Meal Plan Monday

meggyme

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed lately, with feeding myself and my family being a major part of it. I could use some food inspiration. Whatcha got cookin' this week?

lm45678

Following!

Just sent DH out for cookies  Let's just hope that this is PMS and not that I'm pregnant!

Tawny87

Oh man I need back on this bandwagon.. 
Well here is what I'm hoping.
Today was Wendy's (lol)
Tuesday we are going to an evening baby shower
Wednesday I'm hoping to bust out some beef stroganoff real quick after work.
Thursday most likely tacos
Friday -sunday we usually throw something on the grill

meggyme

The food I want to eat and the energy required to make them are not equivalent. I need to just keep it simple. Honestly grocery shopping is my biggest hurdle. I HATE grocery shopping.

annaf2011

meggyme said:

The food I want to eat and the energy required to make them are not equivalent.

This is me. I finally gave up and decided to start doing most of my cooking on the weekends. I don't mind eating the same thing as leftovers multiple nights, so it works for us. This weekend I marinated and baked a bunch of chicken breasts, and I made a vegetarian "Mexican lasagna" in the crockpot. I also got some salad stuff and a couple of fresh veggies. We'll probably eat scrambled eggs or egg sandwiches one night.

vintagevix2016

I've been having trouble keeping up with cooking as well.

Tonight I cooked up a simple fillet of cod, heated up a steamer bag of mixed veggies, and made some mac-n-cheese (we tried Annie's recently and liked it). We do the box delivery of meals periodically and I guess I forgot to skip this week so that arrives tomorrow, no idea what's in the box though. 

I've taken to making a large dish one evening that will carries us through at least 1 more dinner, 2 if I'm lucky and my husband doesn't get the late-night munchies. I still find I have trouble though and am often scrambling to pull something decent, but simple, together for Damien. He and I get home at about 5:15, husband gets home at 5:30pm, dinner for Damien is at 6pm, and then it's bedtime between 7/7:30pm. Not a lot of wiggle room for cooking.

Lately those frozen steamer bags of veggies (I currently have a bag of mixed vegs, broccoli, and corn in the freezer) have really been lifesavers. Our grocery store and butcher have a lot of prepared meats that only require to be thrown on the grill, into the oven, or on the stove, which can help make dinner faster. I do my best to make a homecooked, from scratch, meal more often than not though...just can't seem to get ahead of the game lately.

Tawny87

Well since it is Monday, and I am ahead of the 8 ball for once. I'm making beef and onion enchiladas today, besides the fact that I did a ton of cleaning. I feel like I was super productive today. I love days like this!

meggyme

I gave in and started trying blue apron. We get our first box tomorrow, so we will see how it is. But it's nice to not really worry about meal planning. I might keep it up for that reason alone.

vintagevix2016

meggyme said:

I gave in and started trying blue apron. We get our first box tomorrow, so we will see how it is. But it's nice to not really worry about meal planning. I might keep it up for that reason alone.

Stuck! I do weekly meal deliveries from time to time. I love the ease of it since planning meals seems to fall between the cracks a lot. The two services I bounce between are okay but not great. The food quality has gone down over time and the recipes are rarely good anymore. Sometimes I book a week and do modified meals based on the ingredients I receive. My parents in VA use Hello Fresh and love it. Good luck with Blue Apron, a couple I know in Richmond use it and like it.

egirl1025

Can I just say I love this thread?!  There is the bare minimum of meal planning actually on the thread, but I give us props for trying!!  I tried to meal plan a few weeks back and I got one meal done.  It turned out great and there were extras, but it sure died quickly.  Has anyone thought of utilizing Amazon fresh?  Sending DH to the store for specific items is scary and takes three times as long as it should.  He also generally comes home with 3-4 bags of chips and today he thought mint chocolate chip yogurt sounded appetizing.  Point being there is a lot of wasted time there.  

lm45678

New favorite breakfast is eggs scrambled with pesto, shredded mozzarella and cut up grape tomatoes.

I've been having DH grill me a big batch of chicken marinated in balsamic and veggies (peppers, zucchini and eggplant) and I'm bringing it for lunch every day instead of buying lunch or making a sandwich.

sunday - steaks with green beans and frozen potatos
monday- I ate at the pool/DH found something haha
tuesday- burgers with Swiss, mushrooms & side salad
wednesday- fish w/ zucchini
thursday- chicken w/ veggies
friday- burger no bun and side salad

We've been eating super simple and doing a lot of grilling, but it is helping me lose weight (finally!)

