Menu Plan Monday . . . Using it up week

I do a fair share of freezer cooking. And if you want to see Heidi's post from last week she is starting to do more too. We are both in a freezer meal cooking club. This week I have decided it is time to clear out the freezer because I am thinking of doing another big session of freezer cooking next week. You can see my previous one here. It was a lot of work but I think it was worth it. This week I am thawing out some beans for beans and cornbread (and maybe some fried potatoes). I am thawing out two pizza crusts; one to make pizza and the other to make calzones. I have a TON of pasta in my freezer from previous sales so I think I will make some fettuccine Alfredo as well. I have some frozen chicken broth and frozen precooked ground beef and some cans of veggies so I will probably end up making vegetable soup as well. I kind of already listed my menu, but here it is anyway.

Breakfast:

Eggs and bacon and fruit
Pumpkin pancakes and bananas
Smoothies and toast
Almond Coconut granola (as cereal - see recipe link below)

Lunch:

Soup in a can (need to use up some of them)
PB & J and applesauce
Baked potatoes and fruit
Grilled cheese and peaches

Supper:

Beans and Cornbread (and fried potatoes) - we will try to eat a salad as well
Calzones and salad and fruit cocktail
Vegetable soup probably done in my new crock pot (thanks Kelly!)
Fettuccine Alfredo and green beans (I have so many in my freezer, although I prefer canned)
Homemade Pizza (shocking isn't it?)

Snacks:
I discovered I have quite a few blueberries so I think I will make:
Blueberry Crumb muffins
Blueberry cobbler
Brownies
Almond Coconut granola (I already made it yesterday and we LOVE it!)

For more menu and recipe ideas, please visit Org Junkie.

-Gretchen

P.S. Recipes for all the food Heidi made last week will be posted soon!

Menu Plan Monday - Once a Month Freezer Cooking

I read about it for the first time several years ago. But the idea of spending an ENTIRE weekend cooking non-stop just didn't really appeal to me. On the other hand, the idea of NOT cooking for an ENTIRE month did appeal to me. In fact, it appealed to me very much. So much so that I've finally decided to give it a try.

I got a head start this month, since our monthly freezer cooking club just met on Thursday. There are usually 6 of us who make a meal for each other, meet once a month and exchange those meals. They come in so handy on evenings when you forgot to thaw the meat, your day didn't go as planned and you didn't have time to start dinner, or you just don't feel like cooking.

I decided on Wednesday that I was going to make this happen. Sure, maybe I wouldn't cook for an ENTIRE month's meals, but I wanted to give it a try for at least a few weeks. I also decided that I wanted to include some breakfast and lunch options rather than only dinners and, with only a small freezer, I knew I would have to be somewhat selective.

I hit the ground running. On Thursday, I made soup for dinner. I doubled the batch and froze half. On Friday, we had company (despite our temporary power outage early in the day) for dinner. I made an 18-lb turkey that I had gotten on sale around Thanksgiving. Obviously, even with dinner guests, that left us with quite a chunk of meat. Saturday I cooked, baked, prepared, and froze most of the day, so we ordered pizza for dinner. And today my husband helped me with some baking while I did some more cooking and freezing.

All in all, I'd say we were VERY productive this weekend, especially considering the fact that my husband had to work almost a full day on Saturday. Oh, and also the fact that we have 3 small children running around the house! :)


Here's our running total of what's in the freezer:


6 servings of alfredo sauce

2 dozen English muffin pizzas

6 servings of turkey soup (I boiled down the bones to get the broth and then added turkey, carrots, celery and onion - we'll add the noodles when we reheat it.)

2 dozen waffles

2 dozen pancakes

4 dozen pumpkin muffins

2 chicken pot pies

2 small roasts

5 pkgs chicken nuggets (yes, i cheated and bought those at the store)

5 meals from cooking club (3 soups, 1 chicken dish, and 1 casserole)

1 lb bacon, cooked and chopped for calzones


It was such a shame we had to finish off the ice cream to make room for all of that. :) Now, on my list of things to make in the next day or two:


2 dozen biscuits

1 loaf french toast (By this, I mean a loaf of store-bought bread, turned into french toast and then frozen)

1 dozen+ calzones (stuffed with peppers, bacon, pepperoni, ricotta and mozzarella cheeses! yummm!)

2 dozen oatmeal chocolate chip breakfast cookies


And with all that going on, I still planned a dinner menu for this week! Yes, I know! Amazing!


Monday - out to eat (anyone want to join us at Logan's?) :)

Tuesday - turkey soup

Wednesday - cheeseburgers, roasted potatoes, frozen veggies

Thursday - spaghetti w/ red sauce, garlic toast

Friday - meatloaf, mashed potatoes, carrots


Whew! I'm completely exhausted and am heading to bed! I have quite the list of things to do tomorrow morning when I wake up, so I better get a good night's sleep!

