Weekly planner

I do this & it does save alot of money!!!
I will buy my fruits & vegtables, like 7 oranges, 7 apples,
For every day meal & snacks,
Lots of boneless skinless chicken, & my fish, beans,
Whatever you like to eat your yogurt make sure theres enough for the whole week, & your good to go
this way your not going out for dinner & eat a hamburger, your plan was to eat chicken with veggies & thats what you eat :flowerforyou:
Thats how I do it.... Hopefully there are more responses because I'd like new ideas also

I used to plan each week's meals in advance and purchase exactly what I needed for them. But my teenagers would complain and moan and refuse to eat the healthy(ish) food I slaved over. Even my spouse didn't like some of what I cooked and would often make himself a 2nd dinner late at night after I was sleeping (no wonder he was so overweight!). Finally, after 20 years of this, I had enough and resigned my position as the head chef .

Now I buy a variety of meats, cheeses, sauces, pasta/rice, fruits and veggies and each person can make whatever they want. I make a bit extra of my own dinner to feed the 4 yr old. We have a planner book on the kitchen counter, and if someone uses something up or we're low on it, they have to write it on the weeks' list. I use the list to shop each Saturday for the upcoming week. Meat is divided up into single serving sizes and frozen. Mostly I buy lean beef, chicken, fish, shrimp, along with some sausage, soy and pork. Sauces and canned/frozen veggies are small sizes, individual portioned.

It might be selfish of me, but I did it the other way for a very long time with no appreciation and SO much waste. The teens are learning to cook (I am always available to teach/help), and my spouse is only eating one meal a night now.

I would also love the ravioli recipe. I talked w/my BF the other day to let him know that when I was cooking, I was a lot thinner, so I am back in the kitchen. It helps me to have someone that appreciates the cooking & the effort I do. Last night I made feta stuffed chicken breasts...he was floored, esp. when I told him I made up the recipe after a friend & I talked about her stuffed chicken breast recipe. I hate to admit it was one of the easiest things I've done. Mix low-fat (couldn't find fat-free) feta roasted red bell pepper-chopped & kalamata olives chopped, cut slit in side of chicken breast, stuff it, pin together w/toothpicks. Meanwhile, soften chopped onions & garlic in 1Tbls. EVOO, add chicken breasts, brown on one side, turn down heat, add liquid from the olives & peppers (maybe 1/2c total) or chicken broth & simmer for about 15 min, flip, repeat, then serve. It was better than I expected. Of course, he being the red meat king, now wonders if I can do it w/beef. I told him I would try it, but will be using blue cheese, then grill onions & mushrooms.

Spinach and Cheese Ravioli
Batch Size: 1
Serving Size : 3-4 ravioli
Servings Per Batch: 5 (This can be more or less depending on the size that you make them. I use a cute little heart shaped cookie cutter)

- 1 cup of flour
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup of milk
- pinch of salt
- large mixing bowl
- rolling pin or pasta maker if you have one. (if you have one I am terribly jealous!)
- cookie cutter (optional)
- dough knife or regular knife
- 1/2 cup of frozen, chopped, cooked spinach. (following the cooking directions on the back of the bag)
- 1/2 cup of your choice of cheese (I like mozerella)
- extra flour to keep dough from sticking to pin, hands, and counter.

I like to use a mixing bowl or even my kitchen aid for the first part of this, I'm not just a fan of sticky hands. Combine 1 cup of flour, 1 egg, and 1/4 cup of milk into bowl and begin to mix. You will want to mix until all ingredients are fully mixed.

Next, you will lightly flour a counter in your kitchen. Make sure it is CLEAN!! You will then take the dough from the bowl and put it on to the counter and begin to kneed it. You hands will get sticky, just make sure to keep the counter, hands and dough floured when this happened. You will kneed the dough for about 10minutes until its ellastic and smooth in texture.

This part is important, please do not skip it!
Once you are done with kneeding the dough you will want to TIGHTLY wrap it up in plastic wrap, make sure there aren't any air pockets. Then, leave it in your fridge for at least an hour if not longer. This will give the dough time rest and make sure all the ingredients stick together well. Also, it keeps the dough from shrinking back to the original size when you are rolling it out.

While your dough is resting you will cook your frozen spinach per the directions on the back of the bag. You will then drain your mixture and let it cool. While it is cooling feel free to grate the 1/2 cup of cheese. Obviously if you want more of this mixutre you can make more, if you want less ... then make less. I usually add just a little garlic powder and or italian seasonings to this misture as well. Sometimes I will get frisky and toss in some chicken, but I found that I prefer to have a bigger serving of protien on the side when I actually make the whole dinner.

After you let your dough rest for at least 1 hour you will pull it out and cut it in half. Wrap up one of the sides exactly like you had before and put that back into the fridge. You will kneed you dough out just a little bit until it isn't so cold and is easy to work with. You will roll out your dough until it is about the thickness of a nickle ... 1/8'' .. maybe? Just want it very very thin. I like to use my heart shaped cookie cutter to make all of my pieces the same size. Another way to do it is to cut out long rectangle stripes the same size, but I find this harder to make the same size. You will take the last egg you have and add some water in a small bowl and mix it around together.

Anyhow, you will pick one of the ways to do it, once you have the shapes you want you will take about 1/2tbsp of your mixture and place it in the center of the ravioli. Take your egg mixture you just made above and lightly put some on the edges of the ravioli, take the top part of your cut-out and place it on top of hte mixture, you will press the two together gently and make sure there aren't any air pockets. Last, take a fork and press it down on the edges to ensure that they stay together. You will then gently use a knife or dough cutter to help left the raviloi off of the counter. Sometimes they seperate cause the dough is too stick you may have to flour the counter extra and use the fork to push the sides together again.

Make sure when you pick up the ravioli you are gentle with it and also flour the entire thing before place it on a place and/or cutting board. You will let them sit there for about 30min. I advise that you freeze the ones you are not going to use in order to avoid them getting stuck together in the fridge after sitting. I would only put one maybe two servings per freezer bags, but you want to make sure they they are very dry and do not overlap too much in the bag. Other wise while they freeze they will glue together. It just how dough works.

When you are ready to serve you will just heat a pan of of water, make sure its rapidly boiling before you put in your ravioli's. Cook for about 10min then take out and serve with some piping hot marinera sauce or white sauce and top with a little cheese if you want. I will serve this with a side of chicken and a nice big bowl of salad.

It takes a lot of time so I hope you have a good open gap in your weekend! I usually make a weeks batch on Sunday while I am doing laundry and cleaning )