Meal Planning

I did pretty well this week concerning lunches and dinners. I ate at home a lot (or brought food from home to work) there was one day at lunch where we all went out so I went with them and ate the lunch I brought the next day. I really do need to keep a better track of my grocery budget though! I think that's my biggest weakness. Hopefully, I don't spend a lot on groceries this week. There's not a lot I need, really.
Here's my plan:

Monday: pb and honey sandwich, yogurt w/ berries, crackers,
               marinated chicken and grilled veggies
                                    these veggies were so yummy! I made them once before but it had been quite some time. tonight I made them w/ zucchini, yellow squash, leftover mushrooms, red onion and yellow pepper. Delish!
Tuesday: I'm thinking soup, but I like to eat at the park across the st. from my work so don't know how that'll work. hmmm
           loaded tortillas (I'll prob omit the bacon)
Wednesday: Big salad, grapes
                chicken/ veg kabobs with Asian dip sauce
Thursday: Roast beef sandwich
            I'm probably going out to dinner w/ friends that night
Friday: sub sandwiches
      
The rest of the weekend I'll be in Vegas with my sis!! Can't wait for a mini vacation. I need one!!!

Meal Planning Monday

Today is the start of my new schedule. M-Th 2-10. Then on Fri 4-12 for the next three weeks. Then the next 3 weeks, Fri 8-4. So, I'm not entirely sure how I want to do my meals. My schedule is kinda inconvenient, really. The thing is, do I want to eat lunch before work, eat dinner at work, and then come home and go straight to bed? Or do I want to wake up later (I always want to wake up late!) eat lunch at work, dinner when I get home and stay up later. I'm not sure yet. This is going to have to be a bit of a learning time.
But whenever I eat them, here are my lunch and dinner plans this week.
Monday: roast beef sandwich, cherries
             stir fry
Tuesday: Big salad (I might take my parents out to lunch, in which case I'll move this to Friday)
           Quesadillas
Wednesday: soup
          mac n cheese
Thursday: chips and salsa
          grilled chicken and veggies
Friday: leftovers
         Chicken marsala
Saturday: chili
             breakfast for dinner

Food Waste

I really need to get into the habit of doing food waste posts again.
My excuse this week is getting settled in my new home.

I wasted almost a whole head of romaine lettuce.
It seems to be lettuce week. Mom's plans and the Frugal Girl both wasted lettuce. I went to make taco salad for lunch and pulled out the lettuce went I saw how it was all brown and wrinkled. I tore off the parts in the middle that were still passable but unfortunately the rest goes in the trash.

Good leftover week!

Have you ever had a foil dinner? I love them. My dad, who's a huge boyscouter, traditionally makes them on camping trips but every now and then he would make them for us at home. And like I said, I love them. They're super easy and super versatile. My favorite combo is:
potatoes
carrots
yellow pepper (any color will do of course)
Red onion (or white or sweet too)
mushrooms (brown, white, portabello)
and protein cut up into chunks, ground beef, stew meat, chicken. (I used 1/2 lb ground beef)
Add a few pats of butter, lots of (my fav!) worchestershire sauce, salt, pepper, garlic and onion salt. Wrap in heavy duty aluminum foil and wrap VERY tightly. Make sure there is No leaks. Cook in 400 deg oven for about 50 min. TIP: make sure you cut your potatoes and carrots pretty small, because they take a while to cook and if you cut them the same size as your meat, either the potatoes are under done or the meat is too done. So I've found that small potatoes and carrots and bigger chunks of meat work best.
Plus, once you open up the foil packet, you can't really cook it anymore.

Now, I used about 1/4 the pepper, 1/4 onion and 1/4 package of mushrooms. What to do with the leftovers?
Tonight I made fajitas.
On the Foreman grill I grilled some chicken strips, and the pepper/onion/ mushrooms. I sprinkled taco seasoning over everything and let them cook. Add the mix to warm tortillas and sprinkle with cheese. YUM. Same veggies, very different flavors.
And tomorrow: Stir fry!
I'll toss everything in the pan with some ginger and soy sauce and serve over rice.

And the next day: Taco salad!
With the rest of the 1/2 lb ground beef, I cooked it up already with some chopped red onion and taco seasoning. I'll heat that up and top it with salsa, lettuce, cheese and the rice I precooked for the stir fry. If I'm feeling up for it, I might even bake a tortilla into a taco shell.

I'm just loving how I can reuse everything! And I'm not having to eat the same thing, or even the same flavor day after day. This plan should surely prevent against having too much food waste!

This week's meal plan

It's been a big crazy week! Last week I moved! Got a brand new place all to myself! So now I'm learning to cook for one. Moving, of course, is crazy and stressful and I haven't really cooked here yet. I still don't know how to use my oven. But none of that excuses me from cooking dinner or meal planning.
So this week:

Wednesday:  breakfast for dinner.
Thursday: foil dinners
Friday: fajitas
Saturday: spaghetti and salad