I have grown quite fond of Sundays over the years. May be it started when I was living in the south because there wasn’t much open in the neighborhood before 1pm so I was forced to relax and have some down-time. May be it was before my move south of the Mason-Dixon line. I’m not sure.
For me, Sunday is the time to prepare for the week ahead – specifically in the kitchen.
The weeks are busy and sometimes at the end of the day the last thing I feel like doing is whipping up a meal from scratch. Ordering take-out is rarely an option – for several reasons, but a big one is that it’s just not in our “food budget”. So it’s up to us to have homemade goodies at home that can last a few days – to save time and energy on the nights that I need to study or just want to put my feet up. Hey, I’m human.
Preparation is key.
In my continuing effort to try new foods, I loaded up on mung beans in the bulk section of my grocery store a few days ago. They are a great source of protein, fiber, thiamin, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper and folate. Since they are smaller in size, they are easier to digest and cook more quickly then some larger beans.
This recipe came from my mung beans experiment. It makes a huge quantity. And it was super inexpensive to make. Now I will have plenty of good, healthy and homemade food to get me through the next couple of days.
Ingredients:
1 cup dry mung beans
1 cup quinoa or brown rice
1 large zucchini, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 head Swiss Chard, chopped
1 cup shredded carrots
2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon ginger
grapeseed oil
Directions:
Soak beans overnight. Drain and rinse. Cook well.
In medium pot, add quinoa and 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Continue to cook until water is absorbed and quinoa is cooked.
In large skillet, add 1 tablespoon of grapesed oil. Add onions and sautee for 5 minutes. Continue to add oil or small quantities of water to prevent ingredients from burning in skillet.
Add zucchini and carrots.
Once zucchini and carrots are tender, add cooked quinoa and beans. Mix well. Add soy sauce and ginger and mix.
Add Swiss Chard and mix until greens have wilted.
Serve warm.
I hear from so many clients that they don’t have enough time to prepare healthy meals for themselves and their family. I know that if I don’t get a head start in the kitchen Sunday evenings that my week is going to be more difficult than it needs to be.
How do you make the time to make more meals at home? For me, it’s creating a routine – this is what I do every Sunday.
