Weekly Menu Plan for Feb. 5-11, 2011

This week's menu is simply made from things that we already have. We are trying to stay out of the grocery store as much as possible.

Saturday - Grilled pork chops, pasta salad, green beans

Sunday lunch - Chicken strips, macaroni and cheese, speckled butter beans
Sunday (Superbowl) dinner - Steaks, potato salad - then later we had spinach dip with Hawaiian bread, boiled peanuts, chip and queso dip

Monday - out to eat

Tuesday - Hot wings, leftover potato salad, leftover beans

Wednesday - Hamburger Helper Lasagna, salad, rolls

Thursday - BBQ chicken, baby lima beans, cream corn

For some awesome meal ideas for this week, visit Organized Junkie for Menu Plan Monday here.

Weekly Menu Plan for Jan 16-22, 2011

We did really well last week with the new grocery strategy. I only made one trip to the store. Wasn't real sure how that was going to turn out, but it actually turned out great. We saved quite a bit of money by only going to the store once. It really did make a much greater difference than I thought it would.

Anyway, here's our menu for this week. I got started on posting it a little late and we did make a change today. It reflects what we have already had and intend to have in the upcoming days.

Sunday lunch: Zaxby's (had to get some spray paint for a bedroom project)
Sunday pm: Grilled hamburgers, assorted chips (bags that were already opened)

Monday: Fish, french fries, cheese grits, fresh bread

Tuesday: Cheeseburger macaroni (hamburger helper), green beans, raw carrots with dressing

Wednesday: Tuna cakes, cole slaw, pasta salad, pickles

Thursday: Spinach chicken alfredo, cucumber salad

Friday: Boston butt, creamed corn, butter beans, potatoes au gratin (boiled potatoes for husband since he doesn't like au gratin - calls them all rotten potatoes - LOL!)

Saturday lunch: Meat loaf, macaroni and cheese, cabbage
Saturday pm: Ginger chicken, steamed veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots), mashed potatoes

If you'd like other ideas for this week's meals, visit Organized Junkie here.

Weekly Menu Plan for Jan. 9-15, 2011

Here is our weekly menu plan for this week. We are trying to only visit the grocery store once this week as a new strategy to saving money at the grocery store. See my earlier post today about that.

Sunday lunch: Grilled hamburgers, chips
Sunday dinner: Fried pork chops, oven baked sweet potatoes and onions, stuffing, corn muffins

Monday: Pizza and salad

Tuesday: Taco soup, corn chips

Wednesday: Spaghetti with meat sauce, corn, pineapple chunks

Thursday: Chicken with peppers and onions, speckled butter beans, oven fried potatoes

Friday: Beef stew with potatoes and tomatoes, raw carrots with dressing

Saturday: Fish, cheese grits, slaw

For more menu ideas, check out Menu Plan Monday for this week.

New Year's Resolutions - Not Here!

I know it's a new year and everyone has started (and probably failed already) some of those new year's resolutions. I decided this year to not make any resolutions - instead I am going to simply DO.

I have been reading a book entitled "Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America's Cheapest Family." I have it on loan from our local library. It is by Steve and Annette Economides. I haven't read enough yet to decide if I will purchase the book, but it does have some outstanding ideas. I will continue to read it and let you know if I intend to purchase it.

Right now, I am following one simple rule or strategy: visit the grocery store once a week. We went this morning and I don't intend to stop in there again this week. I am the world's worst about going multiple times a week: forgot something, didn't take anything out for dinner, didn't we have enough milk yesterday, what do you mean we don't have any chili seasoning for the chili. These are just a few of the thoughts (and sometimes words) that seem to travel around me during the week. So I have planned a menu and made sure that everything that we needed is going to be available without trips to the store.

Keep me in your thoughts and prayers. I think this is going to be a hard one!!

Weekly Menu Plan for December 12-18, 2010

I have got to get back to weekly planning - been spending too much lately with Christmas around the corner. Here's what I intend to feed the family this week:

Sunday evening: Grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, baked potatoes
Monday: Spaghetti, green beans, salad
Tuesday: Potato soup, sandwiches (or leftover hot dogs)
Wednesday: Chicken and dumplings
Thursday: Tacos or nachos
Friday: Beef tips with peppers and onions, rice
Saturday: Cubed pork chops, macaroni and cheese, macaroni and tomatoes (since my husband doesn't like mac/cheese), sliced fruit, Indian bread

Breakfasts:
Frozen waffles, stuffed french toast, ham biscuits, scrambled eggs/toast

Lunches:
Sandwiches, leftovers, soup, cup of noodles (something warm)

Weekly Menu Plan for October 24-30

It seems that I am posting when I have gone to the grocery store and spent too much money. I guess $80 is the spark, because I spent that again yesterday and now I feel as though I need a plan so we get the most use of the food that we bought. Two $40 visits don't seem to bother me, but that one $80 sets me to planning.

