Meal Plan Update - Week 7

We didn't manage a new recipe for this week since it is our last week in the LV condo and we are out and about as well as we need to finish as much of our perishables as possible.

Sunday - relax at "home" and had a great breakfast of grapefruit, juice, bacon, eggs, tomato, potato cakes and mushrooms
Lunch - each to his own
Dinner - Spanish stewed chicken thighs with carrots and turnip added to stew, served with steamed lemon broccoli, pickled beets (homemade) and crusty cheddar cheese bread.


Monday - staying at TI and going to show at Harrah's
Lunch - leftovers
Dinner - appetizers at TI

Tuesday - Donny and Marie Show at Flamingo
Lunch - leftovers
Dinner - leftover chicken stew with broccoli

Wednesday - DH golfing
Lunch -  
Dinner - hamburger stew  with carrots and brussels sprouts and cheesy mashed potatoes.  

Thursday - VALENTINE'S DAY Visit wedding chapels along Old Las Vegas
Lunch - tacos and quesadillas at Mickie Finnz
Dinner - crab legs and lobster tails with salad crusty bread.

Friday - DH Golfing
Lunch -fried mushrooms
Dinner - Fremont St Heart Attack Grill we decided we really didn't need to eat here as it is fast greasy food. We decided to finish the stew and pickled beets with crusty bread.

Saturday - Fremont St
Lunch - burgers at 5 Guys - the worst I've had at that chain
Dinner - fajitas Luna Rossa rigatoni a funghi and spaghetti and meatballs with caesar salad.

Menu Plan Update - Week 3

I'm still sticking with this.

This week may end up making use of the leftovers in the fridge and freezer. As mentioned in Week 1 Recap
we are spending some time this winter in Las Vegas so have limited access to ordinary kitchen ingredients (unless we completely outfit a kitchen which is not going to happen) so we are having fun improvising.
Here is Week 2 Recap.

Sunday - Football need I say more?
Lunch - pea soup
Dinner - Sausage and cabbage stew from Miz Helen's Country Kitchen I also added turnip. This was SO good that it is going into My Recipe Box!!!

Monday- Movies Gangster Squad since it was so cold out. Normally we go on Thursdays but it is supposed to warm up by then.
Lunch - leftovers pea soup and beans with toast
Dinner - last night's stew with added vegetables.

Tuesday - National Atomic Testing Museum
Lunch - the last of the stew
Dinner - Frozen chili from last week's menu with frozen rice also from last week's chicken a la orange as I made too much. Plus garlic bread (store bought 2 for $5)

Wednesday - lunch out and looking around Las Vegas
Lunch - Gordon Ramsay Rub and Grill DIVINE!

Dinner - Turkey soup and rice. Made and frozen from Christmas turkey. We were so stuffed from lunch that we had a baguette and cheese (baby brie and jalapeno Havarti) instead.

Thursday - Mob Museum and then Fremont Experience
Lunch - Turkey soup and rice
Dinner - Turkey meatloaf I can use up the cabbage I have left over from Sunday and also will make the breadcrumbs from a stale garlic bread that is languishing in the fridge    Chicken fajitas as we had calamari at Femont St in Hennessey's.

Friday - DH golfing
Lunch - leftover fajitas from last night.
Dinner - I'm thinking of chicken fajitas Turkey meatloaf I can use up the cabbage I have left over from Sunday and also will make the breadcrumbs from a stale garlic bread that is languishing in the fridge and some canned peas. The meatloaf was excellent.


Saturday
Lunch - leftover meatloaf from last night.
Dinner - Ham  with buttered sauteed cabbage ? peas (as they are in the cupboard)? Then we would definitely have to have with Potatoes au Gratin from My Recipe Box.

Las Vegas - Week 2

As I stated in my first post on meal planning I will put up my plans on Sundays and then repost it the following Saturday with the actual outcomes.
So this week we didn't really stay on plan as we ate out more than planned and also changed out minds a couple of times.

I am savouring our first winter away from the snowy north.

It is strange and unfamiliar to be living in a rental condo without all my favourite "things" around me.
We have to be creative in the kitchen as we don't have all our fancy appliances to make cooking easy, so we improvise usually to good results. But I do miss my mixer...

It is a little chilly at the moment in Las Vegas. However to begin each morning with wide open blue skies and red mountains surrounding us is a new moment every morning.

Each evening we can watch those same mountains ablaze with colour as the sun sets.

Photos taken from our condo window

Sunday January 6
Lunch - Saturday's leftover chicken a la orange The two boneless skinless chicken breasts ($3) were used for dinner for two, lunch for two and could either be one more lunch or else used in a chicken soup stock.
Dinner - homemade pizza with green peppers, onions, mushrooms and pepperoni

Making chicken soup from a chicken breast that has been in the freezer for a while, some languishing celery and carrots and will throw in the leftover frozen container of chicken soup. The mushrooms and peppers which didn't make it onto the pizza were put in the chicken pot as well.

