A week of dinners

[Andrea]

I've grown tired of going to the grocery store every other day, so I've decided I'm going to plan dinners ahead for a week and make a list before I go to the store...

Looking for recipes myself is boring, and I'm not very creative... does anyone have a certain thing they do on a certain night of the week every week? Ex: Mondays are chili night... etc. Bonus points if you have such a night then use the leftovers (or leftover ingredients) for something else the next night.

[Pax]

After cooking every meal we consume for the last almost 19 years I've decided to stop cooking. I'm sick of it and my SO would eat wallpaper paste if I put it in front of her.

So, we now have:
- Pizza Monday and others nights a choice of...
- Quiche and edamame
- Fishsticks and corn
- Pierogis and broccoli
- Salad
- Cereal and toast

Life is so much simpler now! :p

[OakLeaf]

We don't follow a schedule (except for sometimes Monday night football and pizza in season), but I'm a big fan of one-pot meals, or at least stews or casseroles that can be served over or with rice, pasta or tortillas.

Pasta e fagioli can accommodate pretty much whatever veggies are in season and/or around the house, it's a nutritious meal with complete protein, and it's really simple and inexpensive if you pressure cook the beans. (In my house there's no bright line between pasta e fagioli and minestrone :rolleyes:.)

Pressure cooker risotto can also receive a variety of vegetables and/or mushrooms, and it's quick and easy.

Cook red lentils or split mung beans with diced onion, celery, carrot and tomato, add curry powder and salt, puree with a stick blender if you wish or leave it chunky, garnish with yogurt if you like and a little chopped cilantro.

Once you get used to pressure cooking beans, a whole lot of things become quick, easy and inexpensive - chili with various seasonings, black beans Cuban style with seasonal greens, Cajun red beans and rice, etc.

Any of these will keep and become more flavorful for at least 3-5 days, leftovers make a great lunch in the Thermos or microwave.

Depending on where you live, there may still be loads of fresh basil - make up a big batch of pesto, freeze it in ice cube trays and use as needed. Green beans, carrots, broccoli go well with pesto.

[Smilie]

I have the best French Dip recipe in a crockpot. My kids love it, and they are very picky brats.

3-4lb rump roast (I use whatever looks good, and inexpensive)
1 packet dried Au Jus (I can't find this anymore, so don't use it and it is still very good)
1 Packet dried Italian Dressing
1 c. Beef Broth-14 1/2 oz can ( I have also used vegetable broth)
2 tsp. Worchestershire Sauce
1 tsp. Garlic Salt
1 1/2 cup red wine (Cabernet Merlot works wonderfully)

Cook 10-12 hours on low, serve with Au Jus from crockpot, on Deli Rolls. I also saute onions, and melt Swiss or Provolone cheese on the bread. This is a wonderful recipe, I can't rave enough about it. :D

I don't do specific foods on certain days, as I have to be in the *mood* for certain things. I am weird that way.:rolleyes:

[Nokomis]

Last winter I had to build out a generic plan to follow, or else I'd get stuck in the trap of having no clue what to make. I had 6 planned, then one fun, and each in a topic that allowed variety week to week. Within each meal is a focus on balancing protein, vegetable diversity, and appropriate carbs.

Stew or Chili
Pasta - Chicken Alfredo, Spaghetti meatballs, Ravioli, etc
Soup & Bread - home made, broccoli or tomato basil or chicken corn chowder or...
Mexi-something - Tacos, Fajitas, Enchilada Casserole...
Stir Fry - so many options!
A New Recipe - Opportunity to find new favorites - dig thru books, blogs, etc
Mystery Meal - flexibility to go out, use up leftovers, have home-pizza, whatever

[Becky]

Homemade pizza has become a staple in our house. I buy the pre-baked whole wheat shells, and there's always sauce in the pantry and shredded cheese in the freezer. Throw any available veggies, maybe some sliced olives or turkey pepperoni on top, and dinner's done.

We eat a lot of pasta too. I must have 50 recipes for pasta dishes. Real Simple magazine always has tasty, unique pasta recipes in each issue, and many have become favorites.

