Ok so I am a bit behind on writing on my meal plans, but here they are. I went grocery shopping yesterday.. but I had things for Tuesday for dinner. Monday we were at Andrew's company's picnic.
8/6 - Chicken with yellow rice, corn and corn muffins
8/7 - Breakfast for dinner: bacon, eggs and home fries
8/8 - we had country fried steak planned, but while watching Giada at Home, we decided to try her Penne Frittatta with Thyme and it was delicious! Meatless at that so its a cheap new option for us.
8/9 - Chicken and dumplings (leftover chicken from 8/6)
8/10 - Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole
8/11 - Leftovers evening/sandwich night.
8/12 - Pasta with Clam Sauce
8/13 - Crock Pot - Chicken with Mushroom Gravy and mashed potatoes
8/14 - Baked Chicken Croissants (so yummy! Can't wait to post this recipe!!) and French Fries
8/15 - Easy Chicken Bake
8/16 - Caesar Chicken Pasta
8/17 - I bought a Velveeta Skillet Dinner so Andrew can make it - I am sure I will work.
8/18 - Tator Tot Casserole
8/19 - Pork Roast with some kind of potato
8/20 - Chicken Stir Fry and Rice
8/21 - Spaghetti
I buy some frozen veggies and a few cans of veggies so a majority of meals are paired with a veggie. Snacks are a bunch of fruit I bought, toast with apple butter, goldfish crackers, and yogurt. I bought some sweet potatoes to use so Andrew could try them. I am deciding if I want to make french fries with them, mash them, or make chips. Hm.
Showing posts with label Meal Planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meal Planning. Show all posts
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Meal Plan 8/23-9/7
I decided recently to keep myself on check with the grocery budget and to show that a smaller grocery budget does not mean the same old, boring, cheap dinners.
Now.. my meal planning strategy is pretty simple. I don't plan out breakfasts and lunches. I do keep track of how much bacon and sausage we have on hand because Monday & Tuesdays (Andrew's days off) I make nice breakfasts. Usually we have pancakes and bacon one day and sausage gravy with biscuits another day. Some times, I switch it up. On other days, Caelyn and I have oatmeal, toast with apple butter and some kind of fruit, scrambled eggs, etc.
Lunches are sometimes leftovers, Mrs. Grass soup, PB& J (or Nutella!) sandwiches, and almost always a fruit.
Dinner is my major meal planning. Being a mom, a worker, and a full-time student is hard enough without having to guess every night on what to make for dinner. It takes me about an hour usually to plan out the menu and there are always new and different recipes I get from searching the internet!
Tuesday (today) 8/23 - Gnocchis, salad, and fresh Italian bread from our local Italian grocery store!!
8/24 - Grilled pizza pockets and corn on the cob
8/25 - Sloppy joes & tator tots
8/26 - Velveeta skillet meal (I will be working so this is Andrew and Caelyn)
8/27 - Grilled Cheese and soup (another night I am working)
8/28 - Hot dogs and Italian french fries (I am working)
8/29 - Brisket, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob
8/30 - Chicken Salad with french fries on top
8/31 - Crock Pot Cheesy Chicken and Noodles
9/1 - Turkey Rolls Ups & Mashed Potatoes with Gravy
9/2 - Easy Chicken Bake
9/3 - Chicken with Yellow Rice, Corn on the Cob, and Corn Muffins
9/4 - Caesar Chicken Pasta
9/5 - Trip to Kennywood for Andrew's work so nothing planned
9/6 - Cowboy BBQ Beans and Beef
9/7 - Breakfast for dinner
Idk my exact grocery shopping day yet since my school schedule isn't totally decided, but I will grocery shop either the 4th or 5th I think.
A lot of these recipes we love and some are new. I hope to be posting some recipes up soon as we make them.
My budget every two week is $125 and our trip to Wal-Mart was $99. So, I am $26 under the budget. Yayyy!