Monday
Lunch - leftovers??  chicken soup
Dinner - We had 7:30 reservations at Gordon Ramsey's Steak in Las Vegas Paris! I posted (drooled) about it.

Tuesday
Lunch - pea soup (homemade)       since I made chicken soup on Sunday we will have that instead
Pizza at Luna Rosa the way we love it, thin and no tomato sauce!

Dinner - ham and colcannon (the ham and spinach are in the freezer leftover from a previous meal)  we had chips, eggs and beans instead, a favourite do to no brainer dinner. Also used up the remaining cheese biscuits.

Wednesday
Lunch
Dinner- cabbage and sausage stew   ham and colcannon with corn. The remaining colcannon, corn and ham bone went into a pot of pea soup that I started after dinner. That ham cost $5 and made four dinners and is now part of the soup.

Thursday - we usually go to the movies - saw Django and loved it!
Lunch - I had spotted a Nathan's hot dog stand in the Palm's casino and since I love having one of their hot dogs when we're in New York City we had one for lunch.
Dinner - DH had an urge for a hamburger so we went to TGIF's (becoming a weekly tradition after the movies).

Friday Jan 11

We went to the Neon Boneyard.

Lunch - DH had the leftover pizza from our lunch earlier this week at Luna Rosa.
Dinner - salmon  instead we opted for steamed crab legs (again) with salad.

Saturday
Lunch - pea soup
Dinner - chips, eggs and beans  fajitas with beef. I love this recipe!! Tortillas were only $1 a package for 10. I bought the blade flat iron steak for $7. The leftovers were frozen for a soup.

Meal Planning - Week 1 Recap

UPDATE: My plan is to post our plans on Sunday and then re-post the following Saturday with updates.
I'm not sure how long my good intentions will last but definitely this week forced me to reconsider our leftovers and make a conscious decision to use up the food. Therefore we have had the chili three times, in the past this might have gotten frozen for lunches but since we are in a rental condo for only another five weeks we are trying not to freeze items.

I'm going to give meal planning a try. I have always more or less planned meals in my head but perhaps in putting it in writing I can reduce our grocery spending.

This will be a little different than if we were in our own home as we are in Las Vegas for a couple of months so I do not have my pantry staples available so may have to either not make certain meals or else buy the staples that would normally be on hand.
i wouldn't normally list the contents of my fridge or freezer but there is  so little in there but it needs to be managed as mentioned below.
Nor do I have my cooking utensils or appliances such as my crockpot or breadmaker. So our initial meals until we go home may seem uninspired.
For instance we had to buy a potato masher when we moved into the LV condo.
I made the turkey pot pie with a boxed pastry mix (over $2) without my measuring cups or rolling pin. A cold bottle of club soda served as my rolling pin.

Our Christmas turkey will be the base of our soup pot this week. He is currently simmering away on the stove. He served us well, he was a  ten pound Butterball on sale for $11. We had him Christmas day, Boxing Day he was served as hot turkey sandwiches, then he became a turkey pot pie for dinner and a lunch.

I also will not be baking very much as I don't have a mixer.

There will be lots of soups as we really don't want to be eating processed foods for lunches.

Also, we are in Vegas so there will be more meals than normal eaten out.

We also don't want to stockpile freezer items or perishables as we are only in the condo until mid February when we go to Mexico for two weeks. We will have a condo there also so we will be cooking meals but again with limited resources.

Where I have left blanks I will repost at the end of the week with updates.
I am not including breakfast as we usually have juice, grapefruit, cereal and/or store bought pastry.

Sunday December 29
Lunch - leftover turkey pot pie from Saturday's dinner
Dinner - roast pork, potatoes and broccoli

Monday December 30 NEW YEAR'S EVE
Lunch - turkey soup with noodles
Dinner - cooked shrimp with dipping sauce followed by crab legs, lobster tails with salad (seafood cost $26 for 2)

Tuesday January 1
 Lunch  - late breakfast - homemade salsa and chips
 Dinner - chili with salad and Cheddar garlic biscuits


Wednesday  - originally we were going to have tuna sandwiches but the roast pork was sitting in the fridge.
Lunch  - leftover roast pork sandwiches
Dinner - same as Tuesday


Thursday movies - originally the plan was for Nathan's hot dogs at the movies but we had the pork...
Lunch - leftover roast pork sandwiches
Dinner or Lupper - TGIF at Gold Coast DH Dragonfire chicken and I had 8 oz flat iron



Friday - originally I was going to make the chicken a la orange but since there was still chili, salad and biscuits... we had to buy some additional items for the salad.
Lunch - late breakfast of sausage sandwiches (bought on sale and frozen)
Dinner - chili with salad and biscuits; the leftover chili has been frozen for a later dinner or lunch

Saturday
Lunch - we just munched on whatever as we ate a late breakfast of sausage (needed to finish the package) on English muffins (were bought earlier and frozen) - delicious
Dinner - Chicken a la orange with rice, salad and garlic bread. $3 worth of chicken breasts. Garlic bread 2 for $5.


GOOD BUYS
9 Texas ruby grapefruit for $2.99