meat

12/18/17 Meal Plan Monday

Abby H.

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I am really tired of not feeling well. First everyone got the gross tummy bug that was going around, now I have the Santa Ana triggered Sinus pain/nose drip. UGH. This week is going to be lots of soup and crockpot stuff. It’s been cold here at night (well, cold for us, in the low fifties and high forties), so soup will be nice.

I’m just posting dinners for our meal plan. The kiddos usually have a small toasted bagel with cream cheese for breakfast along with fruit.  Hubs likes Oatmeal (my recipe for an easy almost instant oatmeal mix can be found here) if he’s got time, otherwise he and I have protein shakes with frozen bananas and PB2.

Lunches for Lil’ Man are usually Peanut butter and crackers, fruit, milk, a protein muffin (aka a kid cupcake), and applesauce cup. He takes his lunch every day! Hubs usually has a protein shake or I pack him leftovers or a frozen entree.

Bitty Bird and I usually have leftovers from the night before, or soup, sandwiches, quesadillas. She eats almost anything!

Monday:

  • D: Going out- The kids and I are meeting some friends at the Zoo! Even though I feel like crap, I promised them we’d go.

Tuesday:

  • D: Vegetarian black bean chili

Weds:

  • D: Grilled Cheese & Chicken Soup

Thursday:

  • D: Smoothies and soup

Friday:

Saturday:

  • D:  Bean, Rice, and Cheese burritos

Sunday:

  • D:  Leftovers!

The menu may change, as  I pull stuff out of the pantry to rotate what we’ve got (I am trying to cut down on waste, and put the older stuff up front to get eaten first).

Meal Plan for the Week!

Abby H.

DSC07997

This week has been crazy, and it’s just Tuesday! Mr. is sick, so our usual routine has been thrown off.

I’m just posting dinners for our meal plan. The kiddos usually have a small toasted bagel with cream cheese for breakfast along with fruit.  Hubs likes Oatmeal (my recipe for an easy almost instant oatmeal mix can be found here) if he’s got time, otherwise he and I have protein shakes with frozen bananas and PB2.

Lunches for Lil’ Man are usually Peanut butter and crackers, fruit, milk, a protein muffin (aka a kid cupcake), and applesauce cup. He takes his lunch every day! Hubs usually has a protein shake or I pack him leftovers or a frozen entree.

Bitty Bird and I usually have leftovers from the night before, or soup, sandwiches, quesadillas. She eats almost anything!

We’re pretty stocked up of food for the next week or so- We’ll need milk, cream cheese, and cheese. I’ll probably hit up Costco tomorrow.

Monday:

  • D: Chicken Tortilla Soup and toast

Tuesday:

  • D: Soup and grilled cheese (While Mr. is sick, we may be eating a lot of soup)

Weds:

  • D: Breakfast for dinner

Thursday:

  • D:  Spaghetti Squash boats with Vegetable Marinara sauce

Friday:

  • D: Date Night! (we go out)

Saturday:

  • D:  BBQ hamburgers and BBQ veggies

Sunday:

  • D: Leftover buffet

The menu may change, as  I pull stuff out of the pantry to rotate what we’ve got (I am trying to cut down on waste, and put the older stuff up front to get eaten first).

9/18/17 Meal Plan Monday!

Abby H.

DSC07997

I’m just posting dinners for our meal plan. The kiddos usually have a small toasted bagel with cream cheese for breakfast along with fruit.  Hubs likes Oatmeal (my recipe for an easy almost instant oatmeal mix can be found here) if he’s got time, otherwise he and I have protein shakes with frozen bananas and PB2.

Lunches for Lil’ Man are usually Peanut butter and crackers, fruit, milk, a protein muffin (aka a kid cupcake), and applesauce cup. He takes his lunch every day! Hubs usually has a protein shake or I pack him leftovers or a frozen entree.

Bitty Bird and I usually have leftovers from the night before, or soup, sandwiches, quesadillas. She eats almost anything!

We’re pretty stocked up of food for the next week or so- We’ll need milk, cream cheese, and cheese. I’ll probably hit up Costco tomorrow.

Monday:

  • D: Steak (it was a gift!), roasted broccoli, green salad, cheese toast. The kids don’t like steak, so they’ll probably have grilled cheese sandwiches on cheese toast (Lil’ Man discovered them not long ago and he told me it’s the “fancy” way to make grilled cheese).

Tuesday:

  • D:  Bean, Rice, and cheese bowls (they also have caramelized onions and peppers) This is a fav in our house. It’s healthy and inexpensive.

Weds:

  • D: Home made Red Sauce (made in the crockpot- Recipe will be posted tomorrow!) baked with cheese in Zucchini Boats. Thanks to my friend Lisa for the monster zucchini!

Thursday:

  • D:  Breakfast for dinner (probably frittata)

Friday:

  • D: Date Night! (we go out)

Saturday:

  • D:  Home made Pizza, and fruit salad

Sunday:

  • D: Leftover buffet

The menu may change, as  I pull stuff out of the pantry to rotate what we’ve got (I am trying to cut down on waste, and put the older stuff up front to get eaten first).

We’ve got a busy week with ABA Therapy three times, a Lego Movie event, a Lego event at our local Library, and a trip to Legoland on Saturday (just me and my Lil’ Man!).  I’ve made sure to fill up our snack backpack and wash out our water bottles.

How to save money without coupons: Part One- Meat!

Abby H.3 Comments

I know, it seems impossible that I  would tell you not to use coupons. But, let’s face it, sometimes you need to buy stuff that there are no coupons for. What’s a shopper to do? You’re not going to stop eating something just because there aren’t any coupons… That’s CRAZY!

dscn10311I’m going to specifically discuss shopping for meat, because there are seldom coupons for fresh meat.

