Monday, November 4, 2019

My Top Tips to Surviving the Dinner Grind, Plus Home Chef Delivery 4 Meals for $14.80!

The is the slightly-crazed smile of a woman who has HAD IT with the Dinner Grind. If you have followed me for a while, you know I've done it all: bulk freezer cooking, meal prep services at a central kitchen, weekly Asian food delivery, threatening to strike. 

This post contains affiliate links.





Today I'm sharing my top 4 tips for Dinnertime:


1) Meal Delivery Kit 2-3 nights a week. Tim and I have tried many different services and find you can't beat the selection, flexibility, portion size, or price of Home Chef! We are able to get 2-person or family-sized meals, tailor our meals to specific dietary needs, and whip up healthy, delicious dinners several times a week without the hassle of buying a bunch of special ingredients and spices we might use only once or twice. Home Chef gets us out of our eating rut, feels special, and is less expensive than going out to eat.






We saved $35 on our first order with this limited time offer, and so can YOU using this unique affiliate code.

If you want to try it, the absolutely cheapest way (which we did) is to:

Follow my affiliate link
Give any dietary specifications/dislikes
Choose the plan 2 Meals a Week for 2 people,
Head to check out.
Home Chef then takes $35 off and your 4 meals are a total of $14.80!
(Of course, the $35 discount for other size orders if you choose)

For this price, it's a WONDERFUL way to try out a meal prep service, whether for the short-term or as a long-term dinner solution!

2) One Tried and True Crowd Pleaser With Jack and Margaret it was Taco Tuesday. With Andrew it is Spaghetti and Meatballs Tuesdays :) We keep all ingredients on hand in the pantry and freezer so we have one cheap, no-brainer meal every week. I don't eat much pasta, so I eat mine over frozen spriralized squash.

3) Costco Prepared Meals I go every few months, buy a bunch of these meals and freeze them. They bake in the oven for a hands-off meal. Our favorites are Salmon with Herb Butter and Meatloaf with Mashed Potatoes.

4) Crock pot or Instant Pot one night per week. I prefer the crock pot, particularly in soup season. Here's my favorite white chicken chili recipe. Lentil soup is also great in the crock-pot-- with no soaking needed. There's nothing like having dinner cooking when you leave the house in the morning.

These tips should get you 5 or 6 dinners a week, leaving room for pizza or Taco Bell one night, of course!

What are your top dinner tips?


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am very into dinner that cooks itself. Boneless pork chops at 350* for 45 minutes. Eggroll in a bowl. Chicken and rice done in the oven. I am also an avid IP user. Love that thing!

Cindy said...

I make the filling for Chicken Quesadillas in advance & keep it in small freezer bags - that way everyone can make theirs on the fly. I also double batch my soups & freeze the extra for ‘hard times’. I have a recipe from a fave budget site for a beef burrito casserole that’s a huge fave - enough for a week - so I freeze half. And we have a pizza oven that my darling husband loves to use, so I make sure we have pizza sauce stocked. And I use my crockpot in the winter especially - I have a few tried & true recipes that everyone eats. I assign the prep work the night before & we throw it in the next morning. ;)

Unknown said...

I'm making your White Chicken Chili recipe tonight! One of our fall favorites!

Pam said...

I buy frozen cauliflower pizza crusts from the local grocery and store them in the freezer. (I've also made my own, but opening the freezer, taking it out, closing the freezer is much quicker!) I use organic pizza sauce, freshly-grated mozzarella, maybe turkey pepperoni, fresh mushrooms on my half, whatever appropriate veggies I have lurking. One pizza feeds us both twice!

Anonymous said...

I use Every plate meal service twice a week, my 12 yr old son loves to cook the meals for us himself. We do a taco bar or baked potato bar a few times a week, using left over crock meat. I'll make baked chicken in the crock pot then turn it into chicken tacos or baked potato topping the next day. Same with Pot roast or even Pork roast. I also love my air fryer and we do steaks in them or make individual egg rolls, cheesesteak, pizza, ham and cheese, etc. with "fried" sweet potato fries.

Steph said...

Just signed up! Thank you!

kimmjo87 said...

We used to do "leftover pizza" on friday's. We have a local pizzeria that sells balls of dough. Grabbed 4 of those, made one regular pizza and leftovers went on the other 3. Meatloaf, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, Mac and cheese..any leftovers in the fridge got put on pizza crust covered in cheese and baked. They (I say they because i found this sorta gross so I usually ate cereal) used ranch, pizza sauce or ketchup to spice it up. Fridge got cleaned out, no food went to waste and the kids thought friday dinners rocked.