Saturday, July 7, 2012

What's For Dinner? Leftover Conundrum

Every now and again the Man has to work the closing shift at his store - today is one of those days. Cooking for one - particularly one WLS post-op - can be a challenge from a serving size perspective, so these nights are a perfect setting for the use of left overs.

Cooking at all, as a WLS post-op, is a constant challenge in volume. Most recipes are sized for 4 or 6 standard portion sizes. Even when I cooked pre-op, we would often have left overs, or honestly the two of us would have seconds of a truly good item. Now, cooking for a WLS-sized portion and a normal sized portion presents problems of recipe math that isn't always practical (half an egg?, etc).

When I made the meatloaf with onion gravy a few days ago, I knew that it would be eight WLS-friendly portions - so if the Man ate two, we'd have five left over. He loves meat loaf sandwiches, so that wasn't a  major concern, and I packaged the left overs for near-future consumption. Other recipes, like the braised meatballs with red wine gravy, made a HUGE batch, and I have two packages in the freezer (stored in my trusty Food Saver bags), each bag will be enough for dinner with a small left over serving between them.

It does take some planning to make sure that food doesn't go to waste - today's lunch relied on the last bit of fajita-spiced chicken and chunky corn and avocado salsa from the other night. Fresh left overs, depending on the item, only reliably last 2-4 days, so it's either the freezer or eat them promptly.

So today was full-on left over day!

My Meals

Breakfast
  • 1 scrambled egg
  • Dannon Light & Fit peach yogurt (flavor change!)
Lunch
  • Salad composed of: 
  • 2 oz left over fajita-spiced chicken
  • 1 serving chunky corn and avocado salsa
  • 1.5 cups romaine and napa cabbage mix
  • 4 radishes
  • 1.5 tbsp HT Traders brand Chipotle Ranch dressing
  • 1/8 cup 2% Mexican blend cheese
Dinner
  • 1 serving left over meat loaf with onion gravy
  • 3/4 cup green beans - steamed
  • 1 medium carrot - steamed
  • 1 tsp butter


Water -  50 oz 

Daily Totals: 862 calories, 47g fat, 55g carbohydrates, 23g sugars, 57g protein

3g short on the protein goal - I may nibble a piece of string cheese before bed (50 calories, 5g protein) to make up the difference.

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