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Help please! Menu/meal planning related
I know that Mel and others here are amazing with meal planning, so I was hoping that some of you could help me with my Lenten resolution.
Last night, DH and I decided to give up eating out for lunch. It's a huge deal for us; we work really closely together so we eat out almost every day at lunch. There are lots of cheap places around so we don't go completely overboard, but still, it's a little ridiculous.
Here's the difficult part: because of our hectic schedules, there are few evenings in a week when we can actually cook.
So, as our life stands right now, this is what we do:
Monday OR Tuesday, we have volleyball (it differs week to week). On the night we don't have a game, we make a big meal with lots of leftovers (like a roast). On the other night, we usually still have time to make something easy, so we cook something to supplement the other leftovers.
Wednesday AND Thursday are choir nights. There is no time to cook on these nights so we eat leftovers from Monday and Tuesday.
Friday, if we still have food left, we eat that, otherwise we either make something quick or go out.
Saturday & Sunday, 3 out of 4 weekends will have some sort of dinner out either with families or friends. Sometimes it's just dinner with one of our families on either day, but often it's both (e.g. my parents on Saturday, his on Sunday).
So the question is: how can I make the bag lunch work for us?? I prefer hot lunches but will settle for sandwiches once or twice in a week. Any suggestions? I don't necessarily need specific recipes, just suggestions on scheduling and planning.
Baby #2: Surprise BFP 9.19.12, EDD 5.24.13, natural m/c 10.19.13 at 9w
Re: Help please! Menu/meal planning related
I could probably make sandwiches in the morning.
I'll continue meeting up with DH for lunch... it may not be long before he finishes grad school and moves on to a job where he's not as close by
Oh! I forgot, I DO have a huge Crock Pot. It's already been immensely helpful. That helps, right? Maybe I can plan for Wednesdays to be Crock Pot days so that I can come home to a fresh stew on Wednesday evenings (instead of eating Monday/Tuesday leftovers) and also have it for lunches on Thursdays and Fridays.
Baby #2: Surprise BFP 9.19.12, EDD 5.24.13, natural m/c 10.19.13 at 9w
Making lunch, when prepared, really doesn't take too long. A can of soup and some mixed greens for a salad, or a fun sandwich can come together in about 5 minutes.
If I'm having a labour intensive lunch, I'll prep the night before (and make enough for two days!) but if it's a sandwich, I'll throw it together in the morning.
We'll just not tell H about this little fact, m'kay?
On one of those weekends or nights in make a big batch of chilli or something like that (curry, stew, soup etc) and freeze it in single serving containers. Then just grab it in the AM with a yogurt and a piece of fruit or what ever you like and go.
If you are really ambitious make 2-3 different things to freeze for variety.
Also when I make roast dinners/fixings I freeze lunches for H all the time. While I am putting leftovers away I dish out the meat, veg/potatoes gravy etc all on a plate saran wrap it and tin foil it and then freeze them stacked up. H grabs a plate in the AM of the day he wants to eat it, microwaves it at lunch and brings the plate home at night.
I have been doing lunches for Dallas and I for a long time. Same reasons as most, the cost of eating out on both our health and wallet were getting out of hand. Like anything else, meal planning takes a while to get the hang of - that includes making luinches. I admit, now that Dallas is working back on the road, I get stumped as to what to pack for him (he doesn't have the option to heat anything up). To that end, I found a couple really great hot and cold containers to keep the food at the right temp (I think most are from Thermos).
We used to have leftovers for lunches. In a pinch, though, I would throw in a microwave lunch (Lean Cuisine usually). The crock pot is great for make ahead meals, so is doing the prep work the night before. Generally, it takes me about 10-15 minutes to prep for the next days meal, and maybe 10 minutes to make lunches...tops. If Dallas is helping out, it cuts that down alot, and we get to chat and wind down while working together. It's usually the very last thing I do in the evening, then I'm off to bed.
Here's the general run down of what I have been packing for lunches/snacks/breakfast lately:
I hope that helps. It's really just a matter of planning.
you guys have some great ideas! I can't really add to them, but am now going to be trying to start some of this for Adam for his lunches.
And we use this in the AM for meals on the go, throw some cheese and wrap in foil for 5 minutes to melt it (enough time to get on the road) - it's great!?
Baby #2: Surprise BFP 9.19.12, EDD 5.24.13, natural m/c 10.19.13 at 9w
Lots of the ideas posted already are fabulous.
Usually every second Sunday I spend about 3-4hrs with FH cooking about 4/5 huge batches of homemade soups, curries in the crockpot, chilies, etc. Then we portion everything out into two dinners and four individual lunches. We also cut up all of our carrots, celery, etc and portion them into baggies.
When we cook dinner which is usually only once during the weekdays as we don't get home from the gym/sports until 7:30 we make loads so we can freeze and have again in a couple weeks. We do cook dinner on the weekends as well. We rarely eat out as our budget can't handle it right now.
So that way in the morning we grab a frozen meal, veggie bag, some yogurt, some almonds, and a orange or apple. I don't have the opportunity to eat out that much at work as I work in a industrial area and the only lunch places are few and far between and overpriced at that. FH is usually to busy to run out and grab something.
We're huge crockpot users. If you have 10-15 minutes in the morning to throw it all together, you'll have more leftover-worthy meals that you can use for lunches.
I'm on a salad kick, so I throw pre-washed salad, chop up some cheese, fresh cut veggies, some cooled hardboiled eggs and a piece of deli meat into a tupperware and some dressing in a tiny one and it's an instant awesome lunch.
It's just a nice alternative to a sandwich every day. I know how sandwiches can get boring!