This Week In The Kitchen: Meal Prep + Recipes

 It's been a warm start to summer, so I'm trying to keep the kitchen cool.

Because it's summer, I've been focusing on meals that are either cold (salads), use only the stovetop (I can use the grill's side burner) to cook or are grilled.  I try to keep the oven off, but if I do turn it on, I plan it so that I can bake as much as possible during that time.

Berries are on sale regularly at all of the grocery stores, so I bought them for our breakfasts.  As noted in previous TWITK meal prep posts, I wash them in a bowl of water with a little vinegar added.  Rinse, then let dry on a towel.  Then I store them in canning jars (with a piece of paper towel or clean towel on the bottom) in the refrigerator, removing any that are overly ripe (they are used first/stored separately).  I've been doing this for years and they really do store for weeks (if needed) this way.

I wash most of our veggies as soon as I get them home, cut them up and then store similarly.

I turned my oven on once today and used it to bake quite a bit - sweet potatoes, a loaf of bread, biscuits (for strawberry shortcake), and muffins (for the freezer).

I often cook sweet potatoes in the instant pot, but there's nothing to compare with the taste of a roasted sweet potato.  The sweetness and gooeyness that roasting brings is soooo delicious.  I purchased a couple of Japanese sweet potatoes (my favorites) for today's baking.  These will be stored in the refrigerator, and I can use them throughout the week.

I decided to bake a loaf of sandwich bread.  I completely forgot about it during its second rise, so it ended up falling but it still tasted delicious!  I made one of our favorite breads, Oatmeal Sandwich Bread, and used half spelt flour half bread flour.

I used this biscuit recipe and made a non-dairy version by substituting the butter with non-dairy "butter" and coconut cream was substituted for the heavy cream (it has to be coconut cream; coconut milk is too thin).  It's strawberry season so they will be used as strawberry shortcake biscuits.

And I had a zucchini that was starting to decline rapidly, so I made a batch of Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins to store in the freezer for future snacking.  I used the vegan version and cut out all oil (substituting with applesauce).  They turn out denser but delicious!

My husband prefers white rice and he eats it a few times a week, so we found brand that he likes that we can purchase in bulk.  I purchased a bag this shopping trip, and I always portion it out into gallon-sized freezer bags and store them in the freezer.  I know that white rice is fine stored at room temp for quite some time, but I freeze it anyway to kill any potential bugs (as I do with flours and other grains) so I just leave it in there.  If we ever need freezer space, it's the first to come out.

It was time to make more ice cream bases for the freezer.  As previously mentioned, we LOVE our (affiliate link) Ninja Creami machine.  It really is used quite frequently in our household, particularly during the hot summer season.  The only negative thing I can say about it is that it is very loud.  No worries though, I turn it on and then leave the kitchen until it turns off (a couple of minutes).

Anyway, I make real (dairy) ice cream bases for my husband (top photo) and non-dairy ice cream bases for me.  Mine are really just non-dairy smoothie ingredients but when mixed in the Ninja creami, they turn out creamy like ice cream.  Delicious!  These will be stacked and stored in the freezer in the reusable ninja pint containers.

Not exactly meal prep, but something I thought I would share.  I peeled potatoes today for a dish and I always save the peels.  Do you save yours?  I put them in a container of cold water and store them this way in the refrigerator.  I would guess they would be fine stored for up to a week.  

I try to cut them so they are slightly thick, I cook them in the air fryer (you could bake in the oven as well) and we use them like you would french fries.  If you prefer to keep the peels thin, they are also delicious as super crispy potato peel "chips".  You could also make these into traditional loaded potato skins, just with less potato.

That's it for the prep this week.  Our meals are pretty simple typically throughout summer, so I don't have too terribly much to prep.  Our garden is in full swing so the majority of our produce will be picked when we're ready to use it and that will begin dictating what we're eating.

Happy Monday!