So here is what I intend to fix:

Sunday:
Cubed pork chops, speckled butter beans, steamed cabbage, macaroni and cheese, fried okra, rolls

Monday:
Grilled hamburgers, pork burgers and hot dogs, salad, corn on cob

Tuesday:
Chicken and rice, leftover butter beans, pickles and crackers

Wednesday:
Meat loaf, baked sweet potatoes and onions, pumpkin muffins

Thursday:
Catalina cranberry chicken (p 15 in Holiday 09 Food and Family), stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans

Friday:
eat at Halloween party

Saturday:

Sandwiches for lunch

Roast, potatoes, and carrots in crockpot (before trick-or-treating)

For more meal ideas, check out Organized Junkie this week.

Weekly Menu Plan for Sept. 12 - 18

$80 at the grocery store and I still don't know what we're going to eat next week? Didn't make a plan! Didn't make a list! I so know better than that. But the money is already spent, so now I need to backtrack and make a weekly plan. We sure don't need to be back in the store again tomorrow, because we have "nothing to eat."

I have been cleaning up in my kitchen this week and going through some Taste of Home, Quick Cooking and Kraft Food and Family magazines. I've gotten several good ideas floating around in my head, so I'm going to take the opportunity now to put it down. This will help me remember. Plus, I love putting this information on my blog, because I can access it anywhere I have internet access and be reminded what we'll be eating.

Sunday lunch:
Grilled hamburgers with french fries (maybe) or chips

Sunday dinner:
Fried cubed pork chops, butter beans, fresh cream corn, steamed cabbage (needs to be used), hoe cakes

Monday dinner:
Lasagna, green beans

Tuesday dinner:
Catalina cranberry chicken (p 15 in Holiday 09 Food and Family), stuffing (from the box, of course), cranberry sauce (my little one thinks this is a side dish rather than a condiment), macaroni and tomatoes (because my husband won't eat stuffing), biscuits (found packs of 12 frozen biscuits for 59 cents)

Wednesday dinner:
Meatball subs, Italian marinated vegetable salad (p 31 in Holiday 08 Food and Family or layered salad (p 40 in Summer 08 Food and Family)

Thursday dinner:
Garden frittata, sausage, cantelope

Friday dinner:
Beef taco skillet (Campbell's recipe), frozen grapes (see below)

Saturday lunch:
Meatloaf, leftover sides, mashed potatoes or noodles

Saturday dinner:
Shrimp pasta salad, peach crisp (in crockpot) - I love this site. She has such awesome food ideas.

If you haven't had frozen grapes, you are in for a treat. Buy grapes when they are on sale, wash them, drain, place in zipper style bag and pop in the freezer. When ready to eat, just pop one in your mouth and enjoy a cool, summer treat. Everyone that we have introduced these to love them. We do prefer the green grapes to the red ones (of course, we also choose the seedless ones).

Check out other menu plans at Organized Junkie.

Weekly Menu Plan for May 2-8

Last week was so hectic and several items didn't get fixed that were on our weekly plan. We've got to incorporate some of those into this week's plan, because it is what we already have. So here goes:

Sunday lunch - Fried chicken and pork chops, mashed potates (homemade), speckled butter beans, and rolls.

Sunday pm - Sandwiches, chips

Monday pm - Chicken, fried okra, steamed cabbage

Tuesday pm - Meat loaf, leftover mashed potatoes, leftover beans

Wednesday pm - Crockpot fajitas, tortilla shells, refried beans, Spanish rice

Thursday pm - Fish/deviled crab, slaw, noodles

Friday pm - Pork roast, sweet potatoes, rice, tomato gravy

Saturday lunch - Spaghetti (sauce from freezer), garlic toast, green beans

Saturday pm - Grilled leg quarters, baked potatoes, cucumber salad


Breakfasts will consist of eggs and toast or French toast or frozen waffles.
Lunches will be made up of leftovers or sandwiches or ramen noodles.

Check out other weekly menu plans at Meal Plan Monday.

Weekly Menu Plan for April 17-23

Last week went really well. We ate by our plan almost every day which is amazing for us. We usually stray a bit, but it was so busy last week that we had to stick to it. I didn't have time to think about eating anything different.

