Grocery Shopping

One of the ways that I’m able to be flexible in my meal planning is by stocking up on staples when they are on sale.  In fact, from week to week, I buy very few groceries – mostly fresh fruit, milk, eggs, and specific vegetables that I prefer fresh.  I stock up on meat, pasta, rice, and frozen vegetables whenever they are on sale.

In fact, two weeks ago, Sweetbay had boneless skinless chicken breast on sale for $1.99/lb.  It’s usually more than twice that, we bought about 45 pounds! I split them up into two-breast portions in freezer bags and now they’re ready to go in the freezer.

This helps us save money on groceries, especially more “whole” foods and less processed stuff, while having ingredients on hand in a pinch.  I know that I can always throw some pasta, chicken breast, frozen vegetables and a jar of sauce together for dinner if needed.

For the menu posts going forward, I plan to include my approach for groceries in addition the menu and prep plan.  I’ll point out the ingredients for each meal that I need to purchase compared to those that I already have on hand.  Hopefully someone finds it helpful and/or can provide some feedback/tips!

Also, I’m almost out of ideas for these “other” types of posts, so if anyone has questions or things they want me to try out, let me know 🙂

Menu – Week of 7/30/12

Trying to keep it low key this week!

MENU:

Monday: Pasta with Tomato Alfredo Sauce (Vitamix Recipe), Ground Turkey, and Vegetables

Tuesday: Black Bean Tostadas (no recipe, just kind of winging it)

Wednesday: Chicken with Tomato Couscous

Thursday: Turkey Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries

Friday: Chicken and Black Bean Pie

PREP PLAN:

Sunday:

• Organize the RR cabinet
• Dice onions and bell peppers
• Pull chicken (already diced) out of the freezer

Monday: After work: Boil pasta, brown meat and onions, microwave veggie blend, and make sauce in the Vitamix.

Tuesday: After work:  Saute onions with the black beans and some taco seasoning.  Mash.  Top tostadas with black bean mixture, avocado slices, and shredded cheese

Wednesday: After work: Cook the chicken and couscous according to the recipe.

Late night: Make the turkey burger patties (ground turkey breast, salt, pepper, diced onion, diced bell pepper, worcestshire sauce, one egg) and press between wax paper.

Thursday: After work:  Throw the sweet potato fries in the oven while cooking the burgers on the stove.

Late Night: Boil and shred the chicken for Friday’s meal.

Friday: After work: Finish prepping the Chicken and Black Bean Pie and bake.

Menu – Week of 7/23/12

I know I’m late in posting the menu… After eating leftovers all last week and being out of town all weekend, I’m pretty much behind in everything!  For whatever reason, the menu is really heavy on eggs and cauliflower this week.  Maybe I was subconsciously craving those?

MENU:

Monday: Spaghetti Squash Pie (carryover from last week)

Tuesday: Devil-icious Egg White Salad on pita with a side of vegetables

Wednesday: Dopiaza Curry Chicken with Vegetables, Rice, and Naan (carryover from last week)

Thursday: Potato and Pea Frittata (my first time trying out a recipe I’ve gotten from a fellow blogger – I hope I can do it justice!)

Friday: Shepherd’s Pie – my own healthy version

PREP PLAN:

Sunday: Prepare the Spaghetti Squash Pie up to the point of baking it.  I follow the recipe except I use ground turkey breast and add diced onion.

Monday: After work: Set the pie to bake while I went grocery shopping.

While eating dinner: Boil the eggs for the egg salad.

Late night: Prepare the egg salad.  I made a few modifications – I used two bags of frozen garlic cauliflower instead of a fresh head, I used 1/2 mayo and 1/2 miracle whip, I added some onion powder, and used dijon mustard instead of yellow.

Tuesday: After work:  Microwave a bag of frozen vegetables and pile the egg salad on some whole wheat pitas.

Late night: Dice the chicken for the Dopiaza, dice two onions and two bell peppers for the Dopiaza and the shepherd’s pie.

Wednesday: After work: Cook the chicken according to the directions on the jar of sauce, microwave some vegetables and rice, toast the naan.

Late night: Slice the potatoes and some carrots for the frittata.  I’m adding carrots because I love color and I’m still working through the bounty from the garden!

Thursday: After work:  Prep the frittata (I’m excited to try it!)

Late Night: Prep the Shepherd’s Pie to the point of baking:

• Brown ground turkey breast with diced onions and bell peppers until cooked through. Salt and pepper to taste.
• Put a bag of mixed veggies (carrots, corn, peas or limas, green beans) and gravy into the meat mixture and simmer until the vegetables are warmed through.
• Microwave two bags of frozen garlic cauliflower and puree in a blender.
• Pour the meat mixture into a 9×13 pan sprayed with olive oil (glass works best)
• Sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese if desired (cheese makes everything better!)
• Spread the mashed cauliflower over the meat mixture.
• I like to put a topping on it… usually onion flakes and paprika, but sometimes it’s bread crumbs, grated parmesan, whatever I’m in the mood for.

 

Friday: Bake the shepherds pie until bubbly – I usually bake at 350 for 20 minutes if prepping and making the same night.  Since I will have prepped the night before, I’ll probably kick it up to about 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

The Binder

I don’t own any cookbooks.  I figured out long ago that there were only one or two recipes in each cookbook that I ever really used, if that.  They take up a lot of space that I don’t have, at least if I want to continue with my “Rachel Ray” cabinet.  So, at some point, I copied the recipes I actually used and sold the books themselves.  I still buy a cookbook from time to time, usually an impulse buy, with a promise that I’ll cook every meal in the crockpot from now on, or that all meals will come in pocket form, or have 5 ingredients or less.  But it never matters, I only use one or two recipes from the book and move on.

I usually get my recipes and new ideas from various online sources, as you can see from my Recipes page.  I am subscribed to a number of different recipe emails (a local newspaper column, Parents.com, Hungry-Girl.com, Kraft Recipes, etc.)

Introduce: THE BINDER

I have recipes organized into Breakfast, Appetizers, Sides, Vegetarian Entrees, Entrees, and Desserts. Recipes don’t get printed until they are on a set menu.  If they pass the test, they get a coveted spot in the binder.  If not, they are thrown out.  I know I can easily flip through to find dinner ideas that my family actually enjoys, without getting bogged down with lofty recipes I hope to try one day.  This is how I’ve been able to get out of the dinner rut that we used to find ourselves in all the time.