March Meal Plan 2014

We are doing our once a month shopping a little early this month because the day I would normally do it is my due date.  While I love my husband dearly I don't trust him to be able to pull off an OAMS trip without me.  When I send him for a handful of items I get numerous phone calls asking which brand to buy, this price vs. that price, and informed of other goodies he finds that we might "need".   When I told him this he suggested we forgo the big trip this month and instead he would do weekly trips.  I considered this for all of 10 seconds before saying no thanks.


Is that harsh?


Ok, I'll admit I'm a little controlling when it comes to my grocery shopping/list making/couponing/grocery budget.  I know what we need, what we go through, the amount of money we have to work with and how to make it work for us.  To someone who hasn't done a day of grocery shopping by themselves for a family in their life, it's not easy.  With a new baby coming and already having a very active 3 year old I want as few things to worry about as possible.  One of the things I don't want to worry about is food and meals.  I want everything I need for the whole month so I don't have to wonder if I have all the ingredients for this meal or that.  I've come accustomed to that luxury since I started OAMS.  It also might be selfish but I don't like the idea of sending my husband every week for groceries knowing it will take him a couple hours minimum and me stuck at home alone with 2 kids.  I would rather us all be stuck at home together.


When I started thinking of meals to make this month and the fact that I would be recovering from childbirth, the idea of doing a lot of from scratch cooking started stressing me out.  I have not one desire to make the meals I normally do.  This past month I had already slacked with the homemade cooking and resorted to some frozen family size meals which I hadn't bought in forever.  I decided my sanity and stress level was more important than trying to be supermom, so this month is full of quick, easy, and some store bought frozen meals.  I want to be able to focus on bonding, recovering, and establishing a new normal routine for our growing family not what to make for dinner.  The from scratch homemade meals will come eventually but no need to do it now.


Week 1
Sunday:  Lasagna (homemade by my mom)
Monday:  Breakfast for dinner- scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, bacon
Tuesday: Tomato Soup with grilled cheese sandwiches
Wednesday: fish stick sandwiches, mac & cheese, and fruit
Thursday:  Hamburgers with tator tots and fruit
Friday: leftovers
Saturday:  Grilled Chicken breast with green beans


Week 2
Sunday:  Stuffed Pepper soup (freezer)
Monday: Breakfast for dinner-bacon with biscuits and gravy
Tuesday:  chicken nuggets, corn, fruit
Wednesday: Spaghetti with garlic toast
Thursday:Salisbury steak, mashed potato, biscuits
Friday: leftovers
Saturday: hot dogs, mac & cheese, green beans


Week 3
Sunday:  chicken nuggets, mashed potato, corn
Monday: Breakfast for dinner- omelets
Tuesday:  grilled cheese, tator tots, fruit
Wednesday: Hamburgers & French fries,
Thursday: fish sticks, mac & cheese, fruit
Friday: leftovers
Saturday:   pulled pork sandwiches, corn, potato wedges


Week 4
Sunday:  Salisbury steak, mashed potato, biscuits
Monday:  Breakfast for dinner-pancakes with bacon
Tuesday:  Spaghetti with garlic toast
Wednesday:  hot dogs, mac & cheese, fruit
Thursday:  Grilled chicken, corn, corn bread
Friday:  leftovers
Saturday: pizza (take-out)


As you can see this months meals are pretty sad compared to previous ones but I wanted to make sure all the meals are ones my husband could easily make without my help, or that I could make with minimal energy and cleanup.  Paper plates will be my friend after my husband goes back to work and I will not feel guilty about it.  My goal is to make everything as easy as possible for the first month so I can focus on our new little one, Grant, and our new normal.

February 2014 Meal Plan

Being towards the end of my pregnancy I have no real desire to stand in the kitchen and chop, dice, slice, mix, sauté, and cook for an hour and a half.  No instead I noticed the last couple weeks I was picking out the easiest meals left on my January meal plan.  The ones I write down thinking I'll use them on a day we are pressed for time for one reason or another, or a day I don't feel good, etc.  Well these days I'm uncomfortable every day, lacking sleep, exhausted by 10am (I have been waking up at 6am every morning without the help of an alarm), and hurting from this baby I feel is running completely out of room and trying to create more by stretching and kicking constantly.

So no, I don't feel like making anything that takes more than 10 minutes prep time, requires me to stand over the stove for extended periods, or that takes extensive clean up time.  Nope fish sticks, hot dogs, throwing some frozen chicken in a dish and in the oven is more my style.

