Cooking Day

     Yesterday it snowed and it was beautiful.  It is also the perfect day to stay inside with the oven on and the pots boiling on the stove top and get my cooking done for the week.  I have found that I eat much better if I make meals in advance.  Everyone is different and many people don't like frozen meals or left-overs.  I don't mind them at all and would rather have a home-cooked meal to grab out of the fridge or freezer if there just isn't time to make something.
     I went to the store and bought chicken legs, hamburger, pork chops, chicken sausage and steak, fresh spinach, fresh baby carrots, fresh celery, fresh asparagus, frozen broccoli, frozen cauliflower, frozen artichoke hearts, coconut milk, coconut oil, bisquick gluten-free mix and chicken better than bouillon paste.
     I cooked the meat in coconut oil with the exception of the chicken and I used olive oil for that because I like the taste better for chicken and the chicken skin tends to absorb the coconut oil to the point it tastes super greasy.  Use the coconut oil if you are into the greasy chicken taste.
     As the meat cooked, I steamed the frozen bags of vegetables in the microwave (these steam-able bags are great and perfect for work) and prepared the fresh vegetables to make a hamburger stew.  I used half the hamburger to make patties and the other half to make stew, just like my Mother used to do.  She had 101 recipes for hamburger and I still like the basic, cheap recipes she used.  Stew meat is great too, but hamburger is much less expensive and makes more meals.  My Dad is by far the better cook, but he worked two or three jobs and she really had to make a dollar stretch with 6 kids to feed.  She tried so hard to feed us healthy meals, adding wheat germ and vital gluten to everything, making home-made whole wheat bread, poisoning us all with wheat. 
     Anyway, when everything was done, I let it cool and then bagged it up into meals in freezer bags.  I put a  piece of meat and two servings of vegetables, because that is what I like.  I have found that 1 minute in the microwave thaws the food enough to transfer it to a plate and cook for another 2-3 minutes until warmed through.  Depending on the freezer bag brand, the bag might melt to the food if left in the microwave too long.  It doesn't taste that bad with a little melted freezer bag but I should be the only one to have to eat plastic.
     I clean the bags after eating the contents and reuse them because plastic is made from oil and I'm trying to do my small part to reduce dependency on oil.  My sister is great at canning and she cans hers when she can which is such a good idea.  I'm working my way up to that.  For now, it is enough to have meals in the fridge and freezer.

     That is what the freezer looks stuffed with individual meals and stew in tupperware ready to warm and eat.

      Remember that there is a good, better and best choice for all foods.  Eat gluten-free and make good choices, eat better and focus on healthy eating and correct combinations for your blood sugar and eat best with grass-fed or wild protein, no sugar and good saturated fats.