Cooking at Home 101

Last week, Steve and I finally confessed the obvious: we love to go out to eat.  Both of us have had busy work schedules since we got married, so cooking at home was almost an afterthought for the last three years.  In an effort to clean up my own eating, and also to reign in the food allocation in our budget, I decided to finally give actual meal prep a try.  And I am happy to say that it was quite the success!  In an effort to keep myself accountable (and to also share some easy recipes for other ladies on the go who are looking to cook more), I'm going to document my cooking-at-home efforts here.

I work pretty late these days and Steve's evenings are booked with networking events and bible study, so the top priority for our household is easy meals that can be reheated and used for leftovers.

{big grocery run // lasagna roll-ups // quiche in the making}

Here's what I lined up for dinners last week:

Monday: Vegetable quiche (I'll try to post the recipe soon) + roasted asparagus

Tuesday: Lasagna roll-ups w/ spinach, ricotta + grated carrot stuffing

Wednesday: Girls' Night: Spaghetti squash casserole using this recipe + steamed brussels sprouts

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: date night out

Saturday: dinner at my folks' house (I brought dessert!)

I did almost all of my grocery shopping on Sunday and the key to success for me was doing the bulk of the cooking for all three main meals on Sunday as well.  It worked out, because when I got home exhausted from work or before Steve had to leave for an evening meeting, all we had to do was pull the food out of the fridge and reheat it.

So there you have it!  Not the most glamorous of meal prepping, but definitely more convenient (and cheaper!) than eating out.  Here's my line-up for this upcoming week:

Monday: Crockpot chicken chili (using this recipe) + salad

Tuesday: Baked potato bar + zucchini supreme (my family's recipe!)

Wednesday: Spaghetti squash casserole leftovers

Thursday: Skinnytaste's chicken marsala + asparagus + brown rice

Friday: Leftover chicken chili

Saturday: Date night out!

Do you do meal prep each week?  I would love to hear any tips you have, since I am a newbie at this!