Chasing the Fionist Dream

Just imagine it. All four of us sit down nicely at the table. Everyone is telling how wonderful a day they had, eating dinner nicely, telling jokes every night and the dog is sitting up right next to the table and staring at us and with big brown puppy eyes saying “Feed me”. Uhhhh. Not so much. Sadly, that is not how it is most of the time – except for the part of the dog begging from from the table 😂. Our goal is to have dinner with the kids at least two weeknights per week. In reality, sometimes it’s more, sometimes it’s less. It depends what time the non-pickup spouse gets home from work and how hangry and tired the kids are. They might not work a full time job, but they are “ON” as much if not more than we are everyday.

You may be surprised to find out that we don’t meal plan per se, though we do rotate between a set list of meals and tend to keep those ingredients on hand. We just don’t have a set weekly menu.

So what do we eat?

We cook fairly simply and make sure to maximize all of our leftovers (since throwing away food is throwing away money). We mostly eat vegetarian/fish dinners during the week and make meat/poultry for Shabbat meals. We bring Shabbat leftovers to work as lunches for at least the first half of the following week. After we run out of those, we make sure to make large enough batches of our dinners to cover us for the remaining lunches. In general, we don’t spend more than 5-8 shekels per serving for a regular weekday meal and don’t spend more than 30 minutes prepping.

Here is a list of typical meals that we make during the week and how much they cost us to make. If these total costs seem low to you, make sure to read our grocery shopping posts. Anything that doesn’t have veggies in the main dish is served with salad or cut up veggies on the side.

1. Falafel – 10 shekels total for four servings, including oven fries and salad
   
   
2. Vegetarian chili – 12 shekels for 4-5 servings, including the sprinkled cheese and bread on the side
   
   
3. Pizza – 25 shekels for two 35 cm pies. (We make this with Shufersal brand cheese we buy at 30 shekels/kg.)
   
   
4. Fish and chips – 15 shekels for four servings. We buy frozen tilapia on sale for 20 shekels/kilo and have gotten used to eating it breaded with the skin on. We have oven fries and cup up veggies on the side.
   
   
5. Wholewheat pasta with (sauce and) cheese, veggies on the side – 10 shekels for four servings. We stock up on wholewheat pasta at Carrefour, Rami Levi or Osher Ad. Never more than 5 shekels a bag. Cheese is either cottage cheese or Shufersal brand.
   
   
6. Tuna patties with roasted or fresh veggies and potatoes or wholewheat pasta – 15 shekels for four servings. (We never spend more than 5 shekels for a can of tuna.) The goal of this meal is to fit everything but the pasta (if we have it) onto one baking sheet.
   
   
7. Omelets, baked potato & salad – 10-15 shekels for four servings. Depends on how many eggs and which additions to the omelets.
   
   
8. Hotdogs and french fries (either from frozen or oven fries) – 15-20 shekels for 4 servings. Hey, no one’s perfect.
   
   
9. Tofu stir fry over rice – 15-20 shekels for 3-4 servings – all eaten by Fiona for lunches since no one else will eat it. We never spend more than 10 shekels for a block of tofu, and this is a great way to get rid of sad veggies that need to be put out of their misery.
   
   
10. When we want something special for the two of us, Finn picks up fresh laffot on his way home and we throw some kebab, pargit or steak on our grill pan, chop up some salad and make some fries. We either set the table nicely and enjoy each other’s company or stuff our faces in front of Netflix. This costs us 20-50 shekels for the two of us instead of the 120-200 we’d spend on ordering in.

Sometimes during the week when we want something sweet or noshy, Finn makes a simple chocolate cake or chocolate chip cookies.

So what about Shabbat?

Just like weeknights, we tend to prepare things that are simpler, easier, and cheaper, but still delicious. We have figured out which things freeze well and which don’t, so when we can we prepare those things in bulk, which cuts down on our prep time on any given week. We bought an extra freezer when our daughter was a baby and haven’t looked back. Definitely recommended.

Challah – We bake from scratch every six weeks or so, so most of the time we just take challah out of the freezer.

Salatim – homemade salsa (frozen in ice cube trays and thawed as needed), tehina (mixed at home either with honey or garlic and lemon juice), olives (from a can), and a basic salad. We’re not really hummus people.

Soups – Fruit soup in the summer and chicken, veggie lentil, or “orange” soup the rest of the year. All of our soups freeze well, so we prepare 2 or 3 weeks worth at a time. Often we’ll have more than one type in the freezer, so it’s fun to be able to choose without doing any work.

Side dishes – We generally have the same sides for the two Shabbat meals and have different main dishes . Sides could be rice, ptitim, roasted potatoes, potato kugel, roasted veggies (cabbage and carrots are cheap and delicious, but we also occasionally do zucchini and peppers, or whatever else is in season and on sale that we like). Unless we’re feeling fancy, we have one carb and one veggie.

Main dishes – Schnitzel (which we cut ourselves), wings, chicken legs and thighs, roasted whole chicken (if we’re having guests), turkey sweet and sour meatballs, and occasionally brisket or a chunk of meat (usually #4 or #5) cooked low and slow or salmon when we find it on sale. While we’re not in love with the taste of previously frozen cooked chicken, we’ve determined that we can’t tell the difference for beef, so we happily cook beef in bulk, slice, and freeze in lots of sauce for future Shabbatot.

Dessert – Always home made cake or cookies, with the exception of our salmon meals with always end with Ben and Jerry’s.

Shabbat meal costs vary, but we’d estimate that two Shabbat meals cost us anywhere between 60 and 250 shekels, depending on what we’re eating and if we have guests (and how many of them). This cost includes the leftovers that we bring for lunches the following week.

What are your go to go meals that you make for your family? What does your family like? How much do you spend?

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