chik'n strips

Omni meal plans

I’ve been keeping up with weekly meal planning for almost a year now – with random weeks off due to travel/holidays/etc..  But for the most part, it’s been a very successful technique in keeping our food budget in check.  I thought it would be way more expensive once we started including meat, but it hasn’t been too significant of a difference because the marginal increase in animal protein is balanced by the fact that we all eat the same thing (thus, a decrease in overall ingredients).  One meal as opposed to three.  At least for… Read more >

Catching up on last weekend

After a week of saving money on home-cooked meals a la plan, I opted to splurge for the weekend.  Lazy me.    I was working though, so it was my treat.  I snacked on chex and chocolate crunchfuls.  The crunchfuls are made with pea protein.  I got them in a sample pack a long time ago.  I reviewed the plain ones here.  The chocolate ones are better but still have a definite pea flavor going on.  I could get used to it (and didn’t really mind it that much), but if you’re looking for a… Read more >

Saturday take-away

Working on the weekends isn’t too bad when the days are mellow and the weather is mediocre (I swear I heard the phrase “June gloom” six hundred and fifty three times yesterday).  Having interesting patients helps too… My shift flew by and as 7 pm approached I texted dinner plans to Kyle.  me: Veggie Grill take-away tonight? kyle: yes.  what do you want? me: Baja Fiesta salad, add chik’n, dressing on the side   Done and done. I got this same order last time so I knew it would hit the spot.  This time I… Read more >

Packing for 24 hours and multiple layovers

The art of packing food is my specialty.  Much like making my daily work eats (tutorials here), packing food for traveling is a bit of a craft.  Some may find it easier to buy meals at the airport rather than go through the hassle of taking extra baggage through security.  Personally, I’m not one of those people.  I don’t care if it adds 25 pounds of dead weight that I have to schlep by plane, train, and automobile, for me it’s SO worth the energy.  The cost to benefit analysis probably differs depending on your… Read more >

Out with the old, in with the new

My latest quinoa salad was fantastic, and the best part was that it yielded way more than I expected! What’s a girl to do?  This was an everything but the kitchen sink everything in the fridge kind of salad…including a Strawberry Shortcake coloring book.  It had leftover broccoli, leftover sweet potatoes, leftover quinoa, and a new product too! Quorn Naked Chik’n Cultets do have trace amounts of egg whites, so they aren’t vegan.  But I had never seen them before and they were on sale, so why the heck not? Here they are in all… Read more >