What we've been eating for the last couple of weeks

It feels like a long time since we shared what we've been eating for weeknight meals. So I thought back to the last couple of weeks. Obviously, our meals while we were out of town were considerably different from those we eat at home. I did my best to keep us from spending an exorbitant amount of food for those 6 days, from bringing snack lunches for the plane, to buying snack foods, fruits, chips, crackers, and juice at markets for in between meal times, and shopping at the market for some of our lunches. We still ate our share of restaurant food, but we stuck to food courts and take-out places to avoid sit-down meal pricing.

Anyway, here's what we did for dinners, beginning with our week away through to today.

While we were away, we did a combination of meals from local markets and restaurant meals. We didn't have kitchen facilities where we stayed, but we were able to do salads, sandwiches, fruit, crackers, chips, etc, outdoors several days and food courts or take-out meals on other days.

We returned a week ago Monday. That was the day our afternoon flight way delayed until evening. With the airline-provided meal vouchers we had entree salads, sandwiches, chips, and fruit. I bought the meals shortly before boarding time, and we ate in flight. When we got home, I made myself a cup of cocoa and then went to bed.

Tuesday I woke up sick. My two daughters took over dinners Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I hadn't planned anything for those days yet. So everything was up to my daughters. It's a bit of a blur what we ate, but I think we had spaghetti with meat sauce, scrambled eggs, and beef and vegetable stir fry. Sides would have been canned or frozen vegetables, fresh, frozen, or dried fruit, and rice, bread, or pasta.

Friday we had our usual pizza and movie night. My daughter made a scratch cheese pizza, mixed vegetables (frozen), and crabapple-applesauce (from the freezer).

Saturday we had leftover stir fry that my other daughter had made earlier in the week with orange wedges.

Sunday after church I went to Walmart and picked up cabbage, apples, bananas, and milk. My husband made refried beans, oven-fried corn tortilla chips, Cole slaw, and steamed carrots.

Monday I roasted a whole chicken. I got tied up in taxes earlier in the day. So getting dinner to the table in time meant I skipped making gravy. We had roast chicken with chutney, leftover cooked pasta heated with frozen spinach, garlic, and olive oil, cabbage salad with vinaigrette dressing, and dried Asian pears and prunes.

Tuesday I made gravy for the leftover chicken. We had hot chicken and gravy sandwiches on homemade bread, cabbage and avocado salad with salsa/mayo/avocado oil dressing, and green beans.

Wednesday I pulled chicken off the bones to make a chicken, rice, and vegetable (carrots and Brussel sprout leaves) casserole in a creamy soy milk and cheese sauce. With the casserole we had frozen peas and tangerines.

Thursday I simmered the chicken carcass for several hours, then pulled the very last of the chicken off the bones and made a chicken and vegetable soup to go with fresh bread and more home-dried fruit. I only had about 1 cup of chicken meat, so I also added an egg to the soup for a quasi-egg drop soup. I was able to freeze a couple of containers of chicken stock for future cooking, too.

I've been going through the deep freeze, looking for what is left from last summer's harvest. It's looking emptier and emptier with each passing week. That's a good thing. It means we're actually eating what we have. I need to do something to get the rest of my family to use some of these frozen foods in meals they prepare. I think it's more difficult for them to remember to use those frozen foods, as they don't see them as often as I do. Anyway, I need to continue to use those foods. Before I know it, it'll be time to defrost the garage freezers again.

What's been on your menu the last couple of weeks? Do you have any tricks for economizing on meals when you're traveling?

Have a great weekend, friends!

Share-Time: Your Best Instant Lunches

While on vacation, a group of us were talking about how to handle lunches on days when there is no time to cook or even to prepare much, especially since we don't buy lunchmeat on a regular basis. We all agreed that there are days when you just can't be picky, and anything is better than nothing. It's a matter of just putting random foods onto plates and calling it good.

By the way, my definition of an instant lunch is one that takes 5 minutes or less to throw together.

Here's my instant lunch from today:

apple quarters (fruit) with peanut butter (protein), slices of cheese (protein/dairy), canned pumpkin puree mixed with salt and butter and heated (vegetable), 

and for dessert, two of these part whole wheat applesauce-raisin bars (grains).

Mostly, I try to include a fruit, a veggie, some protein, and some grains or other starchy food. It's usually some version of peanut butter and/or cheese, a bread product, and any type of produce (canned, frozen, fresh, dried).

When I needed to grocery shop after church on Sunday my priorities were cheese, peanut butter, and fresh fruits and vegetables. I can throw together very basic (but complete) lunches, snacks, or breakfasts in minutes if I have those items on hand. And as these are normals foods that I almost always keep in stock, they're very budget friendly. If I didn't have the bar cookies, I'd have had a slice of bread and butter.

These are the types of lunches that we all call working lunches. I may be working on taxes, getting dinner prepped, cleaning, starting seeds or tending the garden, or working on a home painting project. My lunch sits on a plate and a grab a bit here and there.

For those of us who commute to work, these foods can also be grabbed in minutes before heading out the door when there are no leftovers waiting in the wings -some bread and butter, slices of cheese, apples or oranges, and a carrot make a complete lunch.

By the way, years ago we were in Scotland. In a pub they had something called a Ploughman's Lunch. It consisted of a chunk of bread, a wedge of cheese, an apple, and some pickles. Nothing fancy, but it got the job done. My instant lunches remind me of that simple Scottish cold meal.

So how about you? What's your favorite instant lunch? Bonus points if you can take the meal on the go, and extra points for lunches that use ingredients that you have in your kitchen right now.