fix a proper dinner at home at least four days a week

and it just doesn’t feel like a priority at the moment. Eating healthy is a priority, sure, but that can be healthy take-out, healthy snacks, whatever – doesn’t have to be “proper” home-cooked meals. Having this on my list is just depressing me every time I see it and remember that I’m not doing it and am not in a position to even try at the moment.

Well… I have been eating at home instead of out, but it’s mostly been snacking on veggie sticks, brown bread etc rather than proper meals. I’m not going to worry too much about it this week cos I have so much else to do, just keep it as healthy as possible.

Tuesday – got home so late that I didn’t eat at all, just went straight to bed.
Wednesday – dinner out was postponed till Friday, but I still got take-out cos I wasn’t feeling the best.
Thursday – kind of salady thing thrown together from the last few veg in the fridge. Not the greatest meal ever, but healthy.
Friday – dinner out with family.
Saturday – pizza (c’mon, it was Saturday! And I cooked pizza at home rather than ordering it in as I usually would, so that has to count for something, right? :o) )
Sunday – vegetable stirfry (the rest of which I’ve just finished eating for lunch, yum.)

Sooo, not too bad a week for a first effort. I made three days (four if the pizza counts). Need to get more organised this week, do some proper grocery shopping – eating at home is much easier if there’s actually food in the house :-p

I haven’t been doing this for aaaages, and I really need to get back in the habit of eating at home for both health and financial reasons. Last night I cooked (minimally, but I did cook!) a big pot of quinoa with red and yellow peppers, celery, and tofu. It was yum, and provided lunch to take into work today (really have to start taking lunch to work again as well, for the same reasons).

Wednesday evening I’m going out for dinner with my mom and brothers, probably Chinese, so that’ll be my night off this week. Tonight I’ll either finish the last of the quinoa, or unearth something from the freezer (I know it says “fix dinner at home”, but I’ll be happy if I just eat – healthily – at home instead of eating out, even if it’s something I’ve cooked previously).

total failure this week :-p Between not having bought groceries and spending an hour or two in the park in the sunshine most evenings on the way home, I haven’t been giving myself the time or the resources to cook. I bought a bunch of vegetables yesterday, though, so I can cook over the weekend. Batch-cooking again, I think, so that I can focus on working on the house in the evenings next week.

Up until yesterday I was doing ok, in spite of coming home late and tired every evening. I tried the butternut squash pasta as recommended by Abs, which was delish, and I made my chickpea korma, which fed me for two days with another portion still in the freezer. Last night I was too tired to cook and didn’t fancy the korma again, so I had a very quick and easy wrap – brie cheese, fresh spinach and a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar in wholemeal roti. Yum.

I really want a night off tonight. I’m not going to see any apartments, so I feel like since I have time I should go home and cook a proper meal, preferably something that will last me a few days… but I’m not going to. I’m going to treat myself to dinner at Govinda’s (in spite of the fact that I’ve got paneer, my favourite Govinda’s dish, at home at this moment waiting to be used – I hope it keeps!) and then, depending how I feel, I may join a few colleagues for a drink or I may head home and get an early night. Either way, I’m really looking forward to having an evening all to myself.

...everything I’ve cooked in the last week, but I’ve been doing pretty ok, I think. Most nights I’ve cooked, even if it’s just something simple. I hadn’t eaten out until last night, when I ordered pizza; tonight will be pizza again (I used a coupon which landed me with a ridiculously huge pizza, so half of it is still in the fridge) but I’ll be cooking at the weekend. I want to make big batches of soup, chickpea korma, maybe pasta sauce – I’ve been getting home later than usual cos of going house-hunting after work, so it’d be nice to have some ready-made meals in the freezer.

I still haven’t tried that squash. Good thing it keeps for ages. That’s a definite for this weekend.

Haven’t been doing brilliantly this week at bringing lunch into work, but today at least that was a good thing – I’ve just had a mysterious roasted vegetable from the canteen salad bar, which was delicious, and I have no clue what it was. It looked like a cross between squash and carrot, and tasted like a cross between potato and parsnip. Must ask the chef what it was, cos I’d love to try it myself.

Monday night was salad – mixed lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, carrot, cashews, cheese, balsamic vinegar dressing. Not exactly cooking, but quick and healthy and easy to include lunch the following day. Last night I made a kind of ratatouille with assorted veg and a tin of tomatoes and oodles of garlic and herbs, and had it with wholemeal pasta. Scrumptious, and again provided lunch for today.

I’ve been really wanting to try that butternut squash, but it made sense to use up the shorter-lived veggies first. It won’t happen tonight either, as Big Bro is coming over (which means pizza :o) ), but I’ll be cooking up a storm over the long weekend!

This weekend didn’t really involve structured meals. I didn’t eat out at all, but I didn’t cook much either – falafel and naan bread in the oven was about the height of my culinary efforts :-p Must cook more vegetable-y things this week. I’ve bought a few things I’ve never cooked with before, like fennel and butternut squash, so I’m looking forward to experimenting :o)

was that organic baby-leaf salad with some of the tomatoes and warm, crispy-fried tofu rosso. Super-quick, healthy, tasty, and enough for lunch tomorrow too. Yay!