[Grog]

We also plan our meals for the week on Saturday and shop on Sunday usually. We also decide who cooks when at the same time. Usually on Thursday I go back to the grocery store to pick up a few missing items or produce that I want to be more fresh, or to the meat shop for fresh chicken. We usually cook 5 or 6 nights a week and either eat out or go to his parents' place on the other 1-2 nights.

Usually we do a combination of:
one meat dinner (usually beef)
one or two chicken dishes
two vegetarian dishes
one or two pasta dishes
one slow cooker meal
one fish dish

Of course it doesn't add up because the chicken can be a slow cooker meal etc.

We sit down with the cookbooks and make our picks and write the grocery list. I'm thinking of getting our "successful" recipes on index cards or in some sort of a program to be able to quickly prepare a week of meals if we're too busy to do it from scratch on a given weekend.

The slow cooker meal and the pasta dishes usually yield lots of leftovers.

[roadie gal]

I LOVE my crock pot. I make a lot of stews and chilis. No matter how little I try to make it always comes out to a full pot. We munch on that for a few days and then freeze the rest in meal sized portions. Works great.

[Smilie]

Roadie Gal, post one of your favorite crock pot recipes please! I love my crockpot, but need to use it more for things besides roasts!

And you need to get off your # '666' post. Or not, as Halloween is coming up.:D

[Andrea]

I LOVE my crock pot. I make a lot of stews and chilis. No matter how little I try to make it always comes out to a full pot. We munch on that for a few days and then freeze the rest in meal sized portions. Works great.

You have any vegetarian recipes? I'm trying baked beans this weekend.

[Raindrop]

OK...two things that are easy (I'm typically a 4 ingredient cook) and tasty and pretty healthy.

Crockpot pulled pork:

a 4lb pork roast (lean)
2 cups of apple juice
1 capfull of liquid smoke
salt to taste
* optional is a teaspoon of crushed red peppers (we like HOT!!:eek:)
put everything in the crockpot and cook on high for about ten hours. The pork will be falling apart so just separate it all with a fork and serve by itself, on buns, or tortillas. Ymmmmmm....


Roasted pepper hummus:

Take a large red bell pepper, slice in half and get rid of the insides.
Smash it (by hand)on a tinfoil lined cookie sheet and blacken it under the broiler for about 8 -10 minutes. Put the blackened peppers in a plastic zip bag for about ten minutes and then peel.

Meanwhile drain a can of garbonzo beans and put that in a blender or food processor along with a tablespoon of tahini (sesame seed butter), two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, a little salt, four sliced garlic cloves and for a little zip, several jalepeno slices. When the pepper is peeled, throw it into the blender or food processor and blend till smooth.
Serve on pita bread, chips, or eat with a spoon like me.

[OakLeaf]

Oh yeah, hummus! Chickpeas (for hummus and falafel) are pretty much the only thing that goes into our food processor. That's another thing that's really inexpensive if you pressure-cook the beans. Plus, you can cook the garlic along with the chickpeas so you don't have to use raw garlic or roast it separately (not that there's a single solitary thing wrong with roasting garlic! - just if you don't happen to have any on hand). And you have the cooking water to adjust the consistency (and use any left over for your next batch of bean soup).

I like my hummus with a lot of parsley (pulse it in the food processor before adding the cooked chickpeas) - some recipes use mint, but I don't much care for that myself.


ETA: since you mention baked beans, one thing about beans in the crock-pot, DO NOT put any tomatoes, ketchup or other acids in until the beans are fully cooked. Acid toughens the bean skins and keeps them from absorbing water, so they will never cook. That's true whatever your cooking method, but it's easy to forget in the crock-pot where you're used to throwing all the ingredients in at once. Doesn't work with beans. Learned that one the hard way :rolleyes:

[roadie gal]

Very easy vegetarian chili:

I used dried beans that I soak for about 24 hours. Last time I used one package of pintos and one package of mixed beans. Throw into crock pot and cook until almost done. Add 1-2 cans of diced tomatoes, with the juice, one well chopped onion and 1-2 packages of chili seasoning depending on your taste. Cook some more. VERY easy. :D You can also brown some turkey or beef hamburger and then add to the chili. My SO voted for vege, so I didn't.