This week we had to buy a couple of meats and I did bite the bullet and buy onions. We had a coupon for $2 off of $5 of produce. So here's what we have planned:

Saturday: BBQ pepper jack chicken, pasta salad

Sunday lunch: Chicken/rice, raw carrots, pickles (homemade), crackers

Sunday pm: Leftover hamburgers/hot dogs, leftover chicken and rice, raw carrots

Monday: eat out - Mexican

Tuesday: Pork chops, macaroni and tomatoes, macaroni and chees, butter beans

Wednesday: Crockpot fajitas (recipe found in last weeks MPM)

Thursday: Grilled cheese and nearly homemade tomato soup

Friday: Crockpot chicken and onions, mashed potatoes, collard greens

Saturday: Lasagna, green beans, garlic toast

For meal plans, visit Organized Junkie this week.

Weekly Menu Plan for April 11-17

My husband and I went through our freezer and cabinets and came up with this meal plan which meant that we wouldn't have to spend too much at the grocery store. By the way, does anyone know what is going on with the price of onions? A 3# bag of onions is $5 here. It was $1.50 just two weeks ago. Needless to say, we are doing without onions.

Sunday (lunch):
Cubed pork chops
Mashed potatoes
Collard greens
Pea and okra

Sunday (evening):
Chicken Cordon Bleu
Rice
Okra and tomatoes

Monday:
Chili with hot dogs and baked potatoes

Tuesday:
Hamburgers
Baked beans
California vegetables

Wednesday:
Pork stir fry with peppers
Fried rice with mixed vegetables
Cabbage
--cook peas or beans for Thursday

Thursday:
Roast chicken
Peas or beans
Pasta salad

Friday:
Hamburger ghoulash

Saturday (lunch):
Soup (with leftovers)

Saturday (evening):
??

For more ideas, visit Organized Junkie for Meal Plan Monday.

Changes in Meals to Save Money?

This week our weekly meal plan is going to include one meatless meal and one breakfast meal. I saw this idea in an Everyday Cheapskate newsletter that I received this week. I know that I'll be able to get away with the breakfast meal, but the meatless meal is going to be much harder as my husband will surely notice that there is no meat.

I'm looking for something that I might be able to "sneak" past him. Any ideas?

Yes, It Has Been Awhile

Once we started school and got busy with that (I teach), I just haven't made time for the blog. We've most definitely been trying to work on ways to save on our grocery budget. Everything else has gone up so much that it has become a necessity. So know even if I'm not posting about it much, I'm still working on ways to save.

I haven't been doing much couponing. We have enough toothpaste to last for the next 5 years (and I don't think I'm joking). I'm glad that I got all of the things that I did over the summer when time and money were available for it. I'm not having to purchase those things now which has meant more money for gas, electricity and of course, groceries.

Good luck with your grocery savings, and I hope to be posting more soon.

Weekly Menu Plan July 26 - August 1

We are back from our summer vacation (which was almost a complete flop but that's another story). This week will include more summer training for teachers and another vacation bible school for our little one. So we have to plan things that don't require much time or effort. Here's what we're thinking:

Sunday - leftovers from vacation grilling

Monday - taco salad

Tuesday - sausage with peppers and onions over rice

Wednesday - Cornish hens with potatoes and carrots (crockpot)

Thursday - Hamburger Helper

Friday - mini ravioli with meat sauce

Saturday - BBQ ribs

Lunches will consist of sandwich leftovers from vacation and dinner leftovers.
Breakfasts will consist of frozen waffles, cereal, sausage biscuits, french toast and eggs, grits and toast.

For more meal plan ideas, visit Organized Junkie this week.

Busy, Busy, Busy with Cucumbers

Right now as I type, I am preparing cucumbers for canning - pickles actually. My little one loves lime pickles and we have been paying nearly $5 a pint jar for these pickles. I decided to try my hand at making some pickles myself. Tonight makes my second batch. The first batch was awesome!

Here's the recipe that I used - lime pickles.

I didn't have a crock or enamel pot so I put these in a plastic trash can. Of course I washed it extremely well - LOL! I went by the recipe almost exactly for the first batch. I added a 1/2 stick of cinnamon to each jar, because that's what Mama used to do.

Tonight I changed things just a bit by adding a tablespoon of pickling spice and a tablespoon of cloves plus the cinnamon stick. This recipe is very easy to follow and proved to be successful.

I did do a better job of dissolving the lime in the second batch by stirring it more before I added the cucumbers.

As a precaution, I not only heat the jars but I also put a metal spoon into each jar as I am filling them with the hot pickles and syrup. My grandmother told me once that a metal spoon would absorb some of the heat and keep the jar from breaking. I don't know how much truth there is to that or if it is even necessary with canning jars, but I can say that I have never had a jar break with that metal spoon it it.

I wish I could share a taste of these pickles with you to encourage you to try it. They are so much better than those bread and butter pickles you buy from the store.

Enough for now. It's time to get up and get those pickles in the jars. I hope that some of my canning and freezing posts will inspire you to put up some food this summer.

