meal planning

Monday Night Goal Post

A delay, but I’m giving this week a go, keeping in mind that this week I’m going to try to get better than a 4. I can retroactively already give myself a point for tonight, so I’ve got a realistic shot at reaching this goal.

Small steps, my Cheepsters. That’s how I’m going to get everyone on board this week.

That, and possibly queso at every meal.  Queso is not technically a food, more of a substance, but I’m willing to waive the requirement that all the food served must be food, especially since I never made a hard commitment to that rule (having only just thought of it) (after remembering Velveeta is a ‘cheese product’).  Mmmmmmmm, cheese product.

This week’s non-lofty, completely adequate chance at a score of 5.0 plan is as follows:

  • Mon: tri tip, salad, broccoli/cauliflower, applesauce, cucumber and carrots
  • Tue:  Taco Tuesday!  tacos al pastor, refried beans, queso,tortillas and fixings
  • Wed: Prince Spaghetti day!  alfredo noodles, roasted chicken legs, carrots, salad
  • Thur: egg drop soup, fried rice
  • Fri: pizza/calzone night!

See what I did there on Wednesday? Alfredo–it’s like sneaky queso that you eat on noodles!

This is a week of stuff I could make in my sleep, with items mostly already in the house. I really think I can get an upwards trend started. This makes me happy, because I refuse to make a bar graph of the weekly scores until it’s going up, and this is hard, because I LOVE making bar graphs.

Wish me luck, and I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I’m looking forward to navigating the holiday season, and hope we all find great deals.  Cheep Cheep!

This Week’s Dinners, Week 5

I dread and love this post. I get to recap goals I set just a few days ago. It’s a chance to  evaluate how I’m doing on things that are important to me.

Let’s be happy you’re not on the list of things that are unimportant to me.

This week, I did somewhat follow the plan, but the nature of life with kids of varying ages and two adults working odd schedules shows its toll this week, with a lot of low scoring meals.

The goal:

  • Mon:  chicken fried rice, egg drop soup, steamed spinach, carrots and ranch, apples
  • Tue:  leftover ziti, caesar salad, celery and carrot sticks, cuties
  • Wed: baked fish, potatoes, peas, salad
  • Thur: Taco Thursday! quesadillas, beans, lettuce/tomato/cheese/sour cream, berries
  • Fri: potato soup, homemade bread, fruit & veg

The actual:

  • Mon:  chicken fried rice, egg drop soup, steamed spinach, pomegranate seeds. two kids ate sandwiches instead. Score: 1.5. -0.5 for sandwiches and no deduction for DH not showing because he didn’t feel well.  That is beyond Cheepie’s control, especially if he won’t eat vegetables.
  • Tue: leftover ziti, leftover meatballs, caesar salad. caesar with leftover chicken.  We didn’t eat together, but that’s what 4/5 people ate. Score:  1.5 points.
  • Wed: kid event. meant to cook, didn’t, Eldest and DH ate out. Others ate sandwiches and cereal. Score: 0 points.
  • Thur: Nursery supper: fishsticks, apples, carrots, salad. Meeting for adults. Score: 0 points.
  • Fri: Taco Friday! We made tortillas, and had a lot of fixings. All the people home ate this, but not together.  Score: 1 point.

That sums up to a rockin’ 4.0 points! That’s a new low! I’m incredibly bad at this!

I can’t believe I’m not improving even when I plan to be awful. I thought this weeks plan accommodated our activities, and it didn’t. I also thought it would work when I wasn’t there, and that didn’t happen.

This is an Internet Accountability Plan. What do you think I could do differently? Do you think my ‘meat, veg, raw veg, fruit, grain’ plan is not something I can do on a daily basis?  At this point I’ve learned I need to work with our actual life better when planning meals, but I’m not sure how to do that, and have us all at the table.  Having us all there is really not happening at all, despite our 7pm dinner time. DH isn’t home then, often, and Eldest has other priorities. Do I pull rank? I’m considering. We’ll see how the next month goes.

Cheep Cheep!

Sunday Night Goal Post

After last week’s larger fail than usual, my plan this week will be very straightforward.  I’ll continue awarding one point for sticking with the plan, and one point for everyone showing up, with half points assigned if I think it was at least half-worthy.

