February Menu

I didn't follow last months menu perfectly but stayed pretty close.  Whatever I skipped got moved to February.  Anything that says pinterest by it can be found on one of my boards... just click HERE.  I haven't tried any of them (except the pork chops and potatoes on week 3) so hopefully they'll be good! :) I hope you find some ideas here! 

Menu Planning

Okay, here is what our weekly schedule will be like.  Of course we'll be flexible with this and the monthly menu but you have to start somewhere, right?  You'll see Church Supper as one of the options on Wednesday.  At our church you can sign up for Wednesday night supper for $4/person with a maximum of $12 per family... $12 is a bargain for a family of six so when the menu is something we like, then we'll eat there.  When it's not, we'll have a light supper of salad or potatoes, or maybe leftovers.  I don't have a day dedicated to leftovers because I pack for my husbands lunch and dinner (he works 48 hours at time) from the leftovers.  The kids and I sometimes eat leftovers for lunch, too. 

 

Here is the monthly menu.  You'll see 31-Dec in the upper left corner because that is the first day of this menu.  I have some rearranging to do to make sure my husbands favorites are planned on the days he will be home to have it fresh.  And.... I drew a blank on some days.  For pizza night, we will be making our own pizza most weeks topped with extra stuff I've prepped for meals earlier in the week.  We love homemade pizza but occasionally grab take-n-bake if we happen to be in town and I remember to grab a coupon for Papa Murphy's. 

 

Budget and Junk Food Cuts

We have been budgeting (and spending every bit) $880 for groceries.  By that I mean anything you can buy at the grocery store (food, paper products, pullups, toiletries, etc.) That doesn't include the feed for the dog and chickens.  I don't know what the average grocery bill is in east TX but this is our biggest expense and even if it is for a family of 6 it seems like an awfully lot of money to me. 

I've been looking online at other blogs to get ideas.  I have menu planned before and it always helped but I never stuck with it.  I only did a weekly menu which meant shopping every week.  I have tried couponing and it's just not for me, no matter how much I could save.  (Go all you couponers!)  So.... what I'm trying out for the month of January and plan to stick too is this:

I created a 4 week menu plan that begins with this Monday.  Each day of the week has the same theme all month.  For instance, we will have chicken every Thursday.  This makes it easy when meal planning.  I am also going to buy in bulk either at Sam's Club or at Brookshire's when they have sales... another thing monthly menu planning will help with.  Yesterday I bought all the meat, snacks, potatoes, and non-perishables we will need for the month as well as some perishables we'll need for the first week or so. So I should only have to go to the store for our weekly gallon of milk and some fresh veggies here and there.  I know shopping less often will help cut down the bill too.  Oh.. and going ALONE!  It is so distracting and easy to put more in the buggy than you need when you have 4 sweet little helpers with you! Haha!  :) 

Another thing I'll do is watch the sales.  Even if it's not on the menu this month but it's on sale and something that we DO use regularly and is non-perishable or freezable, then I'll buy it and put it in he menu.  Our local grocery store has an awesome Buy 1 Get 1 for a penny sale that always has loads of stuff that we use. 

I'm also trying out some "off" brand items and avoiding processed foods as much as possible.  I need to get back to making my own bread.  I already make my own seasoning mixes (like taco seasoning and ranch dressing mix) and that is cheaper and healthier.  We also have a garden that we are trying to get most of our produce from... we will plant a bigger garden next season because this garden wasn't quite enough.  I'll also have more meatless meals since we really do eat WAY more meat than we need and it'll save us money.

One last thing I'm doing is making a price list.  I put everything I bought yesterday in a spreadsheet with the number quantity, the total price, and he unit price.  I also dated each item and put which store it was at.  I'll do this for a while so I can get an idea of who really has the cheapest regular price and so I will know when a sale really is a good sale.  Once I've tracked everything for a while, I'll just check every once in a while to see if it's still current.  Along with this, I'm keeping track of how often I have to buy things.  After a couple months of all of this, I will have a better idea of what our budget should be.  I'm really expecting to spend a lot less than $880 a month but I just don't know how low is realistic.. I want to save money but still feed my family healthy food!

If there is any interest, I'll post my monthly menu and our daily themes.  Please share your ideas, too! 

A Side of Beans & Rice

In attempt to meet a financial savings goal, my husband and I are making some changes to our spending.  We are already debt free (excluding one mortgage) but we really feel the need to buy a piece of land to live off of and build a new house.  In addition to cutting out some extra's like cable tv and dining out, I am revamping our grocery budget.  I stumbled upon Danielle over at Blissful & Domestic and was inspired to start menu planning again.  Instead of doing a week at a time like I did previously... long ago... I am shooting for a monthly menu plan.  We'll have the same basic theme every week (Fish Friday, Pizza Saturday, Crockpot Sunday, etc.) to make it easy.  Hopefully I'll put a lot of the pinterest ideas I have to good use so we won't get bored!  Another tip I like from Danielle's blog is to shop monthly instead of weekly like I do now.  There are some things I'll set grocery money aside for (like sales and perishables) but for the main part I would like to have one major shopping trip a month.  This will take some getting use to!  We are going to start January since we are in an busy month of meal times with family and travel.  This will be a big help to our budget!  Once I get started, I'll post our daily theme schedule and the monthly menu to hopefully inspire you!  Oh, one more thing... as of now, we spend about $220 a week on groceries (including toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc.).  We spent less when I was doing a weekly menu plan.  What do you do (besides couponing) to help cut back on your spending?