All that being said, please don't look down on me for my lack of great from scratch meals this month.  I feel like our meals have taken a time warp back to when my husband and I first got married, before I got in to cooking and trying new recipes.  So here it is in all it's glory this month's meal plan of 28 meals:





1. *Chili
2. Tomato soup w/ grilled cheese sandwiches (I don't use the sherry & I substitute  a 28oz can crushed tomato for the diced along with half and half instead of the heavy cream)
3. Breakfast- waffles
4. Breakfast-omelets with hashbrowns
5. Breakfast-eggs, toast & fruit
6. Breakfast-pancakes
7. Leftovers
8. Leftovers
9. Leftovers
10. Leftovers
11. Black bean enchilada soup *freezer
12. Spaghetti w/breadsticks (I love homemade spaghetti sauce but this month it's comin' straight from the jar, thanks Ragu!)
13. Hot dogs w/ mac & cheese & fruit
14. Veggie pot pie (I don't use the white wine and I use a regular pie crust.  For the veggies I throw in whatever I have in my fridge and freezer that sounds good when I make it)
15. Hamburgers w/ green beans
16. Hamburgers w/ mash potato & deviled eggs
17. Grilled cheese w/ potato wedges
18. *Beef & cheese burritos w/rice
19. Lasagna with garlic toast (I broke down and took the easy way out buying a frozen lasagna this month, I haven't bought one in a good 3 years but you can't beat the convenience)
20. Onion soup pork chops w/ rice pilaf & corn (rice pilaf is a new recipe I found and I'm giving it a try)
21. Orange chicken w/ rice
22. Chili dogs with potato wedges
23. Pinto beans and cornbread (I'm seasoning my beans with chunks of ham I have in my freezer from the ham I cooked last month instead of bacon.  I use the recipe on the side of the corn meal bag to make my cornbread)
24. Bbq baked pork chops w/ green beans and corn bread
25. *Meatballs w/ meat gravy mash tato & biscuits
26. *Pulled pork bbq sandwiches
27. Fried bologna sandwiches w/mac & cheese and fruit (I love fried bologna sandwiches, it takes me back to my childhood)
28.  Salisbury Steak w/ green beans and biscuits (I've been wanting to make homemade Salisbury steak for a while now but once again I took the convenience route and bought a frozen one, don't judge me lol)





I included meals that for whatever reason didn't get made last month and none of these are in any special order.  I have a calendar I write all the meals.  I always have 4 days of breakfast for dinner and 4 days of leftovers, usually with a breakfast for dinner on a Monday, leftovers for Fridays, and a soup on Sundays.  Then I just try to space the others out with a good balance and variety.

Chili

From what I can tell everyone has a different recipe for chili and everyone likes theirs completely different.  I use the same recipe my mom has made forever.  I don't know where she got it but it tastes like home to me so it's the only way I will make my chili.


1 1/2lb ground beef
1 large onion
2 cans condensed tomato soup
1 large can tomato juice
1T chili powder (I don't normally measure this I just dump some in but it probably comes out to about 1T, you can add more or less depending on your tastes)
salt and pepper to taste
14.5 oz can diced tomato (I throw this in if I have it in my pantry but it's not a must, it's just as good without them)
1/2t cumin (I've made it without this and it's still good I just like the flavor it adds)


brown the ground beef with the diced onion until cooked through.  Season with salt and pepper and a sprinkling of chili powder (not the 1T listed above). Drain the fat from the meat.  In a large pot pour the tomato soups, tomato juice, and diced tomato if you're using them inside.  Add the cooked ground beef to the pot along with 1T chili powder, cumin, a dash of salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and let simmer for about 30 minutes.

Meatballs w/ meat gravy

I make my meatballs like I make meatloaf.  I don't usually measure so all these measurements are approximate and feel free to improvise or adjust according to your taste buds.


1- 1 1/2lb ground beef
about 1/2c bread crumbs (use more if your mixture isn't coming together)
1/4c milk
1/2 a large onion diced (can also use dried minced onion)
1 t salt
pepper
1/4c ketchup


mix together and shape into balls (as large or as small as you want, mine are usually about 1 1/2inches each).  Fry in a pan on medium heat until cooked through.  Remove from pan and transfer to paper towel lined dish.  GRAVY: to make the gravy you will need the leftover fat in the pan from the meatballs you just cooked.  Add 1/4c flour to the fat and whisk.  Add 3t beef bouillon granules and 2c water and whisk together.  cook over low heat stirring constantly until thick.  Once gravy is thick place meatballs back into pan and spoon gravy over the top.