This week I’m using boneless skinless chicken breasts (from now on: bscb) frozen from last week’s sale, berries, carrots (also last week), tomatoes, and apples that I bought on sale.  The rice was also a sale item, but I’m not sure which week, but I know that I always buy rice on sale.

Here’s the game plan:

  • Mon:  chicken fried rice, egg drop soup, steamed spinach, carrots and ranch, apples
  • Tue:  leftover ziti, caesar salad, celery and carrot sticks, cuties
  • Wed: baked fish, potatoes, peas, salad
  • Thur: Taco Thursday! quesadillas, beans, lettuce/tomato/cheese/sour cream, berries
  • Fri: potato soup, homemade bread, fruit & veg

Because of kid activities and meetings, I shifted Taco Tuesday, and Prince Spaghetti Day (not sure what I’m talking about? Here ya go). This is part of my be-honest-about-what-you-can-get-done enterprise. I’m feeling confident this week can work.

I’m going to write a full Grocery Theory post  later in the week, but I’d like to make a quick note about desserts and snacks. I think a lot of people lose a chunk of their grocery budget to these items, with both nutrition and frugality taking a backseat, as I’ve posted about before (remember that post where I linked the music video? and wrote a lot more about popcorn than you thought anyone really could?). Last week was a poor showing, and I think part of it was I had focused on getting meals, not just dinner but all of them, as we all do, squared away, and I forgot about having snacks and dessert on hand.

Sometimes I need to follow my own advice better! Cheep Cheep!

Sunday Night Goal Post

This week is a ‘pare down the freezer and pantry week’. With Turkey Season upon us, I need more freezer and fridge space available.  Using things that I’ve stocked up on is important if I’m going to deal with things like buying three turkeys because I found them for 59c/lb, or fifteen cans of cranberry sauce because they were 50% off (what? you don’t eat a turkey and cranberry on white bread with mayo every day from Thanksgiving until Christmas? fine, you heathen.)

Sale items I’m using this week are boneless skinless chicken breasts, raspberries, rice, and cheese (a J4U Randalls deal),

  • Mon: chicken korma, rice, stri fry broccoli and carrots, raspberries
  • Tue: crockpot beef stew, green salad, peas, cuties
  • Wed:  grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and leftovers
  • Thur:  salmon, angel hair pasta, caesar salad, pears
  • Fri:  Backyard Movie Night! Popcorn and S’mores for all!

This isn’t following the usual weekly schedule, but we’re accommodating a few different things–new work schedules, field trips and a talent show–that aren’t usually on deck, along with the freezer/pantry slimdown.

This is week 4 of the Internet-Accountable Family Dinner plan. We are having more dinners together than before.  Scoring myself seems to pry me into marshalling the troops at 7:30 pm, when otherwise I might have just put it all on the counter and yelled, “Dinner!”.  Midweek is still a hurdle, even with planned take-out breaks.

Let’s see if I break the 6.5 point ceiling this week–Cheep Cheep!

This Week’s Dinners, Week 3

This week hit a new snag–I didn’t keep track of dinners.  I’m going to go ahead and blame Daylight Savings Time, because that was popular this week.

So this is me, trying to reconstruct our week from memory.  Given I forgot and left a kid at a dance class this week, we’ll have to hope for the best here (and be grateful to kind people who are understanding when you are late to pick up a kid).

This was the plan, which I helpfully copied from the Sunday Night Goal Post:

  • Mon: pork fried rice, stir-fried cabbage, berries, tomato salad.
  • Tue: Election Returns Night! Crockpot chicken, homemade bread, caesar salad.
  • Wed: take out!
  • Thur: baked ziti, spinach salad, apples
  • Fri: salmon, couscous, chopped salad, fruit.

And this is the actual, reconstructed from my noggin:

  • Mon:  pork fried rice, stir-fried cabbage and apples, berries, tomato salad, green salad. 7:15pm. 5 people. Score: 2 points.
  • Tue: Taco Tuesday! crockpot chicken, tortillas, shredded cheese, refried beans, caesar salad, berries, cucumbers. 5 people. Score: 2 points.
  • Wed: night out together. 5 people. Score: 2 points.
  • Thur: meant it to be leftovers, people wound up eating out, separately. Score: 0 points.
  • Fri:  Pizza Night. 6:30pm. 4 people. Score: 0.5 points.

