Meal Planning

One of the things that I have tried to work on (that I mentioned earlier) was to not go out to eat as much.  As so, we are moving to make weekly menus for ourselves.  That way we can do our grocery shopping one time, know what is going to happen and resist the urge to just go out and get something fast.  Although this seems like an easy task, it can be kind of tricky with two kids that you mentally have to predict for.  We also have decided that instead of planning for everyday, we would leave one or two open for left overs. That way we are reducing waste and hopefully also saving some money.

One thing I have found very hard while trying to lose weight is a healthy diet.  Myself, I have never been the healthiest eater, and now with two kiddos, I try to eat healthy but find that Mac and Cheese and hot dogs are always stocked in the house.  As I go through this I would love kid friendly, healthy recipes that have worked for any of you!

I am going to post our menus and let me know if you are interested in more details like the recipes or cost.

Here is what we have planned for this week:

Tonight: Hot Pot with friends
    This is a great healthy recipe that we love.  You take broth and dip veggies, meats or whatever else you want in it and then can use a peanut sauce to flavor it.  I prefer veggies versus meats which helps for sure.  It is also a very social meal to help me eat slowly.  I really recommend this to anyone and can post some ideas if you would like.
  The boys enjoy this too because we put noodles in there and they love the peanut sauce.  We have also been putting some bread in that they enjoy as well.  Its a messy meal but a good one.

Sunday:  Burgers
     Maybe not always the healthiest meal, but the boys love these.  We bought some beef patties from Costco and keep them in our deep freezer.  This is a nice go to meal for us.  We use cheese from Grocery Outlet Bargain Market and veggies from either our garden on the store as well.
     What we like to do to give our burgers a little something extra is use potato buns.  We also will but avocado on them and sometimes a fried egg.  If we have any bacon we will occasionally put that on them too.

Monday:  Slow Cooker Mushroom and Tuna Penne
    This is our new recipe for the week that we are trying out.  I found it in our slow cooker book and it looks like a fancy Mac n' Cheese with veggies and protein thrown in.  I am excited to try it because in the book it mentioned that it is an easy recipe that kids tend to enjoy.  Here is hoping.  :)

Tuesday:  Steak Quesidillas
    My husband went on a frozen meat spending spree a couple months ago and the result is a heck of a lot of meat in the freezer.  In order to free some space, we are trying to go through it and use as much as possible.  In there we found a cut of steak that you wouldn't normally just eat - so we are going to throw it in a quesdilla and hope for the best.  To be a little healthier, we use whole wheat tortillas versus flour.  We will also top our with cubes of avocado and cherry tomatoes from the garden.

Wednesday:  Left Overs
     Probably the pasta.  Making sure it is not wasted.

Thursday:  Won Ton Soup
    Our boys love asian flavored meals and so do we.  We lived in China for two years and miss the food a lot!  We have some frozen won tons from Costco and plan to cook it in a broth with other vegetables to make a pseudo hot pot.  I have a feeling the boys will really like this.

Friday:  Free Day
     I think any healthy balance of life and work deserves a free day.  That does not mean going to McDonald's and getting two Big Macs, but eating something reasonable at home that you want.  We built this day in for not only our sanity but the kids too.  :)

A then back to square one.  I will let you know how the week went food and fashion wise.  If you have any ideas for next weeks menu that are healthy and good - please let me know and I would love to try them!