Hey everyone! The weekend is going by way too fast, yet again 🙂
We're doing okaaaaay with your food, but not the greatest. I need to cook at home more and I know that. But strangely, we are still spending the same amount (even though it is still too high). The boy used to have to eat out every day for his work break (at his work, there were no fridges or anything to store or make food, and people would steal each other's food and other belongings) but now he is eating in everyday.
I have time to cook, yet I just don't do it enough. Why oh why? I am ashamed of the amount that we are spending on food. My goal is to cook dinner 4 times this week.
Oh yeah, and I know some of you are asking why he doesn't cook. He doesn't cook because he gets off work at a different time everyday, and it's always at least a couple of hours after me, so I don't want to wait for him to come home and make food when I'll already be starving 🙂
Here's what I plan on making as our main course for each dinner:
- Monday – Crockpot Beef Stroganoff
- Tuesday –  Steak Teriyaki
- Wednesday – Baked Crispy Chicken
- Thursday – Chicken alfredo and rice casserole
- Friday – Pulled Pork Sandwiches
- Saturday – Out to Eat
- Sunday – Steak
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Sounds yummy! You don't need to spend more time cooking to have more home made meals, if you can freeze some of that crockpot or rice casserole, you will have two meals ready for next week! The cost per portion will drop since you only cook once (less energy bill mostly), you only have to get the cooking started once, and best of it all, only have to clean once!
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We just started doing this a few weeks back. I HATE meal planning – I mean, I get really overwhelmed when I even think about it! But what motivated me to try it out was a blog posting where the woman said she always saved money whenever she did it, and even if she only followed it half the time, she still saved money. I grudgingly put my head down and plowed ahead! Where today is sunday we're doing 2 meals, just because they both sounded good and we coudln't decide! We're doing a corned beef and cabbage meal – I know it's only 6 months early (or late?) but I love it! We're also preparing some fish chowder. The way I have my meals planned out is 4 meals a week, the rest is leftovers, and honestly that's a little big much still. On week 3 I didn't have to plan any meals out because we already had everything for them. Good luck to ya!
Not sure yet…tonight it's tacos & birthday cake for my 18 yr old son! I'm preparing for Thanksgiving next weekend!! 🙂
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that chicken looks amazing!
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Your meal planning always inspires me, yet I struggle to actually maintain a meal plan through the week…oops!
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I'm still SO bad at cooking more. Its just SO much easier to eat out, lol. I'm LAZY
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My enthusiasm for cooking definitely ebbs and flows. Right now I'm in a "yeah! cooking!" phase but pretty soon I know I'll be eating Taco Bell.
Also, I don't know why people get so up-in-arms when they find out that the woman in the relationship does all the cooking. It's not about gender, people, it just sometimes turns out that one partner isn't good at cooking. That's how it is in my relationship – my boyfriend has tried before, but the results are always….not tasty. But people give me crap all the time about how he should be cooking. Umm, no! Interestingly, no one ever says a word when I mention him doing all the car stuff.
Being the first one home from work means you have to cook, but good news is you can decide what's for dinner :0) I don't think you're spending too much on food. Just depends on how you two want to spend your time and eating healthy together.
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I always feel so much better when I have planned my meals. I love cooking, but if I don't have a plan I end up wasting a ton of time trying to figure out what to make. Also, I like cooking. I don't know why people stress about that. I did learn that I only needed 3-4 meals a week because the left overs lasted us for lunch and another dinner. My mom would have a "scrounge" night one night a week, too. Where we could all kind of eat whatever we wanted.
I noticed that when I first started cooking it was expensive. But once I got into the habit of it I would have a lot of ingredients on hand. That's how it got less expensive.
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Either you are somehow able to cook in much smaller portions than I do, or you guys eat a ton of food! =) For the Mr. and I, I usually end up cooking one or two "meals", and then we eat them all week. This week his is bow tie pasta with turkey sausage and sauce and mine is rice with tofu and thai vegetables. Between those and snacks we are good for the workweek.
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Ooh, beef stroganoff sounds awesome! We're probably going to do some leftovers from the weekend (black beans and rice, and a pork roast with dijon braised Brussels sprouts). My husband doesn't know it yet, but he's also making a veggie stir fry one night and breakfast burritos for dinner another night. 😉
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Trying to cook from home more myself. I find myself eating a random "assortment' for dinner instead of a balanced meal. Definitely going to try out this crispy chicken!
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Meal plans are great. They tend to keep us on budget. This post made me terribly hungry, though, and I don't know if I can forgive you for that! Is your cover photo the baked chicken? Our work night go-to recipe one night of the week is black beans and rice. I saute onions, garlic and chipotle pepper with olive oil, add a couple cans of black beans, about a half cup of cider vinegar, cumin, chili powder and paprika. Simmer until the beans are warm and soft. This takes about 15 minutes from start to finish!
That chicken looks so yummy! Good luck meal planning!