Sticking with it

That’s right, I am sticking with my plan to cook dinner 2 times a week.  This is an actual cooking of dinner and not just heating something up in the microwave that was frozen (other than veggies maybe).  Thank you all for your support when I first posted on this last week and admitted that I do not do this as often as I should.  Being a dietitian, I know better, and I want to have home cooked meals, but with demanding schedules and the shortest attention span, I just do not cook as much as I would like to.  Plus, as some of you mentioned, it is tough to cook for fewer people.  All of my recipes are for 4-6 servings, and sometimes those recipes yield even more than I anticipate.  While I do save the leftovers, I find myself bored of eating the same thing for lunch for the next few days. 

Of course these are all good excuses, and valid ones at that, but they are still excuses.  So many other people can find the time and just do it, so that is what I have decided to do.  Two weeks ago I managed to prepare dinner twice, and I did it again last week.

Tuesday night was an Asian inspired noodle dish.  I tossed some Asian style noodles with frozen stir fry blend veggies, scrambled in some eggs and tossed with soy sauce.  I usually do this dish with sesame seeds too, but sadly, they grew mold.

 

Here is the final dish.  It was so good.

 

Then, Ryan admitted a craving for sweets.  Not a problem, I found this in the pantry and decided to go for it…assuming the mix was still good.  I have had it longer than I have known Ryan.  My best friend gave it out for Christmas one year at work, yes this was a gift from a dietitian, and I think I just wanted to hold on to it for when I really wanted it.  I guess I just kept waiting and waiting for the right time.  Guess what?  This was the right time.

 

It was still good.

 

 

This was for the hot fudge sauce which was this powder and some milk.

 

 

 

 

YUM!

 

Thursday night was taco night.  To go with those tacos, I also made my favorite bean dish.  Instead of buying the canned tomato and chili mix, I buy them separately and go with the no added salt tomatoes, and it drastically reduced the total sodium content.

 

Speaking of sodium, I realized I did not have and fish thawed and so I went with these tilapia fish sticks.  I actually really like these compared to some of those formed fish sticks out there.  Good thing I cut some sodium out in the beans, because these have 420 mg sodium in 4 sticks, which is the serving size I had.  That is really not too bad, but when you add in all the other meal items, the sodium can go up quickly.

I also made my own “dressing” for the tacos.  In addition to the fat free mayo and calorie free ketchup (which I used because it was liquidy and this prevented the sauce from being too thick), I added some hot sauce.

It was actually good.

Then I got to work on the beans.

I added 1/2 small can diced tomatoes to 1 can black beans, and then some canned green chilies.

The fish sticks were ready so it was time to build my tacos.

Super yum on these.  In fact, Ryan has already asked when we will be having these again, and the answer is sometime in the very near future.

The fish sticks worked perfectly.  I plan to do this in the future with some blackened tilapia.

QUESTIONS: Do you like beans?  What is your favorite Asian dish?  What is your favorite taco filling?  What plan have you been sticking with?