What's on the menu? | Pad Patter 2.7.17

Always by the Sales! LOL grew up in a family of 7 children and I had 6 myself, a SAHM. So yes, I was a coupon queen.

And That is a GREAT price for chicken & peppers! I love fajitas!

 

I mostly shop at Aldi and supplement with Walmart so it's already pretty discounted as it is.

This week we are having cheeseburger pie, 'skbeddi,' Parmesan bacon chicken bake (a new recipe -- we'll see how it goes!), and Christmas rice (deconstructed stuffed pepper). We always have frozen pizza on Fridays. When it's just the kids & me over the weekend we mostly do microwaveable and frozen easy things. When DH is here, I cook like I do during the week. DH has a gluten intolerance so while the kids and I are not GF, I make all of our family meals that way.

 

Tonight is up in the air. I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer!

I do have back up chicken noodle soup (my kids are soup fiends) or chicken enchiladas (I use the grilled short cuts to make mine).

For the rest of the week, I have a honey chipotle marinated pork loin, Italian dry dressing packet chicken-potato-veggies, lemon butter shrimp, and breakfast for dinner. Then what we don't eat tonight - soup or enchiladas. I could pry make tacos too... I think I have everything, not avocado thought.

I do look at sales, and then stock up. We keep an extra freezer for all the meat and some fgrozen veggies, so there is always extra food on hand if needed, just frozen.

DH got a turkey fryer at Christmas.... we have one in the freezer! I'm thinking I might have to have some friends over and get them to make that soon!

 

We do a meal plan every week and I grocery based on the meal plan.. we mostly go to walmart and then whatever I can't find there we will go to another in the area.. I am excited when we go across town to Whole Foods... We are having left over Gyros tonight. Hubby loves to cook.. he makes the pita breads the tzikia (sp) sauce and the veggie relish himself plus the lamb, instead of gyro sliced meats we use ground lamb... yum.. we end up getting 3 meals out of it as it is only the two of us, so the other nights are salad, thursday is always a soup night and we do hotdogs or what ever on a Friday. With only the two of us, we do not have to worry about others not liking what we are having so it works.. some weeks we do salad all week with some grilled chicken breast etc. I love salad and can eat it all the time!

 

chicken broccoli alfredo tonight...I pick up a rotisserie chicken almost weekly and we have a lot of meals based off of that! Easy way out!

 

We are happy if we can just think up stuff to cook so we don't worry too much about what's on sale. Last night we had one of the ginormous Costco Steelhead trouts (just like salmon) with a pomegranate balsamic, brown sugar sauce. Delish! Tonight, I think we're doing dinner and a movie out. We do a lot of tacos, turkey burgers, pork loin and other easy stuff when we don't feel like cooking. Pizza one night per week, too!

 

Tonight is spaghetti and marinara sauce (I usually try to do a couple of meatless meals a week to save $$$) with a bonus: I found italian sausage on sale yesterday so I added meat to the sauce. We'll have salad with it too.

Sunday night was baked potato bar.
Monday was meatloaf with rice and green beans.
Tomorrow we eat at church!
Thursday I'm going to take the kids to redeem their free pizza with the Book It program at Pizza Hut. My hubby will be gone & he doesn't care for pizza too much - so it's the perfect time to go.
Friday will be meatloaf again (I made two loaves), probably with mac&cheese this time and broccoli.
Saturday will be something with chicken breasts. Not too sure yet.
Then Sunday I'll make another meal plan for the week.

 

We plan meals ... I hate not having a plan in place when I get home from work.

We buy 99% of our meat from a local butcher - and make one major grocery run a week - and hubs is good about stopping by to pick up fresh vegetables when we get low during the week.

We have also been changing out eating habits ... really ramping it up mid-January. Hubs is down about 20 pounds and I'm down about 10. We've been trying new healthy recipes.

Sunday hubs made a scrumptious spinach salad with warm bacon dressing. Last night I made Parmesan Cauliflower bites. We did not care for that very much - and now the house smells like cooked cauliflower! LOL!

Tonight's menu is baked cod and french style beans w/ bacon.

Now I'm hungry!! LOL!

 

I meal plan first, shop second... so I may choose the sale brands for my recipes, but I don't find recipes based on sales (if that makes sense). Tonight is egg roll stir fry, tomorrow I'm trying baked reuben rolls for the first time and Thursday is meatloaf with mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli. Weekends we typically eat out... we have such a revolving door here with teens that I never know who is home for dinner and what time they'll be home.

My planning each week is based on what time everyone can eat. Sometimes its something that can be kept warm over a couple hours so the kids can eat when they each come home... sometimes we can actually all eat together and I'll fix something nicer. Sometimes we can all eat together but it will be late, so it needs to be lighter.

 

We are having taco Tuesday today. I do meal plan but only follow it 75% of the time ... I never have any motivation to cook even though I'm on mat leave right now (for a year).

 

I check out what is on sale and try to plan some of the meals around those. We shop a lot at Sam's Club and stock our freezer.

 

Do You mind sharing this recipe!?

 

I don't mind at all! Here it is...

http://www.southyourmouth.com/2016/01/egg-roll-stir-fry.html

Last night I used a cheat that I had recently learned from another recipe and used a bag of coleslaw mix instead of chopping cabbage and carrots. It made it so much quicker to throw together. Also, to make it a little more "egg roll", we like to top ours with wonton strips (ours are in the salad toppings section at our grocery store).

 

We are so stuck in a rut of the same old recipes right now! I usually make a meal plan for the week and then go grocery shopping. I'll buy brand that are on sale for what I'm already planning to make. Then each night I look at the list and pick what I feel like cooking.

 

i feel like I should meal plan, I used to when the kids were younger. Now we can have everyone home +1 girlfiend and then just the two of us so I like to be more flexible. Hate wasting food. And will walk around our Woolies and get what's discounted and make a meal or two with that. Honestly it feels so same old, same old.

 

We have 3 freezers so have plenty of space and I always check for sales. We live a few minutes from 4 big grocery stores and a few meat stores so pop in at least 2-3 times a week to see what they have on sale. I have a big pack of hamburger so am going to make some meatballs and freeze them. I'm popping into the meat store today and will stock up on a few things depending on what's for sale (usually marinated pork chops or chicken is on sale) but sometimes the marinated steaks too.

 

Tonight was a slow cooker chicken curry with naan bread (had coconut milk, cauliflower,onion &sweet potato
Tomorrow is " Fried rice" (but compared to what we've had from Chinese takeaway its basically a heap of stirfried veggies & meat with a bit of rice & soy sauce mixed in)