I'm going back to work, so now need to plan lunches and dinners for us

and am feeling a bit overwhelmed.

luckily, I have 10 days of 8 hour days to ease into the 10 hour days, but since hubby's schedule switches from days to nights there will be days he won't see me before he heads to work when he'll need both a dinner and a take away lunch for his night shifts

anybody ever use one of those weekly menu/shopping list services? can you suggest one you liked?

heavy use of crockpots and make ahead meals are in my future this summer

help?

She's a hair dresser w/her own shop, usually works till 7PM or so, he is out of the house at 5AM. They take one or two Sundays a month and cook up a bunch of stuff that can be portioned out and frozen for weekday lunches/dinners (he has cooking facilities to reheat stuff at work). Seems a good fit for them. Good luck on the return to work!

whole week (I'm starting Tuesday) so I'm sitting here staring at a list of days and just getting freaked out LOL

AND the wise and wonderful Mr. Ketchup doesn't cook. he makes sandwiches, cold cereal and microwave TV dinners. That's about it.

sigh..

:hi:

(on edit) I love the frozen stuffed bell peppers the grocery routinely has on sale. Forget which brand - Marie Callendar's maybe?, it's a red package. They're good...

One of my few indulgences in prepared ready to microwave food. These are good.

Yeah, I could fix 'em myself cheaper but being single it just doesn't seem worth the effort.

They come to mind right away. Lately, my market has been having these great buy and get free sales. I've been getting lean beef roasts and some boneless fresh pork ones, too. And I have plenty of choices after I make one. First day, it's sort of an as-is plain roast with veggies on the side. But after that I can fix quick meals like hot beef sandwiches or slice them thin for cold lunches.

Just a thought since it's easy once you know you have a the main protein all cooked and ready for some variations that come together quickly. I also rely on bags of mixed frozen veggies of different kinds to change things up. I get them when they're on sale. Keeping a few on hand can be a life saver when you get sick of the same old thing.

And then there's my - bake the five pounds of taters and freeze for pulling out and using different ways.

If you like cole slaw here's a tip I learned decades ago. Shred up the cabbage and keep it in an enamel pot in the fridge. Put a couple of ice cubes on top and cover with plastic wrap and then foil. Add new cubes as needed. It will stay crisp for several days so you can make it fresh without starting the process from scratch every time.

When they were on sale for a buck I got a bag each of diced onions and green peppers <gasp>. Figured to try it once. I'm sold - except I'll dice my own when I run out. I've grabbed for those bags so many times for just that little bit of diced veggie. Like the other night when I wanted to make my own thousand island dressing. I needed a spoon of diced onion and grabbed for the frozen instead of peeling a fresh onion. It's not an earth shattering tip, but it really does save time when you're in a rush.

And how about some make ahead Mexican like burritos to freeze and grab for the nuking at work - or a pan of enchiladas. You can grab some for nuking and have a small tub of salad on the side.

I suppose that making stuff ahead is they way to go. Things always taste better when the flavors get a chance to marry for a while, too.

Congratulations on getting back to work!!!

LTNS!!

:pals:

I'm around but "weeding in the yard" season is upon us. And I've been trying to read more and am loving it.

Take care and congrats again on the work. You deserve the bestest! :D

and "dinner" wasn't what I ate when I got up in the afternoon--it was breakfast. Sometimes I'd get it together and take homemade food. More often, it was a nuked bean burrito plus a homemade salad at 2 AM.

Those long days will sneak up on you and you'll find out you're a lot more tired than you think you'll be. Keep it simple, keep it easy, and keep it something you can nuke.

it's getting hubby off to work on his 12 hour night shifts with decent food when I won't be home to 'supervise'

hehehehe

that can be stretched into at least 3, like roasting a chicken and having chicken & noodles one night and then chicken salad for lunches. Family Circle used to have really good meal planning ideas, but they've started to rely too much on processed stuff, so I stopped reading them. The newspaper also used to have better recipes and meal planning advice, but now their columns advise you to buy already prepared food, which is too expensive for most people. Maybe now that food prices are soaring, the food columnists will start doing something more creative.

In the Atlanta Journal, there is a column in the Sunday newspaper that has weekly meal planning, you might want to check them out online for some ideas.

thanks!

:hi:

.......... until you guys can get past the early start. Don't fret about food right now. The job's the bigger issue.

And Congrats on the job!!

Once your feet get back on the ground, circle back and decide what you want to do.

Quite some years ago, my former father-in-law was left a widower. He was in Florida and my ex and I were in MD. We didn't want to move him up here in the winter, so we cared for him down there for the two months until warm weather. We alternated flying down once a week to keep him company and to cook for him. It all went into the freezer and all he had to do was zap it. Twenty one meals a week. All done on Saturday and half of Sunday. With a number of meals going at the same time, it was actually pretty easy .... and allowed us to visit while working.

That's what I'd suggest. Cook one or two days a week and freeze it. Maybe get one of those food suckers. Get the kind that uses bags in which you can not only store the food, but boil it to reheat it. That's a better way than zapping it. It doesn't dry out or change texture at the edges. It actually tastes pretty damned fresh. You could even save pancakes or french toast and reheat it this way. Our Food Saver brand uses such bags. Just don't suck the liquidy items, like stew or pasta. Simply seal them. Dry items suck well. All reheat beautifully.

I've been cooking from scratch for the last 3 years, every time we do the processed food thing (or even restaurant meals these days) intestinal distress ensues.

so my budget will not only go through the roof with pre packaged food, the Malox bills will be HUGH!!!

