ALDI DINNER IDEAS | CHINESE MEAL AT HOME

We have been shopping at Aldi for over a year now and we are still LOVING it. There are so many things that I love at Aldi, that I will one day post about (#aldifavorites), but today I wanted to share one of our go to meals from Aldi's. It is easy, cheap and makes for a quick clean up.

- General Tso's chicken

- White rice

- Mixed vegetables + edamame

The chicken takes about 20 minutes to cook, I boil the mixed vegetables, and the edamame can be steamed in the microwave...in the bag it comes in (my FAV). We usually cook one bag of chicken at a time and it is enough for 3 meals. If we want more leftovers for the week we'll make two bags. 

You just can't beat easy and delicious meal ideas, especially when they are budget friendly!

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ALDI DINNER IDEAS | CHINESE MEAL AT HOME

WHAT WE'RE EATING THIS WEEK

One of my favorite bloggers, Katie, did a post like this a couple of weeks ago and I thought it would be fun to do one too. So here's what we're eating this week!

I blogged about how we meal plan last year, and here is a quick look at our week!

On Sundays I try to cook a whole thing of turkey bacon or breakfast sausage patties to save time during the week, and all I have to do is cook the eggs in the morning. If we're having hard boiled eggs then I usually fix those the night before too. Side note about breakfast: I used to rarely fix breakfast during the week (#wifefail). We would just eat a nutri grain bar, yogurt, or nothing at all. That left us really hungry by time lunch rolled around so we would eat lunch super early which then left us STARVING around 4 in the afternoon. We usually don't eat dinner until around 6 or after (even later during Matthew's busy season). So it was one of my goals for this year to start making breakfast for us or having a breakfast option that would fill us up (and healthy snack options for the afternoon!). Some weeks I do really well with this and some weeks I really suck at it still, so it is definitely a work in progress lol. I have found that fixing the whole pack of turkey bacon or breakfast sausage on Sunday nights helps a ton with this! Sometimes I make a bunch of breakfast burritos and freeze them until we're ready to eat them, this helps a lot too. 

Usually our dinners make enough for leftovers and we eat those the next day for lunch. If it doesn't make enough then I'll just throw us a pb&j sandwich together or we'll grab something out. Last night I tried a new homemade spaghetti sauce recipe and it was delicious! It also made enough for a small army, so we'll be eating spaghetti for a couple of days lol. Next time I make it I am going to save half and freeze it.

Monday | Waffles and turkey bacon...I always end up making too many waffles so we'll eat those later in the week for breakfast!

Tuesday | Tacos and rice...Taco Tuesday is very much a thing in our home.  I do try to mix it up and do crock pot chicken tacos some weeks, This week though, it's regular tacos! A lot of times I'll just eat a cheese quesadilla and fix Matthew tacos. You just can't beat a cheese quesadilla lol.

Wednesday | Crock pot sausage and cheese tortellini soup....Hands down one of our favorite meals. We could eat this for days...and that's exactly we do! This recipe makes plenty and there is always leftovers. I like to do quick and easy meals on Wednesdays since we have church on Wednesday nights, so we usually do a crock pot meal, breakfast foods, or grilled chicken, a vegetable and brown rice. We haven't had this meal in a few weeks so tortellini soup it is ;)

Thursday | Leftovers....Usually one night a week we leave open for leftovers, I.hate.throwing.out.food. So I always try to leave one night available for leftovers, if closer to time I see we don't have as many leftovers as I thought then I'll do another crock pot meal with items already in the pantry and frozen chicken (I like to keep a 5lb bag of frozen chicken in the freezer at all times for these kinda nights!) or I'll pull out some grilled chicken from the freezer (Matthew grilled a few pounds of chicken a few months ago that we keep in the freezer for quick and easy meals) and fix some brown rice to go with it. 

Friday | Crock pot pork chops, green beans, and brown rice...We have some pork chops in the freezer that we bought a few months ago on sale, so I found this recipe on Pinterest and I'm excited for us to try it!

What are y'all having this week for dinner?

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WHAT WE'RE EATING THIS WEEK

HOW I DO IT: MEAL PLANNING FOR 2

I am going to start a new series called "How I Do It". I got the idea from one of my all time favorite bloggers, Sweet Southern Prep, who I have followed for years. She started her series of "How I Do It" back in 2012 and I have loved reading them, and I look forward to watching mine change over the years.

So today I am going to share how I meal plan for 2 (I am secretly excited to, Lord Willing, see what number this will eventually change to in the future once we have a full family!) I tried and loved the website Plan To Eat, but didn't want to pay for a service like that when I could spend an extra 5-10 minutes and do it on my own. They have a 30 day free trial, so give it a try to see if it works for you.

I just started meal planning this way back in December, and it really works for me, so I'm sticking to it. I used to dread meal planning, but now I look at it as a way to serve my husband, save us money, and try new things in the kitchen. It's all about what kind of attitude you have towards things, and when I think of meal planning in those ways I look forward to it and enjoy it now.
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First off, I start meal planning on Thursdays, usually, and finish up on Friday nights. I meal plan for the following Monday through Sunday (ie. 3/22/16 - 3/28/16).  I'll share in another post how I grocery shop. I meal plan through a spreadsheet. My husband is an accountant, so it only makes sense that I use Excel. ;) I just used a calendar template and edited it to my liking. Here is what one looks like before I go in and add meals/notes. I had some extra time on my hands one night so I edited each month color wise!