Pulled Pork BBQ sandwiches

4lb pork loin
1 bottle bbq sauce
1 can Dr Pepper, coke, or pepsi (I've made this without using soda and it's still good but the soda adds a lot of extra moisture and sends it over the top)
1T brown sugar
2t dried minced onion
squirt of honey (if you don't have any honey in your pantry just leave this out, it will still be scrumptious)
hamburger buns


place all ingredients in the crockpot and cook on low about 6 hours or until the roast falls apart with a fork.  Spoon onto hamburger buns and enjoy.  This freezes really well so don't waste the leftovers, freeze them for another dinner or even a quick lunch.

Beef & Cheese Burritos

1lb ground beef
1/2 large onion diced
2c shredded cheese
1 package burrito size tortilla shells
1 packet taco seasoning
1/4c water
refried beans (I will be using the leftovers from the pinto beans I'm making this month, If you don't have refried beans or don't like them like I don't, just omit them all together)


brown ground beef over medium heat with diced onion until cooked through.  Drain fat from meat.  Add taco seasoning and water to ground beef, mix.  Remove from heat and assemble your burritos with the ground beef, cheese, and beans.  Use rice as a side dish or add it to your burrito as well.

January/March 2014 Monthly Menu Plan

We didn't do our once a month shopping until this past weekend so my menu plan this month also covers the first week of February for us.


I have to say this month was a tough one to make everything fit into the budget I like to stay in and I'm realizing there are times when I have to bust that budget a little and be ok with that.  One of our local grocery stores was having an amazing sale on ground beef ($1.69/lb) and pork chops ($1.49/lb).  I had already planned on buying some ground beef but couldn't pass up the pork chop sale.  We ended up purchasing 10 pounds of ground beef for about $16 and 14 bone in pork chops for just under $8.  These types of sales rarely come around and usually when they do it's not when I'm doing my OAMS.  So I considered this a blessing and that God was looking out for us since with those purchases we shouldn't need pork chops for a good 2-3 months, and the beef should last us through February, so this will allow for me to make other meat purchases and give us some wiggle room next month.


Anyways, on to the menu plan, I have a plan of 28 meals this month, some of which will change a little since we purchased more beef than planned so we have room to make adjustments without depleting our meat supply.

Monthly Meal Plan

1.veggie pot pie  I use Pioneer Woman's chicken pot pie recipe for a base, I've made it before and love the flavor.  Instead of heavy cream I'm using milk, leaving out the chicken and adding green beans instead.
2. stuffed pepper soup: this is a new recipe I've never tried before but came across it and thought it sounded delicious.  I'm always on the lookout for new soup recipes.
3.breakfast for dinner: biscuits with gravy, turkey bacon, and scrambled eggs
4. pinto beans and corn bread- my husband and son love beans, instead of using bacon to season them I bought ham hock which is much less expensive.  I bought a package of 3 ham hock for $3.52 at my local Wal-Mart and will only use 1 for each recipe of pinto beans I make.
5. deer roast with potatoes, biscuits, and deviled eggs
6. homemade pizza
7. fried bologna sandwiches with chips and fruit
8. meatloaf (recipe below) with mashed potatoes, green beans, buttered bread
9. leftovers
10. chili dogs with macaroni & cheese and fruit
11. orange chicken with rice
12. grilled cheese with potato wedges and corn
13. breakfast for dinner: homemade waffles with homemade syrup & fruit
14. leftovers
15. ham and peppers Stromboli (recipe below)
16. black bean enchilada soup (frozen meal from last month) with corn bread
17. turkey Bolognese with breadsticks
18. hamburger steaks with baked potatoes & fruit
19. leftovers
20. breakfast for dinner: ham and cheese omelets
21. homemade pizza
22. onion soup pork chops (recipe below) with fried potatoes and green beans
23. chicken fried rice
24. breakfast for dinner: breakfast pizza, I love Pioneer Woman's breakfast pizza and made it here.  I decided since I bought all the goods to make homemade salsa I might as well use some for this pizza.  However this one will be a veggie breakfast pizza instead of having the sausage or bacon on top.  I always over cook them and it will be a little quicker for me to whip up this way.
25. baked ham shank, mashed potatoes biscuits, and corn
26. tacos with Spanish rice
27. leftovers
28. pork chop casserole another new recipe I found and thought I'd give it a try.


