Dinner suggestions???

My family and I have been trying to save money, by cutting back and only eating out at a restaraunt once or twice a week. The problem is that we are running out of things to make that are different then what we eat at home all week. Does anyone have any good reipes or ideas for fun "theme dinners" that they would like to share? Thanks! :)

Greek salad with pork souvlaki. 1 serving size below:

The Real Canadian Superstore has pork souvlaki skewers pre-marinated (110).

Greek salad is easy and delish. Lettuce - romaine or other but not iceberg (20) Kalamata olives about 3 sliced (35). Low fat 17%MF feta cheese 30g crumbled (70). Medium tomato (26). 1/3 of a cucumber (25). Kraft Reduced Calorie Greek dressing 3Tbsp (135)

Total = 421 cal

What kinds of things do you like to eat?  There are so many things you could do, but I wouldn't want to bombard you with recipes for foods you hate.

We like all kinds of foods. I'm open to anything. :)

Do you like soup? The Soup Bible by Deborah Mayhewhas hundreds f great recipies which are easy to make and many of them can be really cheap too! One of my favourites involves only and onion, some parsley, stock and chick peas and it's sooooo tasty. I can email you some recipies if you like.

 I also have 300 Italian dishes by Kate Whiteman has lots of traditional recpies- you could have an Italian night each week?

Go to the search bar, make sure "recipes" are highlighted, and search for "crock pot" or "slow cooker", and you'll get a load of recipes.  Perfect for tosssing in a cooker, leave it simmer for a few hours, and you have dinner waiting for you when you get home.  Excellent for busy families...

On edit:  you can also check any number of recipe websites like Recipezaar:

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes.php?q=crock +pot

or cooks.com, or even Kraft.com for all sorts of recipes, and even search based on what ingredients you have on hand.

Thanks everyone!!! I like the idea of an italian night...

If you go to the supermarket you can find a HUGE variety of different flavour/meal bases. We often have butter chicken, chinese bbq, honey mustard, sweet&sour, thai sweet chilli & lime etc flavours. They're tend to only add about 100cal's to the meal if you use a reasonable portion and they're pretty tasty. :)

Try these:

Chicken Mexicana

Apricot Pork Chops

Tamale Pie

Classic Roast Chicken

Flamel's Vegetarian Chili

Thanks everybody!

taco night. i'm doing it tomorrow night. get some chicken breast, taco seasoning (or do your own using cumin, chili powder, and tomato sauce - google recipes), some tortillas, salsa, lettuce, tomato, fat free sour cream, low fat or fat free cheese...yum!

You've gotten lots of yummy options for dinner now, maximize their usage!

Create a list of all the items that you try to make (and like).  When you're stumped on what to make for dinner...pull out your list and you have a full menu right there to choose from! 

I find it's much easier than looking through entire recipes or books!  Good Luck!

kikig is right - the easiest way to make sure you don't spend lots of time planning is to have a list of some sort. I actually use an Excel spreadsheet. I made different tabs for different types of meals (bean based, meat based, pasta based, soups and salads) and I enter all the recipes I like in there, along with a reference of where to find the recipe (cookbook page, file, etc) and what we like to eat with it as a side dish. Then I just have a guideline for choosing my weekly meals. I like to pick one meat based dish, two bean based dishes, and a pasta dish and figure we'll eat leftovers at least one evening. It takes a lot of the thinking out of meal planning.

Original Post by rsauvageot:

kikig is right - the easiest way to make sure you don't spend lots of time planning is to have a list of some sort. I actually use an Excel spreadsheet. I made different tabs for different types of meals (bean based, meat based, pasta based, soups and salads) and I enter all the recipes I like in there, along with a reference of where to find the recipe (cookbook page, file, etc) and what we like to eat with it as a side dish. Then I just have a guideline for choosing my weekly meals. I like to pick one meat based dish, two bean based dishes, and a pasta dish and figure we'll eat leftovers at least one evening. It takes a lot of the thinking out of meal planning.

 I <3 EXCEL!!!  That's an AWESOME way to keep track!  I use a File Maker Pro template, especially for recipes so, it does the same thing!!!