Wanda over at The Shambled Shack posed a few questions that I figured I would answer.
1. Why is it so hard to stick to a menu plan? Honestly, I have no idea but it happens to me all the time. I end up making meal plans with meals that I love on them but something ALWAYS happens that makes me deviate from it.
2. Am I the only one that deviates this much? Definitely not. Life happens and you deal with it.
3. Is it really worth making a plan if your constantly changing up the plan? I think it is. This week I didn't make a meal plan at all, and I went food shopping without a list and I felt kind of lost. I just bought things on sale or things I wanted to buy and it felt weird not knowing where everything was going to be used. Even though a lot of things don't get used as they were intended because the meal plans change.
4. When making your plan, do you grocery shop first or plan your meals around what is on sale for the week? I make my meal plan and then go shopping. I generally stock up on proteins whenever they're on sale or I can get a good deal so I don't plan my meals according to the sales. I just go food shopping to pick up random missing ingredients and veggies/fruits.
5. How often do you grocery shop? It depends.. usually every other week or so but sometimes weekly. If I'm feeling particularly lazy it can go about 2.5-3 weeks. It's just me and my husband so it's not like we need gallons of fresh milk in the fridge.
6. How in the world do you get your pantry stocked up enough to do a pantry challenge for an entire month? I'm a packrat? I don't really. I think it's a combination of going shopping while hungry so I buy weird things and then stock up on random sales or whatever looks good. Then I get home and forget what I bought so I make other things and the new random foods get stocked into the pantry. I also tend to forget what I bought so one week I may buy 5lbs of chicken because its a good sale. Then the next week I might do the same because I forgot that we have plenty so then we end up with a ton of stuff.
7. What problems have you had with menu planning and how did you solve them? My main problems are just sticking to the actual menu plan. I always put good stuff on there. Life just jumps in the way. Friends/family want to go out to dinner and of course I'm not going to say no. Plus, sometimes I'm just not in the mood for that meal on that day when it actually happens. I've learned to solve these problems by just going with the flow and hoping for the best. I keep making the plans and sometimes I stick to them sometimes I don't.
8. What kind of variety do you give your menu plans? Do you stick with only three or four and rotate them? They're all completely different. Depending on if I'm following a diet plan (which I should be currently.. ) there may be certain meals that I really like and I know will help me stick with it. I generally like to try out new recipes so there is at least 1 recipe that is new on there and an old standby. It would probably be easier to rotate a few different plans but we like change and trying out new/different food so that wouldn't work for us. I find that if I'm eating lower carb, I tend to make monthly plans. If I'm eating lower fat or just whatever I want, I make 1-2 week meal plans. I have no idea why I differentiate, it's just always what I've done and I know it makes no sense whatsoever.
As for Food Waste Friday: No picture sorry. I dumped out the mashed potatoes from last week and one leftover chick pea cutlet. There's quite a bit of leftovers in there that we need to finish up this weekend.
Showing posts with label food waste. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food waste. Show all posts
Friday, February 19, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Food Waste Friday and Recipe Round-Up
Food Waste Friday:
Well, I'm currently on my way to my parents (or already there depending when we actually left) so I couldn't take a picture of what I threw out.
I ended up throwing away 4 grossly moldy cucumbers. When I bought them from the "going" shelf, I should've used them right away but I could never think of anything to do with them besides cut them up into salads. We were both sick for a while so not many salads got made or eaten. I need to figure out more to do with cucumbers. Any ideas?
I also threw away a handful of wilted blueberries that were heading into "gross" territory. I bought them on a whim and then ended up not in the mood for them at all. Luckily, my niece ate most of the good ones when she was visiting earlier in the week along with basically an entire can of mandarin oranges. The rest of that can got thrown out since I won’t use them in anything else and, honestly, I have no idea why I had a can of them in the first place.
I also anticipate having to throw away the following things once I'm back home on Monday night: 1 serving of leftover Taco Bake (if it's still good one of us will have it for lunch on Tuesday) and about 2 helpings of mashed potatoes (I always make too much).
New Recipes That We Tried:
Chickpea Cutlets – They were interesting. Instead of making gravy, I just ended up using a can of beef gravy because that’s all I felt like doing that day. So the gravy didn’t go with it at all but I would definitely try them again. I was surprised my husband actually liked them since he’s a picky eater and when I told him what we were having for dinner he made a weird face. He said he’d want to try them smaller – more like falafel – with yogurt sauce. I ate one for lunch dipped in ketchup and hot sauce cause I didn’t know what to dip it in and it was also tasty.
Taco Bake – Very good. I took pictures too like requested! I halved the recipe and made it in one pan and also added sautéed peppers since I have a bunch of peppers to use up. My favorite part, of course, was the browned cheese on top because you can’t go wrong with cheese in my eyes. My husband really liked the addition of beans and rice to the dish since I’ve made a similar one before. I would definitely make again. Here are the pictures:
My tortilla lay out. I ended up using 2 across then sliced one in half to cover the top and bottom middles. Then I took a fourth one and cut it into quarters so I could make sure to cover every possibly corner. Yes, I'm crazy, I know.
Making layers. This was everything up until the last layer of tortillas and cheese
Right out of the oven
My slice. I ended up topping it with a dollop of sour cream.
Well, I'm currently on my way to my parents (or already there depending when we actually left) so I couldn't take a picture of what I threw out.
