Weekend Meals???

[thessa516]

How do you plan weekend meals?

 

We're coming off another packed weekend. It was filled with way too much take-out and drive-through. Usually on Saturday mornings, we are tackling BIG household chores. I'm working right alongside DH and the older children. By lunch time, we are famished and tired. This results in someone making a trip to the local fast food restaurant for take-out.

 

Do you stop working a half-hour before lunch and go make lunch?

Do you plan on simple lunches that family members can make on their own? (Sandwiches, lunch meat, etc?) If so, can you give me some ideas?

 

And what about weekend dinners? I don't mind cooking Monday through Friday, but on the weekends I have the hardest time forcing myself into the kitchen. This is especially true if we've just returned from a family outing. I'm tired. I want to sit down and relax, too.

 

Please help. Let me know what you do. Maybe I just need to suck it up. :glare: Maybe with better planning I can have the best of both worlds. :001_smile: Maybe I should just plan on $500/month (which we don't have) for eating out on the weekends. :tongue_smilie:

[Ferdie]

I use a menu planning service so weekend dinners are included in that.

 

I semi-plan weekend lunches - Sat. is sandwiches and Sun. is make your own mini-pizzas or leftovers. For the sandwiches I make several, including vegetarian option and put them all on a platter. That way my family can choose what they want. I serve with either a fruit or veggie and milk. For the mini-pizza we use sandwich thins or Flatout wraps for the crust, canned spaghetti sauce and pre-shredded chesse - pretty simple.

 

Yes, I do stop what I am doing and set things out unless we have several family members gone. Then it is usually fend for yourself.

[LauraGB]

I like to cook on the weekends - everyone leaves me alone for a little while while I'm in there, so I really stretch it out ;). But in your case, you might want to make a little more dinner during the week and freeze the left overs in single serve containers for easy grabbing for weekend lunches. Also, when you make one dinner, you might just make a second right away and freeze it for the weekends; for instance, if you make a lasagna on Monday, it's pretty simple to just make 2 side by side and eat one, freeze the other. Or else you could plan ahead on Friday and do the chopping for crock pot dinners on the weekends so in the morning you just have to fill the pot and let it cook til dinner time.

[Heatherwith4]

:bigear: We spend the majority of our eating out money on the weekend. It's either that or frozen pizzas, I'm not sure which is worse. :eek:

I will say that it could be a good idea to fire up the crock-pot first thing Saturday morning.

[Mom in High Heels]

On weekends (and some weeknights) we do what we call "cold plate." It's simple and delicious. We cut up meats, veggies,cheeses, etc and eat it with crackers or French bread. This past weekend we had cut up salami and turkey, 2 different kinds of cheese, celery with cream cheese, carrots, tomato slices, pickles and deviled eggs served with whole grain crackers. Quick, easy and delicious. It takes us less than 15 minutes to prepare that (egg cooking time not included) and we love it. Most of the work can be done ahead of time too, which would make it even quicker.

[ScoutTN]

We rarely eat out b/c we can't afford it and because with littles, even well behaved ones, it's not often relaxing.

 

I try to plan something nice (not necessarily hard or time consuming) both Friday and Saturday nights. Sundays are my day of rest = leftovers! I plan to make enough to cover Sundays. We often grill on Saturdays b/c it's easy on me and easy to make something extra, even something different from what is for dinner that particular night. We might do ribs for dinner but also grill lemon -pepper chx breasts for sandwiches and salads later. In the winter, I make soups and with good bread and a salad, that is often dinner on a busy Saturday. A nice fat roasted chx or turkey breast can make several meals.

 

Lunches here are pb&j, leftovers, sandwiches or anything else super-easy.

 

I think the trick is to plan ahead and do a bit ahead. You can arrange reasonable meals if you think it out. Can you switch out cooking on a weeknight for a weekend night? I "cook" every night, but sometimes it's leftovers or something super easy like scrambled eggs and toast or soup or a crock pot dinner.

