30 Days of Eating In

Let me 'fess up to something.  Most A lot of nights my boyfriend and I pick up our dinner at fast food restaurants.  We have a tendency to not plan our meals ahead, which results in me working on a project or homework or whatever until about 9pm, then looking up and saying, "Holy crap I'm starving!"  By then it's too late to try and cook something, so we run to Burger King.  It's either that, or I get home from work/school and I'm too exhausted to make myself anything so we just pick something up.  Gross, right?

Well, recently we decided enough is enough.  We absolutely need to eat healthier or we'll die very, very young.  So we've challenged ourselves to 30 days of eating in.  We'll cook every day, every meal.  The idea is that by the end of 30 days, we'll have gotten used to cooking at home and made a major lifestyle change.  Hopefully by the end of the month when it's 9pm and I realize I'm starving instead of running to McDonald's I'll think to myself, "Sucks to be me.  I should have thought about this sooner" and make a sandwich.

We started our 30 day challenge on July 26.  That means we've been eating in now for 14 solid days.  Honestly, I'm surprised we've made it so far.  I thought surely we'd give up.

It's really taken some planning.  Like, if we go somewhere in the middle of the day I have to make sure we eat before we go or bring a snack because we won't be able to eat again until we get home.  (I've been very strict about this.  I didn't even allow us to buy a soft pretzel during an exceptionally long trip to the mall for an interview outfit.)  We're really getting the hang of it.

And since we're cooking at home so much and I have about a billion recipes marked on Pinterest, I decided to try a few of them out for dinner this week and share them with you here.  Here's what we'll be making:

Monday: Chicken Crescent Rolls

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 We'll be making these with Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (my favorite!) and 2 cups of leftover rotisserie chicken from a few days ago.  Easy, economical and hopefully delicious!

Wednesday: Turkey Pesto Sliders

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Okay, so I know this recipe is like, "Duh."  But we have leftover buns from dinner tonight and I have a job interview on Wednesday, so I thought this would make a quick and easy dinner.  We'll see how it is. :)

Thursday: Easy Crockpot BBQ Chicken

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I'm excited for this because I'm always forgetting to thaw the meat beforehand (another reason we end up with take-out) and according to this recipe you can stick the chicken in the Crockpot still frozen!

Friday: Chicken with Garlicky Tomato Gravy

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This is actually "Romanian Ostropel."  It sounds delicious and can be served over rice, pasta or mashed potatoes.  How versatile!  Plus, we always have leftover potatoes or rice from other meals, so it would really only take one skillet for me to make!

Tune back in throughout this week to see our meals and get the tutorial review!  Hope to see you again soon!

--CC