Sunday, February 25, 2018

Meal Planning When You are Snowed In


We're not actually snowed in, but things will be moving slower today since it is a Sunday and less urgency with the city to get roads back to driving conditions. In an effort to eat down the pantry, fridge, and freezer, I did not do a snowmaggedan shop on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning, forcing me to plan with what we have. Last night, we ate up the last of last Mondays soup with some deli meat and cheese oven toasted sandwiches-pretty darn tasty. We'll have some egg burritos and fruit for lunch/brunch and I made Turkey meatballs yesterday morning. I haven't decided if we will have with pasta and red sauce or as a meat and potato meal.  If you care to see my "recipe" for turkey meatballs and my obsessive pricing, scroll to the end of the post.

DD2 has a busy weeknight schedule every day and we may be passing each other tomorrow so I need to make sure there is a hearty serving of something for her to heat up before she heads back to school for show choir practise. Tuesday she has vocal jazz followed by a violin lesson and is sure to be swamped with homework. Wendesday is more vocal jazz, more show choir, and more homework, and Thursday she tutors English language learner elementary students, plus homework so I want easy those nights as well. Friday there is no school and my day off, so I only feel a need to have enough options planned to Thursday. I'll do a budget recap for February as well-pretty happy with my efforts, but there are definitely more opportunities to streamline our spending even more. I'm not completely done with February spending as we are out of apples and oranges, really all fruit but some forzen strawberries and blueberries and a can of Pineapple and the weekend will wipe out our bread so I'll stop on my way home tomorrow,. Onward with meal options.


  • Turkey meatballs and either pasta and red sauce, or with Julienne potatoes and vegetables
  • Pasta (if not with meatballs) with marinara and mozzarella cheese bread
  • Chicken sandwiches, french fries, and steamed carrots
  • Bean soup,(making today), cheese, meat, and crackers
  • Chicken strips, fajita rice and beans
  • Hot dogs/brats, mac n cheese, or frebch fries or potato wedges
  • Ring Sausage, cheese and veggie risotto
  • Home made pizza with onions and mushrooms, tomatoes and mozzarella
  • Frozen freezer finds-frozen pizza, taquitos, pizza rolls, remaining chicken strips or patties
My turkey meat ball recipe
$1.99      Aldi frozen 1 pound ground turkey
$0.06      1/4 cup milk
$0.22      1.3 cup quick oats
$0.12       1 egg
$0.20      Assorted spices-Italian season, garlic powder, pepper

$2.49 for 13 meatballs, four servings at  $0.63 per serving, with someone getting an extra meatball. 

12 comments:

  1. Sounds delicious. I'd love your bean soup recipe! I have a ride for the kids to this morning's tournament game (grateful!) & then I'll drive to the finals. As a result of them making the finals, I'm swapping our dinner plans & M will grill something instead of my more elaborate plans. We ended up going out last night. It was such a treat. My friend took the boys to their game, so we took advantage of the free date night. It was lovely.

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    1. My soup is hardly a recipe. Dependin gon how much bean, whihc I have presoaked in a water with a little baking sida the night before, per cup of dried beasn I cook a 1/2 onion, a large carrot, a celeray stock, sometimes more if I'm trying to use up remainders, and then once soft I add the beans, and anywhere from 6-8 cups of water, with 4 stock cubes. You can use the equivalent amount of broth instead. I season with a bit of garlic powder and pepper. Add or subtract the amount of broth dependin gon how thicj you want. A small potato added is nice, plus makes a thicker soup. So easy. If I have a ham bone,and DD2 isn't going to be eating it, I'll add that withthe water and beans, then fish it out and leave the ham chunks.

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  2. Sometimes being snowed in is a good thing. We have leftovers tonight as entertained last night so no cooking today - yipee!

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    1. I love having company food leftovers! The best part of holding the birhtday parties and reception like things for the kids as I always over cooked.

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  3. I so remember being snowed in when we lived in the Dakotas as a child. Thanks for the recipe.

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    1. Things were humming in the neighborhood vy noon, so not too bad, though there was a lot of snow. When I grew up, as we lived 8 miles form town, it was a full day before things were going again, excpet my dad had a tractor so things were moving on our place quicker.

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  4. Congratulations on meals made from what you had at home. I love to be able to make do with food I have on hand.

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    1. I did end up sending DH to the store-and he stayed on plan and bought fruit and bread, just what I wanted him to get. There is hope.

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  5. Those meatballs sound good! However I'd have to make them with beef as my husband does NOT like ground turkey. Ghosts of his childhood...
    It was icy here too last week and early weekend. I hope we're past it now.

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    1. We've really become ground turkey converts as we love the brgers, and this recipe can be adapted with whatever seasonings you like. I think I might understand Robb's objection though.

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  6. oh that does sound lovely. I miss proper snowy cold days when all one can do is stay indoors and bake and cook and boil heating the house via yummy food.

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    1. Wha a great descriptor! I'm still sick of winter but you nailed the perks.

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