Weekly Menu for 8/19

And I'm back!

One of the nice things about doing this blog is that I have a record of previous menus.  When I just don't feel like figuring out what to eat, it is nice to be able to go back a bit and just grab a menu that I've already done. I know that the sales won't necessarily match up, but it is certainly more reliable than me trying to menu plan when I just don't feel like it.

Anyway, we are on to a new week and looking forward to some beautiful weather.  Pork chops are one sale, as are bratwurst, so those two things are making onto the meal plan for this week.  So we are having:

Pork Chops
Taco Salad
Smoked Sausage and Mac and Cheese
Sandwiches (requested by the kiddo)
Brats
Grill Something

There will be lots of grilling this week!  Add some grilled meat with fresh vegetables, and you have pretty much my husband's ideal meal.

So what are you having this week?

Slacker

Well, it was bound to happen.  Once every couple of months, I get burned out on menu planning.  It happens.  In those times, I fall back on whatever we have on hand as well as take care of meals on a day-by-day basis.  Maybe I should push through and keep on with the planning, but it does seem like I come out on the other side with more energy and ideas for our menus.

So obviously, this is one of those times.  After taking a week and a half off of menu planning, I'm about ready to get back into my regular routine and get back on track.  I will say, the break has been nice.  I'm sure my husband doesn't think so since "we have no food in the house", but I was beginning to feel like I was spending a lot of my time thinking about dinners.  When menu planning gets that time-consuming, it is time to take a break.

Instead of struggling to come up with things to eat, I'm now looking forward to putting several items on the menu for next week.  So I'm going to finish out my week of laziness and come back next week with a renewed energy for feeding myself and my family.

In the meantime, what are you having? I could use some ideas for the next couple of days! ;-)

Weekly Menu for 7/29

It is hard to believe that July is coming to a close. In two weeks, school is starting up again.  I can't believe how fast the summer has gone!  Because of our record-setting heat, we haven't been able to be outside as much as I like.  Hopefully the temperatures will start cooling off soon.  Of course, as we head into our traditionally hottest part of the summer, I think dreams of cooler weather will have to stay dreams for a while longer still.

As much as the weather makes me want to just hole up inside, I still need to keep this family fed.  And to do that with as little stress as possible, I need to stay on top of meal planning.  Even though it feels like a fair amount of work to put it together every week, I know that it saves me time and stress in the long run.  It really helps on any given night to just look at my menu plan and know that I already have everything I need for those items.

This week is going to be heavy on grilling.  There were several good meat prices, so I'm taking advantage of those and putting them on the menu for this week.  I know it isn't the case for all kids, but grilled meats are very kid-friendly in our house.  Also, breakfast for dinner was a huge hit last week and it has been requested to be on the menu again this week.

So this week's menu is:

Cedar Plank Fish
Chicken Tacos
Grilled Pork Steaks
Breakfast (back by popular demand)
Grilled Chicken with Grilled Corn, Poblano, and Black Bean Salad
Hamburgers

We didn't get to have the Cedar Plank Fish last week, and since we are land-locked and almost all of our fish comes frozen, it didn't hurt to put it off until this week.  We are also having hamburgers again this week to use up the buns, etc. that we didn't need last week.  Both of those things will definitely help out my $100 budget!

Grocery Costs for 7/22

I've done all of my grocery shopping for this week's meal plan and am now ready to see how my spending turned out.  I really like breaking down my spending to see where my money is going and where I can be saving more.  When you are menu planning on a budget, it is helpful to take a good look at where your money goes.

I'm changing the way that I look at my grocery costs.  I realized that it looked like I didn't buy any produce!  Calling fresh fruits and vegetables "Staples" may be accurate, but it isn't that helpful.  During the summer when almost everything is in season, I like to have as much fresh produce as possible.  My kids love fresh fruits and will eat a lot of vegetables, so we have something with almost every meal.  For produce purchased for a particular recipe, I will still include that in my dinner costs.  But when I'm picking up a bunch of bananas or corn on the cob to have with whatever meal, I will put that in their own "Fruits and Veggies" category.

So here is what my spending looked like for this week:

Breakfast: $11.40

Lunch: $6.79

Dinner: $36.54

Staples: $15.65

Fruits and Veggies: $8.36

Buy ahead: $5.98

Splurge: $1.00 (twizzlers :) )

I also picked up some grill tools from the grocery store for $4.48.  We needed a new basting brush and grill cleaner, and they were on clearance.

