The dreaded question you hate hearing come from your husband, kids or even the damn dogs mouth! I won't lie and tell you I cook one meal and everyone eats it cause we most defentilay don't! My kids snack as SOON as I get home from work. Well actually, they snack all damn day and I can barely get them to the dinner table let alone make them eat what we are eating.
I usually make 2 meals, one for the kids and one for Jerek and I. I try to give them what we are having from time to time but they are so damn picky its just not worth the fight. Gotta pick your battles ya know. I do try and coordinate meals though. For example, if we are having pasta I will usually make mac & cheese for them. If we are having Mexican, they will get cheese quesadillas, etc.
If you have been following my Insta stories or Snaps over the last month (or longer) you will see I do cooking segments. Yes, I'm calling them cooking segments okay. I'm no Rachel Ray but sometimes I pretend I am when Jerek's not home! These "segments" usually consist of me drinking beer while telling you what I'm doing and attempting to not burn my house down. My dad was a chef for many many years but cooking is most definitely NOT in my blood!
We are a meal planning family, or at least we try to be. We also try and keep our weekly grocery bill to $125 (it was $100 but we recently realized we were always going over anyway & altered it.) We meal plan for 5 dinners and we go out for Pizza Party Fridays and on Sundays to Jerek's parents.
Recently we signed up for Shipt and I legit couldn't be happier with the service! I've heard some mixed reviews on shoppers not bringing items on the list or not doing a good job with substitutions. I haven't had this problem and they always will text me whenever something isn't in stock and I tell them what to get instead. I'll have a whole review on the service in another month or so after I have used it some more, but so far we have had 3 great experiences. All times I've cleaned the house braless and had groceries magically show up on my doorstep without hauling kids to the store so like HELL TO THE YEAH!
So without further blabbing, here are the 5 meals I have planned for the week. (I also make enough to eat for left overs the next day for lunch for both of us)
INDIAN:
This is for an easy day, like Tuesday's when we have soccer practice! We use the Maya Kaimal Curry Simmer sauce and I buy the cubed extra firm tofu, throw it in a sauté pan and brown up. Add this sauce and let it simmer. I make the rice in our handy dandy rice cooker and throw a piece of Naan bread in the oven. BOOM, easy, filling and spicy!
This is one I've made a few times on Snapchat and Insta-stories. It's less than 10 ingredients and nothing hard, hell it's made in one pot!
I haven't made this one yet but when I saw the words one pan, I was like yup, me, that's my kind of meal so I put it in this weeks meal plan! Mexican is also probably my absolute favorite thing to eat so we usually have a Mexican dish once a week. I think Jer is sick of taco's or make your own bowls so I'm going to try this bad boy out! We will serve it with a side of beans and throw this whole mixture into soft taco shells, YUM!
TEMPE SLIDERS + FRIES:
If you've never had Tempe before you're missing out! We first tried it at Green Dot Stables, also, if you've never been to Green Dot in Detroit you should stop reading this and go have lunch, dinner or both there, just sayin! But anyways, we tried it there once and have been hooked ever since! Tempe is a soybean base product in a patty/square-ish shape and most importantly FULL of protein, like 31g per serving! So for all you people like dude you need to eat meat and get protein, girl byeee!
We usually change it up so they will range from BBQ style, or Asian, Thai or just plain American style. We then throw them on some little slider buns, fry up some delicious waffle fries, crack open a beer and pretend we're at the bar on a date. Ok maybe not that last part but it pretty much feels like bar food without your blood pressure rising and your stomach feeling like crap!
SOUP + SANDWICHES:
Once it gets to be winter I have a ton of soups I'm going to make in the crock pot but for now I've been reaching for Amy's brand soups. They are all vegan, very filling and have a ton of different flavors to choose from! Jerek loves the chili and I love the lentil one. I also grabbed a couple new ones to bring to work for lunch this week.
For the sandwich part we usually make BLT's or bacon grilled cheese sammys. For the BLT's we use the veggie bacon (only certain ones are vegan), fresh tomatoes from our garden and lettuce. For the bacon grilled cheese, again use the vegan bacon and then Daiya brand sliced "cheese". It's so creamy and taste JUST like cheddar cheese and honestly better in my opinion. Imagine Velvetta cheese in those packets, YASSS! Jerek will make a vegan mayo and hot sauce mixture and lather it on the bread before throwing it on the stove to grill up. It's heavenly!
I also snagged a bag a fake chicken strips to have on hand to throw on big salads when we aren't feeling like cooking or on Saturday during the day. Eating vegan/plant base isn't hard, the options are endless and our grocery bill has not raised from when we ate meat (a common misconception people often think it's MORE expensive to eat veterinarian or vegan.) I hope you got some ideas for dinner and if you want to follow along this week I'll be showing you these meals on my Instagram story!
Ooh that quinoa looks delicious!
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