Weeknight Dinners

Two words: crock....pot.

Few feelings compare
(and I know in the scheme of life that this IS pathetic!)
to knowing at 9:00 a.m. that dinner is done for that day.
I'd get a good crock pot cookbook like Fix It and Forget It.
Pick a few recipes for the week and make a list from those.

I wait to plan my weekly meals until Wednesday when the grocery store sale ads come out in our area. I make note of what is on sale and plan my meals around the sale items. If I go to a grocery store and they have a managers's special and its not on my menu, I'll buy it and change my menu or buy it and freeze it and make it part of my menu for the following week.

I spent $95 for 5 weeks worth of groceries (Sept 2011) for my wife and I doing it this way. (groceries, dog food, and sundries like dish soap, toilet paper, tooth paste etc.)

And I don't use many coupons because I usually get better deals by buying the store brands.

Good luck to you and yours.

All you do is plan what you want to eat for dinner for the week.
Then, based on what you already have in the kitchen, plan your grocery list.

Me, I plan dinners that are quick and good and don't use expensive ingredients and uses things that I usually buy anyway.

Try Martha Stewart's website. Her "Everyday Food" recipes, are made to be quick, easy and tastes good. I know, I've used her recipes from Everyday Food. And they have the grocery list for the recipes too.
So that is one option.

What works for me:
Being organized. I meal plan weekly. (I used to do it monthli, but it became too difficult.) Every Sunday, I make a meal plan for the week. This includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I go shopping Sunday evenings, because no one is in the stores. Breakfasts are simple, so I don't really have to do much for that. I put together 3 days of lunches for all of us and have it in the fridge. On Sunday night, I cook 2 dinner meals. We are only a family of three, so each meal has leftovers. 2 meals, is enough for 4 nights. On Wednesday night, I make the lunches for the rest of the week and put them in the fridge. I also make 2 more meals. It's great, because I only have to cook twice a week, and make lunches twice a week. It also helps to have a few really quick things on hand, in case something comes up during the week and I can't cook. A jar of pasta sauce and noodles, those kinds of things. I have a stack of recipes, that I rotate. There is about 20 that I make. Each meal is enough for 2 meals, so that's 40 meals. We rotate enough, that we don't get tired of them. There are also a few things we love and eat on a more regular basis.

What does NOT work for me:
Not planning ahead. I am not the kind of person, that can just go into a store and come up with a meal. I also end up spending WAY too much money, when I used to do that. Being unorganized and not having everything I need on hand, makes things stressful.

I love crock pots! Also, I try to cook in twos. This is so easy for me b/c it's just myself and my son so most recipes make too much anyway.

But, for example the last time I made a meat loaf I made enough for 2. Then I froze the second meal. Last night I pulled it out, popped it in the oven, made some baked potatoes and some peas and we had a good dinner w/out any fuss!

I hope other Mamas have good ideas and I will be checking to see what ideas I can steal!!!

@ One and Done... thanks for the idea now I want to run out and buy that cookbook!!! :-)

I have an easy system you can try. I love my system and has worked for me since I've had a baby.

Plan on serving one night of beef, pork, chicken, fish 2x, 3S (soup, salad, sandwhiches), and leftovers/junkfood/take out, each week and rotate them. Your monthly meal planner should look like this:

Week 1: Mon - beef Tue - fish Wed - pork Thur - chicken Fri - 3S Sat leftovers or junkfood or take out, Sun - fish
Week 2: Mon - fish Tue - chicken Wed - leftovers Thu - fish Fri - beef Sat - pork Sun - 3S
Week 3: Mon - Chicken Tue - 3S....etc Week 4: Mon - fish, Tue - leftovers, etc

I use 3 basic cookbooks - Betty Crocker, Easy Crockpot Recipes, and 6 Ingredients or Less Recipes - and rotate them each day. So for week 1, I use the next beef recipe in Betty Crocker I want to try or my family liked before for Mon, Tue I use the next fish recipe in Easy Crockpot, Wed I use the next pork recipe in 6 Ingredients, Thur I go back to Betty Crocker for the next chicken recipe, etc.

I write down the book and page number by each day, for the whole month. After I make each meal, I put the date and a smiley/frowny face by each one to let me know if it was easy to make or if my family liked it, so I'll know if I should make it again. So my meal planner actually looks like this:

Week 1: Mon - beef (BC p 29) Tue - fish (EC p 114) Wed - pork (6IOL p6) Thur - chicken (BC p82) Fri - 3S Sat - fish (EC p495) Sun - leftovers
Week 2 etc.

gl and hth

We use Mealtime Makeover. It is a wekkly planned out menu for whatever grocery store you choose. I have been using this system for 2 years. I don't follow it exactly every week but it has helped me tremendously. It is a an inexpensive online subscription ($15 for 3 months). Check it out at www.e-mealz.com.

The Grocery ads come out the night before payday, so I usually sit down with them and make a list.

And part of it is being flexible too. I had planned on Home made BBQ pizza and my son said GROSS! (despite the fact that it's one of his favorites --grr!) so instead we had home made BBQ hot pockets (and if he had said GROSS to that I would have called it a Calzone or a stromboli or " this is what's for dinner be quiet and eat!")

If your pantry is well stocked it gives you more last minute flexibilty without upsetting your basic plan. If the boss unexpectedly treated you all to Italian at work spaghetti for supper might not sound so good after all. Pretty easy to have taco's or Sloppy joe's instead

What has totally saved us this past year or so is taking the time once every 6 weeks or so and make up frozen meals of lasagna, meatloaf, porcupine meatballs, and chicken enchiladas.

I spend about 3 hours in the kitchen on a weekend. Put the chicken in the crockpot to cook while I make the other dishes - which have similar ingredients that I make all at once. We use sauteed onions in all of them, so I cook up about 4 onions at once.

