Eat at home

[wvdisneyfamily]

I've been working on relaxation lately because my paternal grandparents have been victims of strokes and blood pressure problems. I love to cook so I've began really cooking again (as opposed to putting food on the table). Last night I made an awesome steak and gravy. Tonight I made whole wheat pizza with homemade sauce. Tomorrow is cookie day with terminally ill Granny. I guess I'll fix whatever makes her happy.

 

[LilyWDW]

Tonight we are having pasta with vodka sauce, meatballs, and salad.

Last night I got a ton of energy and made two batches of cookies, sugar and chocolate chip. I forgot how easy they are to make from scratch. I bake up one tray of both and then froze the dough into tray sized portions to pull out and make when needed.

I really need to do that! Wow, what a great idea. I may have to schedule that into my batch cooking day for next month.

 

[fromscratchmom]

As I'm reading through these I need a "like" button.

As usual if I post any meal plans in advance I end up changing them up from what I posted in some way. I'm such a goof. We had our pulled pork last night because everyone seemed like they wanted it. It was a good size pork roast so we will still have plenty put away for future meals. I'll cook the chuck roast tonight.

 

[oopsiDAISY]

As I'm reading through these I need a "like" button.

I agree!!!

Tonight we are having BBQ Chicken and Black Bean Burritos with Mexican Rice...thinking about doing a carpet picnic since tonight is "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."

 

[bigsis1970]

wow you do a batch cooking day LilyWDW - I've always said I am going to try it but have not done it yet.. however we just have a small freezer so i'd have to just do a weeks worth not sure if that is worth it or not

Love the cookie idea charming23!

 

[LilyWDW]

wow you do a batch cooking day LilyWDW - I've always said I am going to try it but have not done it yet.. however we just have a small freezer so i'd have to just do a weeks worth not sure if that is worth it or not

Love the cookie idea charming23!

Well, more like I PLAN on doing one for November! I meant to do one on October but never got around to it between having family in town and then going to Disney. I just never had the time! Hopefully November will be a bit slower so I can get some stuff made for the freezer.

Here is what I want to make:
- Lasagna (half to eat that night and half for the freezer)
- Meatballs (for spaghetti and subs)
- Split Pea Soup
- Chicken Soup
- Cookies

 

[fromscratchmom]

I've tried batch cooking days, meaning really big ones in the past. It has been a long time but it sort of stuck with me in smaller ways. Back then I had that cookbook called Once-A-Month Cooking. I wasn't wowed by any of the recipes and neither was my family, plus that is a lot of work and organization to manage it. However I learned a lot and I'd recommend it to anyone to try for 1-3 months.

It just helped me with various techniques and good ideas about how to do that sort of things. And I cook and store things quite often now. If I were more of a type A person I could probably make up my own plan to do a whole month at once from recipes that we love. But Oh, am I ever lacking in that hyper organized person's skill set.

 

[tinkmom2]

Hiya everyone! I got back from DCL and CBR last week. I have been making easy dishes this week because it's been back to work for my DH and I.
I made some homemade mac and cheese that I am going to throw in the fridge and then heat up when I get home for tonight. We have a Halloween dance at school to go to tonight.

This is what I've made this week:
crock pot pot roast
beef, bean, and cheese burritos
mac and cheese
turkey burgers and fries on my indoor grill (with Greek Sauce) and fries
spagehetti and breadsticks
homemade pepperoni pizza

I have some food porn from our trip in my trip reports in my signature. Check them out!
Christine

 

[charming23]

I switched up the menu and I am making beef stew with cheddar garlic biscuits. It is cold and rainy here, so stew sounded perfect.

 

[OceanAnnie]

Last night we had rotisserie chicken, creamed spinach, and mashed potatoes. Small bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Tonight we will probably have pizza or black bean soup.

