The Daily Dish Recipes

I cannot stand seeing my children reach for boxes of cereal every morning. Sometimes they reach for oatmeal, but more often than not, they just grab the cereal because it is easy. So here’s what we do to ensure they get a few well rounded breakfast meals throughout the week, while still getting to choose what they eat.

Typically, on Sunday we begin to prepare everything.

EGGS - We boil  2 dozen eggs. I have five children, but only four who will eat eggs. This allows four of them to eat a hard boiled egg each day if they want. Sometimes they eat them for snack after school. A hard boiled egg is a terrific addition to any breakfast - full of protein.

SAUSAGE -  I don’t do this one every single week, but I try to do it at least once a month. After all, sausage isn’t good for you, so there is no benefit other than they enjoy it. We purchase a couple of lbs. of ground country sausage. I create small patties and cook them on the stove in a huge skillet (I can usually cook about 10 at a time). Once cooked, they are wrapped individually in wax paper and then slipped into a zip top bag. They can remove one sausage and heat it in the microwave to accompany whatever else they choose.

BACON - So I do this more than I should, but most Sunday’s I drop about two or three packages of bacon onto baking pans, pop them into the oven and remove them before they get hard. I wrap two pieces per piece of waxed paper. They pop them in the microwave for about 30-45 seconds and they have two strips of piping hot bacon to eat with breakfast.

PANCAKES - I make them from scratch and often I “hide” things in them. (I’m a sneaky chef - so they are usually healthy). I make up as many as I can possibly do in about a half hour to hour. We wrap them in two’s and three’s in waxed paper and again, place them in a zip top bag and freeze. The kids can enjoy pancakes as an alternative to breakfast cereal several times a week.

We also always have bread on hand, we alternate between English Muffins and Bagels and sometimes I cook up some biscuits real quick when they get up.

Each week we purchase one huge bag of apples, one huge bag of oranges, a bag of grapes and two bunches of bananas. They choose whatever they want each morning, but they know they have to choose at least one kind of fruit.

It works, because they still feel like they have total control (ie. choices), and I know they are eating a bit better.

Do you have any tricks for breakfast?

With my obsession with all things food, and then the fact that I truly enjoy meal planning, I can remember discovering awhile back - that most families have meal plans that consist of about 21 “Family Favorites”.  The point is, that most families have a favorite meal - they actually have 21 meals that get made the most.

I happened to stumble upon a post on the Homesteading Housewife yesterday, regarding this very 21 meal thing.

She mentioned that if she had the ingredients to make just 21 meals in her freezer or pantry at all times, she’d never have one of those “What’s for dinner” moments.

I completely agree. Meal planning is a huge benefit and if you aren’t into freezer cooking than this is the way to go.
Since I do a lot of new recipes throughout a week, I won’t give up trying new things. But I do have 21 (actually more than that) that are back ups for a meal if I don’t feel like cooking a brand new recipe. Just for the record, a few of these 21 have two items per # so I’m sure there is more than 21 meals here.

Here are our 21 meals:

1. macaroni and cheese (usually with an add-in like chicken or hotdogs)
2. Cheesy Chicken Casserole
3. spaghetti
4. Fettucine Alfredo
5. Home-made pizzas
6. Chicken and Dumplings
7. Grilled Chicken
8. Sausage and Egg Casserole (my kids would eat this daily!)
9. Hamburgers and Hot Dogs
10.  Lasagna
11. Taco’s (soft and hard) and Quesadillas
12. Cajun Pasta
13. Homemade Hamburger Pasta (its a home-made version of Hamburger Helper)
14. Chicken and Rice Casserole
15. Beef Pasta Bake
16. Sloppy Joes
17. Sandwich Wraps
18. Breakfast for Dinner (Brinner?)
19. Chicken Nuggets or Chicken Strips
20. Beef and Rice “Stew”
21. Cheeseburger Soup and Other Soups (with Grilled Cheese and a salad)

Much like Dana, I will ask:

What about you?
What foods are in your list?
Be sure to leave a link so I can read your 21 list.

