Menu Plan Monday (er, Wednesday)

Things have been chugging along quite smoothly this week already and I have been very pleased that I already had a menu plan in place for the next couple of weeks, so I haven't had to think about it too much.  I just forgot to share it with you!  Since I know that things tend to shift around (adding leftover nights, spur of the moment bites) here is our menu plan through the end of the month:

• Ava's birthday dinner - homemade pizza, birthday cake
• chicken club braid (from my good friend Camille at Growing Up Gabel), grilled scalloped potatoes
• Cafe' Rio pork salad with Cafe' Rio dressing (for those of you not in the Nevada/Utah area, you are missing out and I will post recipes soon!)
• homemade tomato soup (once again from Camille - can you tell I am in awe of her "Make It Homemade" series?), grilled cheese on homemade bread
• crispy baked chicken, cornbread
• cube steak, potatoes & gravy, carrots, homemade rolls

Menu Plan Monday

I actually sat down last week and planned out the breakfast and dinner menus for the month, taking into account several birthdays, family events and preschool mornings (which we are still driving 45 minutes down to Provo for every Tuesdays and Thursdays), what I had on hand, new recipes I wanted to try, etcetera etcetera.  I feel productive about it, but now the trick will be stay on top of it all - thawing things out, making the homemade breads, etc.

Monday - Butternut squash Soup, french bread, tomato slices, cut-up apples

Tuesday - Out to dinner for Elliott's birthday, homemade cheesecake for dessert

Wednesday - Pasta with homemade marinara sauce, homemade garlic bread, broccoli, plum tart (with fresh pluots I will pick on Tuesday)

Thursday - Crock Pot BBQ beef sandwiches, homemade hamburger buns, BBQ beans, potato salad, apple slices

Friday - Taco soup, quesadillas

Saturday & Sunday - Leftovers / eating out / winging it (hey, just keepin' it real folks!)

Menu Plan Monday

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: poached salmon, pan roasted broccoli (from America's Test Kitchen)

Tuesday: fiesta bake, spanish rice

Wednesday: leftovers / Sarah out to dinner

Thursday: oven fried chicken, carrot salad

Friday: leftovers

Saturday: take-out dinner / Valentines Day treat

Sunday: BBQ

Menu Plan Monday / Challenge Wrap-Up

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!

Menu Plan Monday / Challenge Check-In

Menu Plan Monday

Heading into Week #4 and I am so proud of myself!  No grocery shopping last week save for a gallon of milk (but I did do my shopping for this week on Saturday, so you will see those dollars indicated below).  I had a lot of produce leftover from the week before, and even though we ran low towards the end of the week, we squeaked by. 

Wednesday's meal of BBQ beef sandwiches turned into into straight leftovers, since the Crock Pot beef was so yummy it didn't need any BBQ sauce.  Saturday we scrapped dinner plans and hit up IHOP for "All You Can Eat Pancakes".  PLUS kids eat free with each adult meal purchase, so each of us chowed down (and I include the girls on this for we timed the meal to be both lunch and dinner and everyone was hungry) so we got out of there very cheaply. (I just need to start planning "eating out" for Saturdays, because that is what seems to be happening.)

This week I am going out with some girlfriends on Thursday night, so I will just plan on leftovers for everyone else but pick up a little treat for me while out.  And Saturday Elliott and I have a Date Night scheduled (for a long time now) so we will be eating out then, but I plan to use a Restaurant.com certificate and do it on the cheap.

Monday: Shepherd's Pie, salad

Tuesday: chili and cornbread

Wednesday: Honey Baked chicken, Easy Biscuit Squares, vegetable

Thursday: leftovers

Friday: Greek Beef & Orzo, salad

Saturday: Date Night

Sunday: BBQ chicken, cheesy ranch potatoes


Challenge Check-In

Last week's grocery bill: $18.97

Monthly grocery bill, so far: $60.07 (for three weeks)

Items I cheated on: While picking up produce at Albertsons I threw a pack of hot dogs in the cart.  Not organic and not on the challenge, but since we BBQ every Sunday the little kids had been missing their BBQ staple - hot dogs - and I thought after this many weeks without they deserved a little treat.  I also picked up a bag of flour.  I plan to order a large quantity of organic flour in the near future, but we were running on empty and since I am making most everything at home it was a something I couldn't live without.

Menu Plan Monday / Challenge Check-In

Menu Plan Monday

Last week went smoothly and according to plan. For breakfasts we had cereal, pumpkin bread, homemade yogurt, and pancakes with jam. Lunches were grilled cheese sandwiches with cut vegetables, macaroni and cheese with applesauce, and the like. I stuck to salads (we have alot of it and I love this homemade dressing) and whatever scraps the girls left behind.

