January 2011 Home Cooking Challenge - Page 6

[annethcz]

Jan 1: leftovers for lunch; Burgers & salad for dinner

Jan 2: Tilapia/fish sticks/salmon & salad for lunch, omlettes for dinner

Jan 3: eggplant parmesan

Jan 4: roasted chicken

Jan 5: pizza

Jan 6: (was supposed to be beef roast, but it burned in the crockpot) hot dogs

Jan 7: lasagna, garlic bread, broccoli, key lime cheesecake bars for dessert (had company for dinner)

Jan 8: leftovers for lunch, chicken/squash/rice soup for dinner

Jan 9: leftovers/pasta for lunch, homemade pizza for dinner.

[melissel]

I'm jumping in late here. We've transitioned to eating at home for all our meals and haven't jumped off the wagon once since January 2, and I'm very proud of us for that. However, I've discovered how quickly your freezer empties and your food budget drains away (and how many more dishes there are to wash!) when you actually eat at home for every single meal It's only the 9th and I basically have $70 free in our food budget for the month (the rest is either spent or already committed)! So here I am to join you all. The best thing I did so far was make a menu plan for almost the entire month. I'm hoping to prune and tweak it and just keep repeating it each month as much as possible.

Tonight I made broccoli cheese soup with loads of broccoli, so it was basically a one-pot meal. It will serve as DH's lunch at work tomorrow as well as ours at home. The rest of the week's plan is below (lunches are typically whatever we can pull out of the cabinets/pantry/fridge: nuts, cheese, dried fruit, tuna, crackers, eggs, etc.):

1/9: Leftover pot pie filling for lunch, broccoli cheese soup for dinner

1/10: Soup for lunch, Hopping John for dinner

1/11: Creamy chicken veggie soup for dinner

1/12: Soup for lunch, sandwiches after late gymnastics for dinner

1/13: Salmon with spinach and cauliflower mash for dinner (DH is cooking that one)

1/14: Chicken apple sausage and peppers for dinner (a quick one-pan meal after Girl Scouts)

1/15: Baked buffalo wings and celery for dinner (still looking for a recipe for this one, if anyone has a favorite!)

Thanks for the thread!

Edited by melissel - 1/9/11 at 7:02pm

[mags.bubble]

Joining in. My focus will be eating dinners at home and only going out this month if it is pre-scheduled rather than because I didn't plan ahead or just don't feel like cooking.

Jan 8 - fancy dinner with filet mignon, potato gratin, creamed spinach that my dh cooked for me for my birthday

Jan 9 - chicken noodle soup & bread dropped off to us from friends. my mother just passed away recently after a month of hospice and so my friends have been bringing meals periodically. God bless friends!

Jan 10 - Dad coming for dinner, will turn leftover filet into steak salad and heat up a pasta dish that a different friend dropped off last night. Probably add a veggie from the freezer too.

Not sure about the rest of the week. Will post later....

[Aeress]

Originally Posted by MamitaM 

Aeress What are cowgirl beans?

Sorry, haven't been back to this thread- basically they are baked beans (homemade in my case but they could be store bought), ground beef and green beans served over rice. At least, that is how my Gram used to make them.

[Aeress]

Jan7 Frittata

Jan 8 Gr turkey sloppy joes with tortillas/salad

Jan 9 left overs, Ham soup for dinner, boiled chicken wings for tomorrow

Jan 10- Chicken wings in homemade bbq sauce in crockpot, left over soup for lunch

Jan 11-?

[Alyantavid]

1-8 b-bagels

      l-leftovers

     d-hot dogs and homemade fries (ds2's request)

1-9 b-out, but it was to dh's restaurant so cheap

      l-leftovers

     d- baked chicken drumsticks (which turned out horrible for some reason), roasted potatoes and corn

1-10 b-egg sandwich

       l-leftovers

      d-going to my mom's

[jimblejamble]

Last night my husband cooked (woo!) and made ham, green beans, and ppotatoes.

Tonight: Quinoa burgers and smoothies.

[Motivated Mama]

I need to go shopping. We've been eating a lot of leftovers, sandwiches, and pasta. Easy stuff. At home. No going out to eat, but nothing really special either. I'll continue to post when I start actually cooking again.

