Eating at home

I love to eat out.  I love to order take out.  Thai food, Chinese food, Pizza, Burgers, Italian - you name it, I probably like it.  Eating out right now is counterproductive to many of my current goals: losing weight, saving money and cleaning out the freezer. 

So as a family we have decided to really cut out the eating out/take out.  We love it, so this isn't 100%, we're trying to limit it to once a week.  With my weekly produce box from Newleaf and my freezer full of tons of food, I am creating weekly meal plans. 

My produce box this week had:

• 5 apples
• 3 oranges
• 1 grape fruit
• 3 spring turnips
• 1 large head of lettuce
• bunch of chard
• 4 russet potatoes
• 1 lb strawberries
• pint of mushrooms
• garlic
• 4 bananas

The large squash is actually from last weeks box; it is a kabocha squash.  My friend Taryn gets a produce box from a CSA and she got hon tsai tai this week and had no idea what to do with it.  I found this Spring Green Tart recipe and realized I had the chard coming in my box.  We decided to have a cooking day this weekend, so she brought a bunch of her stuff over.   From her box she brought hon tsai tai, baby spinach, carrots, parsnips and rhubarb.

After picking up my box on Saturday morning, I wrote out a meal plan for the week.  I mostly only plan out dinner because breakfast and lunch are more spontaneous.  Breakfast is usually a homemade breakfast sandwich, a bagel with almond butter and jam, or yogurt and granola.  Lunch is leftovers or a frozen meal with some produce. 

Saturday: Chicken Curry w/ mushrooms, carrots, onions and peas

Sunday: Lunch: Spring green tart. Dinner: Spinach and Artichoke dip, grilled pork chops with corn on the cob and salad

Monday: Salmon Dream Dinner with roasted parsnips and carrots and salad

Tuesday: Grilled pork loin w/ corn on the cob and salad

Wednesday: Tacos w/ turnips and salad

Thursday: Baked chicken tenders with chard and roasted potatoes and salad

Friday: Frozen Pizza night with salad

Eating at home is easier with a plan, but it will still be a challenge to fight the daily urge to order something tasty and easy.   I don't plan the fruit into the meals, but I do serve fruit at meal times.  Sometimes the fruit can be overlooked, but if I put it on our plates at breakfast and/or dinner, we generally eat it up.