I don't do daily meal plans for breakfast or lunch since it all depends on what I'm in the mood to cook or not cook and what leftovers we have for lunch options.  Instead I make a list at the bottom of my monthly calendar meal plan of all the breakfast items I have ingredients to make.  This way I can take a quick glance and know exactly what we have to choose from.  Here's the list of breakfast foods for this month:

Breakfast

brown sugar muffins

scrambled eggs with bacon

homemade waffles

pancakes

sweet potato bread

cinnamon swirl bread

baked oatmeal

oatmeal with toast

toast

pumpkin muffins

French puffs

Lunch

egg salad

tuna salad

turkey sandwiches/wraps

pizza wraps

cheese and crackers with turkey or pepperoni

pb&j

grilled cheese plain or with turkey or pepperoni

Recipes:

Meatloaf:  Everyone has a different way of making meatloaf but I thought I'd share my basic recipe and ways I change it.


1 1/2lbs ground beef (I prefer to use 80/20 ground beef because there is less grease)
1 egg
about 1/2 cup bread crumbs (use more if necessary)
1 onion finely chopped (you could use minced dried onion if you don't have a regular onion)
salt and pepper
1/4c ketchup (can use tomato sauce if you're out of ketchup)
1/4c milk (this is just for moisture, I've made it without using milk with good results as well but if I think about it, I try to add it.)
-throw it all in a bowl and mix it up.  Form into a loaf in a 9x13 inch baking dish.  Bake at 350 for about an hour, check for doneness just to be on the safe side.


*I don't actually measure any of my ingredients for meatloaf because there's really no wrong way to mix it up so don't be afraid to add more or less of the ingredients above.




CHANGES:
*add green, red, and/or yellow bell peppers that are finely chopped
*add shredded carrots and finely diced celery. 
*add 1t minced garlic
*I've read where people advise to sauté any of the veggies (bell peppers, onion, carrots, celery, garlic) in a separate pan before adding them to the meat mixture.  I don't do this because I'm lazy and have no desire to add in extra steps unless I find it necessary.  I haven't every made a meatloaf where the veggies I used tasted raw or hard so I don't do this step, you can if you wish.




Onion Soup Pork Chops:
4 pork chops (bone in or boneless)
1 packet onion soup mix
water


place pork chops in a glass baking dish.  Sprinkle onion soup mix on top.  Add enough water just to cover the bottom of the dish (this is just for moisture so the chops don't dry out).  Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 30-60 minutes.  If you are using boneless wings they tend to be smaller and thinner so you will probably only need to bake them around 30 minutes.  Bone in tend to be a bit thicker and I usually bake them about 45 minutes to an hour.




Ham & Peppers Stromboli:
1 pizza crust.  Recipe I use can be found here.
1 green bell pepper chopped
1 red bell pepper chopped
1 yellow bell pepper chopped
1 small onion chopped
1c shredded cheese (any variety will work)
1c chopped ham (this can be lunch meat ham or leftover ham from a baked ham)
Italian seasoning
salt & pepper


roll pizza crust into a rectangle shape.  Sprinkle 3/4c cheese on center of crust, leaving dough on either side.  Top the cheese with red, green, & yellow peppers, the onion, and ham.  Sprinkle Italian seasoning on top then the salt and pepper.  Top with remaining 1/4c shredded cheese.  Bring both long sides of rectangle up over your ham/onion/pepper/cheese filling and pinch together covering your filling completely.  Pinch each end closed as well.  Take a butter knife and make three 1 1/2inch slits in the top of your Stromboli.  Place on a non-stick cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 until dough is golden brown (usually about 30-45 minutes).
*I love making Stromboli because you can literally make it a million different ways.  I've made pizza Stromboli with various combinations of pizza toppings, ham and cheese Stromboli, broccoli ham and cheese Stromboli, smoked sausage with green peppers & onion Stromboli, and an all veggie with bell peppers, broccoli & cheese.
*add some dipping sauces like pizza sauce or ranch dressing if you like.