[shootingstar]

Some of you folks run your meal planning with such military regimentation...amazing. Not sure I could regiment myself, without gettting bored with cooking. I don't mind cooking...simply because it is abit creative to me/my partner... so there must alot of flexbility and nice surprises for meal planning.

Ummmm..we are more fly-by-the-seat of your pants in terms of meal planning and grocery buying. Thankfully. He and I consult a recipe..uh...every 3 months. Everything else we prepare has been a collaborative effort of recipes and cooking techniques from both sides of our families..plus each of us has tried certain recipes, each of us have casually memorized certain recipes initially but later transform/embellish/contort the recipe. It does help solve problems of varied, nutritious meal planning if we can already draw upon Asian and German (quality) recipes that we knew from childhood.

And voila, we make our meals. We do the reverse..we just buy fresh veggies and fruits with usually buying first whatever is in season/is cheap, then add on whatever else we need, usually 1 load of artisan fresh bread, fresh herbs, etc.

Then it's shoved into our fridge and cupboards. Then we do the reverse, we just look in the fridge /cupboard and make up the meal for dinner..

Maybe once or twice a wk. we consult..he says: "I'm making salad. You want salad?" Sometimes I say no or yes. If no, I make my own thing...it could be s stir-fried noodle dish, fishead soup, whatever. And I do the reverse too...except he never wants fishead soup. :p Approx. 50% of our meals are shared. Other times we are eating dishes separately because that's what the person felt like cooking and eating it for dinner.

IN the end, all I can say is: we have meat 1-2 times per wk., I eat more rice than he does, he eats certain pastas that he/I prepare... we both eat tons of fresh fruit, ...

Makes sense??? I assure you, we have some good recipes. :) In the past few months, he has done some lovely gourmet meals that come from his head ..take-offs of real recipes.

[roadie gal]

We do mostly "wing it" meals.

Last night we tried something that's probably a "duh" to lots of you: Bobolis. We got the 2 pack of 8" Boboli whole wheat premade pizza crusts. I put pesto and veges on mine, with cheese and my SO made pepperoni with tomato sauce and cheese. It was easy, fun and relatively healthy... and very importantly, fast.

[OakLeaf]

wow, that's two of you - we've pretty much given up on homemade pizza, even with a pre-made crust, because it takes just as much effort as a "real" meal but has the feel of something that ought to be "fast food." By the time you dice and saute onions, mince garlic, roast a red pepper, wilt spinach, slice and saute mushrooms, grate cheese, heat sauce (and season it if you're starting with unseasoned tomato sauce), etc., etc., etc., pizza takes a HECK of a long time! It's delicious, but it never seems like it's really worth the effort.

[Pax]

We really branched out last night...I'm home with a bunged up back and was feeling down, my honey brought me haagen dazs for dinner. :D

[Becky]

wow, that's two of you - we've pretty much given up on homemade pizza, even with a pre-made crust, because it takes just as much effort as a "real" meal but has the feel of something that ought to be "fast food." By the time you dice and saute onions, mince garlic, roast a red pepper, wilt spinach, slice and saute mushrooms, grate cheese, heat sauce (and season it if you're starting with unseasoned tomato sauce), etc., etc., etc., pizza takes a HECK of a long time! It's delicious, but it never seems like it's really worth the effort.

Our pizza topping are rarely "from scratch", unless I'm feeling particularly gourmet and have the time.

Lessee here:
Onions- diced frozen ones from the store.
Garlic- jarred.
Roasted peppers- jarred.
Fresh veggies- whatever I chopped up after shopping over the weekend.
Cheese- shredded from the store.
Sauce- canned from the store, or frozen homemade, depending on the garden's yield that year. And never pre-heated- the oven takes care of that while baking.

Now, that's not to say that I never prep produce, roast peppers, or shred cheese myself. I often do (except onions- too many tears! DH does that task!). But sometimes, there's just not the energy or time. And that's when prepared stuff is a life-saver. It might cost a little more, but if it saves me from ordering take out that night, it's worth the expense.

[TahoeDirtGirl]

I wish I could get back on track with dinner. It's just me most of the time. I'm trying to clean up my eating again, I have no idea why I eat worse on the east coast than the west!

