Meal Plan W/E 1/21

We made it through another week without any food being thrown away.  There are very few leftovers in my house either. Just some pancakes from Saturday!  This week we have no home games except for Saturday afternoon, and since Hubs office is closed Monday for MLK day, I decided to take the day off and get some cleaning & relaxing done for the long weekend.  Last week we spent $12 at the grocery store for ingredients as it related to the meal plan and then did a stock up run for sale & coupon items for about $31.  This week we'll have to pick up a few things for the plan, but we have all our meats in the well stock freezer and there really aren't any meat sales that are blowing me away.  Roche Bros is having a 5/$25.00 sale, but I typically don't find anything there, but I'll have to take another look.

So again the strategy this week is a meal from the slow cooker Sunday, allowing for a bit of prep on Sunday or Monday depending on how I feel.  But I really have no at risk ingredients in my fridge that I think will go bad if I don't use them, so I just planned this week's plan with some consideration of my on hand items

Printable Meal Plan & Ingredient List

Sunday:
Breakfast: Buttermilk Pancakes & Turkey Bacon (Buttermilk pancakes are leftover)
Lunch: Chicken Burritos (took down some Shredded Chicken Filling from freezer)
Dinner: Spicy Sausage Ragu with Red Peppers over Spaghetti

Monday:
Breakfast: Buttermilk Waffles
Lunch: Spicy Sausage Ragu with Red Peppers over Spaghetti
Dinner: Tortellini Spinach Bake in Creamy Lemon Sauce

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Antioxidant Smoothies
Lunch: Tortellini Spinach Bake in Creamy Lemon Sauce
Dinner: Sesame Honey Chicken & Quinoa

Wednesday:
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Sesame Honey Chicken & Quinoa
Dinner: Chicken Burritos

Thursday:
Breakfast:  Banana Crunch Breakfast Smoothie
Lunch: Spicy Sausage Rague with Red Peppers over Spaghetti
Dinner: Garlic Shallot Rosemary Steak, Rice & Salad

Friday:
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Garlic Shallot Rosemary Steak, Rice & Salad
Dinner: Pizza & Salad

Saturday:
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs & Turkey Bacon
Lunch: Out
Dinner: Out

Weekday Breakfast Strategy

There is a definite pattern to our breakfasts.  We typically just try to get right out the door Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays.  Monday sucks so it's best to just dive on in.  Wednesday and Fridays are typically post hockey mornings.  So I have no desire to do anything but sleep in a couple minutes and throw my cereal in my lunch bag and grab my travel mug of coffee.  In an effort to get in a little more fruit and dairy we are trying to mix up the smoothie recipes.  Some have been good, some have been just "eh" So I figure I'll try to share one a week with you folks, two if I have two new good ones.

When we are off track it's Dunkin Donuts for us in the morning.  Which isn't the healthiest option and tends to add up with both of us hitting the drive through every morning at least $4.00 each.  So we are making an effort to make coffee every morning and have some together while we watch the morning news and take some with us for our commutes.  Sometimes we don't get to have the coffee together, but we always bring it with us.

2.5 Lbs of Coffee, stored in pantry - kept in kitchen canister

Coffee is tough, the price just keeps rising.  I like my Dunkin Donuts coffee, so I typically pick it up when Dunks is having sales at the holidays (4/$19.99) or if I have a coupon for the smaller bags - I'll match it up with sales at the local grocery stores (Stop and Shop, Shaws or Roche Bros)  I don't have a Market Basket near me, but I do have one near my work so one of my buddies will give me the heads up on good sale prices for dry goods, because I will definitely use my lunch to swing by and save money on coffee!  And you know where else has good prices on Dunkin Donuts coffee - Target.  No really, its true.  Again, I typically only buy the 12-16 oz bags when I have a coupon to match with a sale - and they usually match up within a week or two of the coupon being published.  But if that all fails, I buy my coffee in 2.5 lb bags at BJ's - it's been around $19.99, so it's a bit of a savings from the typical regular price of $7.99/lb.  You can't put a price on the sanity coffee brings you, but you can put a price on coffee.