Everything added together with tax and bag credit came to $98.34

Weekly Menu for 7/22

This week is supposed to be crazy hot!  I hope you are able to stay cool.  My plan right now is to generate as little heat in my house as possible.  One of my meals does require the oven to be on for a few minutes, but nothing major.  Other than that, most of the cooking is either minimal, or on the grill.

The sales my stores are running this week make my menu easy on my $100 budget, which is always nice.  Also helping out my budget is that my husband won't be home for dinner one night, so that will be leftover night for me and the kids.  Thank goodness for leftovers!  There isn't much that causes my desire to cook to drop faster than it just being me and the kids.  I'm sure it is mostly laziness, but I know the fact that the kids would be perfectly happy with chicken nuggets plays a part as well.

On the menu for this week is:

Grill Something
Breakfast (waffles, bacon, and eggs)
Caesar Chicken Pasta Salad
Beef Sate with Peanut Dipping Sauce
Club Sandwiches
Cedar Plank Fish (making this up as I go)

I'm making use of having extra bacon from breakfast which is why the club sandwiches made the menu plan for this week.  I'm also going to double the waffle recipe so that we have extra waffles to keep in the freezer for breakfast for the kids.

I know I'll have leftover rotisserie chicken from the pasta salad, so I'm planning on taking that and freezing it until I figure out what to do with it.  Don't be surprised to see something next week that calls for rotisserie chicken.  What do you like to do with cooked chicken?  I'm still on the hunt for a couple of great new recipes.

Update:  I got my grocery costs for this week added up.  You can check out how I did here.

Weekly Menu for 7/15

Vacation is over and I'm now looking forward at another week.  We had a great time, took it easy, and enjoyed our time together as a family.  What did we eat?  Well, I decided to keep things simple, so we grilled several times, I made a large pasta salad, and we had stuff to make quick and easy lunches.  Between grilling and the pasta salad, we had plenty to last us for the few days and nights we were out of the house.

So now looking at the week ahead, I'm starting my menu planning from scratch.  I know frequently we have leftovers to use or a meal that didn't get made from the week before, but this week doesn't have those things that I need to keep in mind.  We are going to be away from home 2 nights, so this week's menu will have 5 meals on it.  Our $100 budget should get us through this week without any problems.  So this week we are going to have:

Fish Tacos

Grill Something

Spicy Basil Chicken

Smoke Something (Pulled Pork and Ribs.  Awesome!)

Veggie Fried Rice

There is nothing new about the menu for this week.  I think I need to shake my meal planning up a bit.  I'll be searching my cooking magazines and online to find at least one new menu item to try out for next week.  Do you have any ideas?  Is there anything new that you are looking to try out?

I know it has been a while since I've posted an accounting of grocery costs.  My goal is to get that done next week.  It's one thing to say that I'm trying to stay within my budget, but I know it helps to show exactly where the money is being spent.  Breaking it down like I do really shows me if I'm spending more than I need in any one area and where I can cut costs.

Vacation

We will be on vacation for the next week, so my menu planning will be next to nothing.  If I were a good menu planner, I would have an idea right now what we would be eating while were are gone, but I'm not.  The good news is that I will have a kitchen to make meals while we are gone so that we aren't eating out every meal.  Easy will be the plan for the next several days!

I hope you have a great week and wonderful meals.  See you in a week!

Weekly Menu for 7/1

I don't know about you, but it seems that when the outside temperature goes up, my desire to do any major cooking goes down.  This is definitely the season of quick, easy meals for my family.  My crazy husband is still willing to stand outside in front of a hot grill on a 100 degree day, though.  That man is dedicated to his love of grilled food!  Have I mentioned that he also has a smoker?  He is planning on firing it up  for the 4th.  I have no idea what he is making, but whatever it is will be wonderful.  So this week, we'll have both a Grill Something and a Smoke Something on the menu.