Menu Plan Monday . . . Thanksgiving week

It has been a while since I participated in this, but I thought I would this week. I am actually only listing my Thanksgiving menu because I am not cooking a lot the rest of the week. Also, my in-laws are coming in town so I am having a few snacks ready as well.

Here it is:
Turkey - just basted in butter and cooked in a cooking bag
Mashed potatoes - I just cook them until tender and I never measure the ingredients. I add butter and milk and salt and pepper until they taste delicious.
Green beans - cooked in bacon grease if I have it and if not cooked in butter or oil and salted liberally.
Aunt June's Sweet Potato Bake
Buttery Bread Machine Rolls
Mix N Match Party Cheeseball
Chex Party Mix
Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie

I am sure we will have a salad and there will also probably be corn. I may make some macaroni and cheese as well.

For more menu plans, visit Org Junkie.

Tasty Tuesday - Salad For a Week!

I have posted before about some of the things I send with my hubby for his lunch. Most weeks I do send him a different meal each day, but some weeks I just send him one large meal to eat over several days. This week, I did that for Wednesday through Friday. We had a head of lettuce that needed to get used up, so can you guess what he got? A big bowl of salad, of course!

Since my husband doesn't mind eating just salad for lunch (as long as it's a hearty portion), I try to make sure it's well balanced. This salad has ham, cheese, carrots, tomato, green onion, and green pepper on it! I sent him with a bottle of ranch and a bag of croûtons, so he would be set through Friday!

I'm always open to new ideas! What kinds of food do you take to work or send with your spouse??

Money Monday - Menu For The Week (March 30th-April 5th)

First of all, I want to say thank you to those of you who participated in the "How Much Do You Spend On Groceries?" poll! It was interesting to watch the poll fluctuate, but in the end it came out to be a very even vote.

Now, onto meals for this week. I made several grocery stops this weekend. (You can read about them here, here, and here). As I mentioned in one of those posts, I did spend more than my normal $50 this weekend, but there were some EXCELLENT deals this week at both Meijer and Kroger, so I will just cut back on the rest of the month of April in order to make up for this weekend's spending. (This week I spent $79, instead of the normal $50).

Here are our meals for this week:

Sunday: We ate FREE pizza rolls from Meijer. :)

Breakfast:
Monday - Today is my older daughter's birthday. Since we had to run errands anyway, I stopped at BK and we had our occasional $3 breakfast (2 orders of french toast sticks and an order of cini-mini's).
Tuesday - cold cereal, yogurt
Wednesday - oatmeal w/ raisens
Thursday - eggs toast, and bacon
Friday - cold cereal, peaches
Saturday - pancakes, sausage, yogurt

Lunch:
Monday - Since we were at the grocery store until 1pm and I was totally lazy today, I stopped at Arby's and grabbed the 5 items for $6.95. I know...way to spoil the budget, right?
Tuesday - fish sticks, peas, crackers
Wednesday - PB&J sandwiches, peaches
Thursday - hot dogs, cheese slices, pasta
Friday - ravioli
Saturday - sandwiches

Dinner:
Monday - Out to eat with the in-laws for Sienna's birthday!
Tuesday - tacos
Wednesday - chicken and rice bake
Thursday - spaghetti w/ meat sauce, garlic bread
Friday - meatloaf, mashed potatoes, veggies
Saturday - chicken, fried potatoes, carrots/corn, homemade biscuits

Daniel:
I made biscuits this weekend and cooked up some bacon circles, so I pre-packaged biscuits with meat and cheese (we also have some frozen sausage patties) for him to grab each morning for breakfast. We got a few bread bowls at church on Sunday, so he's taking soup in a bread bowl for 2 days' lunches this week. Other days, he can take deli meat sandwiches, pretzels, some of that FREE Chex mix, chicken salad sandwiches, or yogurt.

So there you have it. I am so excited about our meals this week - we have not had much meat lately! Yummo!

Money Mondays - Groceries For The Week (March 16th-22nd)

This week's grocery list was a little different for us because we will be going out of town to visit my parents for Easter, so I only had to plan a few meals and then get some snacks for the trip. Kroger is running a GREAT special right now, which is how I stocked up on all the cereal, cereal bars, and fruit snacks!

I took an aerial shot this week because I wanted to do justice to the number of cereal boxes in the back! Lol. So here is what I picked up:

We don't typically buy soda, but we do like to keep it around when we are taking long trips. (It helps keep us awake!) :) The 1/2 gallons of milk were on sale again for $1 each and I found several loaves of bread on manager's special for 50 cents/loaf. I also grabbed a bag of sugar snap peas (on manager's special) for $1.49.

