Eat at home

[TiffanyK]

OMG! Thank you so much. . .you rock! I think I'm having a full on love affair with my crock pot lately. I really wanted to do a pantry week this week, and your menu for this week is PERFECT! I already have everything but the cream of chicken soup, green pepper and Kitchen Bouquet.

So here goes:

Thursday: Red beans and rice and corn bread
Friday: Pesto Tomato and Cheese Pizzas, salad
Saturday: Hashbrown Casserole with ham, tomato and spinach salad
Sunday: Easy Pepper Steak, angel hair pasta and green beans
Monday: Honey Mustard Chicken, rice and broccoli
Tuesday: Tony’s Tilapia, Parmesan Fettuccine, peas
Wednesday:Chicken Fiesta with Black Beans, chips and salsa, salad

Wow! That was easy!

Cool! I'm glad the menu fit your pantry so well

 

[smokeyblue]

I made the Quinoa with Black Beans and Cilantro last night and my BF and I loved it. I used TJ's Harvest Grain Mix instead of Quinoa and it worked great. It's just as good the next day cold. Will be something great to take for lunch at work.

 

[Brancaneve]

To stave off the weekend rut, DH and I look through our Sunset magazine or BH and Gardens and find recipes that we would love to try. We save it for the weekend and have a lot of fun cooking the meal and enjoying it too! Try that out for fun.

 

[SunnieRN]

Ok, eating out, hence no cooking or dishes, is my biggest budget buster!

I'm s-l-o-w-l-y getting better! The no-buy thread has helped!!

Friday: meatloaf, rice with salsa, vegie

Saturday: bbq burgers and hot dogs, chips (cheapo store brand), salad

Sunday: turkey meatball subs, leftover salad

Monday: pineapple chicken over rice and cabbage, drizzled with sesame oil

Tuesday: shrimp scampi over angel hair pasta

Wednesday: Crock pot pork loin, either bbq or just as a roast, sides depend upon style of prep

Thursday: tacos, rice beans

 

[buzz5985]

When my children were young & at home, they loved our "hamburger things"! Best part - no dishes to wash!

hamburger pattie for each person
thinly sliced potatoes for each person
couple large spoons of a good juicy canned chili beans
salt & pepper to taste
optional - seasonings to taste, cheese at last minute

Wrap all in aluminum foil with potatoes on bottom, hamburger next, then beans. Season potatoes & meat as stack them. The thinner the potatoes, the faster it bakes. Bake at 400 degrees until the potatoes are done - usually, at least an hour.

Was convenient to take care of homework & other duties while dinner cooked without the need of someone working over the stove.

Obviously can be served with salad, side veggies, etc., if desired.

Julie

This is a popular camping recipe. But the stack is potatoes, onion rings, burger, onion rings, potato. Wrap in heavy aluminum foil, and throw it on the camfire, turn it in 10 minutes. Eat it right out of the foil.

 

[buzz5985]

I like this chicken/salsa recipe! My kids may actually eat this...LOL.

Tomorrow night I was thinking of ordering Chinese for a treat as DH willb e out of town, but instead we'll be having a picnic on our dining room carpet - macaroni and cheese is the main dish. We prefer the white cheese ones so I got some organic M&C at Whole Foods for 99 cents per box. Steam up some broccoli and we're good to go!

My DS 13 loves the below recipe. I left it intact for anyone following WW. What I do is cook a whole box of macaroni - this will fill a 13 x 9 x 2 inche pan- and multiply the ingredients by 1.5. So instead of 1 cup of milk use 1 1/2 cups of milk, etc. I will sprinkle dry bread crumbs on the top before I bake it. I play with the different cheeses - our favorite is the packaged 4 cheese mexican blend. Enjoy.

Macaroni and Cheese


8 POINTS
per serving




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ingredients:

2 cups elbow macaroni
1 cup low-fat (1%) milk
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 cup shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese
3 tbsp grated parmesan cheese


Instructions:


Preheat the oven to 350°F (175ºC). Cook the macaroni according to package directions. Drain and keep warm.
In a large nonstick saucepan, combine the milk, flour, mustard, salt and pepper. Cook, whisking constantly, until the sauce thickens and comes to a boil, 3-4 minutes.