You know, you can freeze cooked rice. I have a rice cooker and I cook up a big batch of brown rice. Measure it out, put it in sandwich bags and freeze em up. I just take it right out of the freezer and dump a baggie into a stir fry. It actually tastes a little better than just keeping it in the fridge!

[redrhodie]

How about if you roast a bunch of veggies, like squash, peppers, carrots, parsnips, beets, sweet potatoes on Sunday, then make a few different meals with them during the week? You could put everything in one pan, or separate the sweeter veggies into another pan, and you only have to heat the oven once, saving energy.

You could then make roasted veggie soup by adding some liquid, herbs and pureeing. You could add them to canned veggie chili another night. You could make a frittata. They could go in a burrito with rice, cheese and salsa. I make quesadillas with butternut squash, cheese and salsa. May sound weird, but it's really good and easy. You could serve them with couscous, which is super fast and easy to cook, and maybe add some dried fruit and cashews or pistachios.

My mother used to cook that way, but usually it involved meat. She'd make a turkey (or chicken, or roast beef), and all week we'd have turkey sandwiches, turkey pot pie, turkey a la king, turkey soup--you get the idea. She actually did it so well we didn't ever get sick of the main ingredient. She also made tomato sauce, and it would be used over pasta, on pizza, over meat loaf, stuffed peppers. She would freeze the leftovers. There was always something good to eat.

[emily_in_nc]

This time of year my DH (who is retired so does about 95% of the cooking, lucky me!) makes huge pots of soup, freezes some, keeps the rest in the fridge, and we eat different soup leftovers all week with a salad for dinner. Yummmmmmm! :D

[Andrea]

Thanks for all the ideas! I'm definitely going to put my freezer to better use than I have been.

Oh yeah, and my crock pot beans turned out to be AWESOME! I used Alton Brown's recipe but used butter instead of rendering bacon fat to cook the onions, etc. (just to keep it meatless).

[AutumnBreez]

I buy the 6lb bag of frozen Italian meatballs from sams club.Med. Crockpot1lb frozen meatballs1 jar Chili Sauce1 - 16 oz Grape jelly1/2 cup Maple syrup (pure)*Heat on high 3place about 5 meatballs on one hoagie roll (whole-wheat pepperidge farms)Serve with veggies or salad.Easy and yummy.** It was a hit with my teens!

[carpaltunnel]

One night a week just to have something really easy, we eat a veggie burger on a whole wheat bun with lettuce, tomato, and pickles. We like Morningstar Farms Tomato Basil Pizza burger. Maybe open a can of bush's pork and beans for a little extra protein and fiber. Lazy, quick and good.

[indigoiis]

We cook a big chicken on Monday nights, because we have my daughter two nights later on in the week (and every other weekend) and she is a vegetarian. So our week looks a little like this:

Mon: roast chicken, potato, steamed veggies
Tue: leftover chicken made into a curry with rice
Wed: (daughter night) pasta with red or white sauce, salad
Thu: (daughter night) veggie casserole with white sauce, homemade bread
Fri: (if daughter night) pizza; (if no daughter night) pork chops or sausages with potato or sweet potato, veggies
Sat: (if daughter night) Rice & beans; (if no daughter night) Steak or burgers
Sun: Leftovers or pasta - last night we had an awesome veggie lasagna.

We don't have it exact, but it is clearly similar week to week, because of the schedule I have with my daughter.

[bmccasland]

lesson re-learned yesterday evening. In order to have meal out of the crock pot, one must remember to turn it ON. :o

[roadie gal]

lesson re-learned yesterday evening. In order to have meal out of the crock pot, one must remember to turn it ON. :o

LOL

*sheepishly raising my hand* I've done that, too.

[Cataboo]

There's only 1 of me, and I usually can't be bothered to cook daily - so I tend to just make a huge pot of something at the beginning of the week and eat it once or twice a day till it's gone, and that's usually Friday night.

This week it's green curry with pork, potatoes, onions, egg plant, and bell peppers.

Whenever steaks or wild salmon is on sale at my supermarket, I usually buy 3 or 4 of them, and just shove them into the freezer. I thaw one of those on alternating weeks on Friday, at which point the boyfriend is around, and that usually becomes the weekend's meal. Grill that on Friday night, and Saturday's usually a long kayak or bike ride - so having left over steak or salmon is usually greatly appreciated that evening.