Now.. the nights that Andrew stays and hangs out with Caelyn while I work are usually easy meals. He works so I know he won't enjoy cooking some crazy meal. I leave easy ideas or maybe there is enough leftovers for him to make that. It works out well for us.
Oh and as for leftovers, usually they go to lunch with him. This really cuts down on grocery costs! I buy less lunch meat because of it and I feel like we are really cutting down on wasting food since if they don't go with him, they may get lost in the abyss that is our fridge!
Now.. my meal planning strategy is pretty simple. I don't plan out breakfasts and lunches. I do keep track of how much bacon and sausage we have on hand because Monday & Tuesdays (Andrew's days off) I make nice breakfasts. Usually we have pancakes and bacon one day and sausage gravy with biscuits another day. Some times, I switch it up. On other days, Caelyn and I have oatmeal, toast with apple butter and some kind of fruit, scrambled eggs, etc.
Lunches are sometimes leftovers, Mrs. Grass soup, PB& J (or Nutella!) sandwiches, and almost always a fruit.
Dinner is my major meal planning. Being a mom, a worker, and a full-time student is hard enough without having to guess every night on what to make for dinner. It takes me about an hour usually to plan out the menu and there are always new and different recipes I get from searching the internet!
Tuesday (today) 8/23 - Gnocchis, salad, and fresh Italian bread from our local Italian grocery store!!
8/24 - Grilled pizza pockets and corn on the cob
8/25 - Sloppy joes & tator tots
8/26 - Velveeta skillet meal (I will be working so this is Andrew and Caelyn)
8/27 - Grilled Cheese and soup (another night I am working)
8/28 - Hot dogs and Italian french fries (I am working)
8/29 - Brisket, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob
8/30 - Chicken Salad with french fries on top
8/31 - Crock Pot Cheesy Chicken and Noodles
9/1 - Turkey Rolls Ups & Mashed Potatoes with Gravy
9/2 - Easy Chicken Bake
9/3 - Chicken with Yellow Rice, Corn on the Cob, and Corn Muffins
9/4 - Caesar Chicken Pasta
9/5 - Trip to Kennywood for Andrew's work so nothing planned
9/6 - Cowboy BBQ Beans and Beef
9/7 - Breakfast for dinner
Idk my exact grocery shopping day yet since my school schedule isn't totally decided, but I will grocery shop either the 4th or 5th I think.
A lot of these recipes we love and some are new. I hope to be posting some recipes up soon as we make them.
My budget every two week is $125 and our trip to Wal-Mart was $99. So, I am $26 under the budget. Yayyy!
Now.. the nights that Andrew stays and hangs out with Caelyn while I work are usually easy meals. He works so I know he won't enjoy cooking some crazy meal. I leave easy ideas or maybe there is enough leftovers for him to make that. It works out well for us.
Oh and as for leftovers, usually they go to lunch with him. This really cuts down on grocery costs! I buy less lunch meat because of it and I feel like we are really cutting down on wasting food since if they don't go with him, they may get lost in the abyss that is our fridge!
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Anything You Can Cook I Can Cook Better...
Well, recently after I realized how far in debt I am personally from car loans and student loans (not even a house yet! Yikes!), I realized that we need to truly stick to our budget. We have one, but it was just whatever. I need to make it better.
Included in making our budget tight (Dave Ramsey says to tell every penny where to go and we are going to do that), means that I have to actually stick to our $100 grocery budget. This is $100 for two weeks. While I used to be able to do it with coupons and such, I have slacked lately and I swear coupons are sucking lately!
Its time for me to get back in the game. Of course, this means more time online searching for coupons, this means really meal planning and sticking to it and this means meal-planning things other than dinner. I am off of school until mid-January, do I want to eat cereal every breakfast? Robert takes lunches to work everyday and usually he takes leftovers, but if there is none, what does he take? What about goodies and lunches? Well our meal planning is going to be a lot more thorough and with the help of Cozi and the mobile appt on my iPhone, its going to get a lot easier.