[HollyBearsMom]

Made ham stock last night.so trying to build this weeks menu around that.  I am kind of "hammed out" at this point

Monday: pasta w/ meatballs, sauce and garlic bread

Tuesday: White bean and Garlic soup made w/ ham stock http://www.farmgirlfare.com/2006/03/garlic-lovers-white-bean-soup.html

Weds: beef burrito with red beans/rice made with the ham stock

Thurs: ??

Friday: pizza

[Brisen]

Jan 1: breakfast: eggs in the hole; lunch: turkey sandwiches; dinner: leftover meat gravy & mashed potatoes with carrot sticks
Jan 2: breakfast: bagels; lunch & dinner: visiting family who fed us
Jan 3: breakfast: oatmeal w/ berries & brown sugar; lunch: canned soup & bread (not exactly home cooking, but the bread was homemade); dinner: tomato macaroni & cheese, carrot sticks, leftover green beans
Jan 4: breakfast: scrambled eggs, toast, fruit; lunch: leftovers; dinner: pork roast, mashed potatoes, squash, cinnamon rolls
Jan 5: breakfast: fried eggs, toast, sauteed onions, fruit; lunch: leftovers; dinner: mashed potatoes, meat gravy, squash, cauliflower/celery/cherry tomatoes & veggie dip
Jan 6: breakfast: cold cereal (not planned, our morning went poorly!); lunch: lentil soup with bread; dinner, baked beans (from a can, but I'm OK with it) and cheese toast with tomatoes, cauliflower, & celery
Jan 7: breakfast: cold cereal (d'oh, again); lunch: leftovers; dinner: clam chowder w/carrots & corn, bread

Jan 8: breakfast: smoothies; lunch: pancakes; dinner: tuna casserole, cold veggies & dip

Jan 9: breakfast: l.o. pancakes; lunch: l.o. tuna casserole; dinner: blts

Jan 10: breakfast: oatmeal; lunch: fail (out running errands, kids w/grandma); dinner: mashed potatoes, meat gravy, cold veggies & dip (yes, we've been eating this a lot... I picked up a couple of pork roasts on sale)

[Alyantavid]

1-11 b-oatmeal, toast

       l-leftovers

       d-french toast for the boys, zucchini cakes for me

Edited by Alyantavid - 1/12/11 at 6:40am

[melissel]

Well, our plan for last night fell apart when we failed to go to the store to get two key ingredients, but DH went out after work anyway (ugh, drinks and dinner, more money spent). I aaaaalmost got sucked into stopping at Burger King because it was so late and we were all hungry, but we didn't have any cash and I wouldn't use my CC for it, so I bribed the kids with the promise of homemade choc. chip cookies and managed to get us all home  

1/9: Leftover pot pie filling for lunch, broccoli cheese soup for dinner

1/10: Soup for lunch, tuna melts and chocolate chip cookies for dinner

Planned:

1/11: Hopping John for dinner

1/12: DH's san cocho (stew) for dinner (probably no gymnastics due to snow)

1/13: Salmon with spinach and cauliflower mash for dinner (DH is cooking that one)

1/14: Chicken apple sausage and peppers for dinner (a quick one-pan meal after Girl Scouts)

1/15: Baked buffalo wings and celery for dinner (still looking for a recipe for this one, if anyone has a favorite!)

[annethcz]

Jan 1: leftovers for lunch; Burgers & salad for dinner

Jan 2: Tilapia/fish sticks/salmon & salad for lunch, omlettes for dinner

Jan 3: eggplant parmesan

Jan 4: roasted chicken

Jan 5: pizza

Jan 6: hot dogs (boo hiss!!!  was supposed to be beef roast, but the roast burned in the crockpot)

Jan 7: lasagna, garlic bread, broccoli, key lime cheesecake bars for dessert (had company for dinner)

Jan 8: leftovers for lunch, chicken/squash/rice soup for dinner

Jan 9: leftovers/pasta for lunch, homemade pizza for dinner

Jan 10: burgers and sweet potato fries

Jan 11: Brinner- pancakes, eggs, bacon, fruit

Jan 12: Crockpot chicken with apricots and dates

[matey]