I usually go to costco and buy the big bag of spinach, minipeppers, portabella mushrooms, etc. and make salads out of those until they start looking not so fresh, at which point I make a huge pot of spinach soup usually - keep some out to eat, and the rest gets frozen in quart ziplock bags - so I always have some fresh soup to thaw and eat if there's nothing else available.

[Andrea]

LOL

*sheepishly raising my hand* I've done that, too.

Everyone who has a crock pot has done it or is a liar!

BTW- I made sweet potato chili last sunday that was scrumtrulecent :D

[singletrackmind]

Last week's dishes....
thu-chipotle burritos (crock pot)
fri-breaded pork steaks, baked potatoes, carrots
sat-turkey chili, cornbread (chili in the crock)
sun-turkey chili, cornbread
mon-chicken gumbo, mashed potatoes
tues-out or scrounge....it's family bike riding night, scrounge if weather cancels it
wed-spicy peanut chicken, rice

This week....
thu-stuffed cinnamon bulgur peppers
fri-bread wine cheese grapes ham halloween!
sat-out
sun-gumbo and potatoes....the last of my okra :(
mon-steak and potatoes, green beans
tues-out or scrounge....family bike ride!
wed-spicy peanut chicken and rice....on the table in 10 minutes!

Lunches are usually frozen steamer veggies and a sandwich or pasta

Breakfast
mon-cereal or oatmeal
tue-egg burrito
wed-cereal or oatmeal
thu-egg something
fri-pancakes


I try to try switch things around every once in awhile so nobody gets bored. A also try to do a fish at least once a week, but it doesn't always work out. Last week it was tuna sandwiches.
I also prepare and freeze certain ingredients like bell peppers and chicken or cook things in advance, like chili while I'm waiting for the chicken to bake.

My shopping day is thursday so that's why my weeks start on thursday. It's when Shop n' Save has its big no coupon needed day.

[shootingstar]

I would be struggling to remember our dinners last wk... --one evening I just had rice made from ricepot and did a scrambled eggwhite with onions, garlic, red pepper and basil. Geez, latter takes less than 10 min. You could do it sleep-walking.

Somewhere I heard that people don't tend to have such egg dishes for supper...well, it's a fast way and nutritious type of dish especially if it's scrambled with other fresh veggies.

This wk. dinner so far:
Mon. --we went out to a restaurant on our cycle homeward. Had a paninni sandwich with proscuitto, cheese, red pepper spread, etc. Afterwards came home and munched on fresh fruit.

Tues.-leftover homemade smoked salmon pizza with dill and goat cheese. yes, I make this from scratch...about once every 1-2 months. Also had leftover dessert homemade focaccia of fresh grapes with spices, ginger root and honey. He made a tomato salad with vinegarette, etc.....on a whim. He felt like it. He does good different salads and makes up half of the salads in his head.

Wed. (tonight)-stir-fry with veggies and fresh chinese noodles from store. Noodles take 5 min. to reheat before stir-frying. He had leftover frozen veggie soup.

Cooking is not an awful thing for us...we don't have children living underneath our roof at this time. His are grown up and have their own places... hence, is it worth it for my partner and I to complain about lack of time (how about even about 40 min. or so) to chop and cook???:o

I guess we're pretty unstructured about cooking and buying groceries because it's just he and I...and we have an automatic dishwasher...which helps. ;)

[katluvr]

OK I am amazed at all the "eating in". I have my best intentions to plan a menu for a week...usually do good for maybe 1/2 the time.
Weekends were are busy playing so some times we are good and plan a meal others eat out d/t out and about playing (biking, shopping, running, just stuff!)
Now the last 2 weeks have been take out or eat out...seriously bad. It is nto that I don't like cooking. But during the week it is work all day, fit in workout, then who wants to cook? I just want food!
I am usually good at packing my breakfast and lunch...but lately d/t lack of going to grocery store I have not even been packing that!
Maybe this weekend I can get re-organized, go shopping and plan a menu! Not sure why I am out of it so bad right now. But even when I do plan...just takes one bad day at work or feeling over tired and I want the easy way out!
By the way...just the 2 of us...could be quick and easy. But I do get tired of grill chicken and salad!