Pre cooking for the week - veggie style!

It's been a bit of a hectic week.  Since getting into my 'goal weight' last Wednesday I've been moving and shaking to Palm Springs and back - definitely enjoying a bit.  I've come to realize that pre-cooking is the number one way to success and always making sure you have food available to eat every couple hours is important.  I decided to cook for the week and came up with some great recipes to share below.  I also roasted a whole head of cauliflower which is simple and good for snacking.  on a pan just cut the cauliflower so it's in little flowerlets, drizzle with olive oil, a bit of salt and pepper and throw in the oven at 350.  You can see when it's browned on top.  When done, pull out and package up to bring to work for an afternoon veggie fix!

Spinach and Zucchini Soup

What you need:
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 medium onions, roughly chopped
big pinch of salt
2 1/2 cups potatoes (2 medium) cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 1/2 cups zucchini (2 medium), loosely chopped
4 cups vegetable stock
4 cups fresh spinach leaves, loosely packed
1 cup cilantro, loosely chopped
one lemon

I did a variation of this soup adding celery and carrots although I do not recommend.  I often feel celery and carrots to over power the flavor and turn everything into a celery and carrot soup.  I also was not generous with the salt as I am trying to be as low sodium as possible to not retain water for weigh ins so I did not add salt (but I would recommend as the soup could be a bit bland).

 First in a large stock pot I added the carrot, celery, onion mixture with olive oil and cooked until the onions were a bit translucent.  I then added the zucchini and potatoes (although my potatoes were already cooked) and LOW SODIUM vegetable broth.  I brought this to a pretty good boil for about 7-10 minutes.  Once cooked, I threw a bag of spinach leaves in the soup and mixed until wilted (which only takes a minute).  With my handy IMMERSION BLENDER (WHICH I TOTALLY RECOMMEND) I mixed it all up.  Notice - this soup is pretty veggie forward.  I'm into that sort of thing because I am trying to eat 5 servings of veggies a day but you'll want to add salt and negate the carrots and celery if you make on your own.  I drizzled the top with a bit of olive oil.  Also, I used the quinoa from the rice cooker with the soup and it was actually awesome....

Jen + Parker's AMAZING quinoa recipe!!

1 1/2 cups of organic WHITE quinoa (you can get RED but I don't like as much as it tastes a bit gritty)
1 can Cajun black beans (Trader Joes are awesome)
1 jar fire roasted yellow and red bell peppers (again, Trader Joes although you can go fresh if time allows)
1/2 bag of spinach
1 can green chilis (Traders....)
3 small zucchinis

I cook my quinoa in a rice cooker (this time cooking the quinoa with vegetable broth instead of water).  The rice cooker makes it very easy and cooks perfectly every time.  Once cooked I throw in a large pan with all the stuff above.  I usually use only 2/3'rd the can of cajun beans and 1/2 the jar of bell peppers as well as 1/3rd the can of the green chilies as they're a bit spicy!  I cook the spinach separately as well as the zucchini and add to the skillet after.  I cook the quinoa for about 15 minutes constantly stirring around.  This recipe will make a LOT but I eat this throughout the week as it's the best snack.  Also I add hot sauce (Tapatillo, Chalula, Mucho Aloha....it's the best on the quinoa!)