Meal Planning

I just finished this long email to my sister and thought it might be interesting to some others who might read our blog.

One more thing to add is "I LOVE WINCO!"

Meal planning is one of the harder things I have to do. I feel like I have found a good method for us lately. I make a list of six meals for the week. I shop for those meals. I don't assign the meals to a particular day to give us a little flexibility. Sometime the six meals last 8-9 days if we eat leftovers or go out to eat or get invited to a friend's house. This way I don't HAVE to go shopping in exactly a week. If I am really on top of things I shop for the whole month. But you still end up going to the store for fresh food (milk, bread, fruits and veggies, etc).

My list of meals for this week (I had you in mind this week so they are all things we made at home)

Hawaiian Haystacks

Chinese Chicken Salad

Stir Fry

Taco Salad

Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

Pizza

Last Weeks Menu

Mexican Fiesta Biscuit Bake

Chicken Pillows

BBQ Beef Sandwiches

Beef Sour Cream Enchiladas

Salmon Cakes and Quinoa

Pizza

A while ago I talked to Greg and he said that to save money and to stop going out to eat so much every Friday night they have breakfast for dinner. AJ and I discussed what we would like to do once a week instead of going out. Can you guess? PIZZA! I don't like ordering pizza. It is so expensive and very greasy. So we make our own dough in the bread maker and get a little creative with toppings. It is fun and tastes really good. I really think it is one reason we haven't gained weight having pizza every week. The crust is thin and low fat and we use a moderate amount of cheese. So, some people do Taco Night or Potato Bar Night. Whatever you like. You could even do Sunday, Roast day, Monday, Mexican, Tuesday, Italian, Wednesday Chinese, and so on. This way you have an idea, think of something that sounds good and then make it.

Another thing you can do is always have a few things in your pantry that you can make a meal of. Like the ingredients for Chicken and Rice Casserole. Or Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo. Or try to copycat your favorite meals at restaurants. Then you can make it yourself for less and probably better tasting and better for you. There are a ton of websites with copycat recipes.

I try to cook two or three meals at once. At least the meat. I cook a lot of ground beef and make enchiladas. Then I freeze it into portions and use it for meat in pasta sauce or tacos. I cook up chicken and use some for chicken stir fry and some for chicken pillows in a couple days. I make a big beef roast or pork roast. Same thing. This saves money (buy in bulk and use smaller amounts in each recipe, saves time, and save energy yours and the ovens. Save you from getting hot in the summer too. Just pull out the cooked meat and add it to a recipe instead of getting all hot and sweaty again over a hot stove).

Some of AJ's favorite meals are ones that I just make up, or make do with what we have on hand. Pick a meat, starch, and veggie that you have, add some spices and, viola, awesome dinner. Meat could be chicken with a rub or marinade, pork with rosemary and applesauce, beef tri-tip or steak or even hambergur patties or roast. Then your starch. Potatoes (so many ways- roasted potatoes and mashed potatoes are my favorites), rice, pasta, couscous, quinao (new to us, yummy). Then veggie. Steamed broccoli with hot red peeper flakes and garlic, peas, salad, corn with thyme, cooked carrots with brown sugar or garlic. I like to use real butter when making veggies. That is one thing AJ converted me to. Real Butter.

And then dessert. We love desserts. That is one thing we go out for. We have found too many good places around us. The donut shop around the corner, the gourmet cupcake place. The make your own yogurt with lots of toppings place, and Mochi from Whole Foods. So we just limit ourselves. Sunday is cookie day. We now limit it to Home Teaching Sundays. Molten lava cakes, brownie sundays, ice cream. In moderation of course.

Hope that is enough for you. We love to eat. But we are also on a strict budget. So we watch our portions and eat our leftovers. And something I have had to learn. Actually two things. It is okay to feel hungry (not starving because then you binge). And sometimes when I want a snack i am really thirsty not hungry.

Love you Tammy,

Jayne