocery-shopping-tips/one-month-of-make-ahead-meals.  BINGO!  I decided to give the woman I normally have to watch on MUTE a chance.  The article called for a day of making meal "building blocks" and then it followed with 20 recipes that built upon these building blocks.  I made three of the five recipes, Laura style of course,  -- pulled chicken, roasted vegetables (red bell peppers, onions, and butternut squash) and some rice pilaf (rice, chicken stock, peas, bay leaves) and I will use those to concoct the following recipes during the next couple of weeks:

Spanish Rice with Shrimp
Butternut Squash and Spinach Strata
Veggie flat breads with Hummus
Chicken Fried Rice
Chicken Lime Soup

I also bought a cantaloupe because I've been dying to try a cantaloupe smoothie.  Today was the day!  I liked it, but it definitely needs some tweaking.  I used about half a cup of cantaloupe, a container of Greek yogurt, a fourth cup of 1% milk, and about a tsp. of honey.  Less yogurt, more honey, maybe a sprinkle of granola.  The melon was already a tad bit tangy so the yogurt threw it over the tang-edge.  I still ate it though...Momma don't miss meals much.

I also have plans to make some rosemary walnuts for snacking!  I don't know why that required an exclamation point, but it just felt right. 

So, in summary, I had a goal, I put a plan in motion, and I am feeling confident that I'll have some nice pictures soon!

Oh, also I have two more big sweet potatoes that keep begging me to introduce them to my new mandolin.  I thought that I was out of the woods after I finished the first "chip" test, but I was shocked to discover that it was only the dress rehearsal to the real test --- putting the sucker back together after washing it!  The cuts on my hands have healed nicely, so I think the sweet potatoes will get their wish pretty soon :)

Cheers!