:rofl:

I'll be filling the freezer for sure, luckily I have space left and it's just a matter of convincing the wise and wonderful Mr. Ketchup that zapping a home make freezer meal isn't any more work than a Hungry Man dinner

:hide:

http://whatsfordinneraustin.com/index.html

They actually will mail the kits out of town but that sounds expensive. Maybe there's a similar operation near you? I'm thinking about giving them a try.

Good luck with the new job! :hi:

That company is a keeper since they send out of state. I'm saving the web site. It's an idea whose time has come.

I think someone here was once looking for a service like this to send an elderly relative who lived in another state. I can see this for holiday gift giving sort of like the fruit of the month club and others like that.

if it's what you want, that is! LOL Ever since we really got the garden going and the chickens and ducks, I'm hard pressed to want to leave here to go to work. Would love to stay home and putter around.

Anywho...I do pack both of our lunches everyday. Each weekend, I make either pasta salad, macaroni salad, broccoli salad, or carrot salad, stuff along those lines or we have cottage cheese with either fresh pineapple or grape tomatoes. I also slice up a fresh pineapple and have plenty of other fresh fruit to pack: grapes, tangelos, bananas, etc.

We generally have some kind of sandwich on whole wheat, either PBJ, tuna salad, salmon salad, chicken fried tofu cutlets, falafel or my favorite, the green sandwich: homemade hummus in a wheat pita with slices of avocado, cucumber, baby lettuces, sprouts, and just a wee bit of crumbled gorgonzola. Love it! Tastes like summer.

I also bake some kind of cookie or brownies and a breakfast bread, muffins, or bagels on Sunday. Husband mostly takes those. He eats more than I do and has a sweet tooth. ;) We have homemade yogurt with fruit and cereal.

I've gotten into this rhythm of doing all of this every weekend. Granted, it doesn't leave me much down time on the weekend but we feel so much better physically when we eat like this, so it's worth it.

So, what's the new job? :hi:

WAYYY too healthy for him :cry:

I'm going to work for the National Park service as a seasonal worker through Labor Day which is right about when I'll be sick of it :rofl:

It's fairly close though and good money and probably be something I'll go back to year after year. Which should work out OK

We'll see.. :shrug:

without knowing what's in his lunch and he's really hungry, I bet he would! :rofl:

Cool on the job! What kind of stuff will you be doing?

I'll sell you the ticket and tell you where the elevator is

:evilgrin:

as for Mr K, he's having a tough enough time with this schedule, I don't want to rock his world

we could cut him a little slack, then. ;)

Easy to make and bake. Cut in squares and freeze. Why buy frozen food when you can freeze your own? I had some for lunch I froze three weeks ago and it was still wonderful.

On weekdays, stick to things that cook quickly - ground meats, pork chops, steaks, fish steaks, boneless chicken.

Buy pre-packaged veggies to save time. Steam and toss with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and herbs. Use those small potatoes that cook quick. Packaged salads or salad bar from the grocery.

and lasagnas for the freezer.

The main reason I was so stressed is I thought I had another week to get ready to go to work, but they called me in with 36 hours notice. If I'd had this week to get stuff prepped (which is what they originally told me) I'd be set, but with getting the last of the County Party Candidates Debate set up for my ONLY day off this week and working the Polls at the Primary June 3rd (15+ hour day) losing these 5 days cost me. A lot.

I've got a plan now, hope it works ......

:hide:

I just make sure that the sandwich ingredients Himself likes are in abundant supply and keep cookies baked for dessert. Jars of groovy little pickle-type things and GOOD tortilla chips pick up the slack. He's perfectly happy alternating ham sammich with PB&J with cheese-and-pickle with egg salad, lather, rinse, repeat. Now and then a leftover like cold pizza or macaroni salad, or a container of cottage cheese with (shudder) 1000 Island dressing and some packs of crackers.

For me, I make one Big Honkin' Pot O' Something on the weekends and eat the leftovers for a couple of days of the week, and keep stuff like hummus and pita bread and homemade olive tapenade around for when other inspirations fail. Now that summer's at hand I'll keep plenty of fresh veggies cut up and dump handfuls into a ziploc, and add some cream cheese or cottage cheese, too.

Good luck on the job!

encouragingly,
Bright

We've been having great sales on Pork roasts here. 89 Cents a pound! I bought a few and stuck them in the pressure cooker with a cup of spicy Pace Picante sauce. Cooked for an hour it's done and ready to shred. I then mix it with some medium picante sauce and make sandwich size baggies of pork n sauce for SO to nuke for lunch or dinner. He just has to put it on a burger bun. I think I have about 30 sandwichs worth in the freezer now. Add a pickle and a slice of swiss and he's in sandwich heaven.

I can't make it too tough though, after 12 hours he's pretty toasty. especially if he has to be back for another 12 hour shift that night.

If I can just get through to the 20th I should be fine....

there will be days he won't see me before he heads to work when he'll need both a dinner and a take away lunch for his night shifts

Don't want to upset the apple cart here too much, but is it really impossible for your husband to make his own bag lunch or dinner once in a while? :)

I mean, my wife MIGHT make me a lunch for work if I really asked, but since we both work, it's only fair that I take care of myself as much as possible.

or corn flakes.

that's about the extent of his kitchen skills.

He's already started doing his own laundry again and helping take care of the animals, which I had taken over completely when I was not working.

He's not lazy or sexist, just a total kitchen klutz.

Or like he says "The Fire Department and I have an agreement, I stay out of the kitchen and they don't come visit"

:rofl:

edit to add, when we were running the business together, I cooked and he did the dishes. It's not that he refuses, but he really is pretty bad in the kitchen.