December Monthly Meal Plan

November went great with my first experience in once a month shopping and a monthly meal plan.  I absolutely loved knowing I had all the ingredients to make everything on my meal plan. not worrying if I needed to run to the store to pick up a last minute item.  The only hitch in my whole plan was an unexpected visit from my in-laws the weekend before Thanksgiving.  We decided to do an early Thanksgiving dinner with them since they would be returning home before the actual Thanksgiving day.  I hadn't planned for this meal and all it's fixin's so I had to do a much larger weekly shopping trip.

Now that it's December it's time for another month of meals.  Due to our Christmas plans and having so many family celebrations I figured up we would need 20 meals planned out for the month.  Because of how my husband's checks fall this month I wont be doing my large shopping trip until later and therefore I made a list of all the meals we didn't end up making during the month of November, but still have all the ingredients to make them, and added them to December.  This should get us through until my large trip.
Here's what this month has in store for us:

1.Potato Soup
2. Chicken fried rice
3. meatloaf with baked sweet potatoes and corn bread
4. breakfast: oatmeal with toast
5. leftovers
6. BBQ crockpot ribs with mashed potatoes and corn *bbq sauce recipe to follow*
7.Sausage bean soup (a leftover meal from the freezer)
8. pasta with turkey Bolognese sauce (leftover sauce from my freezer) and garlic breadsticks
9.breakfast: French toast with fruit
10. leftovers
11.grilled cheese with green beans and fruit
12. deer stew
13. black bean enchilada soup *recipe to follow*
14.Hamburgers with mac and cheese and corn
15. pasta with marinara sauce and garlic toast
16. meatballs with gravy and mashed potatoes and biscuits
17.chickenless spaghetti with mushrooms, peppers, and onions (I'm creating this recipe by adapting this Pioneer Woman chicken spaghetti recipe)
18. breakfast: homemade waffles with fruit
19. leftovers
20. Ham with fried potatoes and green beans

I didn't label this month's meals with dates because of the craziness the month of December brings.  Between holiday get-togethers, visiting family, Christmas shopping, etc I didn't figure there was any need to date each meal.  As long as I know I have the ingredients to make each of the items listed I'll be good to go.

Black Bean Enchilada Soup:
1 can rotel
2 cans (3cups if you make homemade) cream of chicken
2 cans (3 cups if you have homemade or boullion cubes) chicken broth
1 can (1cup if you make homemade) enchilada sauce
1 can corn
3t cilantro (if I have this I add it but if I don't I just leave it out)
1/2 onion chopped
1 can diced tomato
1 can black beans

sauté onions and rotel , diced tomato, and corn.  Mix rest of ingredients in soup pot and heat through.

*this recipe is one I created based off a Chicken enchilada recipe my cousin gave me a few years back.  My husband has decided he doesn't care for chicken much anymore and when I made the chicken version he pretty much refused to eat leftovers.  This prompted me to make a chickenless version by adding beans and diced tomato.

BBQ sauce for ribs:
1c ketchup
2T+1 1/2t brown sugar
2T+ 1 1/2t cider vinegar
1T+ 1 1/2t Worcestershire sauce
1T brown mustard (I've used regular yellow with good results)
1/2t pepper

Once A Month Grocery Shopping 1st Trip & Monthly Meal Plan

A little warning about this post, it's long, like really long, I just thought I should put it all in one instead of breaking it up into a few different ones, so enjoy:

In my dream world I would have gone on my big once a month shopping trip all by my lonesome and been in and out without questions or extra items "magically" appearing in my shopping cart.  Of course this is not my dream world so I assumed my son would be with me since my husband would normally be asleep when I go to the store in the mornings, and I was ok with that, then my husband happened to wake up early and decided he would go too.  This could be good or bad, but figured I should make the best of this "family time".  Plus I knew he would be a big help keeping Grant entertained.

I had a long list and 4 stores to go to in one morning.  The stores I shopped at were Aldi (which is where the majority of my items came from), Carnival Foods, Kroger, and Giant Eagle.

Here is my crappy cell phone pic of all our groceries:

The only items missing from this pic were the 5 dozen eggs, 5.26lbs ground beef, 5lbs boneless skinless chicken breast, 1qt half & half, toilet paper, dishwater detergent, and a large tub of margarine.

 

It took us 2 hours to go through all 4 stores, which was really surprising to me because it normally takes me about an 1 1/2-2 hours to do a weeks worth of grocery shopping at multiple stores.  So if this works out and we decide to continue with OAMS I will definitely be saving some serious time that I'd rather be spending with my family doing something fun, not grocery shopping.

