1-Cooler, 1 – Weekend

This weekend while I was away, I wanted to try out the August issue of cooking light’s “The Great 1- Cooler, 1- Weekend Getaway”. Having all my meals planned out for the weekend, and fitting them in one cooler, would be extremely helpful while I was dog sitting for a relative. I really did not want to scarf down all of their snacks while I was supposed to be dog walking, nor did I want to go to the grocery store 800 times when I was craving something.

So I packed my cooler and bag.

I jumbled around the order of their recipes and left a few out (Mostly desserts and drinks).

I do wish that they had listed the ingredients for their 3 make ahead items; I photocopied their list for shopping purposes and ended up forgetting some ingredients. They did a great job of using the same staples in a different manner, I never thought I could use honey and mustard so many times in a weekend. The only other flaw was when I had dinner guests stop by and had to go double my ingredients, but that’s not the fault of cooking light.  One of my favorite dinners:

Barbecue Chicken Sliders with Pickled Onions, Broccoli Slaw, and Grilled Corn with Honey Butter.

And by the end of the weekend, I had used up all my ingredients. No leftovers to worry about, just an empty cooler to throw in the trunk of my car.

I swear I don’t only use Peter Berley Cookbooks

I promise that I have a wealth of other cookbooks and resources, but Peter Berley’s are just so handy. This is his Lentil and Corn Salad with Sweet Peppers and Coriander from Fresh Food Fast.  I have a feeling it’s going to be a fantastic portable dinner for tonight when I have to head over to my old university to monitor the printshop facilities.

It was really  simple to put together and I think it’s pulling me out of my at home food rut. (Does anyone else get bored with the quick meals they tend to rely on?) And I don’t think anything smells better than fresh basil. Hello summer, I’ve missed you.

And for the meat lover in my life, I’m adding some grilled chicken to his portion.