Showing posts with label Meal Planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meal Planning. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Meal plans for 1/30-2/5
12:32 PM
- I pretty much always do turkey noodle soup the day after turkey.
- I feel like my Turkey Noodle soup has really, really bumped up a level since my mother-in-law introduced me to these amazing noodles (which you can find in your local freezer section). Reames Frozen Noodles:
Tuesday 1/31: Leftovers
- Guys, when you actually cook every night, the leftovers can build up fast, so it's a great idea to have a leftover night at least once a week or so. That's tonight's plan!
- Admittedly, some of my kids will not eat the stuff we have leftover, so we may end up supplementing with PB&J sandwiches or noodles and butter. We will see how it goes.
- The best thing I did during med school/residency when I was trying to meal plan like a boss, was to plan leftover days, then CLEAN OUT ALL the leftovers after that meal. Pull out all the leftovers from the week, let everyone pick and choose what they want, then when everyone has eaten, get rid of the old food, clean out that fridge! Make room for next week's leftovers. :)
Wednesday 2/1: Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese with Salad and Brussell Sprouts
- I might change the Brussell Sprouts to a different kind of veggie because we have eaten them a lot lately.
- This is a favorite meal for Wes and the kids, but it is not low cal, so that's why I make sure that we have salad and veggies with the grilled cheese and tomato soup.
- Also, since I cannot eat cheese or greasy foods, I will stick to the veggies and Salad for this dinner. BUT just because I cannot have it, doesn't mean the kids and Wes should miss out on a favorite meal!
Thursday 2/2: Crock Pot Chili with rolls
- This might be my favorite go-to meal in the winter especially. It is SO easy and so good!
- EASY is the goal for Thursdays because it is so crazy with kids activities! The crock pot is my friend on Thursdays-lets hope this week I remember to start the food in the morning. LOL
Friday 2/3: Chicken Pillows W/Broccoli and Salad
- This meal is a little bit of a thing to put it together, so I don't love to make it often, but it is THE favorite of several of my kids. They have requested this meal for weeks and weeks, so I finally put it on the meal plan-on a night when we have nothing else going on except date night for me and Wes!
- Before I share the recipe, let me note that when I make chicken pillows, the morning of, I take our my small crock pot and put in 2 or 3 breasts of chicken and cook them in the crock pot all day-then I shred the chicken instead of dicing it. Just a little change that makes it easier for me and I like it this way! :)
- The picture below is the Chicken Pillows recipe I use (thanks Mom!)
Here's the typed out version of the recipe:
Chicken Pillows
2 Cups diced, cooked Chicken (or shredded)
8 oz Cream Cheese, Softened (sometimes I use more if I want it creamier)
1-2 onions, chopped
2-4 stalks celery, chopped
8 oz fresh mushrooms, cut
2 (or more-I usually use like 4) packages refrigerated crescent rolls
Melted butter
Seasoned bread crumbs
Gravy: Make a white sauce (1/4 C flour, 1/2 square butter, salt, pepper, and 2 C milk, one bullion cube for flavor) OR open can or 2 of cream of anything soup, OR Mix the white sauce with a can of cream of anything soup (this is what I do)
For the Pillows:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Saute onion, celery and mushrooms in olive oil or butter. Add to a bowl where you have already mixed the cream cheese and the chicken. Mix the veggie in. Drop by spoonfuls on to the center of a crescent roll, Close up the roll and pinch the edges closed. Roll in melted butter, then roll in the seasoned bread crumbs. Put on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Serve with gravy.
Saturday 2/4: Baked Potato Bar
- Dare I admit that this is basically another meal designed to use up leftovers? I put this meal after chili, broccoli, and the chicken pillow gravy intentionally so we can use all those items as possible toppings for the potatoes!
- Besides the leftover toppings, I will have available, butter, sour cream, ranch dressing, bacon, and various other options.
Sunday 2/5: Roast, Orzo, veggies, salad (will change to SUPERBOWL food!)
- Roast, Orzo, veggies and salad is the traditional Sunday meal for my family. It is awesome! But alas, this Sunday it will change!
- More on the Superbowl foods in another post
- Go Pats!
And there you have it! Meal Plans for this week!!!
Friday, January 27, 2017
Still rollin with the punches...
2:22 PM
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
When Life gets in the way of plans...
2:14 PM
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Dinner Plans 1/23-1/29/2017
2:09 PM
Labels:
#Family,
Family,
Getting Real,
Meal Planning,
Money Saving,
Plan Ahead,
Weekly Dinners
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Beckee's Deal on Meal Planning
1:02 PM
- Research
- List Ideas
- Choose weekly dinners
- Compare recipes to my pantry
- Make Grocery shopping list
- Shop
- Try my best to stick to it!!
And to get a bit more specific:
1. Research: I love Cookbooks.
I even wrote one when I was pregnant with my third child. (Someday soon I hope to do another one!)
When I research, I think about the tried and true meals we love as a family mixed in with new meals from my plethora of cookbooks (or from Internet searches). As I am doing me research, I do step 2:
2. List Ideas
The pencil I wrote in is hard to see in the picture above, so I will tell you that it is the list I made on Sunday (as I researched) of all the meals that looked good to me from my "regular" meals, from ids ideas, and from my cookbooks. (That is the top half of the page anyway). As you can see, it is a long list (about 30-40 possible dinners). I only need 7 for this week, but having a lot of ideas from steps 1 & 2 means I won't need to redo these steps again for a while. Yeah!
3. Choose Weekly Meals
Sometimes this is the hardest part. I have 5 kids that each take turns being extra picky and they all have their favorites. Also, my husband and I really try to eat healthy, which is not the favorite meals for the kids. Plus I have had to remove (or severely reduce) some things that we all love from my diet over the past couple years (most notably cheese and greasy foods). Sad. This all makes the meal picking part really hard. But with all the ideas from the first couple steps, I choose what I want (with the next step already in my mind, meaning that I try to plan somewhat based on what I already have and can use).
