Tonight, I was determined and inspired to bring one of my 2012 resolutions to life: cook a homemade meal for Bo and I at least once a week.
This sounds like a simple task since there are five week nights in a week and that means I only have to cook 20% of the time, but it’s a very common week when we order in or pick up takeout every night due to our busy schedules, empty fridge, or lack of motivation. Even though we didn’t land back in NYC last night until past 9pm, I made a shopping list for the week last night and printed it out so I could reference it at the grocery store today. In addition, being able to leave work at 5:30 on a Tuesday made going to the grocery store and cooking much less daunting on a week night.
By 6:30 I was home and unloading four bags of groceries; enough ingredients for four weeknight meals as well as the components for breakfasts, lunches, and snacks.
Bo and I are lucky to have a kitchen which includes a microwave, dishwasher, and oven as many New Yorkers do not have these simple kitchen items which many Americans take for granted each day. The time I spent in the kitchen tonight was more relaxing than I remembered and was a wonderful way to relieve a Monday’s worth of stress.
Tonight’s menu was very simple and a perfect way to ease into week night cooking.
Menu
Simple salad (lettuce, tomatoes, herbs, shallots, salt, pepper, and Annie’s low fat dressing)
Steamed green beans dressed in Garlic Gold and olive oil
Grilled pork chops rubbed in Rub with Love
I referenced an old favorite cookbook of ours, Weber’s Real Grilling, for the pork temperatures and cooking times. If you find yourself grilling often, indoors or out, I highly recommend this beautiful cookbook. It is a dummies guide to cooking delicious meats and vegetables and after five years of use we’ve yet to find a recipe we don’t like.
Ten minutes later, from start to finish, dinner was plated. The pork chops only took 7 minutes to cook and I steamed the green beans at the same time. While the pork chop rested, I made my simple salad and set a place at the table.
Also, as part of the Food Journal 30 Day Challenge, I will be logging all my bites, nibbles, and meals on Weight Watchers. During my original weight loss journey, during which I lost more than forty pounds on Weight Watchers I tracked my food at least five days each week. I think this will be a great way to keep myself accountable as I begin training for my upcoming half marathon and focus on returning to my Lifetime Weight Watchers goal weight (150 pounds). I’m trying to figure out an easy way to share this with you each day so please let me know if you have any suggestions. For now, all I know is to snap a picture of my journal.
Question: Are you interested in seeing my food journal on my blog daily?
I find your logging very interesting! I’d be glad to see it 🙂
even better news…today is Tuesday 🙂
I like the idea of seeing the journal! I’d love the inspiration for healthy, easy weekday meals.
yes! please share your daily eats (with the corresponding WW points). As a struggling lifetime member, I always find it fascinating (and inspiring!) to see what everyone else is eating.
Sounds like a delish meal! I would love to see your tracker – esp since I’m a fellow WW!
I’m interested in seeing the food log! I have no experience with Weight Watchers, and though I’m not trying to lose weight at the moment, it’s always interesting to see what’s out there. Who knows–maybe the program will be appealing to me (or someone else) based on your journaling and comments and will spark usage in someone else!
I would love to see a snapshot of your food everyday! I do kind of the same thing and I love to see when others do it as well.
What a great dinner you made – and it didn’t take that long either!
Yes – would love to see your journaling, including points. I am also a fellow weight watcher point counter and am curious for meal ideas. Props to you also for putting your goal weight out there – way more courage than I have. Let’s just say I want to lose a simple 10 lbs to get me back to my happy weight and leave that final number on the scale a mystery!
My favorite tool for meals is a http://www.relishrelish.com It’s a grocery list + recipe site for meal planning. Recently, they added WW points to their nutritional facts for each meal. It’s turned me into a 3-4 times a week cook, and I’ve been doing it for almost 2 years now.
Yes, I’ld love to see your daily tracker. How did you copy that screen shot of your tracker??
Good Luck with the food logging! That seems like a great idea, but just wayyy to much work for me.
I like seeing your food journal! I am currently doing WW so it is nice to see what other people are eating and getting meal ideas that are WW friendly.
Shelly: I’m glad you like it! I’ll be sharing it daily for at least this month. We’ll see how it goes! Great job on the morning exercise!
I’m obviously a huge fan of posting eats to stay on track — since I need to do it for myself! If other people find it interesting, or boring it’s just kinda like, oh well. But I for one definitely find it interesting, and get ideas from reading others’!
Gretchen: I really think it will help me. I’ve already made some concious decisions toady and yesterday based on knowing that it’ll be shared with readers later. 🙂
We have so many pork chops in our freezer that need to be cooked and eaten! “Rub with Love” looks like a great seasoning!
Need to send you guys our pork rub recipe. It’s insanely delicious!
That’d be great!!
i love seeing this stuff! i’m currently entering my second year on weight watchers – i lost 70 pounds with its help last year and am hoping to hit my goal weight this year.
quick question, though – how did you figure out the 1 point for the beer? i’ve tried putting in actual nutrition information for beer before and it gives me back point values of 1-3, but i read somewhere that beer can’t be calculated like that and it’s way more points than i thought it was…which is definitely sad!
Love the logging! It is so interesting to see what others’ eat!
I love food logging, it’s an excellent way to stay accountable. Especially if you are putting it out there in a public space like a blog. Well done you!
Do you have a slow cooker? I do, and it’s a saviour for homemade evening meals.
Which HM are you in training for?
Helen x