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A Quick Bite » 2013 » May
 

May, 2013

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Dinner Grab Bag

Wednesday, May 29th, 2013

man reaching into grab bag Here’s a way to get out of that dinner slump, in which you find yourself serving up the same 7 meals on a weekly rotation and hearing complaints from the kids because they don’t like what’s for dinner.  Create a recipe grab bag and solve those dinnertime blues.  First, write down each meal you can think of on small, individual sheet of paper.  Consider also writing down “new recipe” or “dinner out” as well on extra sheets of paper.  Next, gather all slips of paper and place them into a bag or bowl.  Recipe grab bag is complete.  Now, each Sunday night, have family members take turns drawing a slip of paper from the bag and (ta-da!) the meals have been chosen for the week. I like to add a drum roll when the kids are drawing slips – give a touch more jazz to the event, like adding sprinkles to ice cream. Consider drawing only 5 meals out to leave days open for leftovers.  Add new ideas to the grab bag over time and soon your dinner grab bag will be chock-a-buck full of ideas. 

Grocery Store Sticker Shock, Part 3

Tuesday, May 14th, 2013

Continuing on with ways to eat well and save money…

Tip #7 Show some farmer love. Purchasing food directly from the farmer is better in sooo many ways.  In terms of cost, local, freshly picked produce will last longer before spoilage, thereby preventing wasted money. Also, talking directly with farmers may bring about other ways to save on costs. Find out from them what is in season and therefore not as costly. Perhaps they would be willing to barter something in exchange for produce. And, don’t be afraid to be the farmer yourself! Growing vegetables doesn’t have to require a large garden.  Many vegetables, such as tomatoes and potatoes, can be grown simply in a container or even bag of dirt.

Tip #8 Plan ahead and avoid impulse buying.  Set aside time on Sunday – yes, this may not be the most exciting thing to do – to figure out a meal plan for the week.  Are there creative ways you can save time or money? For example, knowing ahead of time that you will need black beans for Wednesday’s dinner, allows you to buy dried beans which are less expensive and soak them Tuesday night.  Plan out a way to use leftover beans on Thursday, such as breakfast burritos or chili.  Create a list for the grocery store and stick to it.  Impulse buying tends to be fueled more by emotional hunger and often results in the purchasing of foods with higher cost and lower nutritional value.

What’s Amy eating?

Friday, May 10th, 2013

Who says you can’t teach a dog – or a man – new tricks?  My carnivorous male (a.k.a. the husband) graciously offered to make dinner tonight.  So tonight, Amy’s eating whatever the husband is cooking and keeping all nutritional critiques to herself.  Surprisingly, the carnivorous male did pretty well!  I silently and surprisingly nodded my approval as I heard him muttering to himself in the kitchen,  “okay, I have these sauteed beans for a protein, the salad and roasted sweet potatoes for a vegetable…..now I just need a fruit.”  Not too shabby there, carnivorous male.

Tonight’s menu:

Sauteed black beans

Roasted sweet potatoes

Green salad

Fresh pineapple chunks and mandarin oranges