What we have here is a Wednesday Night breakdown, but on Thursday. For three days I followed the plan, and then it went kerflooey, right down the tubes.  Not only were we not eating together, but we spent money eating out separately!

I wonder if I didn’t follow the plan on Monday would the entire week go off the rails, or would I recover mid-week?  I’m sure we’ll see sometime soon.

Thursday was a kid-event that had Tiny and I out of the house from 6-8pm. I’d tried to encourage leftovers, but Family Dinner doesn’t happen if Mom isn’t there, and the lure of Tex-Mex held sway.

I had a plan on Friday, but pizza won. Sometimes, you just have to let pizza win and watch some tv, and that’s what I did. If we’d all sat at the table to eat it, or even eaten in the same room, I’d have given myself a whole point. As it was, we were all looking at different screens and I’m giving myself the half-point for just all interacting while getting pizza out of the box.

This week tied last week. I’m now really wondering if a 10 is possible for us. I also wonder what our scores were before I was making an effort. My guess is a 4 or so.

Week 3

  • Score: 6.5 /10
  • Plan followed?: 3/5
  • Effort?: medium. 50%.

Look for the Weekly Dinner Plan post tomorrow! Cheep Cheep!

 

P.S. The text editor really, really didn’t want me to publish this post with the word kerflooey. Which is ridiculous, everyone knows what that word means. So I tried to look it up in the dictionary, and it isn’t there. I disagree with Mr. Dictionary on this matter.

What is there? Kerchoo. You’ll be happy to know that kerchoo means ‘ahchoo’.  Not kidding even a little.  Thanks, Dictionary!

Sunday Night Goal Post

This week’s score was an improvement, and I’m hoping that sustained effort will have the family come to accept a pattern. 7pm. Dinner. At the house.  Repetition is the only strategy I’ve got right now. Fortunately, it’s also one of the reliable behavior-changers, so I’m hopeful. There’s also Tiny clanging a triangle until everyone shows up, but we’re not quite there yet.

Here’s this week’s plan. Pork, tomatoes, blackberries, raspberries (not a Wed ad post, but on FB and Twitter) were the sale items.

  • Mon: pork fried rice, stir-fried cabbage, berries, tomato salad.
  • Tue: Election Returns Night! Crockpot chicken, homemade bread, caesar salad.
  • Wed: take out!
  • Thur: baked ziti, spinach salad, apples
  • Fri: salmon, couscous, chopped salad, fruit.

I’m interested to see if there’s a better score this week–there’s still a disruption, though Election Day isn’t near as big a meal disruptor as Halloween is.

This Week’s Dinners, Week 2

Overall, I’d say this was an improved week. Carrot soup didn’t happen, but we had two new foods in the form of sunflower sprouts and risotto.

The risotto was a technical glitch, as a kid made the completely reasonable guess that risotto was rice, and should go in the rice cooker.  Dump enough butter and parmesan on things, and you can correct a lot of mistakes. If not everyone liked it, it was still a kid helping make dinner, and this is a Good Thing, as Martha might say.

Here’s the plan:

  • Mon:  salmon croquettes, sesame rice, peas, fruit, tomato salad
  • Tue:  Taco tuesday–chicken, beans, cheese, tortillas and fixings, fruit, green salad
  • Wed:  baked ziti, caesar salad, carrot and celery sticks
  • Thur:  Refrigerator Buffet! and Carrot Soup!
  • Fri:  Halloween! Pizza and candy for all!

Here’s the actual:

  • Mon: salmon patties, risotto, sliced oranges, peas. tomato salad. 7:30 pm. 5 people. Score: 2 points.
  • Tue: Taco Tuesday! Ground beef, cheese, chicken enchiladas. green salad, broccoli, sunflower sprouts and carrot sticks, black beans and tortillas. 7:30 pm. 5 people. Score: 2 point.
  • Wed: mac and cheese. caesar salad. apples. broccoli. 7:15 pm. Girls dinner, 3 people. Score: 1 point.
  • Thurs: chicken strips, fries, broccoli, apples, green salad. Kids only.  Score: 1 point.
  • Fri: pizza at Halloween party. Score: 0.5 points.

