Another week of menus!

Alright friends, here is another week of menus. My fridge is loaded and ready to be used, so here's a little sample of what will be served at our table this week.

Day One
Cheeseburger Macaroni
Veggies & Fruit
-Not the healthiest meal, but looks OH SO GOOD!

Day Two
Grilled Pre-Seasoned Chicken Breast (from the freezer)
Roasted Potato Bites
Garden Vegetables

Day Three
Colorful Chicken Alfredo (I have a bunch of fresh peppers right now, this will be perfect!)
Bread Kit **more on this on another post

Day Four
Gnocchi
Vegetables

Day Five
Tuna Wraps
Fruit
Chips

We'll see how that goes! Now I'm SO hungry! :)

Recap on the Menu

A couple weeks ago I posted a week worth of dinner ideas to use the items we already had on hand to save on some groceries. So today, I'm going to give you a recap on how it went and a mini-review on the meals! :)


Day One
Lasagna-- totally great, it was our 'usual' recipe, so everyone ate it up. My daughter said, "I love sasagna!"

Day Two
Santa Fe Chicken Casserole
Our review was already posted on the original post! :)
Day Three
Bruschetta Chicken Skillet
Really, really yummy! The kids LOVED it. My daughter actually doesn't like tomatoes (which doesn't keep me from putting them in food, because I love them and she'll come around! ;)). This dish was LOADED with them and she asked for seconds AND thirds, she even ate all the tomatoes. Easy to make, ingredients for the most part are easy to have on hand (can't wait for fresh basil out of the garden all summer!) and tastes great!

Day Four
Grilled Steaks 
Scalloped Potatoes
The steaks were YUMMY! Thanks to our deer supply, they came straight out of the freezer and cost us less then the current cost of hamburger! I actually didn't make the scalloped potatoes, we ran out of time, so I just whipped up some baked potatoes. They are still on my list to try though.
Day Five
Creamed Chicken on Toast
A classic "poor mans food" meal. It was cheap and easy. The flavor wasn't anything crazy good, but the kids ate it up. My husband wasn't a fan of the 'on toast' part. If that's how you feel about it too, then it's easy to pour over rice or mashed potatoes too. 

Day Six
Ham and Cheese Loaf
I ended up making this for my daughter's birthday party instead of dinner. My husband LOVED it and I think everyone else did too, because it was the first thing to be eaten up! It's super easy and yummy. It's also cheaper then making individual sandwiches because you use less lunchmeat, especially when feeding a crowd.
Day Seven
Beef Stroganoff

Used our usual recipe, so it was yummy. I used the leftover meat from a roast I had made a couple days earlier.


Did anyone else try them? What were your thoughts?

Living on Love...I mean, what we got! ;)

We're doing a living on what we have kind of week again. I've done this before and here we are again. I have a limited amount of funds left to get me through the week and so I'm challenging myself to stay out of the store and life off our pantry, freezer and what we have in the fridge. I already made up a menu that is totally doable with what we have. In case some of you are wondering what's for dinner this week, steal away--ideas that is! ;)

Day One
Lasagna (Freezer-made on a bulk cooking day)
Vegetables (whatever is in the fridge! ;))
Garlic Bread (Bought day old 50% off french bread, prepared and froze)

Day Two
Santa Fe Chicken Casserole
Chips and Salsa
**I already made this for our family this week and they LOVED it. The kids each had seconds (large servings too) and the hubby said he could keep eating it, but had to stop. It's NOT spicy, but has some good flavor. Make it your own by adding something special you're family loves to it.

Day Three
Bruschetta Chicken Skillet
Vegetables (whatever is on hand)
Garlic Bread (same as above)

Day Four
Grilled Steaks (freezer supply)
Scalloped Potatoes
Vegetables

Day Five
Creamed Chicken on Toast

Day Six
Ham and Cheese Loaf
Fruit
Chips

Day Seven
Beef Stroganoff
Vegetables
Bread

Menus-Post #2

I'm a "systems" girl. I do well with plans and organization. A lot of those that know me well and have seen my house, know that I'm a label nerd! I like everything labeled and organized. If you ask me, I think in the long run it saves time and money if you know where your things are and where to put them back when you're done. (Not that it always works with 2 little ones in the house, but we try at least!) Anyway...so when it came to menus I wanted a system. I'm not always good about writing out a menu every single week and the idea of doing that for the next how ever many years just sounded daunting! I needed a system.

