$35 to $60 Menus

After a few weeks of not being organized enough to get a menu posted, I finally am getting it done this week!

We have lots of apples and tangerines to use up this week so we're going to be making fresh juice every morning–yum! I have found this is an excellent and nutritious way to use up a lot of excess fruit which is going to be going bad quickly.

We also have–you guessed it!–Thanksgiving leftovers. I've frozen some of them and am remaking most of the rest of them into other dishes this week and for our Freezer Cooking Day this week. If you have extra Thanksgiving leftovers, stay tuned for some ideas and links I'll be sharing over the next few days.

Breakfasts:
Granola over yogurt, fresh apple/tangerine juice
Whole-wheat waffles, fresh apple/tangerine juice
Whole-wheat English muffins, scrambled eggs, fresh apple/tangerine juice
Cereal, cranberry juice
Pumpkin pancakes, fresh apple/tangerine juice
Cream of wheat, fresh apple/tangerine juice
Oatmeal, fresh apple/tangerine juice

Lunches (my hubby usually has sandwiches or leftovers in his packed lunch):
PB&J, applesauce
Tuna Noodle Casserole, applesauce
Steamed veggies over brown rice, oranges
Turkey sandwiches, steamed veggies, grapefruit
Homemade mac and cheese, broccoli, applesauce
Leftovers x 2

Dinners:
Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole, grapefruit, homemade bread
Turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, steamed veggies
Chicken Tetrazinni, grapefruit, muffins, steamed veggies, chocolate pudding
Turkey meatballs, biscuits, steamed veggies, mashed potatoes
Breaded fish, sweet potatoes, homemade bread, steamed veggies, Slab Apple Pie
Pasta salad with turkey and veggies, oranges
Dinner out

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I'm changing things up around here a little in order to strive for more efficiency. Not only am I experimenting with doing much of my cooking ahead, but I'm also trying my hand at planning two-week menus instead of one-week menus.

Kate, from Stolen Moments Menu Planning, asked if she could make a sample month-long menu plan for me to try out and review so I'm basing much of this two-week menu plan off of that. But I'm also adding in things I already have cooked up in the freezer and other items I have on hand which need to be used up.

I printed this Two-Week Menu Plan Template here and jotted down the full menu. However, since I don't like to be completely "boxed in" when it comes to menu plans, I wrote it in pencil! I'm going to do my best to stick with what's written here, but I'm sure there will be some adaptations as I go along.

I'm also going to be making some cookie dough and baking mixes to freeze this week. I'm finding that cooking ahead is benefiting me so much, I'm looking for other ways to maximize my efficiency in the kitchen. If my efforts turn out satisfactorily, I'll be blogging about them later on this week.

By the way, if you have any great Baking Mix recipes, I'd love to have the links or recipes. I've never done something like this before so I haven't a clue what I'm doing. But I might as well jump in and try, right?

Here's the plan:

Week 1 Breakfasts:
Sunshine Toast, apples, orange juice
Blueberry Banana Smoothies
Pumpkin Waffles, apples, orange juice
Southwest Scramble (scrambled eggs with hashbrowns, cheese, peppers, onions, and tomatoes), fruit, orange juice
Cereal x 2
Blueberry Coffee Cake, orange juice

Week 1 Lunches:
Cheese quesadillas, spinach
Homemade mac & cheese, applesauce
Baked potatoes with broccoli and cheese
Egg salad sandwiches, carrot sticks
PB&J sandwiches, applesauce
Leftovers
Bean and Cheese Burritos

Week 1 Dinners:
Chicken Tetrazinni, homemade applesauce, peas
Dinner at Grandma's house
Ziti, homemade bread, green beans
Turkey Sausage Corn & Broccoli Bake, fruit, banana bread
Homemade Barbecue Chicken Pizza, fruit, chocolate chip cookies
Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore over noodles, fruit, homemade bread
Leftovers

Week 2 Breakfasts:
Peanut Butter Toast, fruit, orange juice
Yogurt, Fruit, and Granola Parfaits
Mini Blinis, fruit, orange juice
Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal (without pecans), fruit
Cereal x 2
French Toast, fruit, orange juice

Week 2 Lunches:
PB&J, carrots
Homemade mac & cheese, peas
Egg salad sandwiches, carrot sticks
Cheese quesadillas, fruit
Lunch at Grandma's house
Leftovers
Cheesy Rice and Broccoli

Week 2 Dinners:
Country Breakfast Pot Pie, fruit
Ziti, homemade bread, green beans
Chicken Tetrazinni, applesauce, carrot sticks
Hamburger Vegetable Soup, homemade bread, cheese, apples
Homemade Barbecue Chicken Pizza, fruit, chocolate chip cookies
Dinner out
Leftovers

Snacks
Apples
Carrot sticks
Homemade Bread
Homemade hot chocolate
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Apple Pie
Applesauce
Cheese and crackers
Banana Bread
Chocolate Chip Cookies

See more menus for this week over at Organizing Junkie.