 

I try to keep something no-prep required in my freezer, but even those things usually need thawing time.

 

Some days nothing works and you get pizza....

Edited September 7, 2010 by ScoutTN

[flobee76]

I plan our meals for everyday of the week. We eat-in and I love to cook. We have a very limited budget as well so, I try to make everything stretch.

 

For Saturday lunches, I usually plan a soup and big sandwich. It's filling for the family and easy to prep for me. (I have prepared soups that I've made during the week in the freezer)

 

Saturday dinners are usually something on the grill, or homemade pizzas, taco bar, or baked potato bar. YUM and FUN!

 

Sundays are the hardest. The kids are STARRRRVING after church, and as much as we'd like to get fast food, it's just too $$ (when you add it all up), especially if I have food in the house for the family. We do something quick like yogurt & fruit parfaits, antipasti platters, or quesadillas, or sandwich wraps. :D

[Dawn in OH]

We've had some pretty busy weekends this summer. What I have done in order to prevent eating out and spending lots of money is to prepare some meals in advance.

 

We spent 6 weekends (12 days) at the Medieval Faire. I didn't want us filling up on junk food there, or spending insane amounts of money on food, so we could spend the money on fun things instead.

 

My daughter and I made up a triple batch of meatballs which I froze and then served after returning home from the faire as meatball subs.

 

I made a full batch of stuffed shells, which is actually 3 meals for us, ate one meal's worth the night I cooked it, and froze the other two.

 

I made a batch of sausage and peppers and froze that. Reheated it and served sausage subs.

 

I made a batch of chili and froze it. We reheated it and served chili dogs.

 

I made a lasagna, which I get 3 meals out of, and froze that. I reheated it and served it with bread and a salad.

 

I even went as far as to get some paper plates because we don't have a dishwasher so that I could have the night off from dishes too.

[Hedgehog]

Saturday is take-out night.. Sunday is crockpot roast as we're at church from 10:45 through 4:00.

 

When I get groceries, I tend to look for the offers (what's on sale) and then buy whatever needs to go with it at the same time.. ie.. say Fajita kits are on sale, then I'll go get some chicken, peppers, onions and sour cream; or maybe fresh beef burgers are on sale, so I'll go get bread rolls/baps, onions and salad and try to remember if we have any mustard and ketchup at home.

[Dobela]

Saturday for lunch is usually leftovers from earlier in the week. For dinner I usually already have something in the crockpot or we do sandwiches.

[brijen97]

We do a lot of grilling in the summer and early fall on the weekend....its easy to throw a burger on the grill and it divides the work between my husband and me, my daughter can play outside while my husband is there. I also do a lot of crock pot cooking lately. I throw it all in there in the morning, plug it in at lunch and by dinnertime we have dinner without the fuss or dishes! Lunches are a bit more difficult. I usually use leftovers or sandwiches. You could probably make a big pot of soup on Friday and have that for lunches those days too.

[LibraryLover]

I especially love cooking on weekends. It's easy enough to get away to start something. Dh is good on the grill, and the kids can easily help dh if I want to start dinner. We have animals , land and gardens, so we have a lot of work to do, although we love working at home. We are dog -tired at the end of each day, but it is a good and satisfying tired. In warm months I grill veggies, potatoes, corn etc, and make even nicer and bigger salads from what we can get from the gardens. In winter, I simmer and stew and roast. It's part of being home for me. I love when people come in from outside in cooler months and say "AhHHHHHHHHHHH" to the simmering scents. I sometimes get teary over my giant summer/fall salads. "I grew/raised this". ;) lol Geekazola.

 

However. If you are tired and don't want to make meals, I think it's perfectly fine to get an assist re take out. I also think it's fine it kids and adults get their own sandwiches. Annie's shells are perfectly fine, and so are are pre frozen bugers on the grill. Amy's mushroom burgers are my friend. :)

Edited September 8, 2010 by LibraryLover