Meal Planning?

I've been off the meal planning wagon for a while.  It's time to get back on it.  It is so much easier to have a healthy, balanced diet when you plan in advance.  It also saves money!  While I don't have a full menu plan yet... I do know we'll be having the Kale and Potato Soup again this coming week.  I'm also going to cook a grilled chicken and goat cheese fettucini.  I bought some rapini broccoli to try but I have no idea what to do with it yet.  Whatever I do I'm sure it will go good with grilled chicken.  :)  Do you have any tried and true freezer meals? What's on your menu?  I need more ideas!

Menu Monday 6/4/12

I don't have anything spectactular planned for this week.  In fact, I'm borrowing the Asian Inspired Steak meal from last week's menu. We have baseball 2 or 3 nights this week and I get to work the concession stand one night... and I get to go away for one day on a shopping trip to Frisco.  So... we may not even get to the steak from last week this week. 

If all goes well, this is what we have planned:
Asian Inspired Steak with steamed rice and veggies
Tilapia (cooked in skillet with coconut oil and lemon pepper) with rice and a side salad
Pizza & salad
Grilled hot dogs and chips. 

That's it.  That's our "plan."  :)

Menu Monday 5/28/12

I finally did a menu plan! 

Pizza Bites and a green salad
Slow Cooker Cream Cheese Chicken Chili (I think I'll top it with cilantro since I have some on hand for another recipe) **EDIT 6/3:  I used enough boneless skinless chicken breast strips to cover the bottom of the crockpot plus a couple more.  I only cooked it in the crockpot on low for 4 hours.  About half an hour before it was done, I added a diced avocado.  Then we served it with tortilla chips, cheese, cilantro, and more avocado.  It was a HUGE hit. 
Asian Flat Iron Steak w/ rice and steamed broccoli
BBQ Chicken sandwiches w/ cilantro slaw
BLA (Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado sandwiches... James will probably have the T, too.)

Feel free to tell me what's on your menu.  I am always looking for new ideas!

Creamy Pasta Salad

I haven't been diligent with my menu planning but I did make a list of meals last week that we did use some of.  The hits were:

Stove Top Easy Cheesy Chicken Bake - everyone loved it, even the baby.  The only thing I do differently is add seasoning to the chicken.

Chicken & Veggie Stir Fry, Fried Rice, and Chung's All Natural Vegetable Spring Rolls - I made the everything but the spring rolls homemade and it was good!  James and I were surprised at how delicious the spring rolls were but I think it was because it was made out of real stuff and not a long list of crazy things we couldn't pronounce.  They were very light and tasty.  We tried their chicken egg rolls too but they weren't great and they are loaded with mystery ingredients. 

I know I cooked more than that last week but I can't for the life of me remember what.  We did eat a lot of sandwiches on fresh bread from the bakery at Fresh. My favorite is the rosemary olive oil bread with salami, chicken, lettuce, and a little creole mustard.  Delish! 

Today James is smoking ribs and I am cooking purple hull peas and made up a tangy, creamy pasta salad to go with it.  I found the recipe for the pasta salad on All-Recipes but altered it based on preference and what I had on hand.  Click the link above for the original recipe and I'll post my version below.

1 bag of whacky spirals cooked according to package directions and cooled
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
15 baby carrots thinly sliced
Dressing:
Mix up 1/2 c mayonnaise, 1/4 c prepared ranch dressing (I used HV this time but you should definitely try the pioneer woman's homemade version), 3 T milk, 2 T rice vinegar, 1 T onion powder, 1/2 tsp Tony Cachere's, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp dried parsley flakes, 1/2 tsp Zatarains creole mustard.

Stir dressing into spirals and veggies.  Chil until ready to serve. 

I plan on putting shredded cheddar and sliced almonds in just before serving.  If we weren't having it with ribs, I would add bacon bits.  If I had fresh broccoli I'd add that too.... the possibilities are endless!  :) 

Menu 3/11/12

My menu this week is short. It's spring break so the kids will be home. We are allowing for 3 meals to be eaten out since I'm sure we will be out and about having some fun. But the 4 meals planned are.....

Meal1- Chicken Tortilla Soup by Ree Drummond with avacados, cheese, sour cream, and salsa toppings

Meal2 - Chicken Piccata by Giada (food network) w/ side salad and roasted broccoli.

Meal3 - Meatballs (cooked in grape jelly & chili sauce) with mac-n-cheese and carrots.

Meal4 - Leftovers/ clean out the fridge

If we add any fantastic meals or eat anywhere cool, I'll blog about :) Happy Spring Break!

Menu 3/4/12

Sunday - Didn't get planned! Oops!
Monday - Loaded baked potatoes (sour cream, butter, green onions, cheese, and instead of bacon... diced smoked sausage. We love the brookshire's brand!) with side salads. Making a fresh batch of ranch dressing using Ree Drummond's recipe. It is delish!
Tuesday - Soupy Chalupa's - fried flour tortilla topped with a ground beef mix (tomato sauce, ranch style beans and taco seasoning, and ground beef) , lettuce, tomato, and cheese.
Wednesday - Hawaiian Chicken breast strips, mac n cheese, and a side salad.
Thursday - Smoked Pork Loin using the sauce from this pork recipe, Broccoli Cheese & Cracker Casserole (also from Ree - click here)
Friday - Beef Tacos
Saturday - Help Yourself aka Clean out the Fridge