What's For Dinner?

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-14-2003
What's For Dinner?
12
Fri, 01-06-2006 - 1:00am

In an effort to curb our dining out, I have planned a menu for the next two weeks. Perhaps others would like to share their menus so that we can get some new ideas and maybe help others break out of their cooking rut.

Today: Freezer Meal
Fr: Tacos, seasoned corn, salad
Sa: Country Wine Chicken, pasta, veggies, salad, apple crisp
Su: Korean food
Mo: Pasta with red sauce, bread, salad
Tu: Turkey burgers, fries, salad
We: Potato soup, bread, salad
Th: Freezer meal
Fr: Pizza, salad
Sa: Whitefish and Linguine with lemon-caper sauce, salad, veggies, Coffee Frosted Cake
Su: Beef Burgandy, Rice, veggies, salad
Mo: freezer meal
Tu: Taco Style Lentils and Rice
We: Corn Chowder, Bread, salad

My freezer meals are meals that come from a cooking co-op that I belong to. We each make 6 freezer meals and then exchange them so that we have 6 different ones. This comes in really handy on busy nights. For the Korean food, I go to a Korean market and purchase the ingredients to make up a meal. It is so much cheaper than going to a restaurant and I can freeze any leftovers to make a meal for another night.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-23-2005
Fri, 01-06-2006 - 1:32am

Dinner for us this week starting tomorrow 01/06/06:

Friday: chicken curry with rice

Saturday: grilled salmon with steamed asparagus & grilled zuchini, red onions and eggplant

Sunday: spaghetti & caesar salad

Monday: roasted chicken with carrots, celery, brocolli and cauliflower cooked with chicken stock

Tuesday: chicken soup with onion, carrot, celery, cauliflower, broccoli made from food left from the night before.

Thursday: roasted pork chop marinated in honey & soy sauce; green beans tossed with pine nuts & olive oil

Friday: stir fry veggies (brocolli, red bell peppers, carrots, spinach, onion) with tofu

lvhunnie2005

lvhunnie2005

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-28-2005
Fri, 01-06-2006 - 2:06am

I've really been trying to find ways to make cheaper dinners. Which is hard since we both like good, real, food; and H doesn't like shortcut dinners like eggs for dinner or no meat.

tortillas with shredded cheese, black beans, lettuce, and rice (prefferably saffron)

big green salad with leftover fried chicken (try to save at least one piece of chicken from a previous meal for salads) (for some reason, this only works for dinner in the summer!?!)

pancit - a philipino noodle, $2.00 for a package, and makes plenty to have for at least a lunch as leftovers; add leftover broccoli or frozen snap peas, small amount of beef, a few mushrooms- all of which would be leftover, don't need enough to justify their own purchase

Spagghetti is always good, but we don't eat enough veggies when we do so I don't want it more than 2x a week! WalMart's brand of tomatoe sauce is my favorite, AND it's only $1 a jar!!

Lately I've been freezing alot. Either a double portion I've made, or parts of a meal as a shortcut. Like I'll buy the 5lb package of ground beef, and I'll brown a portion to make hamburger helper, brown some with taco seasoning and kidney beans. We use alot of rice, so I'll make twice as much, and freeze half. Then, I have to NOT use them on days when I really can take the time for dinner but am feeling lazy!!

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-20-2004
Fri, 01-06-2006 - 7:02am
I am so so bad at this. I work third shift, and sometimes have to wait for my husband to come home before I can go to bed (because I have to watch the kids.) Anyhow, I did not work last night, so today we will be having beef stew with dumplings...actually there will be enough for leftovers and everybody likes it, so we will be eating it today and tomorrow. A lot of times, we have grilled cheese, or soup, hotdogs, pizza, waffles, etc....before dh even comes home and then when he comes home he can fix himself something quick. This is not very healthy, but working full time on no sleep sure does affect whether or not I feel like I have the energy necessary to cook a nice meal. Oh, and my youngest will not eat meat, either. She could live on potatoes and pancakes, i swear. So hopefully, i will get some good ideas from everybody else because if I had to come up with a one week meal plan, well, even that would be impossible. : ) heather
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-20-2005
Fri, 01-06-2006 - 11:15am

I make out my menu 2 weeks at a time as well...my friends laugh at me because of my "wipey" board. It has our menu/shopping list/ and our scheduled events on it...it works....we do not have a cooking co-op but I would love to start one...just trying to get some of my friends etc...interested!