Add the cheddar in batches, stirring after each addition until it is melted before adding more. Stir in the macaroni.
Transfer the mixture to a shallow 1-quart (1 liter capacity) casserole dish and sprinkle with the parmesan cheese.

Bake until golden, about 20 minutes. Increase the oven temperature to broil and cook for 3 minutes more. Cool slightly before serving.

TIP!
Although elbows are the classic macaroni, experiment with shapes like radiatore, orecchiette, and small to medium shells.

Makes 4 servings
8 POINTS per serving


Nutritional Information:
Per serving: Calories 344, Fat 10g, Saturated fat 5g, Cholesterol 26mg, Sodium 621mg, Carbohydrate 48g, Fiber 1g, Protein 16g, Calcium 292mg

Source: Weight Watchers Magazine

 

[Eliza32]

OK you guys, got me thinking about this too from the UK!!
DH and I are both in our 40's, no kids and have been steadily putting on weight and reducing our bank balance since we got married 17 years ago!! In January we decided that enough was enough, and with a 14 night trip to the world booked for September as motivation, we decided to change our shopping/eating habits.
I joined Slimming World (Which I believe is available in the US now??) an DH eats the same thing as me. We have both lost nearly 56lb each since the end of January, mostly by cutting out the fast food and the eating out. We have one meal out every other weekend, but that's it, the rest is home cooked from scratch.
I'm no wonderful cook, but I can manage the basics. Being on SW you have to plan, so that's key.
I won't bore you with every little thing we eat, but favourite meals are:
Beef Chili & Rice (I cook 4 portions at a time and freeze them)
Spag Bol (cook and freeze as above)
Beef casserole in crock pot
loaded potato wedges (cut up potatoes, boil for 5 mins, cook in oven, pour over one portion of chilli as above)
Tuna and sweetcorn cakes with salad and baby potatoes
Baked potatoes with any of the above as filling.
LOTS OF SALAD!!!!
None of the above takes more than 30 mins to prepare (God I sound like Rachel Ray!!!...yes we do get her progs over here) and we both can't believe the difference it makes to our bank balance too! We've managed to save an extra £350 (around $500??) for WDW spending money too!!!

 

[Evi]

Today we had tri colored mafalde pasta with chicken and broccoli rabe in a lemon/garlic/shallot/Parmesan sauce I whipped up and a heirloom tomato salad of red onion/capers/balsamic vinegar & olive oil sauce.

I can't tell you cost because I don't really know what I paid for each item other then my chicken and past so I used a baked chicken from whole foods $9.99 fresh pasta was 3.99 for the package I used half a package and vacuum sealed the rest and put it in the freezer. The broccoli rabe, garlic, tomato and red onion came from my csa. The rest came from fidge/pantry. I used half the chicken for dinner and the rest went into a salad for me tomorrows lunch and a sandwich for df tomorrows lunch. I put the carcass to boil in water and reserved the broth for a soup I'm going to make tomorrow night.

I found the recipe for the pasta on food network Giada's top 100 and modified it a little.

I have been thinking how important it is to cook at home more the food is almost always better and so much better for you. Thanks for putting up this thread to remind me.

 

[figment3258]

OK you guys, got me thinking about this too from the UK!!
DH and I are both in our 40's, no kids and have been steadily putting on weight and reducing our bank balance since we got married 17 years ago!! In January we decided that enough was enough, and with a 14 night trip to the world booked for September as motivation, we decided to change our shopping/eating habits.
I joined Slimming World (Which I believe is available in the US now??) an DH eats the same thing as me. We have both lost nearly 56lb each since the end of January, mostly by cutting out the fast food and the eating out. We have one meal out every other weekend, but that's it, the rest is home cooked from scratch.
I'm no wonderful cook, but I can manage the basics. Being on SW you have to plan, so that's key.
I won't bore you with every little thing we eat, but favourite meals are:
Beef Chili & Rice (I cook 4 portions at a time and freeze them)
Spag Bol (cook and freeze as above)
Beef casserole in crock pot
loaded potato wedges (cut up potatoes, boil for 5 mins, cook in oven, pour over one portion of chilli as above)
Tuna and sweetcorn cakes with salad and baby potatoes
Baked potatoes with any of the above as filling.
LOTS OF SALAD!!!!
None of the above takes more than 30 mins to prepare (God I sound like Rachel Ray!!!...yes we do get her progs over here) and we both can't believe the difference it makes to our bank balance too! We've managed to save an extra £350 (around $500??) for WDW spending money too!!!

