As I mentioned on Saturday, we skipped shopping this week aside from a quick run to the store my husband made for milk, butter, and ice cream. I was planning to stop by and pick up some fresh produce, but after thinking it through, I decided to challenge myself and see if I could plan a fairly healthful menu based upon what we already have on hand.
Here's what I came up with using what we already have on hand from previous shopping trips and the $10 shopping trip my husband made:
Breakfasts:
Banana muffins, fresh juice, milk
Strawberry smoothies, whole wheat toast
Oatmeal, apple juice
Pancakes (from the freezer), oranges
Scrambled eggs, fresh juice, banana muffins
Strawberry smoothies, pancakes (from the freezer)
French toast, oranges
Lunches:
Egg salad sandwiches, applesauce
Roast beef sandwiches, oranges
Grilled cheese sandwiches, broccoli
PB&J, applesauce
Rice and beans with cheese, veggies
Spinach brown rice and cheese casserole
Leftovers
Dinners:
Roast in the crock pot with gravy over noodles, homemade bread, green beans, grapefruit
Chicken broccoli rice casserole, steamed veggies, homemade bread
Steak, mashed potatoes, broccoli
Beef Stroganoff, steamed veggies, homemade bread
Beef hot dogs, broccoli with cheese
Meat balls, brown rice, steamed veggies
Dinner out
Snacks:
Granola bars
Homemade hot cocoa (organic cocoa, milk, and a little sugar–yum!)
Bran muffins (from the freezer)
Banana muffins (from the freezer)
Breyer's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream (my current pregnancy obsession!)
Strawberry smoothies
And that's that! I was pretty excited to see how the stockpiling I've been doing over the last month or two to replenish our supply after our move and prepare for the baby is starting to pay off in allowing me to have more ingredients to work with!
For more menus this week, check out Organizing Junkie.
Suzanne says
Crystal, I love your menus but I have small children 3 and under that honestly don’t like roast etc (they have a hard time chewing it still) that even though I would love to eat the dinner menus it doesn’t seem like it would work. Do your children eat all these meals? What do you do for them? Do they eat sandwhiches? My 2 yr old is just beginning to. Please help! Thanks!
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Money Saving Mom here: Yes, the girls eat the same as us pretty much. However, I usually just have them eat a few tiny bites of meat–unless they want more than that!–and then they’ll eat bread, veggies, fruit, etc. I try to always have extra yogurt, applesauce, cheese, or other things that that they can eat, too. They aren’t huge eaters (unless we’re talking sweets!) so it’s usually not a big deal. My 20-month-old has been eating table food since about eight months old, but she still doesn’t eat much meat. I just make sure she’s getting protein from other sources. My 4-year-old was much slower in eating table foods so I just kept a stock of foods she could/would eat when she was little and she had those at meals until she gradually eased into eating what we eat.
Hope that helps!
Kristen says
Here’s our dinners for this week:
Garlic lime Chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli
Shepherds pie, salad
Tacos
Chicken and Noodles(your recipe Crystal!) Homemade bread.
Chili w/ cornbread
Spaghetti w/ meatballs
leftover or eat out night
I am trying to eat more red meat too since I’m 31 weeks along. I just tested for iron on Sunday and I got a 13!!
Life from the Roof says
Thanks for posting your menus – it always helps me to be a bit more creative in my frugality, and reminds me that we really don’t need to spend that much to have healthy, balanced, and tasty meals every day!
Merrilee Stevenson says
Crystal,
I was just noticing all the meat in your diet, and I’m guessing you’re carrying a boy. It’s probably an old wives’ tale, but a friend told me that if you crave meat it’s a boy, veggies it’s a girl. It could also have to do with the time of year and seasonal cooking preferences, but in all four cases for me, it was right on. Either way, we’ll find out soon enough, won’t we? Keep on doing what you do–you are an encouragement to me in many ways. Here’s to a healthy baby!
Sincerely,
Merrilee
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Money Saving Mom here: Well, it’s not technically that I’m craving meat, it’s that I’m making myself eat it to ward off the severe anemia I experienced last time. We started this back in week 17 or so and it’s seeming to really make a difference. So I keep eating it–whether I want to or not! I’d much rather have homemade bread and ice cream, but if meat helps me feel better and stay healthier, I’m all for eating it. 🙂
Jenn says
can you share your hot cocoa recipe……. I’ve been looking for a good one!
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Money Saving Mom here: I think it is about 3 cups milk, 4 Tblsp. cocoa, and 6 Tblsp. sugar. Give or take some. Boil in a pot and serve. This makes about three servings.
Tara says
I had to laugh at the ice cream craving 🙂 Gotta love it. I normally have an obsession with Breyers ice cream all year long (oops). Unfortunately, since I’ve been pregnant it makes me ‘so sick!’ Oh well, maybe in a few more weeks I can go back to my true love 😉 Until then I have been craving mashed potatoes and gravy, YUM!!! (The saddest part is my husband, in trying to be helpful, dumped out all of the juices from the chicken in the crockpot on Sunday, so we didn’t get any gravy that round. Oh well, better luck next time!)
Rochelle Wilkerson says
Just wanted to let you know that this is one of my favorite things to read on your blog.
I think it really brings me down to earth about what I’m providing to my kids. Your breakfasts & lunches are so simple and sometimes I feel like I have to feed my kids a 4 course meal every meal.
Thanks!
Rochelle
Nisha says
I am doing the same thing this week, challenging myself to use what I already have. I am thinking of meals at the last moment, I wish I would have planned better this week. So far, so good…thanks again for the inspiration.
I have a juicer, but I barely use it…do you juice daily or in bulk?
Jenny says
Great work Crystal.
How do you store your pancakes so they don’t come out soggy and yucky and then how do you reheat so they taste ok from the freezer?
Jenny
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Money Saving Mom here:
Well, I don’t have any scientific formula to share. Honestly, I just cool the pancakes, pop them into a freezer bag, and freeze. We just re-heat them in the microwave and serve with butter/syrup. They don’t taste soggy to us, but it might be that we’re just used to eating them from the freezer. 🙂
Lora says
That’s really great! Isn’t it nice when we can save an entire week’s worth of food money just by “shopping at home”?
Katy says
I (foolishly?) decided to go without shopping for the entire month of February… it’s only 28 days, right? GAH. I already regret it! 🙂
http://www.happilyaverage.blogspot.com
Carrie Kirby says
Did you use your homemade bread to make the lunch sandswiches and breakfast toast? If not, you must have had a loaf of bread in the freezer, eh?
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Money Saving Mom here: We usually use homemade bread (when we have it) for toast. I happen to have four loaves of bread in the freezer right now that I got discounted at Aldi, though, so that’s what I’m mostly using this week.
Honey says
I’m not going to be buying much this week either. I have already done my cvs trip this week ($7 oop) and Kroger ($20 for a BUNCH of stuff). I probably only need produce and FAR items from Wags. Otherwise, its freebies and markdowns for me!
Laura says
I’m glad to see you’re developing more of a supply of things on hand – it makes your savings grow even more! Once you start to round out the pantry at home, there are more $$ that can go for those super deals, and before you know it, you can skip entire weeks of shopping. 🙂