November 2010 Weddings
LindsMullinix
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Meal Planning
Do any of you ladies do this? I've started planning our dinners for Mon - Thurs. each week and its cut our grocery bill considerably.
The only thing I'm running into is a few repeat dishes that are starting to get boring. I'd like to mix things up a bit. I'd love to hear some of the dishes you make regularly.
-Linds
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Re: Meal Planning
Books read in 2012: 21/50
I'm a big fan of Cooking light magazine. Most of the recipes are relatively simple and not too many ingredients. We also grill out a couple times a week while the weather is good. We usually have couscous with veggies as a side or grilled asparagus,tomatoes, etc. We also have been grilling pizza - YUM.
We also do a pork roast thrown in with a jar of pepercinis (sp?) into a crock pot (good with chicken too) cooked all day long. Shred it then serve it over tortillas with fresh cilantro, red onion and tomatoes along with some black beans. I like this because it makes a ton of pork (chicken), after we have the tacos a couple of nights we will throw the rest of the meat into some BBQ sauce and serve on buns another day. It's only mildly spicy but it's pretty good and way too simple.
I too need to work on better meal planning. Big time!
Let's see, here's what our week often looks like:
Tacos from scratch with ground turkey. Dh will either make fresh salsa or I combine a chunky, hearty salsa from a jar (there's a really great brand at Costco) with a fresh cut avocado. Instant, yummy guacamole.
Spaghetti. I'll use brown rice pasta spirals (GF), an organic red sauce (okay that's not so cheap
)... cut up veggies and add whatever garlic and seasoning we feel like to the sauce... sprinkle some shredded Parmesan on top. Serve with a salad. Yeah, we're pretty basic. 
Salmon baked in the oven. It's pretty easy to make, and we do it differently each time. We like to use a lot of garlic though.
I usually make rice and salad with that.
Chicken. I'll make wings with a dry rub (allrecipes.com), and serve with a homemade Cesar salad. A hit with Dh.
Pizza. Dh and I just made our own pizza the other night. I did cheat and buy the crusts pre-made (GF), but they came out really well if I do say so. I just used the same organic spaghetti sauce. Cut up fresh mozzarella (didn't shred it), a fresh green pepper, some turkey pepperoni, a few sprinkles of minced garlic from a jar, and then shook plenty of Italian seasoning on top.
If you can eat soy sauce... we've also found stir fries are a fun, interesting, easy way to get both veggies and protein.
Do you have a farmers market? I will try and hit ours up once a month for something different. I look for what's in season and looks good. I will often go with a girlfriend and we will split things in half. That way we save a ton on fresh produce and get a variety. Plus it kind of changes as the season progresses so I don't get too tired of things.
Like PP I will look for the weekly deal in Sunday's flyer. Then I try and hit the grocery on Wed (our double coupon night). That gives me a day or 2 to plan. I stock up on meats when they are having sales. Sometimes around the holidays (or just after) you can get pretty good deals on meat as well.
It does save a lot of time and money, so I do try to plan ahead. I also try to make things that can be re-combined for a second meal.
We eat a lot of Indian food, which is actually really easy to cook and not spicy when you make it at home. We always have lentils, which are very healthy and simple and a vegetable. In the summer I do yogurt with mint and cucumbers or sometimes raw veggies. I try to do fish once a week also.
There are definitely a few things we eat really regularly (like spinach), and there are certain things which are very seasonal (we only get okra here in the summer).