4. Compare Recipes to my Pantry
OK. So once I pick meals, then I get out the recipes. I check through my pantry and freezer and see what ingredients I already have then I move to step 5:
5. Make Grocery Shopping List
Again, the pencil is a little light on that picture above, but this page shows how I organize the first step of my grocery list. On the left side of the page I listed the meals I planned for the week. Then I pull out each recipe and (with my pantry check already done and in my mind), I write the items I need to purchase in the column on the right and a small reminder list of what I already have on the far left. Usually I try to plan and shop for a full week at a time, but one of the items I chose this week for Friday had some ingredients that I have to get a a specific store (it is a Filipino meal). And I want fresh produce for that meal. So, I chose to only shop for the meals through Thursday. I will get the rest on Thursday while the kids are at school.
After I made the pencil and paper list, I wanted a more organized list. For that, I use a great app called "Out Of Milk" (I have tried lots of apps for this and this one is the one I like) With this app, you can enter your grocery items and it will organize them by section of the store into a check list. Once you get the item, you just check it off and it moves the item. I took a screenshot of yesterdays list with some items still listed in their category and others checked off so you can see it:
This app has WAY more useful things than this list too. Check out all you can do with it:
I love this app. Get it. Try it out. (No, they did not pay me for this...if fact I have no affiliation with them at all. I just like and use it)
6. Shop
If choosing the meals is the hardest part, then this is the next hardest step, because it is SOOO tempting to buy more that you planned to. I love food. I love shopping, so this can be a pitfall. But I try to keep in mind the goal, which is to save money, and that helps me to really stick (mostly) to the list I made! AND I only take my phone with my Out of Milk app open into the store with me. None of the other lists or ideas. JUST that list I made in that app. It helps me to stick to the list and to focus on the goal. Which brings us to my last step...
7. Try to Stick to it
By this I don't JUST mean to stick to the grocery shopping list. I also mean try to stick to the meal plan you made. I know things will come up and you may not perfectly stick to your plan, but try. I often say that all I can do is my best, and sometimes that means I stick to the weekly plan, and sometimes it means we eat out a few times on really rough weeks. I am really trying to meal plan and stick to my goal. I am on day 2 of the plan and so far so good. I will share this week's plan in the next post. Maybe it will inspire some ideas for one of you!
2. List Ideas
The pencil I wrote in is hard to see in the picture above, so I will tell you that it is the list I made on Sunday (as I researched) of all the meals that looked good to me from my "regular" meals, from ids ideas, and from my cookbooks. (That is the top half of the page anyway). As you can see, it is a long list (about 30-40 possible dinners). I only need 7 for this week, but having a lot of ideas from steps 1 & 2 means I won't need to redo these steps again for a while. Yeah!
3. Choose Weekly Meals
Sometimes this is the hardest part. I have 5 kids that each take turns being extra picky and they all have their favorites. Also, my husband and I really try to eat healthy, which is not the favorite meals for the kids. Plus I have had to remove (or severely reduce) some things that we all love from my diet over the past couple years (most notably cheese and greasy foods). Sad. This all makes the meal picking part really hard. But with all the ideas from the first couple steps, I choose what I want (with the next step already in my mind, meaning that I try to plan somewhat based on what I already have and can use).
4. Compare Recipes to my Pantry
OK. So once I pick meals, then I get out the recipes. I check through my pantry and freezer and see what ingredients I already have then I move to step 5:
5. Make Grocery Shopping List
Again, the pencil is a little light on that picture above, but this page shows how I organize the first step of my grocery list. On the left side of the page I listed the meals I planned for the week. Then I pull out each recipe and (with my pantry check already done and in my mind), I write the items I need to purchase in the column on the right and a small reminder list of what I already have on the far left. Usually I try to plan and shop for a full week at a time, but one of the items I chose this week for Friday had some ingredients that I have to get a a specific store (it is a Filipino meal). And I want fresh produce for that meal. So, I chose to only shop for the meals through Thursday. I will get the rest on Thursday while the kids are at school.
After I made the pencil and paper list, I wanted a more organized list. For that, I use a great app called "Out Of Milk" (I have tried lots of apps for this and this one is the one I like) With this app, you can enter your grocery items and it will organize them by section of the store into a check list. Once you get the item, you just check it off and it moves the item. I took a screenshot of yesterdays list with some items still listed in their category and others checked off so you can see it:
This app has WAY more useful things than this list too. Check out all you can do with it:
I love this app. Get it. Try it out. (No, they did not pay me for this...if fact I have no affiliation with them at all. I just like and use it)
6. Shop
If choosing the meals is the hardest part, then this is the next hardest step, because it is SOOO tempting to buy more that you planned to. I love food. I love shopping, so this can be a pitfall. But I try to keep in mind the goal, which is to save money, and that helps me to really stick (mostly) to the list I made! AND I only take my phone with my Out of Milk app open into the store with me. None of the other lists or ideas. JUST that list I made in that app. It helps me to stick to the list and to focus on the goal. Which brings us to my last step...
7. Try to Stick to it
By this I don't JUST mean to stick to the grocery shopping list. I also mean try to stick to the meal plan you made. I know things will come up and you may not perfectly stick to your plan, but try. I often say that all I can do is my best, and sometimes that means I stick to the weekly plan, and sometimes it means we eat out a few times on really rough weeks. I am really trying to meal plan and stick to my goal. I am on day 2 of the plan and so far so good. I will share this week's plan in the next post. Maybe it will inspire some ideas for one of you!
Getting Real about Money Saving on Food (by planning ahead)
12:23 PM
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