Meals, Miles & Muscles: Week 2 – Keeping on Track

I had hoped to get this post up a little earlier this week, but we were gone all weekend and I really didn’t put together a plan until Monday. I promise, I’ll try to get the information out earlier next week – it’s already in the planning stages.

Here’s a quick recap of what happened for meals last week since I’m behind on Instagram/FB posts too!

We all enjoyed the Instant Pot Shrimp Boil on Sunday. And, while I made this on a weekend day, it’s fast enough to be a weeknight dinner. There was a bit of leftover shrimp so we stuffed two of Monday’s chile rellenos with those. The rellenos were tasty and crispy, but it seemed like the breading never really as brown as I would have liked. I’ll add a bit of fat to the panko mix next time to help with that.

We didn’t end up making Cheez-It Chicken. I had to run to Costco for weekend trip supplies (and coffee!), so I picked up a rotisserie chicken while I was there. So Thursday ended up being rotisserie chicken with roasted asparagus and mashed potatoes.

Meals for the Week

Eggplant Parmesan

I’m planning this for #meatlessmonday. Eggplant is one of the few meatless dishes that I can get my son to eat without complaining, and eggplant parm is his favorite of those. Over the past few years, Lloyd and I have been eating less and less meat, especially red meat. That hasn’t been on purpose, instead, it’s just more of a change in our overall eating habits. With Jon back at home for a while, we’ve all had to be a little more flexible in our diets!

I’m using a similar technique to last week’s chile rellenos for the breading, with panko and parmesan. This time I’m going to add some butter to that mix to help the panko get nice and brown. I’m also going to cook the eggplant on a sheet pan and just top them with sauce and cheese instead of layering them in a casserole. That means one less pan to wash and the bottoms should stay crispier. We’ll eat the eggplant with spaghetti on the side.

Tacos al Pastor

We’ve got a pork loin roast in the freezer that needs to be cooked and what better way than tacos al pastor? Tender pork marinated in a spicy-sweet chile pineapple sauce with garlic, onion and maybe a touch of cinnamon. I’m planning to use the recipe AUTHENTIC TACOS AL PASTOR from Kevin is Cooking, but I may have to adapt the spices a bit for what I have on hand or can get at the local market. I’m using Kevin’s Instant Pot/oven technique for certain!

Seared Ahi Tuna

One of my goals has been to incorporate more seafood in our diets. We eat shrimp fairly often at home and enjoy eating fish at restaurants, but it’s not something we cook a lot. So, I’m trying to change that – if you have some ideas or recipes, let me know in the comments!

I’m planning a sesame-soy based seasoning for the tuna and to serve the steaks with stir-fried veggies and possibly a little rice.

Tip for the week: Rice – plain rice (brown or white) freezes really well! I always make the largest amount of rice possible – white in the rice cooker, brown in the oven using Alton Brown’s Baked Brown Rice method. Take out whatever you need for dinner and put the rest in freezer bags in meal-sized portions (for us that’s about 3 cups in a quart bag). Microwave the frozen rice for 3-5 minutes or until hot.

Shrimp Scampi

More seafood! Shrimp with butter, garlic, and white wine, what could be better? We’ll eat this with a combination of planned-over pasta from Monday’s eggplant parmesan and spiralized zucchini noodles.

Cheez-It Chicken

Since we didn’t end up eating this last week, it’s on the menu again. I’m not sure we will make it this week unless it’s over the weekend. But I’ll keep it on the list just in case.

Miles & Muscles

So last week didn’t go exactly as planned, but it was pretty close. We did all of the runs as on our modified schedule (accounting for Saturday’s race). We also did a 1-1/2 mile walk Friday evening. But we didn’t manage to get in Friday’s strength training workout since we needed to pack for the weekend and wanted to avoid the afternoon traffic for our trip to San Antonio. That means that this week, we’ll start off with SL workout B, same as we did last week.

Monday	REST
Tuesday	45 min easy run
Wednesday	Stronglifts workout B (squat, overhead press, deadlifts)
Thursday	40 min run (hills)
Friday	Stronglifts workout A (squat, bench press, rows) 2 mile easy walk
Saturday	REST
Sunday	9 mile long run

Again, we’d love to have more accountability partners, whether we’re following the same training plan or something completely different!

Join us here, follow us on facebook (@fatmanontherun), and on Instagram (Sandy – @sleepigrl / Lloyd – @fatmanotr) for training reports, thoughts on meals, and recipes throughout each week. FYI, if you’d like a complete recipe (or as complete as I have) for any of the meals mentioned here, just give me a shout!