My first grocery trip and I went over $30! Thats way too much. I took a look at the receipt and the top most expensive items (beside Tide) were all convenience foods. Corn dogs, hot pockets, pizzas, Oh my!
A box of corn dogs are... $7! Yikes! A package is $2 tops and a box of Jiffy is $.46.
Starting next week, in my meal planning I will include homemade convenience items that will be frozen for snacks and even for Robert to take to work.
Surprisingly, finding recipes has not been difficult for this, and I have found some great websites that I want to share with you all, maybe you all can try some homemade convenience foods as well?!
Our Best Bites really stands out in my mind as the recipe I will try next week. As well as the hot pockets being very yummy looking, the website itself has so many great recipes to try that I could spend hours looking at them all!
When I searched for homemade corn dogs, about a million sites jumped out at me! Seriously, I guess tons of people make them, just not me!
Chaos in the Kitchen - wow! This blog is great. I linked to her homemade corn dog recipe, but as I further searched the website I found other ideas as well like pizza bagels (think bagel bites!), french toast sticks, calzones, and chicken fingers. Seriously, such a great site that I am glad to be able to have found myself. Those pizza bagels are going on the menu next week to make!
I recently introduced Caelyn to hot dogs - yes I did it, I can't believe it. So junk food ish and I am already starting her, but hey, it was a quick lunch! She ate the entire hot dog, in these small darn bites I had to cut up lol. As I was searching through some of my normal blogs I read, I found a recipe for Corn Dog Muffins from Mommy Hates Cooking. I thought that was a great idea for toddlers and once Caelyn starts eating bigger bites, I think they too will make our menu.
Once finding bagel bites, I searched for more of those recipes and stumbled upon Tightwad Mom's Frugal Forum with a great recipe for them! I love blogs like this, the ideas you can find are great, like I often forget that I can make my own pumpkin spice if the stores don't have it (which, by the way, never go look for it on the day before Thanksgiving. I did this year for my mom and all local grocery stores were out - sorry Mom!) Another idea that I liked on this blog was how to make my own spreadable butter. Interesting, right? I would NEVER think of doing this!
It is amazing what you can really make yourself. This is why I titled this entry what I did. Whatever you buy in the store, including graham crackers, rolls, soups, cookies, granola bars, poptarts, and I am sure basically anything else, you can make in your house for cheaper and it will be healthier than the prepackaged items!
This is the next journey for us in the land of recipes, meal planning, budgetting, and frugalness.
Included in making our budget tight (Dave Ramsey says to tell every penny where to go and we are going to do that), means that I have to actually stick to our $100 grocery budget. This is $100 for two weeks. While I used to be able to do it with coupons and such, I have slacked lately and I swear coupons are sucking lately!
Its time for me to get back in the game. Of course, this means more time online searching for coupons, this means really meal planning and sticking to it and this means meal-planning things other than dinner. I am off of school until mid-January, do I want to eat cereal every breakfast? Robert takes lunches to work everyday and usually he takes leftovers, but if there is none, what does he take? What about goodies and lunches? Well our meal planning is going to be a lot more thorough and with the help of Cozi and the mobile appt on my iPhone, its going to get a lot easier.
My first grocery trip and I went over $30! Thats way too much. I took a look at the receipt and the top most expensive items (beside Tide) were all convenience foods. Corn dogs, hot pockets, pizzas, Oh my!
A box of corn dogs are... $7! Yikes! A package is $2 tops and a box of Jiffy is $.46.
Starting next week, in my meal planning I will include homemade convenience items that will be frozen for snacks and even for Robert to take to work.
Surprisingly, finding recipes has not been difficult for this, and I have found some great websites that I want to share with you all, maybe you all can try some homemade convenience foods as well?!
