Although I’ve made changes to the way I eat, consistently preparing healthy meals has been a challenge for me. It’s kind of funny, because I actually really enjoy cooking. When I was in high school I used to love to go through my mom’s cookbooks and experiment and since she preferred to be sewing over cooking, she was happy to let me play in the kitchen. It would have been really cool if Chef Google had been around back then as our onions and garlic came from a bottle and veggies from a can. There were so many ingredients that I just wasn’t familiar with nor did I have anyone to tell me what they were, where to find them and how to cook with them.

An even bigger challenge for me has been the concept of planning and preparing for meals ahead of time.  I never saw my mom make a grocery list or keep of list of meals that we would have for a week. I’m sure she probably kept most of it in her head and always knew what she would fix for the week. I do remember her making casseroles and apple pies up in advance and freezing them, but other than that I don’t remember her spending a lot of prep time or advanced planning on meals. It just seems like that when it was dinner time there was food on the table and we were expected to eat dinner together as a family.

I have learned that it is one thing to want to prepare healthy meals, but it takes a little advanced planning and a willingness to experiment with new recipes that may or may not be a hit with my family. I will be posting some of the recipes I really enjoyed and that possibly my family enjoyed as well.  I will also share steps that can be taken to save time or ways that I changed the recipe up a bit. Make sure you sign up for my newsletter to follow me on this journey!

Greens, Eggs and Yam

This recipe comes from the Racing Weight Cookbook by Matt Fitzgerald and Georgie Fear. I was not brave enough to try this one out on my family so I made it for myself while they were at deer camp. I thought it was delicious and much better than expected. I think the contrast of flavors of the sweetness of the potatoes, the spiciness of the cayenne pepper and the savoriness of the eggs topped with feta cheese is wonderful! I think my son would like this one, not sure about my husband. 

Ingredients:

cooking spray

4 cups Swiss Chard or Spinach, chopped and loosley packed

1/2 medium sweet potato, grated

1/2 cup yellow onion chopped

1/4 teaspoon of seasoned salt

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

4 eggs

1/4 cup (2 oz) feta cheese, crumbled

Directions:

Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. When hot, add greens, sweet potato, and onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with season salt and cayenne.

Use a spatula to make 4 wells in the vegetables, and crakc an egg into each well. Cover pan and cook until talks are doe to your liking, about 5 minutes,

Divide between tow plates and sprinkle with feta cheese.

Makes 2 servings.

This is a great meal for breakfast or for dinner. It only takes about 20 minutes to make, however you can save time by grating the potato and chopping the greens and onions ahead of time so that they are ready to go when you are ready to cook! Also I used this mixture of organic greens that I bought at Kroger. Convenient, ready to use and just the right amount.

So here is the big question: What do you do with the other half of the sweet potato? Cut it into 1/2 inch slices, then quarter the slices. Mix in a pan with just enough olive oil to coat and sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast in an oven preheated to 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Stir them after about 10 minutes of roasting.  This will make just enough for a midday snack or add to a salad for lunch.

Do you take time to plan meals for each week or do you prepare them on the fly? Leave a comment below and share how you handle feeding your family each week!