Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Menu: 1 week of dinners in 1 hour

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This week I prepped 4 meals in just over an hour (1 hour, 10 minutes).  One of the meals was lasagna and it always takes me forever to prep, but it is one of my husband’s favorite meals! :)  And I had cottage cheese I needed to use. :)

Here’s what we are eating this week:

Mexican casserole

(this is a family favorite!  will share recipe later this week!)

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Lasagna (family recipe)

Here’s a frugal tip – Lasagna noodles NEVER go on sale or free like other pasta.  And I forgot to pick some up last week.  So I checked my other pasta (gotten for FREE with coupons :)  and decided to use Penne pasta instead.  I still layered everything like normal – layer of noodles, meat sauce, cottage cheese mixture, cheese and repeat.

We ate it tonight and couldn’t tell a difference.  The hubby even approved, so no more expensive lasagna noodles for me – FREE pasta it is! :)

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Chicken roll-ups

Renee, who I learned this method of menu prep from, assured me that she has tried recipes where you open the crescent rolls and they stay in the fridge for a few days before baking them, so I am putting her to the test! :)  We are not eating them until Thursday night so we’ll see if I can tell a difference.

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Loaded baked potatoes

That night for dinner we had loaded baked potatoes and corn on the cob.

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Here is all my meals prepped and ready for the fridge!  I love opening the fridge and seeing them all in there!

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I can’t tell you how good this menu plan makes me feel.  As Tuesday came to a close, I was quite stressed as my to-do list not only wasn’t done, but had seemed to multiply throughout the day.  But at least supper was already prepped.  I put the lasagna in the oven and green beans in the microwave and dinner was served!

Have you tried prepping your meals in advance yet? 

Try it, you will love it!

3 comments:

  1. Great job, Christina! You're right, lasagna noodles do not go on sale. I was able to snag free lasagna noodles recently by using the ragu coupon where you get free pasta with the purchase of 2 ragu jars. When redeeming the coupons, I chose lasagna noodles.

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  2. I think this is a great idea! I was wondering if you are going to do this weekly and if you are going to post your recipes, they all look delish.

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  3. Everything looks great! I'm so glad the meal prep is working for you! You are right, it IS a good feeling looking in the fridge and seeing it stocked with prepped dinners! LMK what you think of the Chicken Roll ups after being in the fridge! Hope I come through for you, ha ha!

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