Other than that, everything else I have planned this week requires very little cooking.  We are having pizza again to use up the other pizza crust that I bought for last week.  And we didn't get to the tacos last week, so they are on the menu again for this week, but as Taco Salad.  For whatever reason, taco salad sounds better to me this week.  With those things in mind, my menu for this week is:

Taco Salad

Grill Something

Pizza

Breaded Chicken

Smoke Something

Glazed Chicken and Szechuan Noodle Salad

The breaded chicken is something that my husband came up with.  I'll be posting the recipe in the next couple of days.  It is very simple, very tasty, and my kids like it.  

Weekly Menu for 6/24

Well last week's craziness has gone by and we are ready to settle in to a much more normal type of week.  Which of course means that I need to be thinking about what I'm going to be feeding my family this week.

A weekly menu plan isn't always in my list of fun things to do, but you can bet that I really appreciate it when we are wrapping up a busy and tiring day and I don't really have to think about what we're going to do for dinner.  Not to mention, it really helps out with our $100 budget.

This meal plan included a birthday dinner for one of my kids, so the ever-kid-friendly Pizza is on the menu for this week.  Since the diner of honor tends toward the picky side, our pizza topping will be pepperoni, Italian sausage, and cheese.  One of the nice things about pizza night is that my kids enjoy helping put it together.  It is a lot of fun seeing them standing at the counter and very carefully putting the toppings in place. Not to mention the added bonus of pre-dinner sampling.

So what are we going to be enjoying this week?

Pizza
Grill Something
Chipotle Pork
Hamburgers
Spicy Basil Chicken
Tacos

Very simple this week.  Summer makes me want to slow and have simplify.  What about you?  Do your habits seem to change with the seasons?

Chicken Salad

This is great summer-time meal.  It can use leftover chicken and doesn't require heating your house at all.  Serve on bread, in a tomato cup, on a bed of lettuce, or just out of the bowl.  Enjoy!

2 cups cooked, chopped chicken

1 cup celery, diced

1 cup red grapes, halved or quartered as needed

1/2 cup shelled walnuts, coarsely chopped

1 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup sweet relish

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

Put all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Gently stir until well mixed and evenly dressed.

Weekly Menu for 6/17

This week is going to be a crazy week.  Between Father's Day, family occasions, and other goings-on, there isn't much of a menu to speak of this week.  Honestly, I think we may only be home for 2 meals this week, and there are leftovers that can be put into play for dinners.  It's just one of those weeks.  So instead of trying to pretend I have an actual menu for this week, I'm just going to take this time to post recipes.

First up will be Chicken Salad.  It is such a great recipe to pull out when you have extra chicken sitting around.  It's one of my favorite things to do with leftover rotisserie chicken.  Adding grapes and celery to the grocery list doesn't put much of a dent in my budget and another meal is taken care of.

I thank my sister for reminding me of what all our family puts into our Chicken Salad.  Because as far as I know, when I type the recipe in a little bit, that will be the first time the complete recipe will be written down.

I hope you have a great week and are able to enjoy eating at home more than I will be this week!

Weekly menu for 6/10

Another week is upon us and another menu is ready to be created.  I very much enjoyed everything we had to eat last week.  There wasn't anything new, but there were several old favorites that we hadn't had in a while.  I heard one time that the average home cook makes the same 6 meals over and over again.  Apparently it is a goal of mine to bring that average up.  I will admit, though, that I go through seasons with some meals.  Pasta salad gets a lot of play in the summer.  And Chili is heavy on the menu in the winter.

But I love to try new meals.  There is something wonderful when you make something and realize that it is going to go down as a family favorite.  And upon finding a great one, I enjoy taking the time to add it to my cookbook.  Only the best get written down so they are in the first place I look when I'm thinking of what to make.  Two of those meals are on the menu for this week.

Taking our schedule into consideration this week, I had to keep in mind that there would be two nights where we had other dinner plans.  So the weekly menu plan has 5 meals on it this time.  That is always a huge help to my budget, but I don't take those times for granted.  We may splurge a whole meal on occasion, but I try to stay reasonable on our meals even when I have more budget to work with.  The savings are always nice, and I don't want to get used to spending more per meal than I should.  It would just be that much harder on weeks when we had no plans to stay within my $100 budget.

