Menu Plan Monday
Monday came and went by in a blur for me around here and I scrambled to put together a menu for this week. Nothing fancy but the point is to have a "plan", right? Without further ado...
Monday: Faux Jambalaya (my own recipe)
Tuesday: Breakfast for Dinner- bacon & eggs (I had some bacon thawed out and then went blank on a creative way to use it, so we just cooked and ate it)
Wednesday: leftovers (why do we always seem to end up with so many?)
Thursday: sole stuffed with crab, veggies
Friday: chili, Easy Biscuit Squares
Saturday: Eat Out (let's face it, it's probably gonna happen!)
Sunday: BBQ chicken, cheesy ranch potatoes
Challenge Check-In
I started the challenge the last week of December, and this week would mark week #5 for me and the end of the road. Most of the other challengers are going through the end of the this week, but I started a bit sooner so... Anyway, it's my challenge to myself isn't it and I have learned ALOT during this process.
1. I COULD eat from my pantry if necessity called. Long term food storage is something that I would like to work on building up this year, putting together a serious plan and knowing exactly what to do if an emergency occurred. Due to the economy many people are having to practice "shopping your pantry" but then are left wondering how to pull it together. After this experience I now know that if my family were ever to be in a situation where we honestly couldn't go to the grocery store, we could make it! And I loved that I learned that about myself.
2. Setting a goal for myself makes me try harder. It is always so much easier to say "let's go out" or to put something extra in the shopping cart. But knowing that I was challenging myself to certain goals made me stick to those goals. My goal during this month was "to buy only produce and dairy, focusing on organic." Check!
3. Making more things from scratch makes me happy. Enough said.
4. Apprently I don't count beverages as "grocery items". My bloggy friend Camille is also participating in the challenge and she posted the other day about how they ran out of coffee at their house and since she couldn't buy any she came up with some creative alternatives. As soon as I read that I realized I hadn't been counting my coffee I bought. Or the soda. Or the alcohol. Ooops!
Grocery bill for four weeks: about $75 (I lost the last receipts), average of less than $20/week
At the outset of the challenge I didn't really set a budget amount since eliminating from the grocery list everything but produce and dairy can save money, but I did want to stay under $100. Check!
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