Given last weeks 5, this is a better showing. 6.5/10 is still not a great grade, but it’s reflecting more of us sitting down together more of the time, which is what  this is all about.

One of the kids gave me the score for Friday. I’d been inclined to give myself one point, because it was the plan, after all, even if we didn’t exactly eat together.  Kid replied, “Mom, I had cake for dinner. Half a point.”  I’m inclined to agree.  We didn’t eat together, we didn’t eat a healthy meal, so I get a half point for at least sticking to the plan.

Interesting scoring problems keep coming up. Wednesday was still a pasta night, but I didn’t have time to shop that day so ziti was out, and the guys weren’t home.  I gave myself a half-point each for getting three of us to the table and for a decently well-rounded meal.  Thursday became impromptu date night, so again, half-point each for getting three kids to the table to eat a meal with more than two food groups represented.

I felt better about how we did this week. The pattern of sticking to the plan earlier and derailing on Wednesday is interesting. Will it continue? I don’t know. Theoretically, it should be the day I’m most solid, because that’s the day I have the most free time.  I’d never noticed this trend before I started the Weekly Dinner Plan project. We’ll see how it goes this week.

Week 2

  • Score: 6.5 /10
  • Plan followed?: 3/5
  • Effort?: mediumish. 70%.

Look for the Weekly Dinner Plan post tomorrow! Cheep Cheep!

Sunday Night Goal Post!

Hello Cheepsters! Hope everyone had a good weekend, and you’re all ready for Halloween.  It’s all over here except for the candy.  Well, that and Tiny still changing her mind about what kind of vampire to be. Pink Vampire is currently winning.

Here’s the plan for this week. Salmon is leftover from last week, sale items were: tomatoes, carrots, celery and chicken.

  • Mon:  salmon croquettes, sesame rice, peas, fruit, tomato salad
  • Tue:  Taco tuesday–chicken, beans, cheese, tortillas and fixings, fruit, green salad
  • Wed:  baked ziti, caesar salad, carrot and celery sticks
  • Thur:  Refrigerator Buffet! and Carrot Soup!
  • Fri:  Halloween! Pizza and candy for all!

Here’s hoping I beat my current record of 5 points.

…and we’re back to Scary Vampire. Or Pirate Vampire. Stay tuned!

Accountability, Internet Style!

I’ve been working on having more family dinners. Some weeks are more successful than others, but after several weeks we usually manage three. Once it was four, and we were all sort of impressed with ourselves. As if to show us we’re new at this, the universe conspired the very next week to have us count up exactly zero family dinners. Choir and theater performances, meetings and sleepovers all piled up, and it was two kids eating here, one kid eating out, and parents eating late.

Back in this post, I talked about how some reading, and having a weekly plan, helped to get us all to the table. The week we had no family dinners? No plan was made.

So, Sunday will be the day I post the plan for the week. I’ll actually type it up, and other people will read it. Saturday, I get a score!  It’ll be a way for me to set aside time to reliably make a plan, and to evaluate what is working and what isn’t.  As a bonus, all you Cheepsters get to watch!  Sometime soon I’ll put something ridiculous like ‘homemade ravioli’ on the plan, and imagine the suspense of waiting to see if I pulled it off.  It’ll be like Scandal, with a short white girl that’s much less stylish playing the lead.  And a tall beardy-headed guy playing Jake. And only dinner at risk, not national security. But maybe I get a white hat?

These plans will follow the weekly plan I’d posted earlier. That’s pretty much always in my head when I’m sorting out a week of meals. It will vary depending on what’s in my fridge/freezer, and what’s on sale.

I’m also not going to list everything–I’ve always got fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, and frozen vegetables.  When we all sit down, my goal is for the plates to have: meat, cooked vegetable, raw vegetable, fruit, starch.  So if you look at the meal and think, “Wait, roast pork? That’s not a whole meal!”, you can mentally add those things. Or hell, I can just make up an abbreviation for it. CVRVFS. No. That looks like something the gynecologist would tell me needed a follow-up pap in a month.

