I have said before that we enjoy eating out! For me it is more about the convenience and speed than the actual food. Another thing that we have learned is that if we fail to make a plan then we are going to end up eating out regardless of our good intentions or need to stick to a budget. I am proud to say that we have not eaten out in 7 days!  The plan is to continue with this trend until Thursday when we are travelling.

I also hope plan  to be able to take some prepared food with us so that we will be eating out only once per day instead of three meals. The first reason is that feeding 5 people, 3 meals a day for 5 days can cost close to  $500, which as you can probably guess is not in our budget. Another big reason is the time involved in just stopping and ordering a meal and consuming it, even grabbing fast food is a bare minimum of 45 minutes to an hour of time that we end up wasting adding to our travel time. Finally, when travelling 800 miles you realize that your choices are often limited based on the area you are at especially with the 2-3 days of actual travel involved.

I realized on Friday that we had a large assortment of food in our refrigerators that I was not crazy about leaving for a week unattended. So I decided that I would try to use up as much of the leftovers and other items prior to leaving on the trip.

First up is the leftover Boston butt from Christmas Eve at my parents.I decided to make Pork Fried Rice (followed 30 day Chicken Fried Rice Recipe). I was able to make enough for 2 complete meals, one we enjoyed for dinner tonight and the second was frozen to use later. We do have enough left that my plan is to reheat, add dip, and serve for dinner either Monday or Tuesday evening.

I purchased some green peppers the first of the week with the intention  of using in omelets this week but they are still unopened on the top shelf.  So they will become stuffed green peppers for dinner tomorrow night. I will be able to top with mozzarella cheese that is starting to turn. The other ingredients are easily accessible in the freezer.

One of the items I plan to take on the trip is Taco soup. I was able to grab all the ingredients out of the freezer to complete this today as well. We will enjoy one meal for lunch tomorrow (Sunday) and another will be frozen for eating in Michigan.

I used some of the leftover chicken from last week to make a pot of Chicken and Rice on Thursday.  We have already frozen a dish of this to travel with us as well.

Last but no least are all the breakfast items that need to be used up.  This morning the fridge contained; baked oatmeal, French toast, pancakes, gravy and bacon. I decided that no cereal could be eaten until we clear out these items!  A spinach quiche, which will be an option in the morning,  used up a single pie crust and some of the bag of spinach in addition to leftover bacon from Christmas Eve.

It does appear that at least one evening meal, most likely Tuesday will be a left over choice depending on what is eaten for lunches. Another option will be baking sweet potatoes for dinner which are quick easy and well liked.

Here is the plan and we are sticking to it!