More meal planning!

Day 1:

Eggs
Coffee
Soup
Banana
Apple
Yogurt
Twice baked potato

Day 2:

Eggs
Coffee
Soup
Banana
Apple
Yogurt
Twice baked potato

Day 3:

Eggs and bacon
Coffee
Soup
Banana
Apple
Yogurt
Smoothie

TBD for Thursday and Friday dinners.

Spinach Souffle

Adapted from this recipe, with assistance from this recipe. This recipe is kind of time consuming, so I only make it for special occasions, but boy, is it worth it! I'm a fairly picky eater and even I scarf it down. If this is a dish you'd want on a regular basis, I'm fairly confident you could make a batch sans egg, and freeze it. That way all you have to do is thaw, mix in the egg, and throw it in the oven. The recipe calls for five eggs, which is difficult to split, but I bet you could split the recipe in half, and use three eggs per half. Haha, you could even split and freeze it five ways and just make yourself an individual serving if you're having a craving!

Ingredients:

10 oz. fresh spinach

Cream
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch nutmeg
4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 1/4 cups milk
1 dash cayenne
1 dash pepper
1 dash worcestershire sauce
5 eggs, separated and chilled
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Optional: 3 tablespoons finely shredded swiss or parmesan cheese

1) Grease a 2-quart baking dish and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2) Take a handful of spinach and role into a log. Slice finely. Do this handful by handful until all the spinach is sliced. Don't worry about discarding stems.

3) Fit as much of the spinach as you can into a blender. Add a couple dashes of cream to aid blending, and blend until spinach is very fine. As you blend, the spinach will pack down and make room to add more spinach. Add spinach until all 10 ounces are blended; if blending becomes difficult, add a couple more dashes of cream. You should end up with a sauce-like consistency.

4) Melt butter in a medium size frying pan.

5) Sprinkle flour into butter and blend with a spoon. Cook until bubbly.

6) Slowly blend in the milk, stirring constantly, until smooth. (I subbed some of the milk with cream, just for fun).

7) Add seasonings and cheese, and cook on low for about 10 minutes or until thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool. (Note: You've just basically made a super simple alfredo/white sauce)

8) Separate the eggs and store the whites in your fridge to keep chilled. Beat egg yolks in a large, sturdy bowl.

9) Add spinach mixture into the egg yolks and beat until well blended.

10) SLOWLY pour the the white sauce into the yolk and spinach mixture, while stirring/beating constantly. Warning!: Make sure the white sauce has cooled a bit and that you stir constantly, or your yolks will cook and become lumpy.

11) Take your egg whites out of the fridge and beat with the 1/4 tsp cream of tartar. Beat with an electric mixer on high until whites are "stiff but not dry"; basically until they start to peak.

12) VERY GENTLY fold egg whites into the spinach mixture. Don't mix, don't beat. Fold. You mixture also doesn't have to be streak-less; you can have a couple streaks, but what's most important is that you don't stir the souffle so much that it starts to fall.

13) Bake 45 mins to an hour.

So turns out I *DO* have new year's resolutions

Which I never, ever have, and generally don't cotton to, but these are things that really need to be done. So here are the things that I really need to do:

1) Stop making work a priority. Go home on time. Go to the gym. Go out with friends. Take your lunch break. Stop thinking about work all the time.

2) Have a nighttime routine. This routine should include:
     -Neti potting
     - Brushing my teeth
     - Steaming and washing my face
     - Melatonin, vitamins, and Claritin
     - Stretching


So there that is.

Meal Plans!

Day 1:
Eggs
coffee
Diet soup
apple
banana
yogurt
chicken and zoodles

Day 2:
Eggs
coffee
Diet soup
apple
banana
yogurt
chicken and zoodles

Day 3:
Eggs & bacon
coffee
Diet soup
apple & pb
banana
yogurt
tuna melt

Day 4:
Eggs & bacon
coffee
diet soup
apple
banana
yogurt
smoothie

Day 5:
Eggs
coffee
smoothie + protein
apple
banana
yogurt
TBD dinner

Grain Free Recipes

Vegetarian:
Batatas Mujadaras
Veggie Soup
Stuffed Peppers
Potato Crust Quiche
Twice-baked Potatos
Saifun Noodles
Stir Fry
Smoothies


Meaty:
Hot and Sour Soup
Chicken and Zoodles
Tuna melts on Oopsie bread
Chicken Salad Wraps
Tuna Wraps
Chili
Spaghetti Sauce
Greek Chicken
Kabobs
Meatloaf
No Tortilla Chicken Enchiladas
Pan Fried Chicken
Teryaki Salmon and Saifun

Apparently you need exactly 3 quiches to feed a family of eight.

And when you're managing allergies and vegetarians, having three different types of quiches are helpful. The quiche base is the precise amounts I used, the fillings are approximate, as I was in a hurry and not measuring. Cook times can't be provided right now either; I was using my stepmom's crappy convection oven.:

Quiche Base:

1 Ready made pie crust (I used Pillsbury)
6 eggs
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
(optional: 1/4 cup sour cream)

Bake the pie crust according to package instructions. In a bowl whisk together eggs, whipping cream, salt and pepper until completely mixed. If you're adding sour cream, mix in after whisking. Add a layer of each ingredient of one of the below fillings (ex: one layer of ham, then one layer of cheese)*. Pour egg mixture on top. If you're using a shitty Advantium oven, cook quiche for 15-17 minutes at these temperature levels: U=4, L=4, M=4. If you're using a normal oven, I would guess 45ish minutes at 350 degrees. Will update with a definite normal bake time later.
*Completely cover the bottom of the pie crust with the ham or mushrooms. Then completely cover the ham or mushrooms with cheese. See below for additional instructions with salsa.


Ham and Havarti filling:

1 cup diced ham
4-5 slices Havarti

Mushroom and Swiss filing:

1 cup diced mushrooms (I used baby bella)
4-5 slices Swiss cheese

Salsa and Cheese filling:

1/2-3/4 cup salsa
3/4-1 cup pre-grated Mexican blend cheese, or finely grated cheddar cheese

For salsa filling: Don't layer fillings, just mix the salsa and cheese in with the egg base.

Icing, Icing, Icing!

Deliciously Rich Buttercream:

3 cups confections sugar
1 cup butter (Irish butter, Kerrygold)
1.5 tsps (Mexican) vanilla
2 tblsp. heavy whipping cream


Decorator Icing:

1 cup confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tblsp milk