Two Frugal Cats

  What's on the Menu? This week I am back to my stand-by method of prepping off of Sunday's dinner since we were home for a "big dinner" this week. This made for easy lunches based around leftovers throughout the week. During the week I chose quick-cooking recipes to have dinner on the table within twenty minutes most nights. Breakfast For Breakfast this week made a fall inspired baked oatmeal using this recipe as a base. To it I added two sliced apples, nutmeg, cloves, walnuts, and a sprinkle of maple sugar over the top. I halved this recipe to make four portions. We also have protein granola bars and cereal available. Lunches Lunches are typically either dinner leftovers or a meal specifically prepped for lunches.  This week I am using the leftovers from Sunday's "big" dinner of Mac & Cheese to prep four lunches: two Mac & Cheese with pulled pork, and two with steak. Additionally I put together one meal of pulled pork sandwiches using buns in

This week we did a great job of tackling some odds and ends in the freezer that needed using. I did not have a formal meal plan at the start of the week, but we did well throughout the week making sure we were making dinners that would result in lunch leftovers, or pulling from some pre-made meals. This was a nice ease back into the meal prepping mind-set, and I hope we can keep it up in the weeks to come! On Thursday, I plan to share a meal plan and prep post for the current week. What We Ate Breakfasts Bagels with Cream Cheese or Sausage and Cheese Protein Granola Bars Bagel Breakfast Sandwich Lunches Leftover Pizza & Salad Chicken Rice Soup Salad with  Buffalo Chicken  Creamy Beef & Shells, Broccoli Steak, Rice, & Spinach Manwich Sandwiches Sides of Homemade Apple Sauce & Grapes Dinners Steak, Fish, Rice, Salad, Rolls Maple Mustard Chicken , Roasted Potatoes, Spinach Creamy Beef & Shells , Steamed Broccoli, Rolls Pesto Chicken, Steamed Carrots Maple Mustard Chick

  A Long Absence... The Spring and Summer of 2022 were filled with outdoor fun, hours of gardening, disc golf playing, family time, car repairs, travel, and not a whole lot of meal planning.... I found myself in a rut this Spring, uninspired, tired, bored. Our work days and after-work schedules were fuller, leaving less time for meal prep, and more often than not, Friday morning menu-plan & prep aspirations went largely ignored over the weekend. We spent a little more on groceries, a little more on eating out, and this was perfectly OK.  I did not take many food photos this summer, so I have included a few photos from our recent travels for you to enjoy as you read along. The Wild Horses of Corolla, NC As we've begun to transition out of the fast paced summer months, the garden bounty has (mostly) been preserved, I've begun to notice a new burgeoning issue....our pantry and freezer. Despite rising food prices, I still managed to snag many deals over the last six months, and

  Meal Plan in Review... I think we did a pretty good job sticking to the menu this week. Sometimes I have to be careful not to over prep so we don't get bored and leftovers get eaten within 3-5 days. Use it Up 3 Small  Zucchini 3 Beets 1/2 a bag of spinach leaves 1/4 head of cabbage home canned rhubarb sauce whole chicken lemons - still a few left cherry tomatoes - half gone lettuce sliced deli ham breakfast sausage  from the freezer On the Menu Breakfast Egg & Sausage Breakfast Tacos - check! Sausage, Peppers, & Egg Casserole - moved to next week I also brought bread to work for toast this week Lunches Misc leftovers from the weekend - check! This included some chicken, veg, and potato from dinner Pesto Chicken - check! Served with Salad Mac & Cheese - check! Served with various veg and chicken Dinners Roasted Chicken & Vegetables with Baked Potatoes - Sunday night's dinner, vegetables included roasted cabbage, beets, and sautéed spinach with bacon Pesto Chic

Kitchen Happenings More Freezer Adventures Recently I finally got around to doing a full inventory of our chest freezer. While I typically do a full re-arrange twice a year, this is the first time I've written down every item it contained. I'd have preferred to have done this before the days started to get warmer so that I could have done a full defrost, but the freezer was actually much less frosty than I expected, so I gentle scraping and wipe out was sufficient.  I've always tried to make a point to rotate the items in my freezer on first-in first-out methodology, but it can be tricky with chest freezers as they become full. We use a mix of milk crates and plastic baskets to organize the freezer, which helps, but often items get slid down the front or sides of the baskets, making it hard to put items back where they came from. A sampling of what my inventory sheet looks like This time when we inventoried the freezer, I tried to group items not only by type and age, but a

  Menu Planning This week we are keeping things pretty simple in the meal planning department. I find every three or four weeks or so that I plan a little more loosely, just to keep from getting to burned out. This week was a great week to lay back a little and press the easy button by eating up leftovers and leaning on quick and easy dinners. Like every week, this week's meal plan is primarily based around items that need to be used up - mainly vegetables and leftovers, supplemented by the pantry, freezer, and fresh bought items. Here are my main "use it up" candidates this week: four very wrinkly green peppers stale french bread heavy cream buttermilk leftover chicken w/ pesto head of cauliflower head of broccoli six small zucchini cereal applesauce a tiny bit of a few condiments like pesto and pizza sauce ...and still more lettuce What's on the Menu? How menu plans tend to work for us is that some ideas get assigned to specific nights, other tend to float so that w