Anonymous wrote:For those who do baked potato bars - whats the protein on that night? What are some of the toppings?

Sometimes I top with protein, sometimes not. Toppings I like are cheese, chili, black beans or veggie combos with things like broccoli, carmelized onion, tomato, spinach. sauteed mushrooms, eggplant

For those who do baked potato bars - whats the protein on that night? What are some of the toppings?

My MIL used to pull EVERY SINGLE LEFTOVER out of the fridge for dinner on Fridays and called it "The Week In Review." My husband said there might be 7 peas on one bowl, one enchilada in another, etc. But that was dinner for his family of 7.

We love it, and continue it (usually Fridays as well). Miss my MIL.

We are also on a budget so here are some ideas based on what we ate this week. This is all pretty affordable and easy.

Sunday: Whole Chicken in the Crockpot with carrots and onions, quinoa with parm, vegetable salad
Monday: Chicken salad sandwiches on baguette and fruit
Tuesday: Made a big pot of black bean with veges and seasonings and served it with fried eggs, leftover baguette and fruit
Wednesday: Pasta with sausage, marinara, and spinach
Thursday: Leftover pasta
Friday: Baked fish with feta, red onions, fresh tomatoes, lemon juice and parsley with garlic oven fries and broccoli

We often do a roast chicken with roast potatoes/carrots/onions on Sunday. I buy the biggest chicken they have at the store (usually 4.5 pounds or so at WF). There are usually quite a bit of leftovers, which are then nice to have on hand for soup/pasta/quesadillas, or a quick pot pie using a premade pie crust, during the week.

A common Thursday or Friday dinner (since we shop on the weekends) is huevos campesinos. Corn tortillas, refried black beans, fried eggs, and green salsa on top. Easy to keep the ingredients in the fridge.

Wanted to second what a PP said about pulling out leftovers and everyone chooses what they want. We call this buffet night, or tapas night. Makes it more appealing, you know! My priority is making the leftovers get eaten BEFORE I will make a new meal. That forces me to use up what might have gotten thrown out, which ends up in huge cost savings for us.

We are fairly repetitive, but we keep our grocery bills to about $115 for a family of 3 plus baby, and eat mostly whole foods and organic and pasture-raised meat, so this is a good one for me.

Each week we make our own bread and a pot of something in the slow cooker that does two dinners and two lunches.

Every Saturday: slow cooker dinner (this week is black bean, butternut squash, and chard chili) and a large pot of brown rice.
Every Sunday: Roast whole chicken, sweet potatoes, and roasted broccoli - everything goes in the oven.
Monday: Crockpot meal (chili), with simple salad
Tuesday: Leftover chicken, simple salad, leftover sweet potatoes
Wednesday: millet with tomato sauce, frozen spinach (or remaining broccoli), and 1/2 pd ground beef
Thursday: Fish tacos (on sale fish, cabbage, avocado, lime juice) with side of black beans and rice.
Friday: enchiladas with leftover chili and leftover corn tortillas

a typical week

Black beans w/ garlic and onions (made a big pot), rice (also big pot), salsa, avocado--w/cheese for DH

Leftover rice, stir fried w/soy sauce & sesame oil with the hodgepodge bag of veggies from TJs frozen, can of garbanzo beans. w/sliced chicken and a beaten egg for DH

Sweet potatoes, roasted, topped with leftover black beans and corn

GF pasta with a jar of sauce, cheese for DH

Roasted veggies (big batch) and quinoa (big batch).

Quinoa with a package of sundried tomatoes and toasted walnuts.

Leftover roasted veggies and TJs brown rice tortillas w/ cheese (quesidilla) for DH and heated with an avocado for me.

I keep meaning to make stuffed peppers with leftovers, but rarely have leftovers.

We are mostly vegan so I don't know how much will apply for you, but here are our standard go-to meals:

* Veggie chili (beans, sundried tomatoes, corn, etc.) - over brown rice, ww noodles, or in taco salads (great way to use leftovers - brown rice one night, taco salads the next!)

* Linguini or ww noodles with peanut sauce (great way to use up leftover veggies - throw anything you want in!) We use the Epicurious Cold Sesame Noodle sauce (google it - it's amazing).

* Salad bar night: romaine, spinach, beans, corn, avocado, croutons, whatever's about to go bad in the fridge - put it out, everyone makes their own. You can also do a baked-potato or baked-sweet-potato bar with similar toppings. Kids love "make your own" nights!

* Summer rolls: we do rice noodles, tofu, avocado, cilantro but you can throw anything you like in those rice-paper wrappers. Dip in peanut sauce or something similar.

* Indian food: I often make a big pot of dal makhani or something similar. We eat over rice.

* Stirfry: tofu, broccoli, heck anything you like! I love those frozen green beans at Trader Joes. Sautee everything, dump some Soyaki on top, eat in tortilla wraps or over rice.