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Other things you see pictured: 2 bags croutons, 2 toothbrushes, american and mozz cheese, 2 cts of canola oil, applesauce, margerin, cream of chicken soup, chicken base (MUCH cheaper than bouillon!), 2 boxes of pasta, 3 boxes of granola bars, 4 boxes of cereal, and 2 boxes of fruit snacks.

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Total before coupons and specials: approx $66

Total after coupons and specials: $39

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I haven't figured out yet what I'm going to send with my hubby for breakfasts this week, but there's a good chance it might be cereal. :) We also have a few pop tarts in the pantry and some frozen pancakes and waffles that he could take. Today he took leftovers for lunch and will probably take a sandwich or leftovers tomorrow and Wednesday.

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Meals for this week:

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Breakfast

Monday - cold cereal, peaches

Tuesday - oatmeal w/ raisens

Wednesday - pancakes w/ peaches

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Lunch

Monday - ravioli

Tuesday - hot dogs, rice, apple

Wednesday - peanut butter sandwiches, peas

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Dinner

Monday - stir fry (rice w/ sugar snap peas and carrots)

Tuesday- homemade pizza

Wednesday - rice tacos (This is an experiment - if you see it on a menu plan in the future, it was a hit....or at least tolerable). :)

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Obviously, we're leaving on Thursday. We are not planning on coming back until Tuesday, so I have not thought through our grocery shopping or meals for next week yet. Of course, the sales circulars aren't out yet anyway, so how could I plan?

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If you have not yet voted in the grocery poll on the top left side of the screen, you only have a few hours left! Please cast your vote and then come back here and leave me a comment telling me how many people you feed on your grocery budget. So far, the votes appear to be very even. It will be interesting to see how the poll ends.

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I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Did you find any great deals worth mentioning?

Tasty Tuesday - Developing A System For Your Kitchen, Part 3

Plan ahead and save!

Planning and preparing meals for the week saves you time, energy, and money. This week, I want to share something with you that has helped me tremendously. I don't always do this, but it sure does help when I do...

Since my husband's schedule requires him to eat both breakfast and lunch at work, I have quite a bit of food packing to do for each day he is working. I could choose to pack his food each night OR I could prepare everything at the beginning of the week and have it ready for him to grab on his way out the door. I really prefer the second method. It takes me between 5 and 10 minutes if I pack his lunch each night. If I do it once a week, it takes 15-20 minutes. So I save anywhere from 10-30 minutes each week by doing everything all at once. Perhaps that isn't worth it to you, but to me it is!

Here is what I made this week:

You can see that he has the option each day to take any combination of the following for lunch: a salad, sandwich, baked potato w/ sour cream, sugar snap peas, apple, yogurt, or pretzel sticks. I typically like to have sausage biscuits, ham and cheese on an English muffin, or some other healthier option for breakfasts. But this week, to make it easier on me, I sent him with a box of cereal and a half gallon of milk for breakfasts. (The decision was pretty easy for me since I got the cereal FREE and the half gallon of milk was only $1).

If you find yourself thinking that your lunch takes too long to prepare each night or morning, give this method a try and let me know if you like it!

Money Monday - Groceries For The Week (March 9th-15th)

I've decided to continue posting our groceries for the week for a few reasons.

1. It keeps me accountable to only spend $50 each week.
2. You can *hopefully* reap ideas for frugal meals for your family.
3. It drives my husband crazy that I take pictures of our groceries each week.

Lol. Ok, so that last reason isn't actually legit, but I do think he's starting to think I'm a little crazy. At any rate, I know he is happy that I'm being responsible with the money for which he works so hard. :)

Ok, so this week was a lot of staple foods. I found myself out of almost everything - flour, salt, baking soda, etc. All of those things that you don't think to buy because they last a long time. (Well, flour doesn't exactly last a long time in our home, but I do buy it in bulk so I don't have to get it every week). Anyway, I did my shopping at Walmart and Kroger this week. I actually spent $51 this week, but since I only spent $48 last week, it worked out. Here is what I got:

Walmart $17 (after coupons):

Kroger $34 (after coupons):

At Walmart, I actually made $1 by buying those 4 hair putties (thank you, coupons and clearance isle)! And...it's hard to tell, but there are actually 6 boxes of that cereal in that second picture (which I paid absolutely nothing for!) and 3 bags of flour (1 whole wheat, 2 white). I am learning to always check the organic section at Kroger as I walk past it. I don't typically buy organic (mostly because of the price) but I have found that there is almost always something on manager's special (i.e. half price) that we would buy anyway and the price is then equivalent. It makes me feel a little bit better about the food choices I am making for my family.