I ended up throwing away 4 grossly moldy cucumbers. When I bought them from the "going" shelf, I should've used them right away but I could never think of anything to do with them besides cut them up into salads. We were both sick for a while so not many salads got made or eaten. I need to figure out more to do with cucumbers. Any ideas?
I also threw away a handful of wilted blueberries that were heading into "gross" territory. I bought them on a whim and then ended up not in the mood for them at all. Luckily, my niece ate most of the good ones when she was visiting earlier in the week along with basically an entire can of mandarin oranges. The rest of that can got thrown out since I won’t use them in anything else and, honestly, I have no idea why I had a can of them in the first place.
I also anticipate having to throw away the following things once I'm back home on Monday night: 1 serving of leftover Taco Bake (if it's still good one of us will have it for lunch on Tuesday) and about 2 helpings of mashed potatoes (I always make too much).
New Recipes That We Tried:
Chickpea Cutlets – They were interesting. Instead of making gravy, I just ended up using a can of beef gravy because that’s all I felt like doing that day. So the gravy didn’t go with it at all but I would definitely try them again. I was surprised my husband actually liked them since he’s a picky eater and when I told him what we were having for dinner he made a weird face. He said he’d want to try them smaller – more like falafel – with yogurt sauce. I ate one for lunch dipped in ketchup and hot sauce cause I didn’t know what to dip it in and it was also tasty.
Taco Bake – Very good. I took pictures too like requested! I halved the recipe and made it in one pan and also added sautéed peppers since I have a bunch of peppers to use up. My favorite part, of course, was the browned cheese on top because you can’t go wrong with cheese in my eyes. My husband really liked the addition of beans and rice to the dish since I’ve made a similar one before. I would definitely make again. Here are the pictures:
My tortilla lay out. I ended up using 2 across then sliced one in half to cover the top and bottom middles. Then I took a fourth one and cut it into quarters so I could make sure to cover every possibly corner. Yes, I'm crazy, I know. 
Making layers. This was everything up until the last layer of tortillas and cheese
Right out of the oven
My slice. I ended up topping it with a dollop of sour cream.Saturday, February 6, 2010
Pizza Week
We've had pizza twice this week. It was homemade, so that means it's okay, right?
I also may have eaten the leftovers for breakfast this morning so that kind of means that three meals this week were pizza. I'm getting really good at flipping it off of the peel though!. I have this garlic cheese spread stuff that was just sitting in the fridge unopened. So I put a nice layer of that onto the dough, then sauce, then some shredded cheese, then tomatoes (the second time was anchovies cause they were in the fridge). Sooo good and garlicky. The husband just had sauce and cheese since he can't eat garlic/onions and just wanted plain pizza.
Also, the "Eat from the Pantry" isn't working. It doesn't make sense to do it now (well, it does but still). Our bank is currently offering $10 back for every $100 we spend in groceries until mid-March. I'm not upping the amount I'm spending because that wouldn't save any money. But, I've also decided that I'll just shop as normal until mid-March. That way we can get a few bucks back and that doesn't hurt. Once it's over, I'll try the challenge again. In the meantime, I will try to use up more random things from the pantry (like the garlic cheese stuff.. yummmm).
I also may have eaten the leftovers for breakfast this morning so that kind of means that three meals this week were pizza. I'm getting really good at flipping it off of the peel though!. I have this garlic cheese spread stuff that was just sitting in the fridge unopened. So I put a nice layer of that onto the dough, then sauce, then some shredded cheese, then tomatoes (the second time was anchovies cause they were in the fridge). Sooo good and garlicky. The husband just had sauce and cheese since he can't eat garlic/onions and just wanted plain pizza.
Also, the "Eat from the Pantry" isn't working. It doesn't make sense to do it now (well, it does but still). Our bank is currently offering $10 back for every $100 we spend in groceries until mid-March. I'm not upping the amount I'm spending because that wouldn't save any money. But, I've also decided that I'll just shop as normal until mid-March. That way we can get a few bucks back and that doesn't hurt. Once it's over, I'll try the challenge again. In the meantime, I will try to use up more random things from the pantry (like the garlic cheese stuff.. yummmm).
Friday, February 5, 2010
Food Waste Friday
This photo was actually taken on Sunday but I thought it would be silly to leave gross food in my fridge for another 5 days.
(Please excuse my very messy kitchen - I was currently in the midst of making dinner when I decided to clean out the fridge.) From left to right: Turkey Shepherd's Pie, Lentil/Black bean chili, Lemon Chiffon Yogurt (I probably shouldn't admit that it went bad back in December..), Sweet Mashed Potatoes, 2 containers of pasta sauce that I meant to freeze (but kind of ran out of room for in the freezer and then forgot about them), Leftover Chinese food from Tuesday - Wonton soup and Lo Mein.
Not pictured but thrown out today: Leftover stir-fry. I made it way too salty so I shoulda thrown it away that night but thought I might eat it later in the week.
Not pictured but thrown out today: Leftover stir-fry. I made it way too salty so I shoulda thrown it away that night but thought I might eat it later in the week.
Pretty much all leftovers. See why I need to work on us eating leftovers? I even tried to get some of them eaten by putting them in containers ready to go for lunch. Unfortunately, sometimes the lure of going out for lunch is so much better than leftovers.
Oh well, hopefully next week is better.
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