Eat at Home 3!

[tampabrat22]

Busy week for us-
Sunday- Cosmic Rays at MK
Monday - Beef enchiladas & refried beans
Tuesday - Roast Pork, potatoes & peas
Wednesday- Breakfast (eggs, bacon, grits, biscuits)
Thursday - Probably Costco pizza after shopping
Friday - Dinner at Epcot or HS (quick service or festival snacks)
Saturday- Sushi (monthly girls night out)

 

[Tygerlilly]

We picked our side of beef up from the processor last week, so I imagine we'll have some beef heavy meals for a while. Tues-Fri it's just me and the kids for dinner since hubby is at work, so they usually get your typical "kid food" while I eat leftovers or salads or something. I do have some stuff prepped in the freezer (like a ton of taco chicken for burrito bowls) I can grab from also.

This is what we had/are having
Monday: chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes
Tuesday: chicken nuggets for kids, salad with chopped up nuggets for me
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: hot dogs for kids, burrito bowl for me
Friday: Mac n cheese and spam
Saturday: enchiladas
Sunday: something with beef tbd.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

Getting back on track with the menu planning. Well, I did HAVE a plan, but I just didn't follow it. That's okay though because we didn't eat out or get take out. So fail on following the plan, but having one kept us from failing at the overall goal of eating at home. I know it makes no sense, but even if I don't follow the plan, having one keeps us on track for eating at home. Not sure why, but it's working.

Today- Sloppy Joes on brioche rolls with sweet potato fries
Friday- Finally trying the crock pot beef and broccoli recipe over white rice
Saturday- Tortellini with garlic bread
Sunday- Chicken cutlets with l/o tortellini for me and rice for DH
Monday- Roast beef, mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, and green beans (steakhouse microwave steam pack)
Tuesday- BBQ turkey meatballs over egg noodles
Wednesday- Teriyaki tacos and rice
Thursday- Marinated london broil, roasted or baked sweet potatoes, l/o green beans
Friday- most likely Chinese take out unless we go down the shore for St. Patrick's weekend


0% chance all of this will get made, but at least there's a plan in place. Lunches will be leftovers. Guaranteed at least one night will get pushed back or cancelled because we will eat leftovers even if they aren't the same meal. We don't mind eating different things for dinner as long as we are eating together.

ETA- I'm fine with getting take out now and then if it's planned. We were just being lazy and getting take out frequently because neither of us could decide what to make for dinner.

 

[dpswift]

Getting back on track with the menu planning. Well, I did HAVE a plan, but I just didn't follow it. That's okay though because we didn't eat out or get take out. So fail on following the plan, but having one kept us from failing at the overall goal of eating at home. I know it makes no sense, but even if I don't follow the plan, having one keeps us on track for eating at home. Not sure why, but it's working.

Today- Sloppy Joes on brioche rolls with sweet potato fries
Friday- Finally trying the crock pot beef and broccoli recipe over white rice
Saturday- Tortellini with garlic bread
Sunday- Chicken cutlets with l/o tortellini for me and rice for DH
Monday- Roast beef, mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, and green beans (steakhouse microwave steam pack)
Tuesday- BBQ turkey meatballs over egg noodles
Wednesday- Teriyaki tacos and rice
Thursday- Marinated london broil, roasted or baked sweet potatoes, l/o green beans
Friday- most likely Chinese take out unless we go down the shore for St. Patrick's weekend


0% chance all of this will get made, but at least there's a plan in place. Lunches will be leftovers. Guaranteed at least one night will get pushed back or cancelled because we will eat leftovers even if they aren't the same meal. We don't mind eating different things for dinner as long as we are eating together.

ETA- I'm fine with getting take out now and then if it's planned. We were just being lazy and getting take out frequently because neither of us could decide what to make for dinner.

You are doing great. Just having meals planned and the ingredients available is half the battle. Switching days or even what you are doing with a piece of meat is fine. It is when you go out to dinner 3 nights in a row because you don’t want pork roast that’s a problem.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

You are doing great. Just having meals planned and the ingredients available is half the battle. Switching days or even what you are doing with a piece of meat is fine. It is when you go out to dinner 3 nights in a row because you don’t want pork roast that’s a problem.

It's also helped us identify meals that "sound" good when planning but always get bumped off the menu. Clearly we like them in theory, but not in real life.

 

[dpswift]

It's also helped us identify meals that "sound" good when planning but always get bumped off the menu. Clearly we like them in theory, but not in real life.

Good point. I now only roast pork in the oven and plan on shaving it for sandwiches.

 

[Tygerlilly]

It's also helped us identify meals that "sound" good when planning but always get bumped off the menu. Clearly we like them in theory, but not in real life.

We feel that way about pork loin. I always think it would be great to make and yet it's still sitting in our freezer months later because I just don't feel like making it.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

We feel that way about pork loin. I always think it would be great to make and yet it's still sitting in our freezer months later because I just don't feel like making it.

My husband always says he knows we are in trouble when sloppy joes are on the menu. The funny thing is when they actually get made we like them a lot and say "why don't we make these more often". I already swapped tonight and tomorrow night and made the beef and broccoli tonight. Sigh. I'm a work in progress and so is the darn menu, LOL. I apparently live in hope!