Monday (10/20)
Home-made Pizza (a favorite around here)

Tuesday (10/21)
Chicken Scampi

Wednesday (10/22)
Soft Taco’s

Thursday (10/23)
Chicken and Cheese Lasagna (I change it up a little and will share my recipe after I make it and take photos)

Friday (10/24)
Roast Beef and Cheese Wraps (we also make Turkey and Ham wraps too)

Saturday (10/25)
Rosy Potato Soup (cooked with Bacon too) - I’ll share my recipe and picture after this weekend.

Sunday (10/26)
Pot Roast

Have a great week!

WHAT’S ON YOUR MENU?

Go tell us here.

The weekend is a great time to do some meal planning for the following week. I try to do it every Friday, though I must admit I am sometimes bad about it. Planning out your meals saves you time and money.

The best thing to do is sit down and plan out how many meals you need to account for between now and when you are going shopping again. For me, doing it on Friday - I have Friday dinner, Saturday breakfast, lunch and dinner, Sunday breakfast, lunch and dinner and then Monday - Thursday of the next week, I only have to worry about Dinner. Everyone will be different. My kids eat the school lunch, and I usually don’t cook them breakfast during the school week. They eat things like muffins, bagels or english muffins, cereal, oatmeal and frozen waffles and pancakes (which I might add I whip up ahead of time in about 20-30 minutes and then freeze so they are ready any time they need them.) I also pick up deli meat, so the kids either eat sandwiches or leftovers for lunch on Saturday and Sunday. This means I am only dealing with breakfast two days, and dinner seven days. And of course I do have to pick up some extra things for after school snacks and weekend snacks.

I try to plan around sales and coupons, but that isn’t always possible. I love cooking with my crock pot and would like to use it some this coming week. There isn’t much meat on sale this week, so I will have to try to stretch it as much as I can. Leftover roasted chicken or even slow cooked chicken can be used for all sorts of things, as can pork and beef.

What you need to do is decide in advance the meals you’d like to prepare, write out an ingredient list, check your well-stocked pantry or refrigerator (or freezer if you have one), and see what you already have. Then check sales fliers or coupons to see if you can save in any other ways. Write out a new list of only what you need to purchase and head to the store.

Meal planning is a great way to save yourself some time and money in the kitchen and in your budget. These days any little bit helps.

After a lot of trial and error in my own meal making co-op endeavors, these are some of the tips and examples that have worked for us.

The first thing you will need to do is make a list of your families favorite meals and what ingredients they require. You will need to get together with the other members of your co-op and take a vote. Each family should wind up with at least five meals on their list at the end. Keep in mind that food allergies or picky eaters could prohibit other families from enjoying that meal. If something can be eliminated or substituted you might wish to share that and then make note of what requests anyone has.

You will take your list home and for the following week, each family will prepare dinner each night for their own family as well as making an additional meal for each family participating. You might even wish to make an extra one for your own family. All extras (including for other families) need to be stored in the freezer and labeled with the name of the meal.

A smaller co-op works best. We found that three families works really well.

At the end of the week the families will get together and hand out their extras to the other families. Each family should receive five meals from each participating family.

Here is a quick rundown on how that would work:

For instance, Pamela, Sarah and Jacque all start a co-op.

Pamela chooses five meals to create.

Starting on Monday night, she creates a Enchilada Casserole for her own family, and in addition one for both Sarah and Jacque’s family. She then freezes Jacque and Sarah’s, after first carefully marking what the meal is on the container it is placed in, and quick, and easy, directions for the meal.

Meanwhile on Monday night at Jacque’s house and also at Sarah’s house, the same thing should be occuring. Each girl is preparing a meal for their own family, and then preparing one for each other family in the co-op. This continues throughout the entire week with each meal.

A week after they have begun, Jacque, Sarah and Pamela get together to exchange their meals. Pamela will give five meals to Jacque and five meals to Sarah. Each lady should leave the swap with ten different meals (five from each of their friends).

And if Pamela, Sarah and Jacque were smart ladies, they should have also prepared an extra dinner each night for their own family and frozen it.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below.

