Meal Planning for 1.5?

[rosie_plus_one]

Hey there - I was just starting to get into a good habit of meal planning and buying bulk base ingredients to use through the week or two week period when DP got hired at a restaurant working 4-6 nights a week. I don't really know what to make for dinner for myself and the 16 month old. I'd like us to eat balanced meals, but it's awfully hard to put a lot of time into 10 minutes at the table and 30 minutes cleaning up afterwards. I had thought about making a large casserole or something and eating it for a few days, but I do get bored with the same thing.

Any ideas, or places to go to for cooking for 1 tips?

Thanks!!

[BetsyS]

My dh travels 3-4 nights a week, and this is what I do. If he's gone 3 nights (most weeks), I figure that is 6 meals I'm going to eat alone (lunch nad supper; breakfast is always the same stuff)

When he is home, I cook every night (I like it, he likes it, works for us). I make a decent size portion of whatever. Enough for 1-2 portions of leftovers. Then, I eat those leftovers when he's gone. If he travels Tues, Wed, and Thurs nights, I eat the leftovers from Saturday on Tuesday, Sunday on Wednesday, etc. That gives me enough time between meals that it doesn't feel as if I'm always eating the same stuff.

I also eat easy stuff that he doesn't like--egg salad and fried eggplant being my top two. And, I'm always good for Ramen.

And, for one meal a week, I either go to lunch with a friend or get take-out or have a Trader Joe's frozen meal. Something that I really like and that feels like a treat. (This especially, for me, helps curb the jealous bug that he's out staying in hotels and eating on an expense budget while I'm at home trying to be frugal )

I'm a consummate planner, so I actually have a weekly meal planner (breakfast, lunch, and supper) that I make every week, writing all this down. When it's meal time, I don't like to think.

[Just Me]

My hubby works away all week. Look at doing your fave meals that can be frozen and reheated. lasgane, casseroles, stews, etc all freeze weel, and if you label them, you can know when you put them in, and can bring them out on a night a couple weeks later.

[rosie_plus_one]

Originally Posted by Just Me

lasgane, casseroles, stews, etc all freeze well

Do you freeze them after you have baked them or before?

I was thinking about getting some little mini-one serving casserole dishes and making one batch of lasagna spread out over like 6 tiny containers.

[Just Me]

Originally Posted by rosie_plus_one

Do you freeze them after you have baked them or before?

I was thinking about getting some little mini-one serving casserole dishes and making one batch of lasagna spread out over like 6 tiny containers.

Stews and casseroles I cook before, though you CAN assemble first and cook later but soooo much easier to just bung in the crockpot, divide, freeze half and reheat it later

Lasagne, I prepare a batch and put in two of the smaller Pyrex dishes with a plastic lid. Then I freeze one and bake the other I have also been known to cook a normal batch, cut in half, slide into a ectangualr plastic freezer to microwave dish, let cool, then freeze. Works just like a ready meal but much healthier and cheaper.

[Just Me]

Oh..and when I worked, I bought some freezer to microwave divided dishes quite cheap at Wal mart. I put leftover green beans, fried chicken, aserving of meatloaf or whatever to make a ready meal, and froze it. I would have it one night for supper, or take it to work with me and use the microwave to heat it. People stopped eating so much fast food and bringing stuff like me because my meatloaf, mash pots with gravy, and leftover poeach cobbler smelled and looked soooooo much better!!!!!!