$2.50 a box is the maximum to pay for a box of cereal

Cereal is something I'm always trying to keep on the shelf.  I typically will not buy cereal for more that $2.50 a box.  There are always sales in the grocery flyer and it typically coincidences with the coupons for the week.

For Example:
This past week at Stop and Shop there was a General Mills sale.  I wasn't able to make the grocery store this week but I sent Hubs for a few items because I couldn't miss out on this sale.

Buy 4 General Mills Cereals, get $4.00 off at register AND a coupon for up to $4.50 off a gallon of milk at a future visit.  I told Hubs not to pay more than average $3.50 a box regular price.

So we got:

Cheerios $3.49
Honey Nut Cheerios $3.29
Honey Nut Chex $3.69
Cinnamon Burst Cheerios $3.29
Less $4.00 savings
Less $4.50 off Milk
Total: $5.26
Average of $1.32 a box - plus I'll have free milk!

About milk, this is one of the items I typically buy at BJ's.  If we are running low I'll just ask Hubs to pick some up on the way home from work as he passes BJ's on the way home.  I can't be trusted in BJ's - if I go in for milk, I'll get that and a small fridge or something. Milk is under $2.50 a gallon at BJs and most milk at the grocery store is $3.50 or more a gallon.  I don't even stop to look it's way in the grocery store anymore.

There's always deals to be had on cereal my friends, just keep your eye out and stock up when you can!
When we do our meal prep, I do try to pour out the six servings of cereal out in containers, so it's just one last thing to do in the morning.  Pouring out the six servings takes less than 2 minutes, but doing it at 6 AM just gives us an excuse not to do it.

Frozen Fruit - wait for sales and stock up! Great for smoothies

32 oz tubs of yogurt - six cents an ounce better than individual cups from 8-10 cents an ounce!

I typically buy frozen fruit when it's 3/$5.00 a bag at the grocery store, sometimes there's coupons, but what I find a lot of times for my in store scanner is that it's included in those instant coupons too.  So I wind up with a decent variety. We try to keep fat free yogurt on hand as well.  I typically will by a 32 oz container of the store brand for $1.99.  It's about six cents an oz!  When individual cups are on sale you might get them at 50-60 cent a piece for 6oz portions.  Plain and Vanilla are great to have on hand for smoothies or on their own with some granola or whatever might tickle your fancy.

So when you start thinking about meal planning - start with breakfast - it's the most important meal of the day!

Old Fashioned Meatloaf

Old Fashioned Meatloaf

I'm not a meatloaf fan.  Everyone does it their own way and sometimes it's good, but most times I feel like I would rather go with something else. I remember a LONG time ago my grandmother (l call her Hazel) had found some fancy recipe for meatloaf in a cookbook, which required many ingredients. Hazel was on mission to assemble and try this meatloaf.  She drove my mother crazy trying to hunt down the ingredients.  I think my mom and I called it the most expensive meatloaf in the world.  I don't even think I ever got to try it.  I have a lot of her cookbooks now and it makes me smile to find her notes in the margins.  I'm hoping as I go through more of these cookbooks, I find the expensive meatloaf just so I can give it a whirl.

  Hubs enjoys meatloaf and this seemed like a good way to go and worked well for prep day.  I was hoping for the mashed potatoes to be the star, but I can't lie this meatloaf stole the show.  I found a recipe in The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook

I made some tweaks and went on my way!  This was a really nice and moist meatloaf, flavorful and not swimming in grease.  Reheated great for lunch and we are freezing the rest in meatloaf sandwich portions!

Old Fashioned Meatloaf

Printable Recipe

Glaze:

• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar

Meatloaf:

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
• 2 pounds ground beef
• 3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs

Mix glaze and set to the side

Line 13x9 baking pan with foil; set aside.  Heat oven to 350 degrees

Heat oil in medium skillet.  Add onion and garlic until softened (about five minutes) Set aside to cool

Onions and Garlic - Always a good start!