All that being said, we are having a pretty basic menu this week:

Caesar Chicken Pasta Salad
Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps (yes, the link goes to lettuce cups, but I just make it into wraps)
Grill Something
Smoked Sausage and Mac and Cheese
Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Here's an example of how menu planning can help save money.  The Caesar Chicken Pasta Salad calls for rotisserie chicken, but it doesn't need a whole chicken.  Now, if I don't plan on using those leftovers, there is a really good chance they will go to waste.  But with only a few more ingredients, I can use the remaining chicken and make Chicken Salad.   Simple, delicious, good for the budget, and not wasteful.  Love it.

So what do you have going on this week?

Pasta Salad

This is my basic pasta salad recipe.  You can change up the meat, cheese, veggies, and dressing to make it anything you like.  I stick to this basic combination most of the time.  This is a great basic meal on a budget.  And as an added bonus, it is very kid friendly.  My kids love being able to pick out each individual piece.  I do use both green and red peppers if the price is right.  If red peppers are really expensive, I'll just double the amount of green peppers and not use the red.

Pasta Salad
Serves 6

1 pound rotini
1 small summer sausage roll (about 8 ounces), cubed
4 ounces cheddar cheese, cubed
4 ounces mozzarella cheese, cubed
1/2 cup green bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1 cup grape tomatoes
1/2 cup sliced black olives
1 cup Italian salad dressing (more or less to taste)

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain and rinse in cold water.

Meanwhile, chop remaining ingredients (except dressing) and combine in a large bowl.  When cool and well-drained, add pasta.  Add salad dressing to taste.  Toss well.


*I always have more peppers, tomatoes, and olives than I can use.  Chop the remaining veggies for a salad another time or use in a different recipe.  One ingredient, multiple recipes.  You can save money and decrease waste.

Weekly Menu for 6/3

Good morning, internet world!  It is a lovely day here and I'm excited that we get to start spending more time outside and at the pool.  In light of the weather warming up, again we are looking to more summery fare on the menu this week.

There is one exception, of course.  One day we are going to be having meatloaf because we are taking dinner to some friends that just had a baby. Since the new dad is a fairly picky eater, a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy, we are doing meatloaf with a side of macaroni and cheese for them.  And because I'm a lazy cook and don't really feel like making two dinners in one night, I'm just going to double it and have the same for us.

There are a couple of recipes that I will post this week to make the weekly menu plan complete.  You can be on the look out for recipes for both pasta salad and meatloaf.

I think with the dinner that we are taking to our friends, I will be over my $100 budget.  We'll see how it all pans out.  Also of note, we will be out of the house for dinner one night this week.  So without further ado, here is the meal plan for this week:

Pasta Salad
Spaghetti and Meatballs (as requested by my oldest)
Grill Something
Fish Tacos
Meatloaf
Chicken Fajitas

The chicken fajitas is just something that I will throw together.  I suppose I could put an actual recipe together for that.  If I'm feeling ambitious, I may do that.

Anything interesting on your menu for this week?  I'm always looking for new meals to add in to our menu plans.

Weekly Menu for 5/27

Happy day after Memorial Day!  I hope you had a great long weekend and were able to enjoy any time off that you had.  We ended up doing some projects around the house and then relaxing together as a family.  Did you do anything fun?

This week's menu will have a few familiar-looking menu items on it.  Because we ended up having to change our dinner plans on two different occasions the week before, two meals got bumped to this week's menu.  No worries, though.  That's actually one of the benefits of buying ahead and having some meats in the freezer.  Because the main ingredients hadn't been thawed yet, I was able to hold those meals until this week.  So you will see the Cashew Chicken and Pork with Apples again this week.

Another repeat this week is Hamburgers.  We had leftover hamburger buns, and I hate to have food go to waste.  So we're having hamburgers again this week.  Not that anyone minds.  My kids love burgers, and they are a favorite of mine as well.  I'll have to have my husband guest post some time and tell you what he does with them.  His recipe for burgers is easy, and oh so tasty.  I have to say that I enjoy the fact that I can just pick up some ground beef, and then dinner magically gets done.  :)

One other thing to note, we have dinner plans one night this week and we will be eating out one night this week.  So, that means 5 things on our weekly menu plan.  Eating out is helpful for my weekly grocery budget, but we do have to remember to keep our eating out budget under control (yes, we have one of those, too).  Keeping to my $100 grocery budget for this week shouldn't be a problem at all.

