Food Prepping: Week Six

This week's ingredients. Tomatoes, bell pepper, onion, scallions, arugula, a carrot,
potatoes, soba noodles, edamame, a lemon, and salad. Snack ingredients not shown.

This week's food prepping went very quickly and efficiently. I don't know if I'm getting better at selecting what I'm making to make for easy prep, getting more efficient at the prepping, or getting back my cooking chops, which had gotten kinda rusty. Or a combination of all three.

My prep this week is for four breakfasts, four luncheon salads (to accompany half of a boneless, skinless, chicken thigh), two vegetable dishes for fish dinners, and post-run snacks (because it's getting too warm for cocoa). My goal calorie content for these is: breakfast, less than 160 (it goes with other stuff to bring brekky to about 400); salad, about 150; fish-replacer vegetables, less than 130 (because a fish patty is 130); post-run snack, 100-150.

The results. Including a couple of things made with ingredients not shown above. 

I am very excited about what I made. :D Here's the rundown: 

• Breakfast: My new favorite weekday breakfast is what I call Eggs and Vegetables -- roasted tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers topped with a poached egg and some Parmesan cheese. Delicious, filling, and well below target calorie count at 121. Obviously the eggs aren't shown because I poach those fresh each morning. (Front right of the picture -- two big round containers and one small one with the grated Parmesan.) 
• Lunch Salad; This week's salad is an Asian Noodle Salad with soba noodles, a little bit of red bell pepper, grated carrot, edamame, scallion and a rather nifty Thai-esque spicy peanut dressing. All over mixed salad greens and some arugula. (Four stacked flat containers of greens, four half-pint mason jars of fixin's in the back left.) This salad is higher than my usual target calorie count at 195, but the broiled chicken thighs it'll be going with are lower than usual, so it will work out just fine. 
• Fish replacer: Baked potatoes topped with a lemony vinaigrette dressing (with Parmesan cheese in it) and arugula. Sort of a salad in a baked potato. I have the potatoes baked, so they'll just go in the oven with the fish to reheat. I'll dress the arugula just before putting it in the top of the spud.  (Potatoes are in the front left; arugula and dressing in the back right.) I had to hunt for potatoes small enough to make it fit in the target calorie count, but I managed to get it to 137, which is close enough. 
• Post-run Snack: I didn't show the ingredients for this in the first picture, though the toppings are in the second, because I actually had it yesterday after my run. It's plain, non-fat Greek yogurt with toasted pistachios, almonds and quinoa, chopped dates, lemon zest, sea salt, and a little drizzle of olive oil. It was *delicious* and I forgot the lemon zest and sea salt. I can't wait to try it again. One 5.3oz container of yogurt will make three snacks (which works out perfectly because I run three times a week). (Two little round containers in the front middle with toppings; the yogurt is in the fridge. The orange packet next to them is an olive oil sample we got in the mail; I figured I'd use it here because it was about the right amount.) This may beat hot cocoa as a post-run snack and I'm a huge fan of the hot cocoa. The calorie count is right in my range at 125. 

I'm'a be eatin' good this week. :D :D

We finished off last week with the fancy weekend brunch version of an egg-tomato-pepper-onion breakfast yesterday. Tomatoes, peppers and onions sauteed with eggs cooked right in there until the whites are set and the yolks are runny with a lovely Dutch goat cheese (called Midnight Moon and that's all we know about it) over whole wheat English muffins. That's delicious speck (sort of in the line of proscuitto only smoked) around the outside of the plate.

It did not come out looking pretty this time, but it tasted *delicious*!