Mix eggs with the milk, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, thyme and hot sauce.  Add egg mixture to meat in a large bowl along with the panko breadcrumbs and cooked onion mixture.  Mix until evenly blended and the meat mixture does not stick to bowl.  Add milk if necessary.

Panko is a girls best friend

Place meat mixture onto work surface and shape into 9x5 inch loaf.  Place in prepared baking pan.  Brush with half of the glaze.

Pre - Oven

Place loaf in oven and pull it out in about 45 minutes and reglaze.  Place back in oven until loaf register 160 degrees on instant read thermometer, about another 15 minutes.

Post-Oven!

Allow loaf to cool for 20 minutes. If desired simmer any remaining glaze on stovetop and serve with meatloaf

Meal Prep Day 01.08.2012

I didn't set myself up for a lot of meal prep on Sunday originally because it would be "the day after" the Bruins rematch with the Canucks.  A day that I planned a long day out with some cocktails, but as it turned out I woke up feeling great!  So off to it I was.  Again a large emphasis was put on using ingredients I had in house.  

I have a lot of ground meat in the freezer right now, turkey and beef.  Hubs enjoys the meatloaf.  I don't care for it all that much, but I knew I could assemble and let it roast in time for dinner and likely finish all my prep work within that time since it wasn't a big list

Prep Plan:

Mix up Mealoaf

Glaze Meatloaf

Blanch Spinach for Meatballs

Mix Cilantro Pesto

Mix and Roast Meatballs

After the meatloaf came out to rest, I threw the meatballs into the oven to roast while we had dinner.  I will post the meatloaf recipe because it came out really good, it was a tweak to an America's Test Kitchen recipe.  Also, the meatball recipe is an old favorite, so I will post that this week.  It's a good way for me to sneak myself vegetables.  

Meal Plan W/E 01.14.2012

Well folks, we did it we made it through the first week of getting back to the meal planning.  We didn't eat  out of the house except for a full day of hockey on Saturday.  We didn't waste any food.  And we both weighed in this AM and we lost weight.  So go us!

So before I started meal planning I looked in my fridge to see what was open or fresh so I could incorporate those items into our plan.

I'm going to make a cilantro pesto to use up the rest of the cilantro in the house.  I'm going to use my spinach to make some Turkey and Spinach meatballs.  I have a bit of buttermilk that I'm going to use in waffles on Sunday and pancakes Saturday as well as some buttermilk mashed potatoes.

In addition to that we still have some servings of some of last weeks meals that we will be using for lunches this week:

Cold Sesame Noodles (recipe needs some tweaking and then I'll share)
Spaghetti Squash (possibly my new favorite veggie)
Cilantro Lime Chickpea Salad (recipe needs some tweaking and then I'll share)

Also I went to the freezer for some help as well:

Italian Meat Gravy (I need to share this recipe as well!)

I have three planned nights out and so does Hubs - two nights are the same, but we're on our own for dinner separate nights this week too! So it's a ideal week to look to the freezer to help out as well as finish out the leftovers

This Week's Meal Plan and Ingredient List

Sunday:
Breakfast: Buttermilk Waffles & Turkey Bacon
Lunch: Salad with Chicken
Dinner: Meatloaf, Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes & Peas

Monday:
Breakfast: Cereal & Coffee
Lunch: Cold Sesame Noodles
Dinner: Cilantro Pesto Quinoa

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Tropical Fruit Smoothie
Lunch: Italian Meat Gravy over Ziti
Dinner: Out

Wednesday:
Breakfast: Cereal & Coffee
Lunch: Cilantro Lime Chickpea Salad/Italian Meat Gravy
Dinner: Spinach Turkey Meatballs over Egg Noodles

Thursday:
Breakfast: Mango Ginger Smoothie
Lunch: Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Peas
Dinner: Italian Meat Gravy

Friday:
Breakfast: Cereal & Coffee
Lunch: Spinach Turkey Meatballs over Egg Noodles
Dinner: Turkey Burger with Sweet Potato Fries

Saturday:
Breakfast: Buttermilk Pancakes & Turkey Bacon
Lunch: Salad with Chicken
Dinner: Out