Peppers and Onions - Multi Use Items

 Last week we looked at Spaghetti Sauce and the number of ways to use it and how to stretch it to get as many meals as possible from it. The next items we are going to do that with are Peppers and Onions. So plan and simple I do half an onion to one pepper, so usually, it is four peppers (sweet peppers) to two onions (medium-sized). If you have a big family you can double that.

These recipes are all going to deal with cooked Peppers and Onions (fried in a frying pan with oil and butter until softened). However, Peppers and onions make a great base for a number of salads also (see our salad section).

So this week we have four meals that are made with Peppers and Onions and we will describe them more below.

Sausage, Peppers and Onions: This you find often at fairs or something like that. They have cooked sausages (I use ones that are stuffed with Cheddar), and they top it with Peppers and Onions. Personally, I fry the Sausages in the pan with the Peppers and Onions (they are pre-cooked sausages that I use), and when it is ready, I butter a bun and toast it in the same pan. Also if you don't like sandwiches or don't have buns, you can cut up the sausages and serve it with potatoes or another side.

Stir Fry: This is so easy to do. You can literally take anything you want and add it to your peppers and onions, any seasoning you want, and meat you want. You don't even have to add meat you can just eat the peppers and onions with rice or pasta.

Chicken Tacos: And it doesn't have to be chicken that's just what I do. But I take some shredded chicken. I toss it with some salsa, and I put it in a taco shell or pita and top it with Peppers and Onions. And it is delicious, you can do this with any meat, of course, it doesn't have to be chicken. (We top ours with cheese, you can top it with whatever you want or have it just like that.

Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches: Sandwiches may be a simple idea, and they are. You can make anything into a sandwich. But one of my favorites is the Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches. I take a brioche bun, I toast that, I top that with Fondue Beef Strips (but any beef strips work fine), I add cheese to that and melt it in the oven. Once the cheese has melted I top it with the Peppers and Onions and serve!

Meal Planning - Getting Started

This month, I am taking tips and tricks revolving around buying in bulk, budgeting, meal planning, and meal prepping. I think this follows the theme of the last few months well and I think they are very helpful tricks and tips that not everyone thinks about. All of the things I mentioned really work together. If you meal plan you can budget things out if you have a budget you know if you can buy in bulk, if you buy in bulk you can save money and meet your budget. It is a vicious circle sometimes. And each part of the cycle has things that affect everything else.

Today we are going to look at meal prepping. In my option, the best way to start meal prepping is to be prepared. Preparing to me is simple. You want to be ready to store your food. So you need containers or bags to store what you are going to buy so that it stays fresh, and keeps longer. So the first thing I recommend is Glass Storage. Now there is nothing wrong with plastic to an extent. However, I find glass so much more reliable and versatile. You don't have to worry about what you store in these, they will not stain, and you can pop them in the microwave, in the oven, in the fridge and the freezer and not worry about them. Personally, I love Anchor products, and they have so many different sets you can buy. I threw all my plastic stuff and replaced it all with these dishes.

Set of 12

Set of 4 (Round - Extra Small, Small, Medium, Large)

Set of 4 (Round and Square Mixed)

To piggyback off of that. I also suggest glass bakeware. Again I like the Anchor ones so that's what I go with. But if you have glass bakeware you can make meals in them ready to go. A lasagna for example can be made right in the dish and then stored in the fridge if it will be eaten within a reasonable time frame or frozen even for another time. I recommend ones with lids (especially if you are freezing them), but tin foil would work also.

Red Set

Blue Set

I also suggest a food sealer if you can afford it and you buy in bulk often. These food sealers will help keep your meat or even vegetables fresh in the freezer. They work a lot better than just freezer bags themself and it is a great way to save money. You can rest easy knowing that even if you buy a lot of meat all at once, it will stay good and fresh this way. (This is the one I have but anyone should be fine.)

Coming off of that comment, my next tip is ironically to buy the sandwich bags or "ziplock" bags. Even though I don't trust these in the freezer they are great when meal prepping. If you have a lot of chopped-up vegetables this is a great way to store them. If you make salads ahead of time, this is a great way to measure stuff that you want to add later (for example croutons, which would get soggy if added right away. I also love to use them to portion out my homemade trail mix. I portion them out, and then just grab a bag when I want a snack.