 

In doing all my research of other people who do OAMS I was always curious what they ended up buying during their large monthly trip.  They always included how much they spent overall but it was hard for me to grasp what all they bought because most of their spending was much more than what I had planned to spend.   So I thought I would share a little run down of what I bought.  If this is not at all interesting to you, feel free to skip down a few lines lol.

 Aldi $56.83

• 1 bag pretzels (snacks for the kiddos) $1.29
• 1 box graham  crackers (snacks for kiddos) $1.39
• 1 grape jelly $1.59
• 1 ranch dressing $1.39
• 4 dozen eggs $0.99 each
• 1 baking powder $0.99
• 1 box corn starch $0.89
• 4 boxes stick margarine $0.75 each
• 1qt half and half $1.59
• 16oz shredded cheese $2.99
• 3 pkg tortilla wraps $0.99 each
• 1 small jar olives $0.99 (this was not an item on my list but an add-in per my husband)
• 4 cans generic Rotel $0.59 each
• 2 cans condensed tomato soup $0.59 each
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup $0.59
• 2.04lbs Bananas $0.42/lb
• 1lb bag mini carrots $0.69
• 6lbs onions $1.29 each
• 5lbs boneless skinless chicken breast $1.89/lb
• 2 loaves bread $0.85 each
• 1 pkg hamburger buns $0.89
• 1pkg hot dog buns $0.89
• 1 liquid dishwasher detergent $2.49
• 1-45oz tub margarine $1.89
• 2 boxes saltine crackers $0.95 each
• 1 box onion soup mix $0.79
• 4lbs brown sugar $1.19 each
• 1 large container oatmeal $2.29

Carnival Foods $35.02

• 5lbs+ Ground beef $2.69/lb
• 1 dozen eggs w/coupon $0.88
• 20lbs flour $1.49 for each 5lb bag
• 20lbs sugar $1.89 for each 4lb bag
• 2-46oz tomato juice $1.00 each
• 8lbs russet potatoes $0.98

Kroger $19.29

• 1 small pkg Betty Crocker chocolate chip cookie mix Free with downloaded coupon
• 4 gallons Milk $2.73each
• 2-64oz bottles Sunny D juice
• 1 bottle Hawaiian Punch Aloha Morning $1.19 w/ downloaded coupon
• 2 boxes Barilla pasta $0.45 each with coupon
• 1pkg Eckrich hot dogs $1.00
• 2 banquet freezer meals (another husband add-in item)

Giant Eagle $15.20

• 2-32oz Coffeemate Coffee creamer $1.50 each with coupon
• 2-64oz Welch's juice cocktail $0.50 each with coupons
• 24 double rolls Angel Soft toilet paper $8.89 with coupon

Total Spent a little over $126.  I still need to go to the dollar tree for black peppercorns and a 2lb bag of tator tots.  However I know if I buy tator tots now they will be long gone before I need them for my planned meal.  The total of my shopping trip freaked me out a little because it's $6 over what I was budgeting for the entire month.  Of course as I mentioned before we were going over that budget by the second half of the month it just didn't seem like much because it was in separate purchases.

 

As you can see by the list above I didn't purchase many items with coupons.  There were some ok sales with coupons this week on items I could have purchased. In making my monthly meal plan and thinking about not only dinner meals but also at least 2-3 breakfasts (for the days I babysit), snacks, and a few lunch ideas for variety, I decided I would start making more things from scratch.  Items like biscuits, corn bread, muffins, quick breads, pizzas, etc, are all things I want to keep ingredients on hand for so I don't need the help of Pillsbury Grands or mixes to make them.  Since I'm a stay at home mom and it's getting colder out, which means I leave the house less, I might as well take full advantage of my time and do from-scratch baking and cooking.



Because we don't have space in our apartment for a deep freezer I was not able to buy enough milk and bread to last us the month so those items I will have to buy weekly in a smaller shopping trip.  I'm also a little concerned about snack foods.  I try not to keep much "junk" food like chips, Little Debbie cakes, candy, etc in the house.  For one I don't want the temptation for me to eat them but Grant and my Husband don't need them either.  I used to think Grant needed something sweet for snacks, where I got this in my head is beyond me, and I've come to the conclusion recently that fresh fruit, crackers, pretzels, and similar items are what I'm going to keep on hand and if he doesn't want them then he must not be very hungry in the first place.  As for my husband, I fully look for him to randomly buy the junk I try to steer away from but I'll just have to deal with that I guess, haha.

