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| Light Thai Lettuce Wraps by Pinch of Yum |
I always dreamed of getting into a routine on the weekends of planning the week's meals, prepping what I could and storing in freezer bags, then just coming home from work to pop it on the stove or in the oven. Easy peasy and done!
When I'm not working (like right now or in the summer) I LOVE cooking a good meal for Andy and having it ready on the table when he gets home. I love being able to research something interesting and new and actually spend quality time on it so it turns out right. A rushed meal (whether cooking it or eating it) is never a good thing. Every time it is ready when he gets home I kind of feel like doing a little jig just to celebrate my wifey-ness. :) Especially when he exclaims, "Wow! It smells great in here! What's for dinner?"
Lately however I've had quite a bit of time on my hands and gotten so excited about trying new recipes that we end up with TONS of leftovers and it ends up going bad. Not to mention a higher than average grocery bill...oops!
I will be working more soon (more on that in another post!) so I wanted to get into a routine NOW so that when I am working until 5 or 6 it is easy to make and I don't have to worry about it. Ideally it would be a crockpot meal already cut up and measured out in baggies, then in the morning I can just dump the contents in and let it cook all day. When I get home, BAM!, dinner is served!
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| Spicy Thai Pasta with Cilantro and Carrots by The First Year Blog |
After scouring Pinterest and other blogs, I have found that some people go to tons of work to schedule out their entire month of meals and buy/prep everything ahead of time. Not for me.
Andy and I don't normally even need a different meal every night since we usually have leftovers the next night. We probably only need 3 normal dinners planned per week and we'll go out once on the weekend.
I am hoping to use similar ingredients in the meals every week so that I can reuse ingredients in different ways. And what I mean is not use pasta as the common denominator because that is just too carby so I'll focus on a meat or vegetable that I can use in multiple ways either in the dish itself or on the side. For example I could use asparagus on a pizza then later roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper as a side. The idea is this will cut down on two things:
- too much extra, uneaten food in the fridge that goes bad
- high grocery bill as Betsy explores tons of recipes without thinking about what she's buying - yep that has happened.
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| Chicken Enchiladas with Three Peppers by Adventures in Cooking |
Here is my first shot at it:
1. Spicy Thai Pasta with Cilantro and Carrots by The First Year Blog
2. Chicken Enchiladas by Adventures in Cooking (I will not be making my own enchilada sauce for this one)
3. Light Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps by Pinch of Yum
The common denominators in these recipes are chicken, cilantro (which always goes bad), carrots, green onions, and bell peppers. The cabbage needed for the lettuce wraps (spoiler!) is amazing roasted in the oven with EVOO and salt and pepper so I'll probably make that as a side with the pasta. A lot of the extra, specialty items like curry paste (for the Spicy Thai Pasta) and peanut sauce (for the lettuce wraps) I already have because I've made these before so that is one perk. So here it is! We'll see how this goes!
By the way I am using the bloggers' own photos because they are way better at photographing food than I am.
If anyone has any other ways of cutting down the grocery bill without sacrificing flavor and variety, please let me know! You can shoot me an email or add a comment below!
Wish me luck!
Much love,
Betsy
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