Prepping for the Week Ahead Part 1

I'm sorry I've been away for so long!  Like a lot of folks, life has been getting in the way of my "play" time, in my case, primarily, looking for work has been the culprit.  Fortunately, I finally found a position with a great organization and started work last week.  I have seven days under my belt and boy is my head spinning!  In addition to the job search, I have also been trying to eat healthier and exercise more.  I started that part of my journey last June (which, incidentally, was also about the same time I left my former job) when I found out my cholesterol was through the roof, but I really intensified my efforts in January after purchasing some bellydance workout DVDs in December and signing up with a workout and meal tracking website.  My primary goal is to exercise and eat healthy often enough  to be able to indulge in the cookies and other foods I love when the mood strikes me or on occasions when I am eating away from home.

I really struggled, however, my first 3 days back to work trying to get back into the routine. Between not getting up quite early enough in the morning to have breakfast and not finding time to workout after work I realized I needed to try something different if I wanted to keep progressing in my journey to a healthier me. 

So last week I took some steps that really helped.  I got up an hour earlier so I could work out and have breakfast before getting ready for work. I did some washing, chopping and storing of veggies to pack in lunches or to snack on while fixing dinner.  I baked some yummy mini-quiches (for which I found the recipe on Pinterest) to give me a quick breakfast option that wasn't cereal or oatmeal (which I like just fine, but don't wish to eat every day).   Bonus:  It helped my husband too, who rarely eats breakfast but who has been packing them for lunch.  I made two different versions of a cereal based snack mix which I often snack on while driving home from the office.  One more thing I made last weekend was a big batch of meatballs which I baked off, then froze in 8 oz portions for us to use for quick dinners any night of the week (woo hoo, spaghetti and meatballs for dinner tonight!).

I have the same mindset for this weekend - anything I can do to make our work week smoother - so this morning, I prepped carrot sticks, radishes and baked more mini-quiches and this afternoon I made brownies - after all, you gotta have treats too and comforting treats are even better - what's more comforting than chocolate?  For this post,  I thought I'd share how I "processed" the veggies with you and I promise to post Part 2 soon with the quiches and maybe, eventually, Parts 2, 3 and 4 with the meatball, snack mix and brownie recipes...

OK, OK, carrot sticks are certainly not rocket science, and it's by no means a new concept to slice them up and keep them in the fridge for snacking, but let's admit it, sometimes we need reminders...I know I did...

A couple of veggies we have been eating a lot of lately are carrots and radishes...Have you ever found yourself throwing away the radishes you bought because they got pushed into the back of the veggie drawer, forgotten and then proceeded to get slimy and yucky because the greens were still attached?  No?  Well, neither have I...much...Honestly, one of my local produce stands won't even carry radishes because they said they wasted too many of them.  (bear with me here, I promise I am going somewhere with this) They found their customers wouldn't buy them when they tried removing the greens, but the greens would go bad so quickly that people still wouldn't buy the radishes and they ended up throwing them away.  To combat this, when I buy radishes I like to remove the greens right away, but alas, getting home at almost 7pm because I did the grocery shopping after work and still needing to get dinner on the table really didn't lend itself to this process (I know, I know, I am a wimp!), so they were first priority this morning!  As you may already know, we have a small flock of chickens.  Chickens will eat just about anything (really) and I have found that their eggs are best when they get plenty of greens.  But they long ago decimated everything green in their pen so they have to rely on scraps from our kitchen...radishes are excellent in this capacity.  I have been buying two bunches at a time, since we like radishes (a lot) and that means a lot of greens for our flock.

So I started by filling a bowl with water, laying out a mason jar and grabbing the "chicken bowl", which is where we put all the kitchen scraps for the chickens, and a sharp knife.  I leave the radishes bunched together (are usually bound with a rubber band) and simply use a paring knife to separate the radishes from the greens.

Then I trim any remaining stem as well as the root...

And throw put the radishes in the bowl of water.  Radishes are usually grown in very sandy soil, so soaking in water will generally loosen the sand, which will float to the bottom.  If any of the radishes have mud or dirt clinging after they've been soaked, I just wipe them off with a paper towel and that usually does the trick...

Once all the radishes are soaking, the greens, stems and roots go into the chicken bowl. 

Then I put the radishes in a mason jar - this is really great since the jars are clear, which means you won't forget you have radishes in the container - and fill the first 1/4 of the jar with water, this keeps the radishes crisp, screw on the lid and place them in the fridge.  Why only 1/4 jar of water?  Well, I have found it provides just enough water to keep everything crisp but not so much water that your veggies freeze, split or turn soggy.  I do find that the carrots still curl, but I think that is pretty much unavoidable, so I don't lose any sleep over it.

I did pretty much the same thing with the carrots...

Peel and trim...

Cut into sticks...

Place in jar...

Peels, roots and stems go into the "chicken bowl"  (incidentally, this could also be a compost bowl)...

Fill jar about 1/4 with water, screw on lid...

Store 'em all in the fridge...

I like to place them front and center on a main shelf at eye level, this seems to help me to reach for them more often.  I hope you find this post useful - if you have tips and tricks you use to get through your busily scheduled lives, I'd love to hear about it!