Before making my monthly meal plan I did an inventory of my pantry, freezer and fridge, writing down everything we had.  I tried to come up with as many meals as possible with just those items then I went through my cookbooks and made a master list of all the recipes we have eaten and like, as well as many recipes we haven't tried but that I've wanted to make.  I saved this list to my computer for easy access when meal planning.  Once I decided on the meals I wanted I wrote down what was needed for each one adding as I went so I would know what to buy.  It was by far the longest grocery list I've ever made.

Here is my Monthly Meal Plan:
November 2-8
Saturday 2-Sloppy Dawgs with potato wedges
Sunday 3-Chili
Monday 4-Chicken Quesadillas with Mexican rice with homemade salsa Tuesday 5-Biscuits & Gravy
Wednesday 6-Turkey Franks with mac & cheese & green beans
Thursday 7-grilled pork chops (freezer) roasted potatoes/corn/biscuits
Friday 8-leftovers

November 9-15
Saturday 9-deer roast (freezer)with carrots, potatoes, corn bread
Sunday 10-chicken Enchilada Soup
Monday 11-fried eggs/fried potatoes/biscuits
Tuesday 12-Spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread
Wednesday 13-Meatloaf mashed potatoes/ green beans
Thursday 14-Chicken fried rice
Friday 15-leftovers

November 16-22
Saturday 16-Hamburgers with tator tots
Sunday 17-Tomato soup with grilled cheese
Monday 18-black bean tomato soup with rice and tortilla shells
Tuesday 19-Sausage bean soup (leftovers in freezer)
Wednesday 20-BBQ ribs (freezer), corn, corn bread
Thursday 21-Poor man’s steak, roasted potatoes, broccoli
Friday 22- leftovers

November 23-30
Saturday 23-chicken pot pie
Sunday 24-Deer Stew with biscuits
Monday 25-Onion/pepper omelets, toast, fried potatoes
Tuesday 26-Meatballs with meat gravy deviled eggs green beans buttered bread
Wednesday 27-Spaghetti with garlic breadsticks
Thursday 28-Thanksgiving
Friday 29-Leftovers
Saturday 30-Thanksgiving 2

I have my meals dated just to make it easier for me.  I'm not really picky about what we eat and when since I like all the meals I have listed, however if for some reason the meal I have written in for that specific day doesn't work for some reason I can easily switch the meals around.
There are a few things I have recipes posted for already and I included those links, I'm hoping I'll be able to post recipes for the other meals as I make them.

Menu Plan Week #6

I'm slowly starting to get back into the "cooking" around our house.  After being on vacation it seems to take a week or so to get back into the swing of things, not to mention other things going on but I'm ready for some good home cooked meals.

1. Homemade Tomato, Basil, and Mushroom pizza
2. Pioneer Woman's Tomato Soup (by far the best tomato soup I have ever tasted!) and grilled cheese
3. BBQ ribs, corn bread, mashed potatoes, and fresh peaches (my mom has a peach tree that started producing mass quantities of peaches so I hit the jackpot and started peeling slicing and freezing them)
4. Jambalaya
5. Breakfast
6. Turkey Franks (Jennie-O turkey franks are awesome and I'm not much for turkey dogs but I have to make the exception for these.  I could eat these in place of regular hot dogs and be just fine), mac & cheese, green beans
7. Leftovers

Menu Plan Week 3 -$30 Grocery Challenge

This week is going to be an easy one when it comes to meals for a few reasons.  1-We just finished the Relay for Life and I'm still not fully recovered, meaning the lower half of my body still aches, ALOT. 2- Our family reunion is this coming weekend and I'm planning on making a Maxwell shirt for Grant to wear.  3- The 4th of July is next week and I enlisted my sewing skills to make yet another Maxwell shirt (4th of July themed of course) to wear to the fireworks.  So I'm not over exerting myself on meals this week, so the preparation will be short, the cleanup will be quick, and I will have no excuse to not finish my projects.

Now on to the meal plan for the week:
1. Tuna Helper- I love Tuna Helper and I've made it from scratch quite a few times but I love to have the boxed mix on hand for quick meals when I'm busy or just feeling lazy.
2. Hot dogs and Kraft Homestyle mac & cheese
3. Pizza Buns- these simple little pizzas take me back to my childhood and daycare days, and Grant loves them.
4. Grilled Ham and Cheese sandwiches with potato wedges
5. Leftovers
6. Breakfast
7. Veggie stir fry with brown rice

One day I'm acutally going to get this meal plan up on Sunday like I keep planning on doing.  Until then......

