Planning is helpful in monitoring a food budget and for your dietary needs. If you want to maintain or lose pounds a food plan is a really great idea. This post will follow how items cooked for one meal can be used for other meals. This also saves prep and cooking time...here's how I did it to provide ideas:


Shopping List:
• A family pack of meat: pork.
• Lots of vegetables: broccoli, zucchini, tomatoes, spinach, asparagus, bean sprouts, snow peas, and bok choy.

Sunday

Grab the family pack purchased of pork and grill friendly vegetables (1 bunch of asparagus, 2 zucchini)

I used about 8 pork chops for a family of three. The rest I placed in a freezer bag for future meals.

Get the barbeque ready to grill your lovely pork chops. Don’t forget to let them sit out at least a 1/2 hour prior to grilling.

Barbeque your pork to your preference. Slather on sauce at the end so the sugars in the sauce do not burn.

Also put together your barbeque vegetable packets. My favorite is to cook green beans, broccolini or zucchini.

Instruction Steps:
1) Rinse your vegetables clean.
2) Grab a sheet of aluminum foil.
3) Place the vegetable on 1/2 the foil.
4) Sprinkle a little olive oil, pepper, salt, a little bit of chopped garlic, and a splash of lemon juice.
5) Fold the foil over to match up the corners. Secure the 3 sides by folding over them over upward. I suggest making sure they fold over 3 times to secure the packet.
6) Place on the grill once it is ready and let it cook for about 7-10 minutes on each side. Depending on the vegetables used will vary the cooking time. Asparagus takes less time than zucchini.

Both the meat and the vegetables can be barbeque at the same time if your grill has the space.

For additional items to add to the meal can be baked potatoes, a green salad, pasta, or fruit.

Enjoy the family night meal. Make sure to leave at least 3 pork chops leftover.


Monday

An easy meal to start off the week is fish, rice, and stir-fry vegetables. (One of my husband's favorite meals.) I like the ease of this meal for a couple of reasons. It takes about 30 minutes to cook. It's a portioned controlled low fat meal. It balances the mixture of protein, carbohydrates, and vegetables. Plus it can be a kid and adult friendly meal.

(The following guide is in advanced skill recipe because it depends on the chef to have a basic understanding of ingredients needed in the kitchen for a stir-fry and a basic understanding of how vegetables should be prepared by knife for a stir-fry.)

Preheat an oven according to the directions on the fish package.

Prepare a double batch of rice according to the directions on the package.

For the stir-fry:
1. Rinse and prepare to slice the vegetables for your stir-fry. I used snow peas, broccoli, zucchini, and fresh cilantro. Make sure to prepare extra vegetables for tomorrow night's dinner.
2. Heat up a pan with no oil and add three chili pods (these will be removed later on) and let them brown up.
3. Add oil and allow it to heat up. Next add about a teaspoon of garlic and let it sizzle.
4. Add all of your vegetables at once.
5. Splash about a tablespoon of soy sauce, some fish sauce (about 3/4 teaspoon), sprinkle with garlic powder, pepper, and a tiny bit of salt.
6. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes and stirring occasionally every 2 minutes. Taste tests the broccoli for flavor and check to see if it is done cooking.
7. Remove and place in a serving dish.

Make sure to save some vegetables and rice for tomorrow night's meal.

Tuesday

On the third night’s menu is the following: Fried Rice with Barbeque Pork with leftover stir-fried vegetables.

This meal will take about 15 minutes to make.

Here are the directions on how I put together the meal:

• Cut-up your pork into bite-size pieces.
• Heat up a big pan on medium heat.
• Add olive oil to heat-up.
• Next add garlic and let it sizzle again.
• Add in the meat and sprinkle a little Worcestershire sauce over the top. Let it cook to reduce the liquid.
• Pour in the rice and allow it heat-up. Breakdown any big clumps.
• Splash the rice and meat with soy sauce and allow it to cook. Then flip over parts of the rice mixture like a pancake.
• Add in the vegetables leftover. (You can add in more like frozen peas.)
• Next beat about 3 large eggs.
• Prepare your pan to pour in the eggs. The general idea is to make scrambled eggs. The trick is to make a circle in the center of your pan. Add a little oil so it doesn’t stick. Pour in the eggs and gently scrap in the edges of the cooking egg. This will create ripples and allow more egg to leak and cook.
• Once the egg is cooked- carefully blend the rice, meat, vegetables, and eggs together.
• Spoon into a serving dish and get ready to eat.

I was pleased with results of the meals. It was all very tasty and it was a good use of spreading the food budget.