Thanks for sharing!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Fri, 01-06-2006 - 11:22am

Thanks for the ideas. I really need to do this, I spend way to much on groceries because I go to Super Walmart almost every other day.

Tonight we are having chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy.

Dana

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-14-2003
Fri, 01-06-2006 - 11:25am

My friends laugh at my menu plan, too, but it helps so much. I cannot justify ordering take-out or eating in a restaurant when I have all of the ingredients on hand for a full meal.

If you are having trouble finding people to be in a cooking co-op with you, maybe you can make your own. I often double or triple freezer friendly meals to use at other times. Like, when I make a pot of soup, it is too much for us to eat and we don't want to eat it 3 days in a row. So, I freeze some of it and it is available for a quick heat up on hectic days.

Good luck!
Windy

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-30-2003
Fri, 01-06-2006 - 3:05pm

Doing a menu plan is exactly what I need to do-when we did, the grocery budget was much lower!

Tonight DH & DD are having Spaghettios with meatballs (they love it) and I'm having 4 Cheese tortellini (they hate it). My stepkids are coming over this weekend, so tomorrow we're having Curry Chicken and fresh bread (love that breadmaker!) and Sunday, ummm, yeah. I'll have to get back to you!

~Lisa

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-29-2003
Fri, 01-06-2006 - 3:41pm

I try very hard to plan meals a week in advance, but it doesn't always work out that way. I've been really hooked on the whole "what can I make from the leftovers" syndrome. While I like the creative nature of this, it hinders my cooking, because I'm always trying to cook something that I can turn into something else later on.

I made a huge pot roast dinner over Christmas break, and then took the leftovers and made it into beef vegtable soup. I tasted it and it was GOOD. I just froze the soup and that's what's for dinner tonight.

We grilled really big earlier this week (it was supposed to stay warm, then got cold all fo a sudden that afternoon) and froze the leftovers and I'll make grilled chicken alfredo w/ either asparagus (If I can find it cheap enough) or broccoli.....yum...one of our favorites. Put that over penne pasta. It's great.

I have tons of broccoli and cauliflower from our new years eve veggie tray that will need to be used in stir fry or something soon---

so that and left over hotdogs will be dinner for the next few days at least.

Shels

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-10-2005
Fri, 01-06-2006 - 5:16pm

I go a step further with the left overs. I usually make something that will last the entire week and eat off that. I'm single though so I can get away with that. I'm always really excited come Sunday's when I go eat at my parent's house. So my menu for this month: (I actually have it planned out for the next six months but don't have the plan on me.)

This week was: Salad and steak (My dad owns beef cattle so I got off really cheap.)
Next week: Spaghetti with meat sauce and Garlic bread. (I add hamburger to canned spaghetti sauce along with a couple of small cans of mushrooms...yummy.)
Week of the 16th: Spice chicken and rice bake
Week of the 23rd: Tatertot caserole
Week of the 30th: Hot wings

I do mix vegetables in through out the week. Like next week, I'll either have green beans or peas or maybe carrots. I'll also eat any left over salad.

Eating the same thing over and over gets boring sometimes but it definately keeps the budget down.

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-05-2004
Fri, 01-06-2006 - 5:18pm


Could you post your recipe for Tatertot Cassarole? My son LOVES tatertots, and a cassarole might be a way to get him to try new foods.

Thanks!

Pat :-D

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