* Veggie burger night: burgers with previously-frozen crinkle-cut fries. Love the classics.

* Sweet potato burritos. Sounds wacky but google it. Delicious.

* Falafel night - sometimes homemade, sometimes out of a box. Serve on tortillas w/tomato, cucumber, tahini.

* Classic spaghetti w/sauce - sometimes red sauce, sometimes vegan pesto. Serve with salad and bread.

I make a meal plan on Sundays based on what we have in the house. Then I just have to shop for the things we need to finish that meal plan and I'm good to go for the week. We average about $125/week for four big eaters. Hope this helps!

I start planning by looking at what we have on hand and what perishables need to be used up. I then look at the sale flyer for our main grocery store. This week we had homemade

pizza (had some mozz that needed to be used, leftovers were lunch)
spanish style tortilla with chard on the side(with potatoes that were super on sale, chorizo that need to be used)
tofu pot pie (leftovers for lunches)
butternut squash soup with toast (squash was super on sale)
black bean and chorizo soup with jiffy corn bread (used the last of the chorizo)
chicken cutlets with popovers and broccoli

One thing I've done with mismatched leftovers is just put them all out buffet style and let everyone chose what they want.

Monday: baked salmon, steamed broccoli, quinoa (brown rice for the one who hates quinoa) - this creates one to two portions of lunch for the following day
Tuesday: loaded sweet or baked potatoes - that uses up the leftover broccoli, plus add cheese and whatever other toppings are around - easy and fast
Wednesday: meat sauce & pasta, salad, garlic bread - this creates two or three portions of lunch for the following day
Thursday: salad from night before, marinated baked chicken breast, roasted brussel sprouts, leftover potatoes made into either smashed or mashed potatoes
Friday: Whatever-you-want-night. Use up leftovers or make a sandwich, or an omelette or a salad - the adults go out to eat
Saturday - barley risotto or stuffed peppers (we make it a point to have a meatless day at LEAST once a week if not two - sometimes Wednesday is baked manicotti with spinach mixed in)
Sunday - we go out to eat as a family

This is our week plan this next week: (grocery shopped on thursday)

Thurs: Leftover meatloaf/potatoes/green beans
Friday: Grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, brocoli, strawberries.
Sat: Baked chicken dish of somesort/couscous/veggy
Sun: leftovers (might make chicken salad)
Mon: Chili
Tues:leftover chili tacos
Wed: Eggs, biscuits and sqaush

I plan my meals each week so that my grocery bill is affordable. Last week only spent $83 for a family of 5. This is down from the usual $200. We are trying harder to save on food. We eat sandwiches, chicken nuggets, salad, macncheese, etc for lunches. I make a lot of the frozen bfast food myself and freeze it to save money. We buy fruits in season (with an exception of one fruit each week that we really like). Bfast for dinner usually once a week as it is inexpensive.

My favorites for leftovers are pasta and different soups, especially in the winter. You can make the recipes as big or as small as you want, and to me they freeze well, so I often individually freeze leftovers and reheat for lunch or weekends. I just date the gladware with sharpie so I know how old it is. I eat with salads.

Spinach lasagna with white sauce, and whole wheat noodles.

Potato cheddar bisque with a hearty whole grain bread/roll to go with it.

Curried cauliflower and broccoli soup.

Pot roast in the crock pot.

A cold wild rice/lettuce salad with grapes, cold chicken, and a red wine vinagrette dressing.

A variation on the old coronation chicken salad recipe, with cold roasted chicken, curry, mayo, diced apples, diced celery, and craisins.

My plan for next week:

Sunday-dinner at my parents'
Monday-chicken, bacon, and wild rice soup with salad and bread (This will provide leftovers for 2)
Tuesday-man pleasing chicken with wild rice and a green vegetable (saw someone post the recipe on another thread, it looks good so I am going to try it)
Wednesday-stuffed acorn squash with salad and bread (another recipe that I got from here and tried, it was fantastic)
Thursday-leftovers (soup or squash, possibly leftover chicken if there is any) or spinach and onion quesadillas with black beans-I always keep quesadilla stuff in the house and use frozen spinach
Friday-out
Saturday-balsamic chicken in the crock pot over pasta

Not for kid-friendly meal ideas. I am having a hard time meal-planning to save money.
I know many people have found a nice routine of making certain meals that will produce at least one night of leftovers, or leftovers for lunch the next day. Or things that will produce more than one meal (ie using half a box of pasta one night, the rest another night - or using a half a squash one night, the rest another night, etc).
I end up making too much, or not enough, or make wildly different meals that I can't mix together to create a new meal, etc.
We have lots of pasta/rice in the house, often buy meats on sale (chicken breast, ground beef/turkey), love using the crock pot (but don't use it enough), and usually have frozen veggies. My partner loves/uses leftovers for his lunch the next day, but I don't- I eat at work for free.

Any ideas or examples would be great.