On to the menu for this week:

Hamburgers

Honey Cashew Chicken with Rice

Spinach and Artichoke Pasta

Grill Something

Pork Medallions with Maple-Glazed Apples

The Spinach and Artichoke Pasta is something that I'm going to be making up as I go along.  If it is any good, I'll post the recipe for you.

I will say, one of the benefits of having Grill Something on the menu plan each week is that it is a perfect thing to have on holidays such as yesterday. Sure enough, that's what we did.  Steaks with garlic bread and corn on the cob.  Yum!

What are you looking forward to having this week?

Grocery costs

All of the groceries have been purchased, and like I suspected, I am over budget.  As you'll see, my buying ahead is going to be a lot more this time than it usually is.  The great sales at my store are over now, so this time next week, my weekly budget and menu plan should look a lot better.

The grand total spent was $126.28.  Here's where it all went:

Breakfast: $2.69
Lunch: $3.53
Dinner: $34.21
Staples: $40.71
Buying Ahead: $29.08
Splurge: $3.29 (chocolate so I can make cookies.  Yum!)


I also bought a basil plant for $2.49.  If I can keep it alive (my gardening skills will never be worthy of a blog), it should end up saving us money.  Even if I only use it once, we've broken even.

So, I am over budget, but next week should find me under.  And almost $20 of the buying ahead is in the form of coffee.  That alone will save us almost $5 a week for probably the next two months.

I know this cost post is getting out late.  A combination of bad math and my kids kept me from getting it out in a timely manner.  Keep a look out later today or tomorrow for my menu planning for this week.

Pork Medallions with Maple-Glazed Apples

This recipe is really easy, but also really popular with my family.  Not only will my kids eat it, but my super-picky sister will eat it, too.  And sometimes it's harder to get her to try something than it is with my older son.


Pork Medallions with Maple-Glazed Apples
Serves 4

4 baking apples (Granny Smith, Gala, etc.  Pink Lady is my favorite), peeled, cored, and sliced
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 pork tenderloin, trimmed, and cut into 1 inch thick slices
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2-3 tablespoons canola oil (can use olive oil if you prefer), divided


For the apples, heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add apple slices and saute until lightly browned, about 5 minutes.  Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the maple syrup.  Simmer until the apples are tender, about 10 minutes.  Stir occasionally.

Pound pork slices until thin (1/4 inch).  In a shallow dish or plate, combine flour, salt, and pepper.  Lightly dredge pork medallions in flour mixture.   Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet pan over medium-high heat.  Add pork to pan in a single layer.  Cook 2-3 minutes on each side until the pork reaches desired level of doneness.  To serve, spoon apples over the pork medallions.


A couple of notes:
*I like to do the pork in my cast iron skillet.
*The pork usually takes me a couple of batches with the size of my pan, hence the extra oil.  Between the batches, add more oil to the pan as needed.
*If it will take a couple of batches to do the pork, turn your oven to warm and have a baking dish inside.  Remove pork from the pan to the baking dish as it is finished to keep it warm.
*This will serve 4 moderate eaters.  If you are serving big eaters, I would double the amount of pork and count on it serving 6.

Enjoy!

Weekly Menu for 5/20

Things are warming up, and we are starting to use our grill a lot more.  Pretty much from here until the end of summer, you will see a regular item on my menu for each week.  That would be: Grill Something.  Very specific, I know.  My husband loves to grill and I love grilled food, so we are a good match.  Pretty much when the plan is to grill something, we choose either something that sounds good or is on a good sale.  Also, Grill Something is prepared with a fresh vegetable side.  You can see that I'm big on advance planning when it comes to grill night. :)

Other than Grill Something, the menu planning strategy is the same as it was before.  Of course, I'm trending toward menu items that are a little lighter on the palate and generally a little quicker to prepare so that I'm not heating up the kitchen too much.  It is definitely okay to take kitchen temperature into consideration when you do your meal planning!

So this week, we are having:

Taco Salad
Grill Something +Vegetable

I'm Back!

Well, after too much time has passed since I last visited the blogging world, I am on my way back!  I've been working on new menus and am getting even better at keeping within my budget.  I can't wait to share my wealth of knowledge with all one of you who currently reads my blog.  :)

I'm hoping to change my menu weeks from starting on Wednesday to starting on Sunday.  I think it will make more sense for others and be easier for me to keep on top of.  I'm looking forward to posting some time this weekend!