Our Best Bites really stands out in my mind as the recipe I will try next week. As well as the hot pockets being very yummy looking, the website itself has so many great recipes to try that I could spend hours looking at them all!
When I searched for homemade corn dogs, about a million sites jumped out at me! Seriously, I guess tons of people make them, just not me!
Chaos in the Kitchen - wow! This blog is great. I linked to her homemade corn dog recipe, but as I further searched the website I found other ideas as well like pizza bagels (think bagel bites!), french toast sticks, calzones, and chicken fingers. Seriously, such a great site that I am glad to be able to have found myself. Those pizza bagels are going on the menu next week to make!
I recently introduced Caelyn to hot dogs - yes I did it, I can't believe it. So junk food ish and I am already starting her, but hey, it was a quick lunch! She ate the entire hot dog, in these small darn bites I had to cut up lol. As I was searching through some of my normal blogs I read, I found a recipe for Corn Dog Muffins from Mommy Hates Cooking. I thought that was a great idea for toddlers and once Caelyn starts eating bigger bites, I think they too will make our menu.
Once finding bagel bites, I searched for more of those recipes and stumbled upon Tightwad Mom's Frugal Forum with a great recipe for them! I love blogs like this, the ideas you can find are great, like I often forget that I can make my own pumpkin spice if the stores don't have it (which, by the way, never go look for it on the day before Thanksgiving. I did this year for my mom and all local grocery stores were out - sorry Mom!) Another idea that I liked on this blog was how to make my own spreadable butter. Interesting, right? I would NEVER think of doing this!
It is amazing what you can really make yourself. This is why I titled this entry what I did. Whatever you buy in the store, including graham crackers, rolls, soups, cookies, granola bars, poptarts, and I am sure basically anything else, you can make in your house for cheaper and it will be healthier than the prepackaged items!
This is the next journey for us in the land of recipes, meal planning, budgetting, and frugalness.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Meal Planning 101
Meal planning is something that is super simple to do, I spend MAYBE an hour a week and that includes searching for new recipes that I want to try.
I use an AWESOME program, which is FREE, called Cozi. Cozi is like a family planner. I use the calender to keep track of our meals each day. Also, I create my shopping list on Cozi then I can access my list on my phone. Cozi sends messages to my phone when my bills are due or when I need to remember something. It really helps keep my head on straight! Plus, I sometimes find some cool recipes on their website!
This is an example of a week I planned awhile ago:
Monday - Lemon Roasted Chicken
Tuesday - Beef Stroganoff
Wednesday - Parmesan Chicken Tenders and Oven Baked Fries
Thursday - Pork Chops in the Crock Pot
Friday - Homemade Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Saturday - Go out or leftover
Sunday - Minestrone Soup
I generally pick a vegetable and either rice or something to go along with each meal. I plan my main dish. This helps because I only buy what I need each week, plus a few junk food items - not a lot!
So.. I suggest you try it! If anything, it stops the whole "what are we having for dinner tonight" conversation! Make it work for you!
I use an AWESOME program, which is FREE, called Cozi. Cozi is like a family planner. I use the calender to keep track of our meals each day. Also, I create my shopping list on Cozi then I can access my list on my phone. Cozi sends messages to my phone when my bills are due or when I need to remember something. It really helps keep my head on straight! Plus, I sometimes find some cool recipes on their website!
This is an example of a week I planned awhile ago:
Monday - Lemon Roasted Chicken
Tuesday - Beef Stroganoff
Wednesday - Parmesan Chicken Tenders and Oven Baked Fries
Thursday - Pork Chops in the Crock Pot
Friday - Homemade Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Saturday - Go out or leftover
Sunday - Minestrone Soup
I generally pick a vegetable and either rice or something to go along with each meal. I plan my main dish. This helps because I only buy what I need each week, plus a few junk food items - not a lot!
So.. I suggest you try it! If anything, it stops the whole "what are we having for dinner tonight" conversation! Make it work for you!
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