What's for dinner?

"What's for dinner?" I hear that question almost every day from my kids. Running errands, driving the kids around from one activity to another, homework and housework, sometimes I forget to take something out of the freezer for dinner. Yet I do manage to get food on the table, it may not be what I had planned, but it's food.

The next challenge is trying to eat at a regular time. It is tough because our daily evening schedule is not consistent. So I have a window of when we can expect to eat dinner. (That window is sometimes broken too.) I am determined to loose weight and I do try very hard to eat at a regular time, or in my case a regular window of time. For the most part, I have been successful in this respect. Now I'm supposed to eat health too? Oh man. I guess homemade chili dogs and corn chips is not going to cut it. More veggies, fruit and water, less pastries, chips and soda.

While I do know what to make for dinner that is healthy and tasty, I do not always know many variations. As a result, meals can get boring and tiring. I have seen and purchased various cook books to try to get new ideas. Unfortunately it was not a successful venture. The ingredients were not things I usually purchased, so the cost of a meal was usually a little more than usual. I also encountered recipes which luckily consisted mostly of things I already had. Some were good, some were okay, some were *yuck*.


So cookbooks are out. What other options for meal planning do I have. This makes me feel down. As expected, Christmas was chaotic, busy, and very full of unhealthy and unwise temptations. I was feeling like there was nothing I could eat and loose weight. Water and vegetables 24/7 is not for me. I walked into my weekly Weight Watcher's meeting and found I had gained 1.2lbs. Not as big of a gain as I had thought it would be, but it was a gain, a setback. I was a depressed and feeling like a failure. Being in such a gloom state of mind I gave myself permission to eat Carl's Jr for lunch. One more bad meal was not going to make a difference. Well, half way through my meal, I felt sick. It was as if something took over me and I got up, threw my food away, and decided I was not going to give into failure.  I can still succeed.

When I got home I found a wonderful surprise, a box. An orange box from Chef'd.  Let me get to the punch line, dinner was great! What follows are some pictures from my unboxing of my Chef'd meal in a box, to plating my Chef'd dinner.

 Right on top were two recipe cards. One for Lemon and Herb Salmon, and one for Moo-Shu Port.
For dinner I choose to make the Lemon and Herb Salmon.

 Everything I need to make the Lemon and Herb Salmon was included in the box. What was not included is shown here: zester, slotted spook, cooking spray, olive oil, small sauce pan, small boll and a foil lined tray.

 Back to the Chef'd unboxing, under the recipe box was a sealed cool area.

 Open the sealed foil area, and food is revealed. Air pouches kept the food packed neatly, presentable, and fresh.

 I removed the air pouches.

 Took the food packages out to reveal the lower compartment, a cooler/colder area.

 In the lower compartment was the meat. In my case it was salmon for 4 servings and pork for 4 servings.

 The meat was placed on top of 3 large ice packs. Note, this box had been shipped to me and sitting on my kitchen counter for a day. The ice packs were still cold. They was very minimal defrosting.

  

Under the ice packs was nothing more than something resembling a paper towel.

 

This is what was packed in the box, 5 packages.

 My dinner selection for the evening was Lemon and Herb Salmon.

 Since my order was a meal for 4, I divided it in half so I could make two meals for two.

One potato instead of 2, one lemon instead of 2, 2 pieces of salmon instead of 4, etc.

 The lemon was fresh and *very* juice.

 The lemon was to be squeezed into the small boll.

 Parsley, it was fresh, very eye pleasing.

  Parsley. Since this was meant for four and I only needed enough for two, I split it into two portions.

 Rough chopped the parsley up.

 Added the parsley to the lemon juice.

 Cut the ends off the asparagus. Need I say they were large, healthy, fresh, and all around great.

 Pat dried the salmon and placed it on the foiled tray.

 Added the parsley lemon juice mix.

 Added the asparagus to the foiled tray and seasoned them.

 Cubed the potato which was boiled while the previous items were prepped.

 Added the seasoned potatoes to the foiled tray.

 A few minutes later, dinner was ready to be plated.

 What plate did I use? My Weight Watcher's plate, of course.

 This is how it should be plated.

 

Same plate, but I prefer this angle better.

 

It tasted good, it was simple to make, and I will definitely be replicating this menu again.