That is wonderful!

 

[figment3258]

To stave off the weekend rut, DH and I look through our Sunset magazine or BH and Gardens and find recipes that we would love to try. We save it for the weekend and have a lot of fun cooking the meal and enjoying it too! Try that out for fun.

That is a great idea

Another idea comes from the disney for family boards and its called Post family Disney-theme night ideas HERE!

They have wonderful ideas and it makes eating at home much more fun check it out!

 

[CherylA]

Thanks to this thread which has encouraged me! I made a list of dinners that are easy to make and that my family enjoys. A couple of them were new things from my cookbooks. All of them use mostly ingredients I always have on hand but I went through and made a list of all the ingredients I didn't already have and picked them up at the market. So in the morning I just have to choose which from the list I will make that night and if it involves defrosting anything, take it out to defrost. Last night I made a new dinner. It was a Mexican Chicken stew from one of the little Pillsbury recipe books you get near the supermarket checkout.

Anyway you cut chicken breast (1 lb) into small pieces and cooked them in a saucepan in a little oil then you added 1/2 of a small onion, diced and cooked until the onions are soft then add 1/2 cup frozen corn and a can of drained/rinsed black beans 1/2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp chili powder, two large tomatoes cut up (I think a can of crushed or diced tomatoes would have been just as good) and a bit of diced jalapeno although I think any kind of pepper would have worked even just a regular green or red pepper. We served it with tortilla chips.

The best part was I only had one pan to wash! And with the beans and the corn in it I was satisfied that that was sufficient vegetables for my family and I didn't feel the need to add a salad or other green veggie. It wasn't amazingly yummy but it was pretty good and super easy!

 

[charming23]

I am so proud of myself. Last night we were supposed to go out for my cousin's birthday but both my mom and I have nasty colds so we stayed home. I could have easily given in and said we would order out but instead I pulled out all the ingredients for the beef stew we were going to make on Sunday and threw it all into the crock pot. So we ate at home. Tonight will be leftovers of the stew and soup we have left and the chicken cutlets will be moved to tomorrow.

 

[figment3258]

I am so proud of myself. Last night we were supposed to go out for my cousin's birthday but both my mom and I have nasty colds so we stayed home. I could have easily given in and said we would order out but instead I pulled out all the ingredients for the beef stew we were going to make on Sunday and threw it all into the crock pot. So we ate at home. Tonight will be leftovers of the stew and soup we have left and the chicken cutlets will be moved to tomorrow.

That is great to hear! hope you all are feeling better!

 

[DisneyCrafter]

Kinda OT to start my post off but our electric bill came and it was $40 more than what I budgeted for! It was never this high last summer and we have a programmable thermostat and just kept the AC on the same settings. The rates must have gone up! Grrr! I quickly changed the settings so we can save some $$ for next month's bill. As a result of this I am going to try to trim down our food budget to make up for it. We really need every extra penny for our WDW trip in early October!

I have the next 2 weeks planned out b/c I wanted to use up what I had in the house and minimize the need to purchase lots of ingredients for our meals these 2 weeks to save $$.

Sunday: Out to dinner with my family for my Gpa's Birthday.
Monday: Chicken Kiev w/ Rice a Roni & Corn
Tuesday: Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit Sandwiches with Fried Potatoes
Wednesday: Chicken Tenders with French Fries
Thursday: DH's Birthday. We are going out to dinner.
Friday: Frozen Pizza w/ Salad
Saturday: Buffalo Chicken Strips w/ Baked Potato Wedges
Sunday: Enchiladas

Monday: Shrimp w/ Baked Potato (for DH) & Mac n' Cheese with cheddar bratwurst (for me)
Tuesday: L/O Enchiladas
Wednesday: Chicken Tortilla Soup with Guacamole & Chips
Thursday: Buffalo Chicken Strips with Baked Potato Wedges
Friday: L/O Chicken Tortilla Soup (& Maybe I'll make more guacamole-We love that stuff!)
Saturday: Bacon, Egg & Cheese Casserole with Fried Potatoes
Sunday: DH's Parents' House to celebrate his birthday.

 

[charming23]

That is great to hear! hope you all are feeling better!