I also buy aluminum loaf pans to make mini lasagnas and meatloaves in. They are the perfect portion size for us (2 adults and 2 littles). No waste. No leftovers.

Since 3 of the above have hamburger and sausage in them, I only plan 1 or 2 of them in the week. I make a monthly calendar of our meals and rotate our favorite meals through-out so that we don't have hamburger two nights in a row, chicken two nights in a row, etc. We usually go out /bring in one dinner a week and fend for yourself another night (usually the weekend when we are running around). That means 5 meals a week.

We also do pork chops almost 1 night a week, and pasta one night a week. Sometimes I'll make a white sauce instead of red if we've had lasagna recently.

If it is spread out so no one gets tired of the same 'ol and if I plan it right, dinner is a snap! Actually, hubby makes dinner 3 nights a week because I work until 5:30. We usually have one of the above those nights because all he has to do is throw it in the oven to heat/cook it (after I've pulled it a day before and have it in the fridge) and add sides.

On occasion, we may have one of the frozen bags of dinners from the grocery store (pasta and chicken or shrimp). But, I haven't bought those in forever.

Good luck. Planning makes all the difference. :)

I use lots of Pampered Chef quick dinner recipes - love their 29 min. to dinner cookbooks. I always keep basic ingredients in my pantry for making the simple dinners - such as tacos, sloppy joes, hamburgers and chicken braid recipes (Pampered Chef).
Yes, I have been a Pampered Chef rep. for a long time and love their quick recipes.

I plan on the weekends for the next 7 days. Hit the store once, and done.

I have recipes in binders, look through them, and pick out something we haven't had in a while.

I occasionally review web sites (I belong to CooksIllustrated - paid subscription, the recipes are all fabulous).

Each dinner meal has a veggie. Unless it's summer time from our garden or a farmers market, veggies are frozen. Make them in the microwave (and all veggies are naked so they are healthier).

On the weekend, I generally make a dinner and "double it", putting the extra in the freezer for future use. Whether that was a piece of meat, lasagna, or enchiladas. I've found a great recipe for freezer enchiladas, that you can pull right out of the freezer to bake. Stew in the crockpot gets put into the freezer for an easy weeknight meal.

Starches:
When making rice, I make extra and freeze it so we have it for weeknights. I have mexican rice (made with salsa and water) for mexican nights, and brown rice for other times. Family loves the eggless noodles. We have started to use Schwanns and use their mashed potatoes (I used to make my own and freeze them, but I only have so much time).

Dinner menu is written on a small piece of paper and tucked into one of our cupboard doors.

Friday is ALWAYS pizza night. Just easy after a long week.

Hubby makes all weeknight dinners. It's generally easy, heat and serve. The menu is planned based on our known schedule at the time.

I cook on the weekends.

Our kids love having breakfast for dinner - pancakes or french toast.
Soup and sandwiches work too for easy weeknight meals.

Put a plan together for 7 days. Look at what you currently have, and what you will need. Hubby will change the plan when he wants, it's not written in stone, but it sure takes the stress out of dinner.

I come home from work and dinner is ready. It's awesome!

I only cook Mon, Tues and Wed. We eat leftovers from those 3 days on Thurs. Friday is either pizza/salad family movie night, or if we don't have the kids, hubby and I eat out. I just wing it Sat and Sun depending on our schedule.

I also brown several pounds of hamburger at a time and freeze it in zip baggies to use for soups, pastas, tacos, etc. Same thing for boneless skinless chicken breasts. I put a bunch in the crockpot and sprinkle with taco seasoning. cook on low all day. Chop and put in baggies and use the same as above.

I also keep a premade salad in a big tupperware container in the fridge. chop lettuce, cabbage and carrots so its always ready to go.

Hope this helps. =)

I meal plan for two weeks at a time. I have recently started using Allrecipes.com meal planner. It isn't perfect but has recommended weekly meal plans. You can also always customize them or create your own. I have one crock pot meal per week that yields enough for leftovers on another night. Then we always have a simple spaghetti or pasta night. That way I feel like I am only really cooking 4 nights a week. Almost every meal is less than 30 minutes to make. Once you create a meal plan you like you can save it and always reuse it another month. Plus if it is a recipe from allrecipes or you add the ingredients it will automatically create your shopping list. My other suggestion would be to get Real Simple magazine. They always have a meal plan in each issue. One issue last year had a whole month plan. Every recipe was fantastic and 30 minutes or less. Whatever you find that works for you, just remember to always have the plan accessible. You will have to plan in advance and know what to get out the night before or two nights before to thaw. I also prepare everything going in the crock pot the night before so all I have to do in the morning is throw it in there. Good luck!

I used to do corck pot meals.
Don't ask me why I don't anymore? Can't get it together is probably the
answer.
So I do Taco Tuesday (ha ha...usually but not always).

I have a few "go-to" meals that I let myself rely on to relive stress:
Tacos
Lasagna
Spaghetti
Hamburgers on the grill in summer
Steak on the grill in summer
Taco Salad (summer)

These are my very easy, don't have to think about it meals.
I always have the ingredients and I make them when I'm stressed & pressed for time.

When I'm feeling crazy? Shepherd's pie
Out of time? Chinese Take out from the grocery store

What helps is having quick, go-to meals.
Would I be good w/a scheduled meal plan? No.
I have a friend who makes her meals on Sundays & freezes them.
I've tried that.
Let me re-phrase that....I thought about that.
Even THAT stresses me out. haha

Crock pot rocks, they have bags so it is easy to clean. I also do two meals at a time like Chilli, soup, and meat loafs. I do a lot of cooking on sunday to prep for the week.