1/1 Thai food - Sister bought
1/2 Leftover thai food
1/3 Tilapia, cous cous, salad, and green beans for the LO
1/4 Three Bean soup, salad
1/5 Taco Night tacos, beans, nutritional yeast rotel, chips, YUM
1/6 Out to eat with gift card - Overate and didn't even enjoy it
1/7 Rice and Beans, salad
1/8 Pizza (homemade everything, dough, sauce and nut yeast cheese. Always takes forever but DH LOVES it)
1/09 Venison roast with veggies (freezer meal my mom made after I had dd, so nice to just warm it up)
1/10 Left over Venison roast, salad
1/11 Roasted Chicken with Rice and veggies
1/12 Fish Tacos with cabbage and maybe cous cous??
1/13 Cabbage and Vegetable Soup
1/14 ?
1/15 ?
1/16 ?

I am trying to not grocery shop and just eat through some of the stuff we have. So, I have been kinda lazy about meal planning.

[Motivated Mama]

ann - we had brinner last night Pancakes, eggs with cheese, and applesauce
Jan 11 - Stuffed peppers

[Aeress]

1/11 "chicken" broccoli rice

Made 2 loaves of sandwich bread, also made extra rice for tomorrow

Rice pudding

1/12 Sandwiches or rice pudding, or hard boiled eggs

Cowgirl beans and rice

1/13 Tortilla soup? or other soup

[MamitaM]

nak

it's actually really pissing me off right now!!!it's happening in another thread i'm in as well and i just posted it as a question in the questions and suggestions section. hope they fix it soon. i tried to edit and choose to center the post, but it didn't work.

Originally Posted by velochic 

Does anyone know what is going on with some of the posts in this thread?  Is it just me?  I can barely read some of them.

Just lurking.  ;)  We don't eat out unless planned, so it's not a challenge for me, but I do read to get meal ideas for the future.  The way the posts are showing up are bugging me, though.

[MamitaM]

Jan. 1. Baked perogies with spinach. 

Jan.2. I had some macaroni and cheese tonight.

Jan. 3. Baked mac and cheese. 

Jan. 4. Lentil Quesadillas

Jan. 5 . I had left overs from last night and then a nice green smoothie, well it was nice and purple b/c it had blueberries in it! Tasty!

Jan. 6. I had left overs again, so lentil quesadillas and a green smoothie! I made sooooo much smoothie that I have like 4 servings it! lol Good thing I love my smoothies!

Jan. 7. I just had some pasta with sauce, nothing special at all. but at least I didn't order out. 

Jan.8. I had leftovers from last night that I added a can of crushed tomatoes, garlic and cheese to and then baked.

Jan.9. I made an eggplant tomato casserole today. It's the very first time I've ever bought an eggplant before. It turned out all right, but a little mushy. I'll do it a little differently next time. I have left overs for tomorrow.

Jan. 10. I had leftovers from last night for dinner. For lynch I had New York Fries and a smoothie at the food court b/c I was at the mall with a friend and we treated ourselves.

Jan. 11. I had some pasta and cheese tonight. I almost ordered in! I had a long day out and I was so hungry when I got home, but I didn't let myself order b/c I did have another lunch out today. 

[melissel]

1/9: Leftover pot pie filling for lunch, broccoli cheese soup for dinner

1/10: Soup for lunch, tuna melts and chocolate chip cookies for dinner

1/11: Bits and pieces for lunch (cheese sticks, dried fruit, fresh fruit, etc.--we were running around), Hopping John for dinner (this turned out SO good, even though I deviated from the recipe and used brown rice, cooked IN the pot--this recipe is definitely a keeper)

Planned:

1/12: Sandwiches after gymnastics again, since we hardly got any snow after all!

1/13: Salmon with spinach and cauliflower mash for dinner (DH is cooking that one)

1/14: Chicken apple sausage and peppers for dinner (a quick one-pan meal after Girl Scouts)

1/15: Baked buffalo wings and celery for dinner (still looking for a recipe for this one, if anyone has a favorite!)

[Aeress]

Melissel- no recipe for the wings, but what I did was parboil my wings, then added them to the crockpot with bbq sauce or you could do hot sauce/butter. I finished them off in the oven so they would crisp up. Kids liked them and they were easy peasy. I think I baked them at 375 for 15-20 minutes.