Anyone care for some dinner?

I tried something new this week.  (Well, we did it once at the beginning of our marriage, but then never did it again.)  And it was successful!  What is this successful new thing, you ask?  Planning a weekly menu at the beginning of the week, buying all the food on Monday, and then making the food according to schedule with the recipes handy.

It went off without a sitch!  It was so easy!  Usually, I come home and think, "What the heck am I gonna make for dinner?  I don't want to make dinner.  I'm too tired to think of something, and I don't really know what we have, and I'm missing something for a certain recipe, and I don't want to go to the store.  Let's just go get something."  And then we end up eating something that is not healthy and that drains our bank account.  Seriously.  With this way of living, we spend about $400/month on food.  And we're only two people.  It's ridiculous.

So, with the help of Pinterest, I came up with a meal plan filled with healthy dinners (feel free to browse my pinboard).  Here is what we ate:

Monday: We celebrated my 25th birthday and ate out this day.  But we split a salad, a meal, and a dessert.  It was the perfect size.  We were full, but not stuffed, and still had room for dessert!  And since neither one of us is a huge fan of leftovers, there's no food left in our fridge to stink it up.

Tuesday: Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo
How is alfredo healthy?  Using Greek yogurt, of course!  One cup (which is actually quite filling) is about 450 calories.  And you don't need anything else with it.  So that could be your whole meal!  It was mine.  =)

Wednesday: Chicken & Veggie Stir-fry...kind of
So I made this one up a couple months ago, and it's amazing.  Brown two cloves garlic in olive oil.  Add one chicken breast (unless you really want chicken) and a healthy amount of lemon pepper.  When it's almost cooked through, add red onions, red cabbage, sweet potatoes, broccoli, carrots, water chestnuts, snap peas, and a lot more lemon pepper!  Mix it around and then add about a fourth cup of water and put on a lid to let it simmer for a few minutes.  The broccoli should be bright green and the potatoes should be semi-soft.  Take the lid off, turn the heat up, and keep mixing it around so the water evaporates.  You can eat it just like that or with white or brown rice.  A large serving of that WITH white rice is just 347 calories!

Thursday: Oriental Chicken Salad
Ephraim LOVES salads for dinner.  I, on the other hand, believe that salads are a pre-dinner course, or a side.  So I've made a deal with him: I will make one salad for dinner a week.  This one was pretty good.  I did less soy sauce because I'm not a huge fan.  Ephraim loved it!

Friday: We had dinner at one of Ephraim's mission companions' house.  I didn't have to worry about it, but it was NOT healthy.  The next morning, I got up and worked by butt off!  Literally!  At least that's what if feels like...




Saturday: Crockpot Chicken Taco Chili

This was yummy.  I decided we'll do one crockpot meal a week, also.  I think I'll probably end up doing it on Sundays in the long run, but it worked out well for this Saturday because we were busy!  This made a lot!  We ended up giving some to friends because there's no way we'd finish it.

Sunday: Skillet Lasagna
Interesting.  In the future, it needs something else.  Maybe more sauce, or more ricotta, maybe even some good meat.  It's low on calories, so I don't think adding some meat will ruin it's health value. 

So, hopefully this will keep working as school begins.  We're both taking 19 credits, so we shall see!  Wish me luck!