 

[barkley]

Tuesday: chicken nuggets for kids, salad with chopped up nuggets for me

my oldest will drizzle marinara on them and then top with shredded cheese-he calls it 'poor college student chicken parm' i like mine with bbq sauce mixed with ranch

We feel that way about pork loin. I always think it would be great to make and yet it's still sitting in our freezer months later because I just don't feel like making it.

i finaly took the one i found in my freezer and put it in the crockpot to cook for bbq pork sandwiches. yes, i could have used a much less expensive cut of pork but i kept putting off cooking it and it got used up for something the family enjoys.

 

[dpswift]

We feel that way about pork loin. I always think it would be great to make and yet it's still sitting in our freezer months later because I just don't feel like making it.

I pulled one out for sandwiches next week. Hopefully it gets eaten

 

[Tygerlilly]

Y'all are inspiring me to pull my dang pork loin out and just cook the dang thing.

 

[robinb]

Y'all are inspiring me to pull my dang pork loin out and just cook the dang thing.

This is a super easy and tasty recipe

https://www.skinnytaste.com/grilled-cumin-spiced-pork-tenderloin/

 

[focusondisney]

My husband ended up collapsing and having a seizure last Wednesday and we had several people kind enough to bring/order us meals multiple nights after.

How scary, I hope he’s doing well now.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

Ladies and gents....I made the darn sloppy joes tonight! Mark it down on your calendars. I'm not putting it back on the menu for at least 6 months! @Tygerlilly if I can make the stupid sloppy joes you can get that darn pork loin out of your freezer!

 

[LoveDaisy]

Chicken tacos with rice.

 

[DanceDisney23]

I fell into a meal planning slump, once again. Not helped by my family whose contributions usually are “I don’t know, something good?” or “not this again”.

Trying to get back at it. It doesn’t help that March is a busy month with work travel and dance competitions, so we’ll see how it works out.

Here is what I have:

Today: homemade pizza
Sunday: spaghetti, garlic bread, salad
Monday: chicken soup, grilled cheese
Tuesday: chicken cutlets, rice pilaf, broccoli
Wednesday: traveling for work, rest of the family is on their own
Thursday: same as Wednesday
Friday: return from travel and dance night, will ask DH to get takeout

 

[dpswift]

I fell into a meal planning slump, once again. Not helped by my family whose contributions usually are “I don’t know, something good?” or “not this again”.

Trying to get back at it. It doesn’t help that March is a busy month with work travel and dance competitions, so we’ll see how it works out.

Here is what I have:

Today: homemade pizza
Sunday: spaghetti, garlic bread, salad
Monday: chicken soup, grilled cheese
Tuesday: chicken cutlets, rice pilaf, broccoli
Wednesday: traveling for work, rest of the family is on their own
Thursday: same as Wednesday
Friday: return from travel and dance night, will ask DH to get takeout

I found that on busy weeks cooking several meals (or at least prepping them) kept me wotivated. Somewhere in this forum is a thread of crockpot meals that gave me ideas. I tried starting a thread of ideas but it didn’t take off.

 

[DanceDisney23]

I found that on busy weeks cooking several meals (or at least prepping them) kept me wotivated. Somewhere in this forum is a thread of crockpot meals that gave me ideas. I tried starting a thread of ideas but it didn’t take off.

I’m trying to do that, but I find I need at least a Sunday without any plans/other household chores to pull that off. Lately, we’ve had something going on 7 out of 7 days a week. That’s when I can hardly be bothered to cook one meal, let alone prep several. I hate to admit it, but those are the weeks when I end up tossing food I never got around to cooking and didn’t put in the freezer on time either.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

I’m trying to do that, but I find I need at least a Sunday without any plans/other household chores to pull that off. Lately, we’ve had something going on 7 out of 7 days a week. That’s when I can hardly be bothered to cook one meal, let alone prep several. I hate to admit it, but those are the weeks when I end up tossing food I never got around to cooking and didn’t put in the freezer on time either.

That was happening to me too. I find two things helped to get me back on track. The first is that even if I don't follow the meal plan exactly that just having one keeps me on track to at least make something at home rather than get take out or eat out. Which leads to the second thing, which is having some convenience foods on hand that I can make quickly if I forget to take something out to thaw or we just plain don't feel like eating what's on the menu. A frozen pizza from Aldi is way cheaper than getting take out and it's already built into my grocery budget to keep some of these types of things on hand. And breakfast for dinner is always an easy and quick option to fall back on as well as a can of soup and a grilled cheese. Progress, not perfection....that's the goal. It's not perfect but no one is starving over here and we have cut WAY back on take out and eating out.

 

[dpswift]

That was happening to me too. I find two things helped to get me back on track. The first is that even if I don't follow the meal plan exactly that just having one keeps me on track to at least make something at home rather than get take out or eat out. Which leads to the second thing, which is having some convenience foods on hand that I can make quickly if I forget to take something out to thaw or we just plain don't feel like eating what's on the menu. A frozen pizza from Aldi is way cheaper than getting take out and it's already built into my grocery budget to keep some of these types of things on hand. And breakfast for dinner is always an easy and quick option to fall back on as well as a can of soup and a grilled cheese. Progress, not perfection....that's the goal. It's not perfect but no one is starving over here and we have cut WAY back on take out and eating out.

Agree also rotisserie chicken and frozen vegetables work well. Sloppy joes or tacos can be made in advance and warmed up. One quick meal meal I love is I put a roast beef in the crockpot with onion soup mix and Italian dressing mix. When I get home I mix a gravy packet in the juices and slice the beef and eat over mashed potatoes