Tawny87

laurenm2123 said:

New favorite breakfast is eggs scrambled with pesto, shredded mozzarella and cut up grape tomatoes.

I've been having DH grill me a big batch of chicken marinated in balsamic and veggies (peppers, zucchini and eggplant) and I'm bringing it for lunch every day instead of buying lunch or making a sandwich.

sunday - steaks with green beans and frozen potatos
monday- I ate at the pool/DH found something haha
tuesday- burgers with Swiss, mushrooms & side salad
wednesday- fish w/ zucchini
thursday- chicken w/ veggies
friday- burger no bun and side salad

We've been eating super simple and doing a lot of grilling, but it is helping me lose weight (finally!)

I love grilling! We try to do it year around, as much as that is possible.. 

vintagevix2016

Ditto on the grilling! Our last 3 meals were on the grill. Less clean-up for me!

meggyme

egirl1025 said:

Can I just say I love this thread?!  There is the bare minimum of meal planning actually on the thread, but I give us props for trying!!  I tried to meal plan a few weeks back and I got one meal done.  It turned out great and there were extras, but it sure died quickly.  Has anyone thought of utilizing Amazon fresh?  Sending DH to the store for specific items is scary and takes three times as long as it should.  He also generally comes home with 3-4 bags of chips and today he thought mint chocolate chip yogurt sounded appetizing.  Point being there is a lot of wasted time there.  

I tried Amazon fresh when it first came to SD. It didn't completely replace grocery shopping so I didn't feel it was worth the money. Now it's not an option in VA. There are other grocery stores that offer grocery pick up, which I've thought about.

I tried Blue apron because a friend had a free trial, but I might try other ones.

bankssl1

Our Wal Mart has an online grocery pick up option. You order everything online, pick which items you are ok with being substituted and pick a day/time to pick up. They have it all ready for you and even load up your car! You can buy diapers, dog food, almost anything! Its a LIFESAVER! 

Tawny87

bankssl1 said:

Our Wal Mart has an online grocery pick up option. You order everything online, pick which items you are ok with being substituted and pick a day/time to pick up. They have it all ready for you and even load up your car! You can buy diapers, dog food, almost anything! Its a LIFESAVER! 

Ours has that too, and also has delivery for only $7!!!!!!

bankssl1

Tawny87 said:

bankssl1 said:

Our Wal Mart has an online grocery pick up option. You order everything online, pick which items you are ok with being substituted and pick a day/time to pick up. They have it all ready for you and even load up your car! You can buy diapers, dog food, almost anything! Its a LIFESAVER! 

Ours has that too, and also has delivery for only $7!!!!!!

Stuck! $7 is SOO worth it!! I wish they delivered to my house!

vintagevix2016

We've realized we need to move up Damien's dinner time. He gets hungry (hangry if I'm being honest) at about 5:30 and usually I'd give him a little snack but then he wouldn't eat much of his dinner at 6pm. Since he and I get home at 5pm now, doesn't leave much time to make dinner so I'm trying to do as much prep for dinner the night before (when he is in bed) so I can just throw everything together when we get home the next day, that's assuming we don't have leftovers on hand that I can use the following day. We give him a snack at around 6:30 with milk so he's all set for bed between 7/7:30pm. Seems to be working out okay thus far.

vintagevix2016

I made a batch of breakfast egg muffins for the week. They're super yummy and Damien loves them. If anyone is interested, here is the recipe:

NOTE: I use parchment paper liners in the muffin pan for the easy clean-up and the recipe says it makes 6 but I'm always able to do 12. Go figure! Enough for the both of us to have a quick morning meal before heading out the door.

https://juliasalbum.com/2015/02/breakfast-egg-muffins-with-bacon-and-spinach/

vintagevix2016

Damien's being super picky about veggies lately. He loves his sweet potatoes, potatoes, and butternut squash but getting him to eat any other veggie just doesn't fly unless it's all mixed in with his meat or pasta (as in a casserole or something). So frustrating!