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In a very uncharacteristic move, I jumped off the menu-planning bandwagon for the past two weeks. We had plenty of food on hand and I figured it wouldn't be too much trouble to wing it.

Was I ever wrong!

Trying to "fly by the seat of my pants" when it came to menu-planning was disastrous! We not only resorted to take-out a few times (outside of our once-a-week Dinner Out night), but we had little variety in our meals. And, worst of all, I found it took me a great deal of mental energy to try and figure out from day-to-day and meal-to-meal what we'd be eating. Five o'clock would sneak up on me from out of the blue every single night and I had no plan… again.

So, no more skipping the meal-planning around here. Two weeks of that madness was plenty enough for me. I'm committed to make this a priority now that I've seen how much time, effort, and money it saves!

Here's this week's menu plan:

Breakfasts
Fresh carrot/apple juice, Kashi waffles (free at Target last week)
Fresh tomato juice, Blueberry Banana Bran muffins from the freezer
Strawberry/blueberry/banana smoothies, toast
Cereal x 2
Fruit, muffins
Homemade cinnamon rolls, turkey sausage, fruit

Lunches
Healthy choice meals (free with coupons last week)
Quesadillas, fruit salad
Green pepper strips, fruit salad, PB &J sandwiches, stuffed eggs
Fried egg sandwiches with tomatoes
Bean soup, muffins from the freezer, carrots
Leftovers
PB&J, fruit, granola bars (free with coupons last week)

Dinners
Farmhouse Chicken, biscuits, grapes, peas
Chicken Pot Pie, fruit salad, broccoli
Southwest Roll-ups, corn and tomatoes, fruit salad
Homemade Pizza, fruit, ice cream
French Toast, turkey sausage, fruit
Out to Dinner
Homemade Mac and Cheese, grapes, homemade bread

Snacks
Granola bars
Cereal
Fruit
Veggies
Muffins from the freezer
Cheese and crackers
Ice cream

It's only Tuesday and I'm already seeing a huge difference in having a plan. But you think I should know that by now for how often I preach the virtues of having a menu plan. Sometimes, even us frugal zealots need to be reminded of this again, though!

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After a few crazy weeks of pulling off a wedding and going on vacation, we're ready for life to slow down here and move into a more normal routine. We do have a big garage sale planned for next week, but I'm having lots of help with that so I'm hoping it's not a huge amount of work to pull off!

We were blessed with some fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes, cucumbers, and corn on the cob so we'll be incorporating that into our menu for this week.

Here's what's planned for this week:

Breakfasts
Cereal, orange juice
Banana Strawberry Blueberry smoothies, toast
Blueberry Bran Muffins (new recipe which I'll be posting soon), scrambled eggs
Cereal, fruit
Oatmeal with brown sugar, fruit
Brown Sugar Biscuit Twists, fruit
French Toast, turkey sausage, fruit

Lunches
Homemade Pita Pockets with melted cheese, carrots
Baked Potatoes, broccoli, cheese
PB&J, cantaloupe, carrots, cookies
Spinach, brown rice, and cheese casserole, cucumbers
Leftovers x 2
Lunch at friends' house

Dinners
Lasagna Bake, Homemade Bread, Broccoli, Cherry Crisp (my mom made this for us–yum!)
Homemade Barbecue Beef Pizza, cucumbers and tomatoes
Layered Nacho Dip, chips, corn on the cob, cucumbers and tomatoes
Dinner out
Office Party–dinner provided
Grilled steak, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, fruit
Steak and Cheese Calzones, peas, fruit

Snacks
Protein bars
Blueberry Bran Muffins
Cheese/crackers
Fruit/Veggies
Chips/Salsa
Cereal
Popcorn

See a couple hundred more menus for this week over at Organizing Junkie!

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I'm excited that this week is the Fourth of July! We're heading to Kansas City for a few days for a family vacation and very much looking forward to that.

Since our family is still small and eating out is still fairly economical, we usually "splurge" on vacations and bring very little of our own food. Instead, we eat out or get quick-fix foods at the grocery store while we're gone. It makes it much more relaxing for me to not have to worry about planning, packing, and fixing food for a few days and it truly makes it more of a vacation for me!