Sat. I will make white chicken chili with the leftover rotisserie chicken. I have some bananas that are getting past their prime so I'll probably make some banana bread. I bought some dried apricots thinking the kids would like them. Didn't go over as well as I thought, so I'll dice them up really small and throw them in too. It wasn't the flavor of the apricots the didn't like, but the texture. It should be good.

 

[figment3258]

I hope everyone is staying warm it snowed here last night not ready for the snow at all!
Dh and I had a long budget talk last night dh gets laid off for his seasonal job in a few weeks and we cut our monthly income by just over half. Not fun especially since I'm pregnant and food cravings are hard not to indulge.
So heres the plan 160$ a week for 6 people (4 adults 2 kids) that includes all cleaning and toiletries. Whatever is left goes to our eat out fund. I know for a lot of you that seem like a big budget but when your mil lives with you and needs two cartons of ice cream and at least one bag of chips a week and is such a picky eater like worse than my kids it's not easy.
We try to eat pasta twice a week and that's a money saver but with my husband laid off we have four of us home for all three meals. I'm not complaining really just trying to prepaire myself and I am looking forward to a good changelle .

Tonight we are having chicken with rice and a veggies.

 

[diznee25]

Tonight we're having chicken nuggets and corn.

Tomorrow night I'm making cheese fondue w/dippers for dinner, and then chocolate fondue for dessert!


diznee25

 

[OceanAnnie]

I hope everyone is staying warm it snowed here last night not ready for the snow at all!
Dh and I had a long budget talk last night dh gets laid off for his seasonal job in a few weeks and we cut our monthly income by just over half. Not fun especially since I'm pregnant and food cravings are hard not to indulge.
So heres the plan 160$ a week for 6 people (4 adults 2 kids) that includes all cleaning and toiletries. Whatever is left goes to our eat out fund. I know for a lot of you that seem like a big budget but when your mil lives with you and needs two cartons of ice cream and at least one bag of chips a week and is such a picky eater like worse than my kids it's not easy.
We try to eat pasta twice a week and that's a money saver but with my husband laid off we have four of us home for all three meals. I'm not complaining really just trying to prepaire myself and I am looking forward to a good changelle .

Tonight we are having chicken with rice and a veggies.

I'm sorry to hear about the impending job loss. That stinks.

Do you use coupons? I am going to try to be more organized. I forget to bring them after I clip them. Leave them in the vehicle. You name it. But my goal is to get better at it. The kids even like to pitch in with helping to cut and organize them. We watched an Extreme Couponing show and the kids saw how other families do it.

I'm not looking to be an extreme couponing queen. I'd just like to get my bill down to half. That would be thrilling. I did manage it shopping the store sales this week. I had a bill of $102 and brought it down to $60 and change. That was just shopping the store sales w/o coupons. I was surprised I got it down that low.

I thought I'd pass that along. You probably are doing a lot of that already. Anyway, I wish you the best.

 

[fromscratchmom]

I hope everyone is staying warm ..... but when your mil lives with you and needs two cartons of ice cream and at least one bag of chips a week and is such a picky eater like worse than my kids it's not easy.

That is a hard one. I find that I struggle with the additional problem of wanting more convenience foods and all sorts of similar coping mechanisms that cost too much when the more people don't appreciate the effort of my cooking, or even just if I am having extra stress. I'll pray for you. I understand in a big way how badly that would effect me.

With 8 and 5 year olds you might be able to expand what the kids will eat even if you can't do much about mil. Its a long slow process. But I have a few suggestions about it. Do you ever watch food tv? Is it an option for you? I don't know what the shows are right now since we don't have cable or satelite anymore and strangely I don't know how to even get onto pbs with the computer/tv set up my DH has going. But if you can find a cooking show that you like that uses mostly real food rather than processed convenience foods, you might be able to end up with the kids sharing it with you once in a blue moon. Because I really enjoy cooking, cookbooks and cooking shows my kids naturally got into those things a little too. And it can make a huge difference.

Some people get similar results sharing gardening with their kids.