As far as meals go this week, here is what we will be having:

Breakfast
Monday - cold cereal, pears
Tuesday -oatmeal w/ raisens
Wednesday - eggs and toast, pears
Thursday - pancakes, peaches
Friday - cold cereal, apples

Lunch (kids)
Monday - fish sticks, peas, apples
Tuesday - PB&J, cheese cubes, pretzel sticks
Wednesday - ravioli
Thursday - pasta, cheese slices, corn
Friday - hot dogs, peas, pretzel sticks

Dinner
Monday - spaghetti w/ meat sauce, garlic bread
Tuesday - chicken rice bake
Wednesday - baked potatoes w/ broccoli and cheese
Thursday - dog food.....JUST KIDDING! chicken parmesan over spaghetti
Friday - homemade pizza

Since my hubby eats breakfast and lunch at work, I made all of his lunches this evening so he has choices each day. (I will be blogging more about that tomorrow). This week for breakfast, I sent him with a box of cold cereal and a half gallon of milk. For lunch, he can mix and match the following:

salads
deli meat sandwiches
baked potatoes w/ sour cream
apples
yogurt
pretzel sticks

I admit that I don't always plan all of his lunches at the beginning of each week, but I do try to make a few at a time. It saves me time and energy and also saves him from asking the inevitable question that follows not having a lunch: "Is it ok if I run to McDonald's today?"

So there is our week at a glance. Don't forget to vote (if you haven't already voted) in the grocery poll on the top left side of the screen. It's been very interesting to see how much money my readers spend on groceries for their families. And as I mentioned last week, feel free to leave a comment after voting to let me know how many people you are feeding on that budget! :)

Money Monday - Groceries For The Week (March 2nd-8th)

I'm starting to notice a trend. Every Monday, I post SEVERAL blogs. Pretty much every other day of the week I post ONE blog. I'm beginning to wonder if it would have been more profitable for me to have a blog solely devoted to "Money Mondays". But I will trek on with my journey to provide with "your daily dose" of various things....at least for now.

Many of you have asked me how we manage to survive on our $200/month grocery and toiletry budget, so I thought I would show you what I bought for the week.

Now, I have to add a disclaimer: There are MANY people who have a similar or even lower grocery budget than we do and they eat very healthy foods. We do not tend to be so health-conscious in our food choices. So if you're reading this and thinking "Oh, sure - you can get that kind of food on your budget, but what about what I eat?", rest assured that you can eat healthy foods for the same amount of money. You just have to be a bit more creative.

This week I shopped at Aldi and Kroger. Here is what I got:

Aldi $36

Kroger $12

This is not a normal week in our home. My husband has training in the evening this week so I am having to send him lunch and dinner. (Typically, I send him breakfast and lunch). So I do not plan on doing many "normal" meals since he will not be home to eat with the family. However, with this food, I could do 5-7 normal meals.

This week, Daniel is taking to work:

Monday - Yogurt, Chicken Sandwich on Panera Bread (FREE, courtesy of our church's connection with Panera), Homemade Cookies, Pot Pie

Tuesday - Yogurt, Salad, Tuna Salad Sandwich on Panera Bread, "From-A-Box" Cheesecake ($1.29 at Aldi, portioned by yours truly into 8 indivudual servings = 16 cents each)

Wednesday - Yogurt, Pot Pie, Salad, Pretzel Sticks, Cheesecake

Thursday - Yogurt, Baked Chicken Sandwich, Salad, Peanuts

Friday - Yogurt, Pot Pie, Salad (no dinner on Friday)

The kids are eating:

Monday - Breakfast: Pop Tarts, Peanuts Lunch: Hot Dogs, Carrot/Celery Sticks (cut into kid-sized sticks by me), Pretzel Sticks

Tuesday - Breakfast: Oatmeal w/ Yogurt Lunch: Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Blueberries, Cheese Cubes (again....cut by me)

Wednesday - Breakfast: Cold Cereal, Raisens Lunch: Ravioli

Thursday - Breakfast: Toast, Eggs, Pineapple Chunks Lunch: Fish Sticks, Green Beans

Friday - Breakfast: Oatmeal w/ Applesauce and Raisens Lunch: Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Blueberries, Green Beans

I will eat leftovers for lunch or make myself a chicken sandwich and have some fruit. I haven't decided on dinner yet, but we have all the ingredients for the following options:

Spaghetti w/ Meat Sauce, Chili, Hamburgers, Pancakes, Waffles (yes, we eat breakfast for dinner), Meatloaf, Chicken and Rice Bake, Fried Rice

So there you have it. $48 covers our family for (more than) one week!

I am starting a new poll (on the left of the screen). Tell me how much you spend per month on groceries for your family! Also, feel free to leave a comment here telling how many people are in your family.