It’ll sort itself out.  Let’s go. First public CheepieAustin Weekly Meal Plan:

Mon:  pork fried rice, broccoli, apples, spinach salad

Tue:  leftover posole (from the weekend), cornbread, avocado, grapes

Wed:  baked chicken thighs, pasta with garlic and oil, carrot and celery sticks, steamed spinach

Thur:  Refrigerator Buffet! (need a refresher on this? check here)

Fri:  Octoberfest party with friends

Saturday and Sunday are still not included, because we’re all over the place those days. We might meet friends, go out, smoke BBQ for 20, there’s no telling. My goal here is the weeknight family dinner, so I’m sticking to that.

This is a light week, really. I’ve got leftovers on Tuesday and Thursday, and a night off built in.  Let’s see how I do.

Cheep Cheep!

The Weekly Meal Plan Meets Real Life

Growing up, Wednesday was Prince Spaghetti Day. If you are approximately my age, and grew up in approximately New Jersey, you might remember this ad:

And yes, for the purposes of this post, Boston is approximately Jersey.

In our house, though, Wednesday was bowling night, which meant it was Fun Food Night, which meant pizza, sub sandwiches from the little shop, or McD’s/Burger King/Arthur Treacher’s. Beyond bowling night, I don’t remember any other schedule of meals. My mom will likely comment here, saying, “How can you not know that Monday was meatloaf? And Friday was fishsticks?”  But I honestly don’t remember, while still knowing my mom’s meatloaf is still my favorite. I do remember dinner was every night at 6pm, which I cannot imagine pulling together. Mom, you rock!

I recently borrowed a book from a friend called The Family Dinner.  It’s written by Laurie David, and I was initially very skeptical of a book about family dinner being written by the wife of a famous funny guy who also has a full-time cook.  As one is (hell-o Jennifer Seinfeld, putting spinach in brownies isn’t the same as healthy eating!).

The whole book has a magazine feel to it, with many quotes from famous friends, and many, many text boxes saying fun things like, “Gardein, a new substitute for chicken, is made from soy, wheat, and peas and is a great source of protein.”  Once I started though, I kept on reading, because she was addressing something I worry about. My house rarely eats dinner all at the same time, and if we do it’s still rarely together. This led me to the weekly meal plan. I figured if I had a plan, I could save the time spent wondering what to make, and put it toward yelling at the kids to wipe the paint off the table and get it set for dinner.

This plan didn’t lead to 7 nights a week of family dinner, of course, and I can’t always stick to the plan. Having the general framework set up does help, though. I know that if I don’t have anything to put on a tortilla on Tuesday, I’ve got to shop or re-think.  If there is a meeting Thursday night, I know the kids need healthy supplements to the box of mac and cheese Big Sister will make.

Here’s my plan. First my basic framework for a dinner:  each dinner has a protein, starch, fruit, raw vegetable, cooked vegetable.  I try to make sure that there’s something each of us likes with each meal, but as the kids get older I worry less about this.  I don’t list the entire meal, because it’s flexible, depending on what’s on sale.

  • Mon: fried rice and soup/red beans and rice
  • Tue: Taco Tuesday
  • Wed: Prince Spaghetti Day
  • Thur: Refrigerator Buffet 
  • Fri: Pizza Night, or Meat on Grill

Monday and Thursday are the days I work on using leftovers. Refrigerator Buffet is simple–all the leftovers go out on the counter, and we fix plates. The kids love it, because they’ve got lots of choices, and I love it because it’s frugal and I don’t cook.  Mondays are also a leftover day, but upcycled.  I make fried rice with whatever meat and vegetables are left from a weekend of food, and use others to make a soup of some sort.  If the leftovers don’t seem like they’ll be good that way, they go in a pot with beans and get served on rice.  This way, I minimize waste as well as that urge to pick up take out!

If you’ve got a plan, post it in the comments. Unless you have a monthly plan. Don’t type that in, just give us a link. You have things to do.

Cheep Cheep!