
Every January, home cooks around the world give themselves a challenge: cook three meals a day, every day, for the entire month. It's not always easy, but with these recipes, journals, meal plans, and tips, it's never really that hard.
What is #Cook90?
From Epicurious: The #cook90 challenge is simple: Cook three meals a day, every day, for a whole month. But the real challenge is getting prepped and organized to tackle four weeks of cooking.
I think #cook90 week 2 got started pretty well. I sat down I made a menu of all the meals I wanted to cook. I went grocery shopping with the pre-written grocery list on Saturday and Sunday did a large cook up.
My goal for week 2 was to cook 4 lunches and 5 dinners. Menu for week two:
Breakfast
Egg White Scrambles
Lunch
4 x Pesto Chicken with Vegetables and Rice
4 x Stir-Fry Beef and Broccoli with Rice
Dinner
Barbecued Chicken with Macaroni & Cheese & Broccoli
Peruvian Chicken with sauce (Nom Nom Paleo)
Also starring this week BOOM! Super Bowl 51. On the menu for the Super Bowl:
Meatball Hero Subs
Nachos with Chili
Breakfast was a haphazard affair where I let hubby fend for himself and I ate microwaved egg whites with (pre) sautéed onions and peppers. I even tossed in a few pieces of left over bacon once.
The first thing I did on Sunday was get started prepping for my dinners: for the Peruvian Chicken I spatch-cocked the chicken, made the Peruvian marinade and then set it aside to marinate. I also butchered and seasoned a whole chicken to make barbecue chicken. Instead of making homemade Mac & Cheese I bought a box because Ha! this is a lot of cooking. I also cooked a huge pot of rice – 3 cups dry which is like 1,000,000,000 cups cooked so this was enough for all lunches (4 each, 8 in total) for hubby and I – any left-over rice will be for dinner during the week.
The pesto chicken with vegetables and the stir-fry beef and broccoli were actually pretty easy to make. After I finish prepping the two chickens, I went ahead and cooked those as well. I did take a break between all of this, of course. Once I finished getting the lunches prepared I immediately portioned them out and put them in containers. BOOM! Done.
After another break I got the food for the Super Bowl together. I made Parmesan meatballs with marinara sauce for Hero Meatball Subs and nachos with homemade chili. I made the meatballs and then I let them rest while I got the chili on the stove and cooking. I used can tomato sauces for the chili and used jarred marinara sauce for the meatballs subs (dun Dun DUNNNNNNN)! I made about 30 meatballs, got them covered in sauce and bubbling on the stove while the chili was finishing up.
I was so tired by this point and I fell asleep during the dang Super Bowl.
But I was prepared for week two.
Things I learned in Week 2:
Try for simple meals
There’s never enough Tupperware
Leftovers are my friend
The Freezer + bulk shopping is my friend
Skillet Parmesan Meatballs
I love meatballs in everything EXCEPT spaghetti, lol! I love these Parmesan Meatballs because they are SO easy and versatile.
Yields: 7 Servings
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup Panko Bread crumbs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 6 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 3 large garlic cloves, minced
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 pounds meatloaf mix
- 1 small white onion (or 1 to 2 shallots), minced
- 1 jar Marinara Sauce (optional)
Soak panko in milk for about 5 minutes. Squeeze out and toss milk, reserving the breadcrumbs.
In a sauté pan, heat 1/2 tbsp olive oil. Sauté garlic and onions until onions become translucent. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
Stir eggs, Panko, Parmesan cheese, parsley, 2 tsp salt and pepper in large bowl to mix. Add onions and garlic.
Add meatloaf mix and combine thoroughly. Do not over-mix (this makes it tough).
Allow mix to rest for about 5 mins and then form meatballs.
Heat remaining 1/2 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet until oil beings to shimmer.
Brown meatballs on all sides until done.
Optional: Brown meatballs on all sides and then cover in your favorite Marinara sauce. Allow meatballs to simmer in sauce until completely cooked.
Please note: Nutritional Information is based on NO marinara sauce and are approximate.
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Cook time: 30-45 minutes
- Total time: 1 hour
Nutrition
- Calories: 436
- Fat: 34 grams
- Carbs: 5 grams
- Protein: 25 grams
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