Looking for some ideas for quick economical dinners. I am tired of eating the same thing all the time.

Anyone?

My husband has gone almost fully vegetarian so we are currently eating two different meals. So, I can almost say that I cook for one. For breakfast, I'm a smoothie kind of gal. Most fruits I use such as berries, bananas, pineapple freeze well and I use as I need. You can pre-bag your smoothie mix and just throw it in the blender with your choice of milk, fruit juice or water. I use unsweetened almond milk.

For dinner, I like ground chicken and find that I can pre-cook the ground chicken on Sunday and have it in various different ways throughout the week Warm it up with some taco seasoning and have a taco salad. Add it to a bit of veggie soup. Make chicken/lettuce burger wraps, zucchini roll ups with mozzi, ground chicken and tomato sauce and that should get you through the package of ground chicken without having the same thing twice. You can also freeze half of it, I also tend to freeze the tomato sauce in smaller portions and take it out on the morning that will be using it.

Some easy side dishes to go with fish (you can defrost one fish at a time in water--usually takes about 20 min for Tilapia), mushrooms are easy --throw in a baking dish with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic paste, a few pieces of butter, salt & pepper and cook for about 30 minutes in the oven. I also like to stir fry mushrooms, red peppers and onions with a little oil and balsamic vinegar as another side.

I make a soup on Sundays, but alternate each week. My favorite is lentil, but lately with the new Vitamix, I've been experimenting with others. Most recipes are quite easy to make (I love easy cooking!)

I hope some of these ideas are helpful.

I do eat the same things day in, day out but vary it slightly from week to week. I buy a mess of different vegetables and roast them in the oven with olive oil and salt and keep it in the fridge to eat all week with a protein.

The veggies can vary slightly and the protein can also change but I've been on a chicken sausage kick for a while.

The other thing I make is a soup for each week. A giant pot that I divide into smaller mason jars to grab out of the fridge each day. Every week I pick out a different soup.

I'm a simple woman.

I made this the other nite it was wonderful.Didn't use chicken broth just made up liquid with water and stock cubes. Used some left over soft pork bones in the fridge. YUM
Pork noodle soup

Servings:4



1 lb boneless pork sirloin, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons finely chopped gingerroot
2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans chicken broth
2 cups water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cups uncooked fine egg noodles
1 medium carrot, sliced
1 small red bell pepper, chopped
2 cups fresh spinach leaves

Directions:

1
Spray 3-quart saucepan with cooking spray; heat over medium-high heat. Add pork, garlic and gingerroot; stir-fry 3 to 5 minutes or until pork is brown.
2
Stir in broth, water and soy sauce. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered 5 minutes. Stir in noodles, carrot and bell pepper. Simmer uncovered about 10 minutes or until noodles are tender.
3
Stir in spinach. Cook until heated through

I make almost everything in full family-sized dishes, portion it and freeze it for easy homemade frozen meals.

I make a big batch of something once a week (usually Sunday) and just eat that once/day all week, but there's actually a lot of variety to this.

For example, one week I might make enchiladas, but the next I'll make butternut squash soup. The week after that I'll make pasta and meat sauce, and then the next week will be chicken and rice soup. So day to day a lot stays the same but week to week it varies a lot.

Another thing I'll do is for instance on a Sunday I'll make:
brown rice
steamed squash
baked chicken

But on Wednesday I'll be out of chicken, but still have squash and rice left. So I'll make some broiled salmon. That night I'll have rice with squash and salmon.

Then Thursday I'm out of squash, but I still have salmon and rice, so I steam some carrots instead, and the next couple days I have rice and salmon and carrots. Basically if you run out of one thing you can just replace it and keep going. You still save time and food since the other meal elements are already ready to go.

This...Make a few different meals the first week so you have variety, and then you can back off on the cooking a little bit after that. Soups, stews, casseroles, whatever you're into. Sundays are usually my cooking days!

In fact, it's the one thing I miss about living alone. There's hardly ever leftovers in my house anymore, unless I make something my bf doesn't like or I stick it in the freezer before he notices.

I also like to buy the frozen individually wrapped raw chicken breasts. They are quick and easy to defrost for a one-person meal, and then I just pair it with whatever I'm into that day. Frozen raw shrimp is great for that as well. I just mix up the vegetables that I have on hand.