Meal Planning - Week 4

 This is our final week of meal planning! Today we are going to take a look at the full menu we made and then explore what is next. So once you have each day accounted for and you wrote out the ingredients you need. It is time to make a list. There are of course many ways to go about this. I find the best way to do it is by listing all the things you need and going from there. So I am going to post the first few days of the menu I planned and just show you what I mean by making a list.

This part is so easy and simple. You already did all the work, you already listed all the ingredients you needed all you have to do is write them together. So for these you just write each individual ingredient, keeping in mind that you do not want to write double items. So let's focus on day one.

Grocery List:

Granola

Berries

Yogurt

Cold Cuts

Buns

Sliced Cheese

Mustard

Ground Beef

Relish

Ketchup

You'll notice I don't write buns twice or Mustard twice, you want to only write what you need. A thing of mustard will last for a while so you don't need two of them. For things, you will need double (ground beef let's say) I like to put x2 or whatever many you need. That way it is all in one place. You aren't moving on and having to go back to the meat because it was somewhere lower on your list.

You will notice on my list above that I made a few notes. I like these little tricks because I find them helpful to shop. You can see at the top I did Rotisserie Chicken with the x2, below it I have the name brand of Bouillion. We call it Bovril, that's how we know it by, so if you know an item by a certain name or you want a certain brand, go ahead and write it that way. Other things you'll notice is I write ground in brackets for the sausage because it doesn't have to be ground but that's what I want. You would do this for things like yogurt let's say, you would write what kind you want (vanilla, strawberry, etc.). Lower on the list you will notice I write Steak (pack of three). That's how many steaks I need for my week. So I need to either find a pack with three in it or a pack of two and buy an extra one. It's just not to remind me that if I can't get a package of three, that's how many I need. And finally, you see I have on sale in brackets. This is good because you want to buy as much as you can on sale. And knowing what is on sale helps you make a decision. If you can afford it, buy it. Vacuum seal meat and you can save a ton of money. Again this is where knowing your family comes in. If you rarely eat pork chops, and you already have some in the freezer, don't buy more, it isn't worth it. But if you eat pork chops every week and you only have one meal worth left in the freezer, buy them for sure!

You will also notice on my list I wrote Salt, Pepper, Italian Seasoning. You don't have to write this obviously, but it is a great example of the next step. Once you have your list, take it with you to your kitchen. Go through your fridge, freezer, cupboards and cross out anything you already have enough of. So like salt, pepper, your favourite seasonings. Most people will have the basics; ketchup, relish, mustard, oil. Things like that. So once you know for sure you have some and enough to make all the meals in your plan, cross it off your list.

Once you have your list you can simply take it to the grocery store. However if you find it a little messy after having to cross things off, you can rewrite it. This time try and do a walk through your grocery store and write your list in order of where you start. So most grocery stores you walk right into their produce section. Start there, write all the fruits and vegetables and things like that (salad mixes, salad dressings, etc.). And then move through the store writing what you can remember goes where. Don't worry too much about this, it's just helpful when things are in a nice order. Another great tip is to bring a highlighter with you. As you shop cross things off with your highlighter. Once you get home you can take a pen to that list and cross things off as you unpackage them, so you know you do indeed have everything you put on your list.

Once all the shopping is done, now is the time to solidify each day's meal plan. I personally go with the freshest stuff first. You want to use your vegetables and stuff like that first because they definitely won't be fresh (or even still good) by day fourteen. I usually start however with the Rotisserie Chicken. That's going to be hot and fresh when you buy it. Simply leave it in a warm oven while you make potatoes to go with it and pan gravy, mix together the coleslaw, and boom supper is ready.

During this process, one thing that is very important is to think about your schedule. It simply doesn't make sense to schedule a big meal on a day when you work late let's say. So you want to be mindful of that. Also, try to spread things out. No one wants to each chicken for lunch and dinner for days in a row. So do your best to spread things out.