The easiest way to save money on meat is not to buy it. However, most Americans eat meat. So, here are my recommendations for you:

Ask the butcher/meat cutter at your local grocery store when the meat is marked down each day. Some stores do it each morning, so do it at night. The meat that is marked down isn’t going bad that day, it just needs to be pulled and either cooked and eaten within the next few days or frozen. Most meat can be frozen for up to six months.

If you like to buy your meat in bulk or in large super store sized containers, once you get your big hunk o’ meat home, separate it into portions and freeze it. That way when it’s time to cook, you aren’t faced with 4-7 lbs of solid meat.  That can be a little daunting, and leads to waste. When we buy ground beef in large packages, I portion it out into 1/2-3/4lb. packages and freeze it. It’s much easier to handle the smaller portions.

We buy chicken from Zaycon Fresh– You get a 40 lb box. It’s easy to separate 40 lbs of fresh chicken into freezer bags and tuck them into the freezer. I usually do 1-2 lb packages. Sometimes I even get fancy and season the chicken as I prep it in bags! Zaycon Fresh has really great fresh boneless, skinless chicken breasts for less than the grocery store prices. And I feel great feeding it to my family because it comes to me fresh, not frozen and plumped up with salt water.

I know that the pre-cooked meat that is already cut up looks so good and you think, “Oh, it’ll save me so much time!!”, but the truth is, it costs about 2-3 times the amount that the exact same weight of uncooked meat costs. Make your own! I make shredded chicken in the crockpot once every two weeks. It’s great for topping salads, making enchiladas, casseroles, soups, or just eating out of the bag (what? Meat is goooooood).

Learn how I make shredded chicken here. I portion it out and use it in recipes. You can do the same with beef or pork. Season and cook in the crockpot for 6-8 hours on low.

If you want chicken slices, bake your chicken pieces in the oven at 350 for about 20-30 minutes. Cool, remove the skin and bones and discard them. Slice the chicken into pieces, portion out and freeze.

Buy meat when it is cheapest. What do I mean by that? Think about the seasons/holidays in the year and the meals surrounding each.

  • In the summer, barbecuing is very popular, so meat like ribs, ground beef and boneless, skinless chicken is on sale.
  • In the fall, turkey breasts and whole turkeys are on sale.
  • Near Christmas/New Year’s, Prime Rib is cheap.
  • Mid-March, Corned Beef is on sale (usually 60%+ off the regular price).

Because meat can be frozen for upwards of 6 months, buy meat that you like when it’s cheap and you’ll never be without!

Next up, tomorrow, I’ll be writing about how to save money when buying fruit and vegetables!

How do you save money on meat?

Recipe: Crockpot Shredded Chicken

Abby H.1 Comment

Screen Shot 2016-09-02 at 1.51.25 PMThis is a total time saver! I do this twice a month. It really saves time when it’s time to cook dinner. And on those days when you are just going going going, it’s nice to know that you’ve got something easy and tasty waiting for you!

It’s so easy, All you need is a crockpot, a food scale, and two forks!

Ingredients:

  • 3 lbs of chicken, whatever is on sale (I used chicken breasts- bone-in with skin)
  • 1 c. broth or water
  • Seasoning to taste- I use a little dehydrated onion ( I like this one from Penzey’s), a little garlic powder, and a little pepper.

Directions:

  1. Cook in the crockpot on low 6-8 hours. Allow to cool.
  2. Shred it with a fork (removing bones and skin).
  3. Grab ziploc bags (I like the snack size ones), our Digital Kitchen Scale, and a glass bowl. I use a measuring cup to scoop the meat (and juices) into the glass bowl, but I am measuring by weight.  The measuring cup is just my scooping tool of choice.
  4. Place the glass bowl on the scale, then turn the scale on- I only want to weight the food, not the glass bowl.
  5. After I weigh the chicken (into 4 ounce portions), I pour it into a snack size ziploc bag, seal it (and squeeze out the air), and put them in the freezer.

Screen Shot 2016-09-02 at 1.55.43 PM Screen Shot 2016-09-02 at 1.55.58 PMThen when it’s time to make quesadillas, chef salad, or pretty much any time we want chicken (Hubs like to top his frozen entrees, like this one with a little bit of chicken for added protein), just grab a bag and defrost it in the microwave!

Frequently, I’ll get a larger Ziploc bag and measure out 2 cups- this is just enough for a casserole. Just defrost, mix in the other ingredients and cook!

I also like to make and portion out ground turkey cooked with black beans and fajita blend frozen veggies flavored with Taco Seasoning. It’s great on salads, quesadillas, or in chicken broth for a quick tortilla soup!

 

Today is National Sandwich Day!

Abby H.1 Comment

sandwichToday is National Sandwich Day, so that means a few BOGO Offers! Before heading down to your location location, call ahead to make sure that your preferred location is participating!

6cTogo’s is offering a FREE 6″ Regular Sandwich with purchase of any 6″ regular or large sandwich, chips & 20 oz. fountain drink. This deal may be limited to those in the Togo Tribe (Their Loyalty club). I received this offer via email.

Have the McDonald’s App on your phone? Open it up to to find a BOGO Chef Crafted Sandwich coupon. There may be other coupons available to you too.

Screen Shot 2015-11-03 at 8.48.03 AMSubway is offering a free sandwich with the purchase of any sandwich and a 30 ounce drink. (Source Twitter)

 

If you know of any other free or BOGO Sandwich deals, please leave a comment!