I had a few switch-eroos this week. We had more leftover nights than normal due to late (and large) lunches on Thursday and I also found some chicken thawed out in the fridge which I had kinda forgotten about so I switched and made Chicken Spaghetti instead on Friday night (wow is this total comfort food!). So I am just going to plug some dinner ideas from last week into the round again for this upcoming week.

Poor Elliott kinda got sucked into this challenge whether his appetite wanted to or not, so I splurged and agreed to hit a new buffet (his favorite form of dining) on Sunday for lunch so we didn't feel like a large dinner. I fed the girls something light and we called it a day.

So with those modifications in mind from last week, here's what we have on tap for this week (boy I just noticed the glut of beef and potatoes, oh well!):

Breakfasts will include oatmeal, pancakes, and cereal while lunches will include tuna patties, soup, and grilled cheese.

Monday: ribeye, baked potatoes, glazed carrots

Tuesday: CrockPot beef roast with veggies, corn cakes

Wednesday: BBQ beef sandwiches on homemade rolls, homemade oven french fries

Thursday: leftovers

Friday: crunchy dijon salmon, rice pilaf, broccoli

Saturday: Greek beef & orzo, salad

Sunday: BBQ chicken, cheesy potatoes


Challenge Check-In

Last week's grocery bill: $26.16

Monthly grocery bill, so far: $41.10

Items I cheated on: Since I am trying to buy either local or organics, I did decide that Idaho and California were close enough to Las Vegas to be considered "local" produce. May or may not be true. But hey, I am striving to do better, which is all we can do, right?

Also, I went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few craft supplies (and a pack of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers thanks to Lily's freehand crayon Picasso's in some no-no places) and left with a couple of containers of oatmeal before I even realized what I had done. You see, I had been carrying around a couple of coupons that would allow me to get the oatmeal for only $.25 but had to go to this Wal-Mart. Since I was there I went on autopilot, got the things I needed including the coupon items, checked out and then went "doh!" Oh well, I feel a bit guilty but since I set the challenge goals myself and oatmeal is a staple, I am letting myself off of the hook.

Menu Plan Monday / Challenge Check-In

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Fiesta Bake, Spanish rice, salad

Tuesday: manicotti, homemade French breadsticks, salad

Wednesday: leftovers

Thursday: CrockPot beef roast with veggies, corn cakes

Friday: BBQ beef sandwiches on homemade rolls, homemade french fries

Saturday: Greek beef & orzo, salad

Sunday: leftovers OR BBQ


Challenge Check-In

Last week's grocery bill: $14.94

Monthly grocery bill (so far): $14.94

Items I cheated on: none (hooray!)

Food deals I passed on (and was sad but determined): cheap crab meat packets, Cheerios, probably lots of other Manager Special meat deals, but I didn't go into the stores/down those aisles

Other deals I did buy: free Electrosol (I have learned NOT to buy cheap dishwasher detergent. It just doesn't work for me!)

Menu Plan Monday / Eat From Your Pantry Challenge

One thing I have been doing over the past year is menu planning. It has heped to greatly reduce our family's grocery bill while helping me feed my family better food. And this year I have decided to share our weekly menu plan with you, if for no other reason than to hold me more accountable to to a menu plan each week.

During the month of January (and actually I am starting today) I am participating in the Eat From Your Pantry Challenge, sponsored by Life as Mom and Money Saving Mom, two of my favorite bloggers and fellow savvy shopping moms. I was super excited to see this challenge occur because I had already determined that we needed to do this at our house, so now with the extra support of fellow bloggers everwhere I can do it!

My goal during this month is to buy only produce and dairy, focusing on organic. I didn't really set a budget amount since eliminating all but these two categories can save money, but I plan on tracking my spending here and would like to stay under $100.

Monday: chicken enchiladas (using Southwest Egg Roll filling), Spanish rice, salad

Tuesday: pasta bolognese, homemade French breadsticks, salad

Wednesday: Sunday Brunch casserole (from freezer)

Thursday: ORDER OUT (New Year's Eve treat)

Friday: leftovers

Saturday: soup of some kind (maybe Taco Soup or chili), rolls or cornbread

Sunday: BBQ ribeye, twice baked potatoes, green beans

I haven't quite rounded up breakfast or lunch ideas yet, but I do pretty well at those. For breakfast we tend to have something "bready" - cereal, pancakes, scones, etc. - and we eat more canned soup or boxed meals at lunch - macaroni & cheese, chicken nuggets. I will have a full breakdown of our other meals next week. I will also be trying my hand at homemade yogurt, so stay tuned for that!