I know there are others out there like me--just admit it--so for those that like to have a plan here's my system.

I started with using the free templates that I found online. There were other kinds too, but this is the one I liked the best because it also included a grocery list on the side.

Then, I had to deal with the idea of doing this every week--forever--that's just not working for me. So, I decided to do a file system. I have a hanging file holder that is sitting completely empty right now and it needed a job. So, it's now become my menu files.

System summary-- a year's worth of menus, recipes and grocery lists created and rotated each year.

Once my idea was formed I had to start working on it. Sadly, I didn't have all the materials I needed to complete the project. I had my "no store" goal going, so I didn't want to mess that up by going to buy things, and I knew if I put it off too long, it would fall through the cracks. I had to get creative. I needed folders--didn't have any, BUT I had a huge supply of construction paper and glue. I just glued two pieces of the same color of paper together at the edge and voila--folders! :) I made 12 in 4 different colors and labeled them "Week #__"

Then, I wanted to have an envelope with recipes for each week in the folders along with that week's menu and grocery list. Half way through, my plan changed to just having an envelope for that month's recipes paper clipped together for each week. Not sure, how I feel about the change yet...

Anyway, the plan for the folders is to have that week's menu, grocery list, store adds, and coupons in it so it's all easily accessible that given week.

Then, the hanging file will hold all four weeks worth of menus for the month. Here is what my September folder looks like:

Each of the colored folder has one of the white pages in it all filled out with most of the days menu filled in and then a master grocery list with the ingredients needed for all the  meals that week. 

I'm hoping to do 2 weeks to a month worth at a time and then file them away at the end of the month. Then, next year all I'll have to do is pull out the month we are in, make a few updates based on sales, coupons and foods we have on hand and it'll be ready! :) 

I'm purposefully leaving at least three days left unplanned so that I'll have options to incorporate new ideas, allow for flexible schedule changes and to avoid the over planning problem. It also has a space to leave notes for each day, so as I have adaptations or thoughts I'll write them on there so I remember it the following year. I've also decided to be vague on some of the side dishes, for example instead of writing in green beans, I put "green vegetable" to allow me to buy based on sales each year. I've also done that with things like potatoes, instead of saying "baked potato" I just wrote, "potatoes", so I can chose the variety to make depending on mood and time. The general idea is there though, so it's "planned" just not overly specific. 

I decided to make a few extra "envelopes" for recipe ideas that I come across throughout the year. There is one for "Recipes to Try", "Recipes to add to the Menus", "Recipes for Special Events" and "Recipes for this Week". That last one will be hanging on the inside of my cupboard door so they are easy to get to each week and I'll just switch them out from the monthly folder with the new additions I've added that year.

Benefits: 

-Seasonal foods will still be rotated at the appropriate months

-A year's worth of work can be used for several to come

-Space allowed for change & new ideas

-A master grocery list is already created, so each week I'll just be able to look at that list to form the one I'll take to the store with the items I don't already have on hand to avoid over buying

-You can plan your grocery list based on two weeks or more of menus since you have it all pre-planned and avoid the need to shop every week. 

-Allows for coupon/specials planning. If you know what you'll be needing in the next few weeks you can buy them when you see them on sale/have coupons for them. 

-No more wondering "what's for dinner?" at 5 PM! 

-Not feeling stuck in a rut with the same meals over and over again!

-Less eating out 

Menus-Post #1

Menus. Sigh. I've tried them before and have had a love/hate relationship with them. Loved not always trying to figure out dinner plans at 5 PM when everyone is hungry, nothing is thawed and not a single thing in the pantry looks appetizing. Having a plan works well for me. On the other hand, I hated having way too much food that needed to be used and if our plans changed at all during the week, food would go bad. Can anyone else relate?

Plan B-flexible menus with only 4-5 days worth of ideas using similar ingredients. That's what I've found to be the best scenario for our family. I've been looking into menu ideas, tips, plans and systems to get an idea of how I could do this effectively and consistently.

The highlights from my research:
*Using similar ingredients is key to savings
*Don't try to make every meal "gourmet"
*Simplify the list of ingredients
*Be flexible on the days
*Make extra for future weeks
*Don't over plan/buy--allow for days to use leftovers, being invited over, etc.

So I've been working on a system that incorporates the bulk of those suggestions and I think I found the best solution/system for us. I started working on it yesterday and so far I like it! :)