The nicest added benefit in my opinion is that in the long run you can end up with a family full of cooks. I've always loved to be able to say to people that every person in our house cooks. And now that my children are older the amount of cooking they can do is a huge help. But the fact that they aren't picky anymore is great too! It just isn't the most obvious of concerns anymore since it has been so long since I've had to deal with it with the older two. lol.

 

[zendisney]

I am making homemade pizza. I use the "pizza therapy" guy's recipe. you can find it on you tube if your interested.
I like to saute canadian bacon and pineapple in a pan... so yummy.
I think since we are having company I will create a little pizza bar and let everybody top their own.
Have you ever grilled your pizza on charcoal grill? it is so yummy.
There's lots of videos on the internet demonstrating how to...
I tried it several times and my family enjoyed it.

 

[oopsiDAISY]

Tonight it is just DH and I so we are having leftover Potato Cheese Soup and Cressant Rolls. Cold and rainy here too, so the soup will hit the spot.

 

[bigsis1970]

Last night I made myself a BBQ chicken pizza.. I sautéed onion and rotisserie chicken just till hot in a pan added some BBQ sauce then set aside.. Heated my oven to 400 and threw a flour tortilla on the rack and let it get crispy then took it out of the oven and topped it with the BBQ chicken mix and then added 2 pieces of WW string cheese (all stringed) and a sprinkle of shredded cheddar cheese then popped back into the oven on the rack just till the cheese melted..OMG it was heaven!!!

 

[charming23]

Tonight we are having homemade chicken tenders, garlic parmesean oven fries, and applesauce.

 

[fromscratchmom]

Two of my children seem to have gobbled up a huge amount of left over pot roast while myself and my other child weren't looking. So lunch was a little helter skelter for two of us, but I ate salad and DD13 seemed to go in and pick in the kitchen several times but kept saying for me not to go in and fix her anything. I know she at least was seen eating an apple at one point and a few bites of broccoli at another point.

This is not that bad, I know. I just felt really BADLY about it. Today is DD13's birthday.

Tonight she and I cooked together and made gluten free mac 'n cheese while DD11 and hubby grilled steaks outside. So we are just about to go in and eat her Birthday dinner and give her presents.

O and I bought her some bolthouse juice for tonight. and we were supposed to make some banana bread but didn't get around to it after having a couple of kitchen problems this afternoon. Since most of my family don't seem to appreciate regular birthday cake we used to always do icecream cakes before we went gluten free. Tonight we're going out for frozen yogurt after the birthday dinner and we'll still make the gluten free banana bread recipe she picked out sometime soonish.

 

[figment3258]

That is a hard one. I find that I struggle with the additional problem of wanting more convenience foods and all sorts of similar coping mechanisms that cost too much when the more people don't appreciate the effort of my cooking, or even just if I am having extra stress. I'll pray for you. I understand in a big way how badly that would effect me.

With 8 and 5 year olds you might be able to expand what the kids will eat even if you can't do much about mil. Its a long slow process. But I have a few suggestions about it. Do you ever watch food tv? Is it an option for you? I don't know what the shows are right now since we don't have cable or satelite anymore and strangely I don't know how to even get onto pbs with the computer/tv set up my DH has going. But if you can find a cooking show that you like that uses mostly real food rather than processed convenience foods, you might be able to end up with the kids sharing it with you once in a blue moon. Because I really enjoy cooking, cookbooks and cooking shows my kids naturally
got into those things a little too. And it can make a huge difference.

Some people get similar results sharing gardening with their kids.

The nicest added benefit in my opinion is that in the long run you can end up with a family full of cooks. I've always loved to be able to say to people that every person in our house cooks. And now that my children are older the
amount of cooking they can do is a huge help. But the fact that they aren't picky anymore is great too! It just isn't the most obvious of concerns anymore since it has been so long since I've had to deal with it with the older two. lol.

Thank you for the prayers they are much appreciated!
We do watch the food network my girls pretend to play chopped all the time . They are getting better with trying new things but it's still a struggle at diner time.