Edit: Thank goodness for Love Child pouches. He loves them and at least I know he's getting his veggies when he eats them.

Delitachan

I'm Hispanic, born and raised in a border city so...
-Ground beef with carrots, potatoes and green beans and flavored with Knorr chicken/tomato bouillon
-Milanesa (thin chicken fried steak)
-Mexican rice
-Grilled fajitas

meggyme

We started doing blueapron and hellofresh about a month ago. It's taken such a load off my shoulders related to feeding my family. I still get to cook fresh, healthy meals without having to plan and grocery shop. The produce for blue apron was showing up in less than perfect condition so I switched to hello fresh and so far it's pretty good. The recipes aren't as gourmet, but everything seems to be arriving fresher. Blue apron was usually enough for DH and I with just enough to spare for Jackie. Hello fresh isn't quite as generous of portions but so far it still works. If anyone is interested in the referral codes I have let me know. It's really taken a lot of the working mom guilt off me.

vintagevix2016

@meggyme My parents use Hello Fresh and enjoy it and I have friends that use Blue Apron. We used a couple of similar services here in QC but in both cases, the quality of produce and meats, as well as the recipes in general, started to decline. I love the concept since it did make things easier for us but it got to a point where the food was just gross. I wish we had Hello Fresh up here.

Tawny87

@meggyme I've always wanted to try one of these services but the cost for 4 people is real! Lol! I wish they had a service local where you could just come pick up your food box weekly. I am such a lazy and uninspired cook, especially on the day's I work. I think I need to start freezing Crock-Pot ingredients then just throwing them in before I go to work.

meggyme

Tawny87 said:

@meggyme I've always wanted to try one of these services but the cost for 4 people is real! Lol! I wish they had a service local where you could just come pick up your food box weekly. I am such a lazy and uninspired cook, especially on the day's I work. I think I need to start freezing Crock-Pot ingredients then just throwing them in before I go to work.

I have a friend that does the 2 person meals for her 4 person family and she will just go pick up extra chicken/beef/vegetables depending on the weeks' meals to stretch them a bit further. I thought it was a bit much but it really helps me walk the line between feeding my family healthful meals and spending all my spare time meal planning and grocery shopping.

Tawny87

Just put this together into the Crock-Pot about an hour ago. It took me all of about 5 min to throw together and smells great thus far. I can't wait to try it when it's done!
https://www.familyfreshmeals.com/2014/04/crockpot-thai-peanut-chicken-recipe.html

vintagevix2016

THis is one of my absolute favorite slow-cooker recipes (I double up on the sauce though): https://damndelicious.net/2014/03/31/slow-cooker-beef-broccoli/

I prep it the night before in a big bowl and then dump it all in the next morning. THe only thing I add when I get home is the broccoli since we like our's to have a little crunch to it.

I've got buffalo chicken thighs in the slow-cooker for tonight. No idea how it will turn out, so we'll see!

meggyme

Both of those sound delicious! I have a great recipe for slow cooker carnitas. Literally a pork butt, onion, and oregano on slow for 6-8 hours cooking in its own juice. It's great for tacos, enchiladas, pulled pork sandwiches...

vintagevix2016

Damien tried chocolate milk today and loved it. It wasn't much, just a few oz.

vintagevix2016

In preparation for being on my own with Damien for a few days while my husband is at his conference, I made a batch of mini-chicken pot pies. It was more work than making a regular big one, which next time I'll do, but they look pretty darn cute nonetheless. I like that they're the perfect portion for Damien as well so if he decides he doesn't want to eat the Orange Chicken and Broccoli dish or Moroccan Beef Stew dish, I can pop one into the microwave for him, knowing that while it's quick, it is still homemade!

adiaz132003

vintagevix2016 said:

In preparation for being on my own with Damien for a few days while my husband is at his conference, I made a batch of mini-chicken pot pies. It was more work than making a regular big one, which next time I'll do, but they look pretty darn cute nonetheless. I like that they're the perfect portion for Damien as well so if he decides he doesn't want to eat the Orange Chicken and Broccoli dish or Moroccan Beef Stew dish, I can pop one into the microwave for him, knowing that while it's quick, it is still homemade!

Omgosh!!! I need this. I have a great and super easy recipe but it'd be even better to make them small? How did you do it?