Thanks!! I am feeling one hundred times better today.

Yesterday we ended up eating the leftover for lunch and I found some frozen chicken cordon bleu's from GFS in the freezer so we heated those up and had some glazed carrots with them.

I have changed our menu around for the coming week based on the schedule for the week.

Tonight: Hot dogs with German potato salad and corn
Monday: Chicken cutlets with lemon butter sauce over rice and ratatouillie
Tuesday: Weeknight Ravioli with garlic bread
Wednesday: Apple sage pork chops with buttered noodles and leftover ratatouillie
Thursday: Crock pot orange chicken with rice and veggies
Friday: Homemade pizza
Saturday: London broil with cornbread pudding and salad

 

[nancycg56]

This is one of my favorite threads

I just wanted to add that I also like to use http://www.supercook.com/ ~ you can plug in your ingredients and it will search for recipes that use those ingredients. It's helped me out a time or two

 

[emmakatbaby]

This a great thread!! We often get tired of the "same old" meals but I am a stickler for eating at home and not out!! We do go out to eat once a weekend though. On Sunday I ask my DH and each of my kids what is one thing they want to eat for dinner for the week. I write down all of their ideas and post a menu for the week on the refrigerator. This way everyone knows what we are having for dinner and everyone gets their favorites at least one time a week. It also helps my DH to know what to cook on Wednesday (I am a nurse and work until 7p on this day). I make a grocery list according to my "menu". On Monday's I go grocery shopping while everyone is at work/school and get everything we need for the week. I have saved hundreds just going to the store by myself without DH and the kids in tow ! I just stick to my list!

My menu for the week:

Sunday- Roast, rice and gravy, corn and bread
Monday-Homemade pizza
Tuesday-Stuffed bread and salad
Wednesday-Taco salad
Thursday-Spagetti/green beans/garlic bread
Friday- Left overs
Saturday- Eat out after church


School starts tomorrow so they know we are back to "30 minute" meals. After school, my DS12 has football practice until 5pm everyday, DS8 has karate on Monday and Wednesday, DD5 has dancing on Tuesday and Thursday and DS12 has a football game on Thursday. So my 30 minute meals are important so we're not tempted to eat out. If anyone has any ideas for fast meals, they are very much appreciated !

 

[hambirg]

Cool! I'm glad the menu fit your pantry so well

I just wanted to say that I made that pesto pizza last night. I used Rhodes frozen rolls for the crust and I added black olives, because we like them. It was a HUGE hit!!! Today I have the hashbrown casserole in the crock pot and made another one of those pizzas for lunch with the leftovers. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

 

[LilyWDW]

This list is not final as I may need to add things to it... but here is the start of our meals for the next 2 weeks (this week I will be home 4 times and next week will be 4 times as well most likely).

This week:

Asian glazed Salmon with Rice Pilaf and Asparagus
Chicken Enchiladas with Mexi Corn (1 can corn and 1 can rotel tomatoes with chilis)
Country Style Ribs with Cole Slaw and baked beans
Tilapia in a Mustard Cream Sauce with Angle Hair Pasta and Asparagus

Next week:

Pot Roast with Potatoes, Onions, and Carrots
Teriyaki Chicken Kebobs with Peppers, Onions, and Pineapple
Smoked Sausage with Fried Potatoes and Kraut
Grilled Cheese and Soup

And then I am picking up a Stouffers Family Entree thing since they are on sale this week so that we have an emergency item in the freezer. Now I need to get started on the weeks following because I will be starting school soon and won't have as much time to work on this.

 

[ilovepete]

I was just telling DH today that I hope we can really cut back on our eating out until our trip to Disney in October. It would be nice to save that money for then. We are bad about eating out on the weekends, week days are usually OK except if we meet DH for lunch at work sometimes.

I actually have a blog where I track our meals and reviews and such. It's just for personal use but you guys are welcome to check it out if you want... http://cookingformyfamily.blogspot.com/

Lately I have been really slacking on planning and even cooking because it has been SOOO hot here in FL. I just don't feel like cooking much! I've also been couponing a lot to save money, which is nice, but then I end up not planning as well and just getting the deals so we are missing 1/2 ingredients to actually make the meals I want to make. LOL I need to get back into the swing of things, hopefully this thread will help!!