OTMTW – 01/04/16

Some days I am not the sharpest crayon in the box.

Yesterday I was perusing the internet and came across this delicious looking recipe for skillet lasagna which would have required me to purchase sour cream. Not thinking about it too hard I was going to run out and get some today.

I then remembered that I still have a bag of potatoes. So I spent far too long thinking about what to do with them before I realized I could just make shepherd’s pie, for which I have all the ingredients for.

Monday – leftovers
Tuesday – shepherd’s pie
Wednesday – pork chops & mashed potatoes
Thursday – leftovers
Friday – take out pizza
Saturday – leftovers
Sunday – Steak and baked potatoes

I really want to focus on reducing our food waste this year.

I need to pop into a grocery store and pick up a few things, but I really want to dig through my fridge, freezer & cupboards before I go. I know we need milk, produce & yogurt, but I feel like there are a few more odds and ends that need to be added.

OTMTW – 12/7/15

I am on point with the food this week. Mainly because I went to Costco hungry on Saturday. I did some serious damage. 😦 But on the plus side we are now stocked up, the freezer is looking good.

Yesterday I baked a macaroni pie, bacon, hamburgers and fish.

Monday – macaroni pie and Costco rotisserie chicken
Tuesday – hamburgers and salad
Wednesday – fish and salad
Thursday –  leftovers
Friday – pizza or leftovers
Saturday – see Friday 😉
Sunday – TBD

I’m feeling like I am finally back on top of things. 🙂 🙂

OTMTW – 11/16/15

Oh I am cooking with gas as my mother likes to say! Two weeks of meal planning in a row. 🙂

Monday – chicken adobo with rice and carrots
Tuesday – Spaghetti & meatballs
Wednesday – leftovers
Thursday – chick peas & rice
Friday – leftovers
Saturday – shawarma
Sunday – steak and TBD

Diva loved the pork adobo I made long time ago. Since I have not purchased any pork belly I thought I’d try my luck with chicken. Hopefully she will love this as well. Fingers crossed as the recipe makes 4-5 lbs of chicken.

OTMTW – 11/09/15

Going to try posting this earlier in the week. Hoping to inspire myself.

Monday – taco night I bought a kit with hard and soft taco shells. No one likes the hard shells. Going to go rogue the next time.
Tuesday – leftovers Fridge is full of little bits of this and that
Wednesday – chicken stir fry with rice
Thursday – leftovers for the kids; sushi dinner for me
Friday – pan fried pork and sidekick Diva is in on the secret so she can make this. 😉
Saturday – shawarma for the kids; Uncle’s house for me
Sunday – TBD

I would like to fit some vegetarian meals in my life. In an attempt to be healthier and cost effective I purchased dried chick peas. This weekend I will figure out how to cook them so I have have them on hand for quick meals. My kids actually enjoy fried chick peas and rice. And according to my mother it is a perfect meal.

I “need” to do some grocery shopping but I really want to see if we can last until next week. We have a lot of food in the freezer and cupboards. Just got to get creative.

OTMTW – 11/2/15

I know I’m a little late with this, but I am meal planning so I’ll include it for the record.

Monday – pan fried pork chops with sidekicks
Tuesday – spaghetti and meatballs
Wednesday – leftovers
Thursday – oven baked hamburgers and steamed Brussels sprouts
Friday – pan fried steak and mashed potatoes with steamed Brussels sprouts
Saturday – leftovers
Sunday – TBD

I have not taken any pictures of my meals as I think my phone pics are horrid and I’m lazy to find a real camera. Sorry, bad blogger.

I did a rather large grocery trip yesterday and hope it will last a while. I will not be purchasing much for the next two weeks.

OTMTW – 10/27/15

So far the power has been consistent so I’m a happy camper.

I did the second workout from this video yesterday.

Part of it involved leg raises while holding on to a chair. Surprisingly my arms hurt more than my hips and behind. I am going to try and squeeze a 10 minute ab workout before I go to bed.

I did a little meal planning. I’m rather proud of myself as this seems to fall of my list of things to do.

