Monday always feels like the beginning of the new year for some reason. I'm really lucky as I have today off, and start back at work officially tomorrow. I'll review my calendar today & make sure everything is ready for tomorrow, but otherwise, will enjoy my final day at home. The kids start school today (Sam is *thrilled* to have another semester of art class ;-)), so we'll also make sure that they get back in the swing of things.
While I have a few plans for today, my biggest goal is around kitchen optimization & prep. We spend $300/month more on groceries in 2020 vs 2019. I'm not surprised by this (no free meals for me + M, kids are growing as teens do, the cost of groceries rose, & our buying habits changed due to COVID). We don't want to reduce the quality of what we're eating, and we have some eating requirements to keep in mind (M eats a Keto diet due a food allergy). I do think we have plenty of room for improvement, however.
I started a monthly menu plan yesterday, and am hoping this will help. I also spend hours sorting through all of my recipes (ideas, favorites, etc). I went from 15 pages of links to 2 pages of organized recipes, noting our favorites with suggested changes. I also grouped everything by meal type (Keto friendly, non Keto, desserts, sides, etc). It feels like it will be much easier to come up with menu plans from here on out. I also color coded the monthly menu, so I can see how much we're using from the freezer vs making fresh, how many meals are Keto friendly, etc. Fingers crossed this is an effective strategy.
We had great luck with Nick trying a meal service (Hello Fresh) in 2020, as he learned to cook. It's quite pricey & not great for the environment (lots of small packages), so in 2021, part of his allowance accounts for him cooking one meal a week using a recipe. Last night he made 30 Minute Beef Stir Fry & Noodles. It was fantastic & easy to prep. I do recommend doubling the recipe, as we prefer all of our meals to serve us for a minimum of 2 meals. I'd also add quite a bit more veggies, to bulk it out a bit.
Here's what else I'm hoping to accomplish today:
- Work out
- Check off the items on my daily template
- Make muffins
- Make freezer breakfast burritos
- Pickle jalapenos
- Make an online doctor's appt for the stomach issues that have been plaguing me (and getting worse)
- Juice oranges
- Make dinner (bell pepper meatloaves)
- Prep/review calendar for the work week
- Send paperwork back to Sam's doctor
- Use up the remaining 1/2 a lb of ground beef from last night's recipe. I'll likely prep extra taco meat, for tomorrow's dinner.
I love the chicken nugget too. I love both meals. They look scrumptious! My kind of food. I am spending $300. a month for the two of us. We are well stocked up. I am pretty much eating Keto. Sometimes a pizza or dirty Keto. But doing well with this. You are so right about the food prices. I am trying to lower ours by making more things from scratch at home - like bread and rolls for Hubby.
ReplyDeleteI think it is terrific that you are teaching Nick to oook.
I hope you have a first good day back at work.
Thank you! I'm so glad you commented, as I've been reading along on your blog, but unable to comment. I'm having such issues with WordPress! I'm enjoying the content & keep trying to comment.
DeleteMy husband does a dirty Keto as well. He mostly sticks to it, but if there's a meal with a bit of carbs that he can pull out but we all eat (we like a curry with potatoes), he'll just eat around those. It makes meal prep much easier for me. He also keeps salmon prepped, and has those on days when the teens need pasta! :-)
Funny I felt like this was the first day of the new year also. Mondays start things. I love Nick's board, very festive. I often take a small roast or steak and cut it into cubes, toss in salt and pepper and flour (although you could use rice flour) then fry. Hubs loves this and it is full on keto. We serve with a salad.
ReplyDeleteYum - that sounds great. And yes, Nick's board is so funny. We all laughed. He doesn't like "fancy" cheese - just cheddar, so you can see that was all that was included. And the chicken nugget.
DeleteI love the dinosaur. 😄
ReplyDeleteI have been very impressed with the Eating Well (magazine and the online site) recipes I've made this last year. Great variety of vegetables, many of which I've never cooked with or eaten before, and terrific flavor profiles. The recipes themselves are not complicated as they rely on using fresh ingredients to build flavor rather than complex cooking procedures.
No change in our budget for groceries in, believe it or not, ten years. Still $100 a week (food only as alcohol, paper and cleaning products are budgeted elsewhere) which I attribute to eating very little red meat, and utilizing Aldi's and Sprouts to leverage their terrific niche pricing.
Of course! What kind of a tray would it be without a dino nugget? ;-)
DeleteI'll check out Eating Well. Thanks for the recommendation.
And, super impressed you have kept to the same budget for 10 years! That's incredible. My husband eats Keto, so unfortunately, we do go through quite a bit of meat. No Aldi here, but maybe I should look more closely at Sprouts.
I really need to do something differently, gleaning idea as I don't know what it is yet. I cook every night, we never eat out unless its GC,we both take breakfast, lunches and snacks to work. We do eat meat at every meal (DH can't eat beans and can only digest a few veggies and not daily) and we prefer low carb due to health issues. We don't have an Aldi's or any $ stores, we just moved 180 miles away from a Costco. I guess my option is to stock up on sale items when I can and deal with the high price of meat. Suggestions welcome
ReplyDeleteIt's so hard to balance various preferences, dietary requirements, & price! I find that, sometimes, one of those things has to give. Have you thought about prepping a bunch of protein options for the freezer, and then serving those with less expensive sides? I do something similar. It's less of a budget fix (although, if I was finding great deals on protein & then freezing, it could be) & more of a time saver. Options that we do this with: taco meat, spaghetti sauce, carnitas (crockpot), grilled Italian sausages, meatballs, burgers, grilled chicken, etc. It makes it much easier for me to pull dinner together when I know I just need a side. Sometimes that side is cauliflower rice, cole slaw, whatever & I pull out a prepped protein.
DeleteGood luck!
Thank you! I am going to work on this as I am getting tired of frozen meals as I am also kitchen-less (you know how remodels go)
DeletePatti - you have my sympathies - juggling this all with no kitchen! May the force be with you!
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