I love the extra space to add notes. So if we'll be out of town or have company coming over one night then I'll add it in the notes as a reminder. 

The sheets at the bottom are color coded each month as well. Each month has an extra sheet, and that is where I add each recipe.

I saved this spreadsheet on Google Drive for a few reasons:
1.) I can just pull it up on the app on my phone or tablet while I'm in the kitchen cooking. This saves me SO much time instead of searching for the recipe on Pinterest or flipping through cookbooks.
2.) I can pull this app up on my phone right before I go to sleep at night and check what I'm making for dinner the next night to see if I need to set anything out the next morning or start the crockpot before I leave for work.
3.) I also like having all of the recipes that I have tried in one place, so that if we liked it and I decided to make it again I know exactly where to find it.

This also helps with making my grocery list because I have everything in one place. So when I get ready to make out my list I just go through each recipe and mark off anything I already have. So easy, and only takes a few minutes. I mentioned that I start meal planning on Thursdays and finish on Friday nights...that is because I like to check my list with the stuff in my pantry to make sure I'm not buying something we already have. So usually by Friday nights I have confirmed that my list is ready to go.

Here is what February looked like with my meals and notes added. Not sure why the first week is blank, I think I forgot to save it after I finished meal planning that week....mental note: always save it before closing out lol.

Usually recipes I find online are for more than 2 people so I either freeze the leftovers we don't use, or I try to use it in another meal. That's not always easy and sometimes, as much as I hate it, plans change and I end up throwing the last little bit of leftovers out. If you look at Wednesday, February 17th you'll see that I made a meatball casserole, well that made a big dish, so I took leftovers for lunch on the 18th (it says "out" because Matthew went out with clients) and then on Saturday, the 20th we used the rest of the meatball casserole to make meatball subs. When we first got married I tried to be super wife and make a new meal every single night, not only was that expensive but we ended up throwing out so much food because we couldn't eat all of it before it went bad (insert palm to forehead.) I hate throwing out food, because you are basically throwing money in the trash.

I pull recipes from Pinterest, family recipes, cookbooks, and different blogs. There are SO many resources out there, so get online and explore them or get recipes from different family members! Recipes on my Pinterest can be found here, here, and here.


Please don't think that I have meal planning all figured out and that we follow it 100%. There are still times were I have everything planned and we only follow 3-4 days of our meal plan for that week. Like I said, plans change, we get sick, or we just aren't feeling what's on the menu that night and order pizza. My way of meal planning may not work for you, or you might think my way is complicated, but it works for me. If you have any question, feel free to contact me!

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HOW I DO IT: MEAL PLANNING FOR 2

Friday Letters

This week has been one for the books! So much going on each day and each night I just want to sit down and watch a good movie, or sit down for the entire time of a movie and do nothing, either would be fine lol.

Last weekend we went to Cookeville and brought TWO full car loads of my stuff and this weekend we are doing the same. This time we are calling in for some help from our families and their trucks :) My lease is up tomorrow, so everything's gotta go! I'm a bit emotional about letting my little apartment go (I know, I'm crazy). This was my first place I had all to myself. I didn't have to ask before I decorated or moved anything around, I didn't have to make sure it was 100% spotless every single moment, it was my hiding place when I needed some alone time, and it was just mine. Now of course I love having my forever roommate and our new apartment but I'll always love my little ole Cookeville apartment :) 

Dear August, I really can't even believe you are here. Part of me wants to sob that July, our wedding month, is officially over and the other part wants to jump for joy because we started this month as a married couple. July was such a sweet, sweet month. 

Dear weekend, HEEEEEY, just a few more hours until we meet again ;) Dear feet, so sorry I've tortured you all week with different heels and wedges but they are so cute and look good with my outfits! Dear work, you.have.been.crazy. Dear Nashville home, I am so ready to have everything unpacked, in it's place, organized, and cleaned! I promise this time next week everything will be done! Dear routine, I can't wait to have you back. I live for routine and a schedule and not having one has been killing me! Dear weather, please hold off on the rain and heat this weekend as we are moving my stuff and taking it down a flight of stairs and then up three other flights of stairs (Can someone say GETTIN' MY WORKOUT IN?!?!) Dear wedding photographer, our sweet Heather, we are so excited to see our pictures and I know you did an amazing job on them. Also, can't wait to see you soon to make my bridals!! Dear HGTV, you have been playing in the background as I unpack and fold clothes every night this week. Thanks for making me want to do beach house flips now!! Dear meal planning, this is the first week we have been able to actually meal plan, and I think I like our little system we did. I think it's definitely going to work for us! Can't wait to share with y'all soon!! For now here is one of the meals we had, and no that's not chili and no that's not sour cream. I made Cheeseburger Shepard's Pie! I tried two new meals this week. We are going to tweak this one a little more to our liking, but the skinny enchiladas were a hit! 

Dear Matthew, my sweet, sweet husband, THANK YOU for all that you do for us! You have put our two console tables and bathroom cabinet together this week even though you were exhausted from work (THEY LOOK SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!). You helped out with dinner, cleaning, and unpacking all my stuff from my Cookeville apartment, and even made me the best strawberry icee. You are THE best and I am so excited to spend this whole weekend with you (we get to do that like every weekend now because we are MARRIED and live TOGETHER!!!!!!!). I promise as soon as we have a free weekend it will be all about YOU.

I failed on posting about our honeymoon, the pictures are all still on my camera lol, they haven't even made it to the computer. Soon y'all soon.

Happy Weekend!!!! :) 

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Friday Letters