Monday – lasagna roll ups I added jalapeño slices in a few rolls and wowza!! It really kicked it up a notch for me.
Tuesday – beef with black bean sauce with rice noodles
Wednesday – leftovers
Thursday – pan fried pork chops and rice No recipe needed just garlic salt and pepper, turns out amazing
Friday – leftovers
Saturday – shawarma

A workout and a meal plan

You know when you have a post in your head and then you dream that you wrote and published it so you think there’s nothing left for you to do. Then you check your blog and realize it wasn’t real??  This is that post. I swear I thought I put this up already …

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It’s been FOREVER since I put any thought into what we are going to eat. This week seemed like a good time as any to change that.

First the workout.

Took this bad boy girl home from the library 3 weeks ago, maximum time allowed for a DVD. I did the 15 minute bonus workout last week. Since it was due yesterday and I was going to all you can eat sushi for dinner on Tuesday I did the full 40 minute workout on Tuesday. It took me 60 minutes to finish it as I took many, many breaks. One of my cousins asked if I at least kept moving when I paused the DVD. Nope! I sat down and huffed and puffed like the world was ending. There may have been a few tears.

Yesterday I was definitely feeling most of my muscles. And since I am a glutton for punishment, when I went to the library I borrowed Power Half Hour. In theory it should take me about 45 minutes to do this 30 minute workout.

Alright on to the food!

Sunday – Dinner at my Dad’s
Monday – BBQ at a friend’s
Tuesday – sushi for me, slow cooker chicken & rice for the girls
Wednesday – leftovers for Princess & I, Diva babysits and eats there
Thursday – butter chicken & rice
Friday – leftovers
Saturday – pizza for the girls, potluck for me

Now you can see why it was so easy for me to meal plan this week. lol 😉

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In official band wagoner news, “my” beloved Blue Jays won the series last night!! Yeah!!

OTMTW – 7.19.15

It’s been a long time since I’ve baked buns. Not sure why I chose the hottest day of the year to do so but hey what to do when inspiration hits!

I tried a Milk & Honey white bread as I was looking for something a little more substantial than flour and water. I halved the recipe as I wasn’t sure that it would fly with my girls. They prefer I make my Grandmother’s bread recipe but that is a little more involved than I wanted to do today.

Diva tried one and she didn’t complain so this recipe is a winner.

Tomorrow I will be using them to go with some burgers. 🙂

Let’s see if I remember how this is done, it’s been a long while since I’ve planned out out meals.

On the menu this week:

Monday – Hamburgers and fries
Tuesday – Baked chicken with sidekicks
Wednesday – leftover chicken with sidekicks
Thursday – Chicken noodle soup
Friday – Big Bite Burrito
Saturday – TBD

Food Waste

Diva and I went through both freezers on Saturday.  It didn’t take as long as I thought it would and it netted some food waste, which I expected.

In the picture above is:

Garlic bread
Hamburger buns
Chinese dumplings x 7
Italian sausages
Carcasses of maybe chicken x 2
Various homemade soups(?) that no one could recognize

All in all it was not as bad as I thought it would be.  I was surprised that we do not have any frozen pizzas as I buy them often. The Chinese dumplings are older than old as I don’t think I have bought any in the past 3 years easily. There is a lot of frozen fruit in my freezer which I will be turning into smoothies or popsicles.

We now have a list of everything in both freezers which I am slowly going to use out. Meal planning should be so much easier now. 🙂

OTMTW – 10/27/14

Guess who’s back to meal planning??????????

If you guessed me you are absolutely correct!!  There is no prize to be won but let the knowledge that you won keep you warm tonight. 🙂

Lately I have been flying by the seat of my pants when it comes to feeding my family. 😦  Some days have been better than other.  Yesterday Diva & I brainstormed about possible dinner options and she came up with sloppy Joe’s.  I made homemade buns and the plan started.

Sunday – Homemade pepperoni pizza using that delicious 2 ingredient pizza dough recipe
Monday – Sloppy Joe sandwiches with coleslaw, I used this recipe but modified it by using onions & garlic instead of powders and added red peppers
Tuesday – Pasta with sausage from this recipe
Wednesday – leftovers
Thursday – stew chicken and rice
Friday – leftovers
Saturday – TBD

For the past couple of weeks my fridge was empty, I did manage to reduce the amount of items in my freezers, but I still have a way to go.  I am slowly toying with the idea of getting rid of my big freezer.  My thought is that I don’t seem to get to the stuff at the bottom. 😦   Going to spend some time really thinking about it.  My cousin has an upright freezer and I like that much better but it’s the size of a fridge, way too big for me.  If I could find a bar fridge size upright freezer I could be sold. 😉