Frugal Fridays

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.    -Robert Burns

With oldest child home for the week, I had plans.  Big plans. He was to spend time with his grandmothers.  (check).  He wanted to visit one of the Smithsonians.  (check).  He needed to get a haircut.  (check).  I wanted to make several double batches of food for him to take back to school with him in order to cut down on the amount of prep time for meals for him.  He frequently comes back late and hungry.  I thought I'd help him out a little bit by making double batches of his favorite foods this week and then sending him back with the other half.

Here was the plan that I set in place:

Monday - Taco Salad

Tuesday - Pulled Chicken BBQ

Wednesday -Have dinner with Grammy

Thursday -Moroccan Chicken

Friday - Lasagna 

This is what actually happened:

Monday - I made a double batch of taco meat.  Two pounds of beef, Two big bags of frozen corn, 2 cans of black beans, two onions, and all of the affiliated spices.  It filled a large dutch oven.  Keep in mind, daughter is a vegetarian, so she had a separate pot full of taco goodness.   We had two heads of lettuce, cheese, a bag of Fritos, and a jar of salsa.  I had my serving, and noticed that husband and oldest kid kept hitting up the taco meat.  Guess what?  End of meal, and we had less than one cup of taco meat left.  No lettuce, no cheese, no salsa, and no Fritos.  

Tuesday - I picked up one of the large value packs of chicken thighs.  It filled my 6 quart crock pot.  Several hours later, the chicken was finished, and I pulled out the bones, shredded the chicken, saved out the broth and added BBQ sauce.  At the end of the meal, we had less than a cup of pulled chicken left.  (Are you noticing a trend here?)  The kid had also demolished 2 bags of frozen vegetables (heated) and two baked potatoes.  

Thursday- Moroccan Chicken.  Again, a double batch.  Again, I filled a dutch oven.  Since this recipe is made with couscous (wheat), I made a separate smaller batch for myself with quinoa.  Daughter has class on Thursday night, so she ate her brown bag dinner there.  This time, things changed.  There was NOTHING left at the end of the meal.

Friday - Lasagna. This might actually be the one meal he does get to take back with him.  I made two pans last night - I did everything but bake it.  One pan went into the fridge for tonight, and one into the freezer.  Since the second pan is frozen, I think he'll actually have some to take back with him.

We take him back up to school tomorrow.  We're planning on making a big batch of Salmon-Pasta salad for him and leaving him with the leftovers before we head back home.

Makes you wonder about what he's eating, doesn't it?

Not exactly a frugal week, but if it had worked out as planned, you see how this would work - cook 4 days, and have meals for 4 other days.  I thought we left the eat everything stage when he graduated from high school and stopped running cross country and track and field!