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| Spicy Ground Turkey, Stir Fried Vegetables |
Here's how last week's meal planning worked out:
Week 2 Meal Plan (2/7 - 2/13):
Monday:
Brunch - Egg salad sandwiches
Dinner - Garden salad - Japanese purple mustard greens, purple mizuna, chard, Japanese spinach, baby beet greens, all from the garden, with bottled salad dressing (I found the purple mustard greens to be a little too peppery to eat raw in a salad; they are not that peppery when cooked)
Pork gyoza (potstickers) - appetizer
Leftover salmon and green beans (from Sunday's dinner), sauteed mixed garden greens, rice
Tuesday:
Brunch - Boiled mung beans, with katta sambol
Dinner - Spicy Ground turkey laab, stir fried vegetables (peapods from the garden, carrots, sliced broccoli stem, frozen corn, and peanuts), rice (daughter; I had a slice of whole grain bread, much later)
Wednesday:
Brunch - Leftover mung beans; toast and scrambled leftover egg salad
Dinner - Assorted leftovers: Salmon, rice, green beans, eggplant, sauteed greens, chutney
Thursday:
Brunch - Fried rice Leftover egg salad on toast (me); leftover sardines on toast (daughter)
Dinner -Daughter - Leftover chicken curry, cucumber salad, rice, chutney, sauteed greens;
Me - leftover fish curry, rice, eggplant, and sauteed greens (me)
Friday:
Brunch - Tuna salad sandwiches Koththu roti with leftover chicken curry and sauteed greens added to it
Dinner - Leftovers from Thursday's Tuesday's dinner
Saturday:
Brunch - Sauteed chickpeas
Dinner - Koththu roti Daughter - kuftha from the freezer; me - soup
Cinnamon rolls for dessert!
Sunday:
Brunch - Pancakes Waffles
Dinner: - Roast pork, vegetables, salad
Well, that didn't turn out too badly, did it? We ate mostly what was planned with a little tweaking to use up leftovers and what we felt like eating (koththu roti instead of tuna salad sandwiches; waffles instead of pancakes)
Here's the plan for this week (February 14- 20) -
Monday:
Brunch: Fast food! Hamburgers and fries from the drive-thru!
Dinner: Leftover pork roast and vegetables, salad
Tuesday:
Brunch: Leftover spicy chickpeas or fried rice
Dinner: Sauteed chicken thighs with broccoli and carrots, rice
Wednesday:
Brunch: Salad with shredded chicken
Dinner: Chicken curry, rice, cooked greens, cucumber salad, etc.
Thursday:
Brunch: Scrambled eggs and toast or leftovers
Dinner: "Homemade" pizza using ready-made pizza crust; salad
Friday:
Brunch: Muffins or toast
Dinner: Leftovers - either sauteed chicken or chicken curry and sides
Saturday:
Brunch: ??? Ramen noodles???
Dinner: Koththu roti to use up leftover chicken curry, etc.
Sunday:
Brunch: Waffles
Dinner: Salmon, rice, stir-fried vegetables
This week's meal plan is based on what I have on hand in the freezer and pantry, as I haven't planned a grocery shopping trip for this week although, daughter's half & half (coffee cream) seems to be going off sooner than the best by date on the container, so I might have to make a grocery pick up sooner than later. I have taken out a tray of chicken thighs to thaw and plan to cook it two ways and friend R gave me a ready-made pizza base, so I will have daughter make us a pizza, mid-week.
How is your meal planning coming along?
You did well with your meal planning and your plan for the coming week looks good. I put quite a few items in the freezer from my last grocery delivery so won't need to order much this week. I find I have to rely on the best before dates too so more or less decide on the day what we will have for our main meals.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Eileen. :) Stocking up the freezer is such a good idea and knowing what needs to be cooked and eaten first is one of the best ways to prevent waste, isn't it? I hope your week will be a good one and hope your appointments will all go well. :)
DeleteI'm still running down the contents of the freezer so am not really planning as such - I just pick a homemade ready meal every day. I probably have another week or two of doing this and then will start planning properly again. I'm using up all the things that have been in the freezer for a while and next week will think about doing some more batch cooking to start the restocking, but hopefully more organised this time!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you are doing well with your frozen meals. :) I like the idea of having homemade meals in the freezer!