Starting a meal making co-op is an excellent way to save money each month as well as saving time preparing meals. What is better than saved money and time in a busy  household? Happy, healthy kids - and because you are choosing the meals together - you can ensure your family is eating well.

To start a meal making co-op, you will need to find at least two or three other interested families. You will be very surprised that once people see what you are doing, how quickly they wish to join you. Don’t be surprised if eventually you have to turn people away.

You will also need to start thinking big. You will be preparing several meals at the same time. You will want to find things that are easily frozen and can be heated up in less than an hour with no preparation at the other end.

You will need to get organized, have a spare freezer at your disposal for extra storage space,  and be prepared to enjoy delicious foods you didn’t have to make yourself.

Tomorrow I will discuss the exact logistics of how this whole co-op thing works so you can see exactly how something like this can save you time and money in the kitchen.

Meal planning in an exceptional way to save a little money on your food costs. With the cost of everything rising these days, food has not gone untouched. In fact, things cost quite a bit more than they did this time last year. So how do you save a little cash by using meal planning?

Begin by preparing a meal planning list for 1 week. As you begin doing this more frequently, you can prepare two weeks or even an entire month at one time. Don’t forget breakfast and lunch either!

Choose 5-7 recipes or dishes to make for each meal (breakfast, lunch and dinner for one week). This leaves an opening or two for a quick meal out, delivery in or a leftovers night.

When you are choosing the recipes you wish to create, check your coupons and grocery store fliers for what’s on sale that week. Planning your meals around this can save you considerably more money.

Clean out your refrigerator at least once a week. This way you can plan for one leftovers night, food won’t spoil and you won’t forget what you have in there.

When doing your shopping for your meal planning - carry your list with you and stick to it. Don’t purchase anything extra - don’t be tempted by another sale if it doesn’t fit into the realm of that particular shopping list. You can always go home and meal plan for the following week and incorporate those items.

Introduce your kids to new foods at least once a week. Try something new - whether it be for breakfast or dinner - but allow the children to experience something new. Also don’t forget to include them in the decision making process. They will actually love knowing what’s for dinner ahead of time and might even wish to help out.

So there are a few quick trips for saving money with meal planning. Do you have any great tips that work for you?

Today is Meal Planning day at my house, as is typical on Monday’s. Sometimes I start on them over the weekend, and I almost always ask the kids what they might like to eat over the upcoming week. I am in desperate need for a Freezer Cooking session, but that might have to wait another week or so. So this week I have created my menu and plan to prepare two chicken dishes (we buy chicken breasts in bulk), three hamburger related dishes (3 lb. family pack of ground beef - MUCH cheaper that way), I left one night of BBQ (hot dogs/hamburgers) and I left one night free, because we are seriously contemplating going camping this upcoming weekend, so I will need to meal plan for that before we head out.

It isn’t hard to meal plan, if you try to make similar dishes. If the chicken breasts can all be prepared together, do that on the same night. Even if you don’t use it for two more nights. Same with the ground beef, etc. I usually season my ground beef similar for all meals, but I prefer ground turkey which was not on sale in my neck of the woods last week, so no ground turkey meals this week.

Once you have decided what recipes you want to make for the upcoming week, time to visit the pantry and refrigerator and see what you already have on hand. If you have something to create the meal you want to prepare, use it. You might also try to incorporate any foods that might be getting ready to expire soon (sour cream, cream cheese, vegetables, fruits, meats, etc.) This way, you don’t waste food, but you still get a healthy meal.

Whatever is left on your list of items you need, make a quick run to the grocery store and buy only what is on your list. We usually buy a lb. of three or four different lunch meats at the same time, to get the kids through a week full of lunches. We also tend to buy TONS of flour tortillas because they like putting cheese and meat on them and eating them like a sandwich roll-up. (they also make Quesadillas for snacks a lot).

By doing this, I save a ton of money on meal preparation because I use what I have. I try not to waste and I almost always incorporate one meal of leftovers a week. The kids don’t seem to mind, and the nights that we do a leftovers meal, I often prepare a special dessert so they feel like they got something new anyway.

What tricks do you have for meal planning?