Super Simple Oatmeal Cookies

This recipe is extremely versatile and easy. Basically you need bananas and oats as the base and then whatever else sound good to you. Everything is optional and measurements aren't detrimental.








Here was the recipe I used tonight

Ingredients:

• 2 bananas 
• 1 cup oats (we use gluten free)
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• craisins 
• mini chocolate chips
• coconut
• crushed almonds 

Directions

1. Mash bananas in a small bowl
2. Mix oats, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl
3. Add bananas to the mixture
4. Add the additional sweets 
5. Bake for 13 minutes at 350 on a greased pan

My First Meal Prep

Monday was my first real meal prep day. I've been wanting to try this out for a while so I finally decided to do it. 

I am pretty OCD and I like routine so I like eating the same things over and over. I figured I could make a few of our most common meals in bulk and freeze them to use throughout the month. We'll, of course, need to take a few trips in between-mainly to get bananas and kale (we go through those like crazy). BUT for the most part… I really think this is going to work.

Ive been wanting to challenge myself to stick to a tighter budget. I take way too many grocery trips and it all ads up quickly. So this month Im keeping track of everything I buy and seeing what it ads up to.

Meal prep = mess. BUT since its only messy for a day, I can handle that. 

I made 2 large batches of quinoa chili. 

and mac and cheese (left is pictures the cashew cheese)

So I made the chili first and while that cooked I also cut up potatoes, onions, carrots and mushrooms just for a roasted potato dish. Then after I made the second chili batch, I had to cook quinoa as well so while I waited for the quinoa to cook, I started the vegetables for the cashew cheese sauce. When the quinoa was done cooking, I added the quinoa to the chili and began cooking the noodles for mac and cheese. While the noodles cooked, I finished the cashew cheese and made the black bean avocado salad (minus the avocados)

Then, I began separating the foods into serving sizes. I know the baggies aren't very "green".  Sorry. 

Anyways, I meant to buy bigger bags but then the smaller freezer ones worked so I could measure out serving sizes and only take out what I needed for that meal. So I put the quinoa chili and black bean salad in those. 

I doubled the recipe for the mac and cheese that I have on my blog and separated it into 4 dishes. 

I made two dishes of potatoes and veggies. 

I also have the frozen blueberries and mangos for our smoothies and a frozen Amy's dinner I bought months ago when Matthan was having survey incase I didn't want to cook… and its still there. 

Not pictures: 4 containers of cashew queso. 

So my fridge is pretty self explanatory. I obviously didn't want to freeze everything since we will eat in the next few days, so I left out some servings for that. And this is pretty much how the fridge usually looks: lots of fresh veggies and fruits, fresh juice, left overs, hummus for snacks, tofu, daiya, coconut yogurt… you know, the basics :) 

So while this gives me a little anxiety and I hate having a messy kitchen…. it was totally worth it. 

 Because the food was all packed, and easy to take out for the night Im going to eat it so it will cut down on time/mess later on in the month...

AND it didn't take TOO long to clean

SO in one day (less than a day- a few hours really) I was able to make all of the food and clean up the kitchen and save lots of time (and hopefully money) for the rest of the month. 

 

 Yay!