Monday I found myself and adult son J home by ourselves. I opted to finish up a carton of Chinese food from last week (pork lo mein my favorite) and J opted to take himself to Wendy's. LOL. Tuesday GF and I had to attend calling hours for the inlaw of one of my relatives and afterwards oldest son R and his wife M joined us for dinner at a local pizza place.
Wednesday it was once again just myself and son J, this time I dug out a small package of three very tiny eye round steaks from the freezer and grilled those serving them with white and wild rice pilaf and green beans.
Last night was dinner date night and I planned on doing Chicken stir fry over steamed rice. I searched through GF's pantry cupboard only to find that the only rice on hand was Arborio and I did not want to use that. However there were several boxes of spaghetti so I changed the stir fry to lo mein and we were in business. Today's lunch will be the leftovers.
Looking back at my menu plans for the month I see we really haven't been sticking to them very much. On the other hand I'm still using food on hand and not buying additional ingredients when I decide to go off the plans, so still a winning situation.
Once again tonight I am off the menu plan. GF has a package of 'meatloaf' mix in the freezer that I intend to turn into a Spicy Meatloaf. Boxes of au gratin potatoes in the cupboard and a ton of baby carrots (left over from daughter's grad party) in his fridge to become candied carrots with parsley (to add some green color to the plate). Brown gravy from a mix in his cupboard for the meatloaf since he is a fan of this completes the meal.
Although you've been off the menus, as you observed already, you are sticking to pantry/what's on hand cooking and not purchasing additional ingredients, rather using what you've got and saving in the process. : )
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