Because of this, I'm only planning four days' worth of meals for this week:

Breakfasts
Strawberry smoothies, toast
Waffles, cantaloupe, yogurt
Banana bread, scrambled eggs, fresh carrot/apple juice
Oatmeal, fruit

Lunches
Homemade pigs in a blanket, cucumber slices, apple slices
Homemade Pita Pockets with melted cheese, peas, fruit
PB&J, carrots
Tossed salad with hard-boiled eggs, crackers and cheese

Dinners
French Toast with fresh-whipped cream and homemade strawberry syrup, cantaloupe
Chicken Tetrazinni, homemade bread, green beans, grapefruit
Meatballs, homemade bread, sliced cucumbers, baked potatoes, green beans
Homemade BBQ Chicken Pizza, fruit

Snacks
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Blueberry Streusel Muffins
Crackers and cheese
Apples
Carrot sticks
Granola bars

For those who may have missed it, you can see what we purchased at the store this past week here. However, do remember that that is not all we're using to make the above food and meals since we shop using the "Buy-Ahead Principle".

Do you bring your own food when you go on vacation or do you splurge and eat out/buy quick-fix foods or a little of both? If you bring your own food, I'd love to hear what you bring and how you pull it off. It seems like a lot of work to me, but I'm guessing that as our children grow older, eating out is going to be much less feasible and much more expensive so I'd love to hear your ideas and suggestions!

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I'm finally getting back into the swing of baking and cooking around here and it feels so nice after taking an extended break after Silas was born. I'm hoping to have another Baking Day tomorrow so I planned for that when making out our menu and grocery list for this week. If you'd like to join in the Baking Day tomorrow, I'll be posting some pictures and recipes throughout the day and a Mr. Linky round-up at the end of the day. Stay tuned for that!

Here's the plan for what we'll be eating around here this week:

Breakfasts
Oatmeal, blueberries
Strawberry smoothies, muffins
Granola over yogurt with blueberries
Cereal, peaches x 2
Waffles, cantaloupe, yogurt
Scrambled eggs, toast, juice

Lunches
Layered nacho dip with chips, fruit
Homemade pigs in a blanket, cucumber slices, apple slices
Leftovers
Macaroni and cheese, peas, apple slices
Cheese quesadillas, carrot sticks, cantaloupe
Baked potatoes with cheese and broccoli
Tossed salad with bard-boiled eggs, crackers and cheese

Dinners
Chicken Tetrazinni, tossed salad, homemade bread, green beans
Grilled steak, corn, sweet potatoes, fruit salad, homemade bread
Meatballs, twice-baked potatoes, homemade bread, sliced cucumbers, green beans
Grilled salmon, baked potatoes, corn, tossed salad, fruit salad
Farmhouse Chicken, fruit, tossed salad, homemade bread
Pizza Night (at church)
Dinner Out

Snacks
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Blueberry Streusel Muffins
Crackers and cheese
Apples
Carrot sticks
Granola bars

Baking Day Plan
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Banana Bread
Blueberry Streusel Muffins
Homemade Bread or Rolls
Waffles
Homemade Pita Pockets

For those who may have missed it, you can see what we purchased at the store this past week here. However, do remember that that is not all we're using to make the above food and meals since we shop using the "Buy-Ahead Principle".

See more menu plans for this week over at Organizing Junkie.

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I'm trying to slowly ease back into cooking after taking the last few weeks off because we were blessed with so many delicious meals after the birth of Silas. (Can you believe our church friends and family brought us almost a month's worth of meals? How incredible is that?!)

However, as many of you know, I cooked up a bunch of food before Silas was born so our freezer is still rather stuffed with casseroles, breads, and so forth. I'm planning to use a few meals from the freezer each week over the next few weeks and then make some simple meals from scratch the rest of the days. By then, it should be about three months after Silas' birth and things should be pretty back to normal around here.

I can't even begin to express how much of a help the meals we were given were or how nice it is to know our freezer is still packed with meals! If you have the chance to cook up food for your freezer before a big event like the birth of a baby, definitely take the opportunity. You won't regret it! Not only has it saved us time to have food already made up, it has also saved us a lot of money since we're not tempted to order carryout or buy convenience foods.

I'm especially excited about our menu this week because our little container garden is finally starting to produce lettuce. I'm looking forward to lots of fresh tossed salad this week as a result. Hopefully, our tomatoes will start ripening soon as well. There's just nothing as good as a fresh-from-the-garden tomato, is there?!