Meal Plan Week #2

#1 Spaghetti with garlic bread (I scored some New York garlic bread at Giant Eagle about 3 weeks ago for free with a coupon!)
#2 Pizza Pasta Box Mix

#3 Meatloaf and mashed potatoes.
#4 Grilled chicken and baked potato
      We had this as part of a cookout for Father's Day using the Mountain Dew marinade recipe:

2cups Mountain Dew

1cup soy sauce

1/2cup olive oil

1/2t garlic powder (I have also slice 1 garlic clove and put it in when I've been out of garlic powder.  It works just as well

Let chicken marinade in this overnight.  I've used this recipe dozens of times and everyone I've served it to raves about how delish it is.  The chicken always comes out super moist and even though the combinations of ingredients in the marinade sound kind of disgusting together they make for one tasty piece of poultry.

 



#5 Breakfast
#6 Leftovers
#7 Frozen Pizza (Jack's pizza I bought this week with a coupon for $1.00!)

Meal Plan week #1 of the Grocery Challenge

Here's how I do my meal plans.  I do not assign a meal to a specific day because as all Mom's know thing's happen and I may not have the time to make that particular meal or the day might come and whatever I had planned just doesn't sound good anymore.  So instead I make a list of 7 meals I know I have all the ingredients to make and keep that list on my fridge.  I used to write it on my grocery list and of course after I went grocery shopping the list hit the trash and so did my meal plan.  If it's not written down where I can see and find it, I will inevitably forget it.

1. Beef Stew- 3 weeks ago I made a beef roast and froze the leftover meat to use for this meal.
2. Sloppy Joes & potato wedges- 2 weeks ago I bought 4lbs of ground beef 2 store in my freezer and pull out as needed weekly
3. Sauerkraut with Smoked sausage (stored in my freezer after buying it with coupons for $0.57each) & mashed potatoes
4.  Breakfast-I love breakfast for dinner & I never write down exactly what I'm going to make because it all depends on what tickles my fancy that evening.  It can be as simple as pancakes or as fancy (ok not really fancy) as casserole or quiche
5.  Baked Chicken with Kraft Fresh Take breading & steamed broccoli & pineapple chunks
6.  Spaghetti with garlic bread
7.  Leftovers

I always have at least 1 day reserved for leftovers, 1 day reserved for breakfast for dinner, and 1 day without any meat (this saves my freezer stock of meat and makes it last a little longer)

So meal #1 for the week is Sloppy Joes.
I love sloppy joes and I saw a Pioneer Woman recipe for them from scratch, instead of good ol' Manwich, and my oh my they were scrumptious.  Of course in true Lisa fashion I didn't have all the ingredients her recipe called for so I somewhat created my own.

 

Sloppy Joes

1lb Ground Beef

1/2 onion chopped

1/2 green pepper chopped

1/2 red pepper chopped

1 1/2t chili powder

6 dashes worcestershire sauce (don't know if that's how you spell it but you know what I'm talking about)

1c ketchup

3T mustard

1 1/2T brown sugar

salt and pepper to taste

 

brown the ground beef, drain.  Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for about 30 minutes.  I like mine a little chunky, if you want yours a little less just make sure you dice your peppers and onions really fine.  Use whatever peppers you have on hand.  I buy mine in the clearance section at my grocery store, bring them home and freeze them.  That way I always have bell peppers available and they aren't added to my weekly grocery list at their most expensive price.

 

Potato Wedges

Potatoes (as many as you need)

salt/pepper to taste

1 pkg onion soup mix

olive oil

 

wash and cut your potatoes into wedges.  Put them in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil.  season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle onion soup mix over top.  Now mix it all together,  Spread the potatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake at 400 until soft (about 30 minutes).

 

You can use any seasonings you want.  I've used Mrs. Dash, good ol' salt and pepper, garlic & italian seasoning, etc.

 

What's great about these potato wedges is you can make extras and freeze them after they cool from baking.  Just put them in a freezer bag and on a night you want a quick side dish pull them out, put them on a baking sheet at bake at 400 for about 20 minutes or until heated through.

 

Quick and Easy, my favorite kind of meal