DeleteYou had me at egg salad sandwiches, my fave breakfast. I am not a meal planner or even a good grocery shopper, although I got better about informally planning during the early days of the pandemic to minimize grocery trips.
ReplyDeleteEgg salad sandwiches are a favorite over here! I add minced fresh green chilies to the egg salad mixture - it's the only way my daughter will eat egg salad! :D I go back and forth between planning meals and not bothering to do so! But, I usually buy my groceries first, based on what is on sale that week, and then, plan my meals based on what I've bought or have in the freezer, etc. :)
DeleteI'm impressed with how well you followed your plan.
ReplyDeleteThank you, June. :) The meal plan is more of a guideline to follow, but, it helps with taking things out to thaw or putting things like beans to soak in time!
DeleteIt looks good. I’m going to try a pot roast in the crockpot
ReplyDeleteThank you, Akasha. Pot roast in a crockpot is ideal!
DeleteYour turkey and stir fry looks delicious. You are well able to adapt your plan as you go along.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I turned a small amount of leftover stew into a hearty soup for lunch. There is leftover pork with pineapple and green pepper and onion for today's supper and tomorrow will be left over chicken thighs from what I cooked for yesterday's supper. There will probably be frozen salmon later in the week.
Our new flooring is nearly finished. Then we will relocate all the stuff that is cluttered around the rest of the house, - furniture, boxes, piles of stuff! Maybe some of those boxes should stay closed for a few months and donated!!
Thank you, Bushlady. I meant to cook the turkey in one way and ended up cooking it quite a different way, but, it worked! LOL.
DeleteI like how you turned a small amount of leftover stew into a soup! Sounds like you've got your week's suppers all planned out!
Glad to hear that the new flooring is almost in place. Putting things back will be a good time to decide if certain things need to be kept or not. :)
Your meal plan, and how it worked out with the alterations, is really inspiring to me. Whenever I try and meal plan, it all goes horribly wrong. To see you work flexibly is encouraging.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lyssa. My meal plans are not set in stone! I switch things around and tweak them quite a bit. Sometimes, I don't feel like cooking what I've planned or eating what I've cooked and that's OK, too. :) The meal plan is just a guideline to help me see what my options are so I don't make the same two or three dishes every week! (Nothing wrong with that, either, but, then, I get tired of eating the same thing!)
DeleteYou had some tasty food!
ReplyDeleteCan you get 2 quarts instead of the half gallon of half & half? Maybe that might extend the life of it. I know it's more expensive that way but it might help.
My store stories this week_
Again at Aldi's there was no half and half for my order. So I got it from the other store. It's more money there but they have had it. Also I've been paying more at that store for their fresh spinach. The Aldi's spinach goes bad in a day or so and the other store's spinach, while being more expensive ( although not by much since the bag is larger) is a much nice product. Really there's no comparison so I won't be going back to the Aldi's brand. Also, I think Aldi's must have changed their canned tomatoes. I am finding them much more acidic and quite unpleasing to me. You know I use a lot of canned tomatoes lol - so that's been a problem. I tried adding a touch of sugar but I've now switched to the other store's store brand and am happy.
My husband is dropping off 22 cans of canned tomatoes (new buys dated 2024) to the food bank today. I'm sure they will be used by someone.
Thank you, Debra.
DeleteI suggested getting 2 quarts of the half and half and keeping one way at the back of the fridge until needed for the next time. We shall see.
I enjoyed reading about your store stories for this week! Paying more for better quality is probably worth it, if it means you have less waste and/or get better tasting items.
I'm sure the food bank appreciated receiving all those new cans of tomatoes. That's very kind of you both to do so.