Here's this week's menu plan:

Breakfasts
Cereal, juice
Granola over yogurt with peaches
Toast, scrambled eggs with hashbrowns and cheese, strawberries
Oatmeal with brown sugar and peaches
Strawberry smoothies, toast
Pumpkin waffles, peaches
Cranberry muffins, yogurt, strawberries

Lunches
PB&J, carrot sticks, cheese, fruit
Tossed salad with hard-boiled eggs, whole-wheat toast
Baked potatoes with steamed veggies and cheese
Crackers, cheese, fruit, carrot sticks
Homemade mac and cheese, steamed veggies
Leftovers x 2

Dinners
Grilled Salmon, baked potatoes, tossed salad, corn on the cob, homemade bread, strawberry shortcake
Turkey sub sandwiches, fruit salad, cucumber and tomato salad
Marinated steak, sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, homemade bread, fruit salad
Lasagna casserole, green beans, fruit salad, french bread
Beef hot dogs, corn on the cob, fruit salad, twice-baked potatoes
BBQ Chicken Pizza, fruit salad, tossed salad, ice cream
Dinner out

Snacks
Cereal
Fruit
Veggies
Muffins
Crackers/cheese

By the way, we spent $41 on groceries this week. You can see the groceries we purchased this week here, in case you missed it.

Check out more menu plans for this week over at Organizing Junkie.

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I'm finally getting back into regular menu-planning after taking a few weeks off to have a baby. And it feels so good! I'm sticking to simple meals since it's our first week of our official
homeschool year and the goal of this week is to be consistent with our
new schedule. I can quickly get side-tracked in the kitchen so I made the menu really easy to try and deter myself from losing focus!

We're mostly eating from the pantry and freezer as these are rather full and in need of a little pairing down. We did spend $33 at the store buying produce and dairy products, but the main staples for these meals we already had on hand (which is the beauty of stocking up on sales!).

Here's the plan:

Breakfasts
Kashi waffles, strawberries, yogurt
Strawberry smoothies, muffins
Banana bread, oranges, yogurt
Cereal, juice or fruit x 2
Oatmeal, grapefruit
Pumpkin waffles, strawberries

Lunches
Spinach Rice and Cheese Casserole, fruit
Tossed salad (using fresh-from-the-container-garden lettuce!) with hard-boiled eggs and cheese, bread
Baked potatoes with broccoli and cheese, peaches
Pot roast, corn, toast, tossed salad
PB&J, carrots, applesauce
Leftovers x 2

Dinners
Ham and Cheese Stromboli, broccoli
French Toast with strawberries and freshly-whipped cream, hashbrowns
Chicken BBQ Pizza, corn on the cob, fruit salad
Turkey sub sandwiches, chips, veggies
Mini Meatloaves, mixed steamed veggies, bread, sweet potatoes
Steak, corn on the cob, grapefruit, cucumber and tomato salad, bread
Dinner out

Snacks
Yogurt
Fruit
Granola bars
Muffins
Cereal
Cheese/crackers

Check out more menu plans for this week over at Organizing Junkie.

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I ended up not going grocery shopping at all last week and while we're getting low on some basic supplies, I decided it would be fun to challenge myself to see if we could go another five days without going to the grocery store. So welcome to the Eating From The Pantry Challenge!

My personal rules for this challenge are that I cannot dig into the After-the-Baby Freezer Stash and I also must try to use up as many odds and ends as possible. In addition, I'm going to try to come up with fairly balanced and nutritious meals, though they might be a little different and less-varied than our normal fare.

I'll be blogging what we eat each day, along with pictures and maybe even some recipes. My hope is that we not only make it until Friday of this week without hitting the grocery store, but also that this challenge to myself might inspire you to stretch what you already have a little farther or be more creative with what you have on hand.

Sometimes it's so easy to become accustomed to going to the store every week (or multiple times per week!) that we aren't as good of stewards with what we already have in our cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer. This can not only lead to waste, but unnecessary expenditures.

To aid me in coming up with meals for this week, I made up a list of meal ideas to work from based upon things we have in our cupboards, freezer, and refrigerator which need to be used up. We may or may not use all of these this week, but they will certainly serve as a springboard for ideas.

Here's the potential ideas list:

Breakfast Ideas:
Baked Oatmeal
Cream of Wheat
Pumpkin Waffles
Organic toaster pastries
Biscuits and gravy
French Toast
Bagels

Lunch Ideas:
Grilled cheese sandwiches
Baked potatoes
Shrimp
Beans and rice
Egg salad sandwiches
PB & J sandwiches
Leftovers

Dinners:
Stirfry
Steak
BBQ Beef sandwiches
Spinach rice and cheese casserole
Lasagna
Cheese and veggie pizza

Stay tuned for the daily scoop on what I concoct using what we have on hand! For more menu ideas, check out Organizing Junkie.

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