Busy, Busy, Busy with Green Beans

Green Beans

My husband planted green beans at my mother-in-law's during the spring. They have now come and gone and we have put up about 7 quarts in the freezer and eaten several meals of them, too. These were Italian green beans (the flat ones).



Here's what I do to put these in the freezer:

1. Wash beans well and snap or cut into one inch pieces.


2. We snip away both ends as well.


3. Cover with water and bring to boil.


4. Boil for 10 minutes (until they change colors - darker green).


5. Let cool.


6. Drain and place in freezer bags. (My mother-in-law adds the juice but I don't.)


7. Continue to cool until they can go into the freezer.

I don't put green beans in jars because I don't have a canner and was not very successful one earlier time that I tried it. Time is required for the beans to cool, but they are always good out of the freezer and so much better than those in the grocery store. Plus since we grew them, we know what chemicals weren't put on them.

When I cook these, I place them in a pot straight from the freezer and cover with water. I add onion, garlic, salt and a little piece of smoked meat (bacon or sausage) and cook until desired doneness.

Busy, Busy, Busy with Tomatoes

You may have noticed that I haven't been posting much in the last week or so. We have been putting up vegetables from our garden and some that we have gotten from local growers. Amanda at Coping With Frugality commented in this post that she would like instructions on what I did so I'll be starting posts on those.

Tomatoes

This first post is for tomatoes. We got several boxes from a local grower and did three different batches as they ripened.

After having several jars of tomatoes spoil last fall, I decided to freeze all of the tomatoes this season. We have plenty of room in the outside freezer and freezer bags are not very expensive (actually cheaper than jars).

1. Bring water to nearly a boil in a large stockpot or dutch oven. This water will be used to scald the skins on the tomatoes. It doesn't have to be boiling but it does need to be HOT. I have found that scalding the skins doesn't waste as much of the tomatoes as cutting away the skins with a knife.
2. Wash tomatoes and place in stockpot with hot water. Leave for a couple of minutes. When you notice the skins slipping, you can remove the tomatoes and add more. My husband and I do this together. He adds the tomatoes and removes them. Then I continue with the next step.
3. Let tomatoes cool a few minutes and remove skins. Remove any hard core, stems, etc.
4. Then cut up into the sizes that you prefer for later use. Add cut up pieces to a thick stockpot and boil.
5. Tomatoes are blanched when they start to form a lighter red color foam on top.
6. Let cool enough to handle(this may take a while) and scoop into freezer bags.
7. Once cooled even more, bags can be placed in freezer.

If you don't have one of these canning funnels, get one. It makes getting the vegetables into jars or freezer bags much easier. I have a metal one like this and a plastic one. Either one is fine. The metal one belonged to my grandmother so I have kept it, but I probably use the plastic one the most.

Weekly Menu Plan July 12-18

We found some great meat deals today at our local Harvey's and lots of garden items are coming in. Plus, I cleaned out the small freezer in the laundry room yesterday and found lots of "forgotten" items. So our menu this week will reflect all of that.

Sunday:
Chicken and dumplings, creamed corn, peas, sliced tomatoes - all found items in the freezer except for the tomatoes

Monday:
Blackened salmon (sale meat), baked potato, salad

Tuesday:
Fried bream and chicken gizzards (sale meat), cheese grits, coleslaw - my husband, father and little one went fishing today and caught 8 bream so we'll pair them up with some cheap gizzards and have a meal

Wednesday:
Salisbury steak (found item from freezer), Kraft homestyle macaroni salad, cucumber salad (garden)

Thursday:
Cubed pork chops (sale meat), stir fry vegetables, watermelon slices (garden)

Friday:
Taco salad with homemade salsa, ice cream bars (found item from freezer)

Saturday:
BBQ Ribs, corn on cob, (both found in freezer), fried okra (garden)

I would challenge each of you to dig through that freezer and refrigerator and locate some "lost" items for this week's menu. We recently found quite a bit of hamburger meat that had spoiled (freezer burned) because we had forgotten about it. Read about that here. That's just money being tossed away. So get up now and go check to see what you have that you have forgotten. You will thank me when you're saving money this week at the grocery store.

For more great menu ideas, visit Organized Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome

Several new people have decided to follow my blog in the past couple of weeks that I would like to welcome aboard. I try to welcome new followers individually through their email or blogs, but some of the newest followers don't have links for that. So welcome, welcome, welcome. I hope something here will be of assistance to you through your money saving ventures.

Weekly Menu Plan for July 5 - 11

This is what we are planning to eat this week. We have been working on vegetables all last week and eating from the freshness of our garden. In that process, we cleaned out the freezer and now know more what is available to eat.

Sunday - leftovers
Monday - Meat loaf, au gratin potatoes, sliced cucumbers
Tuesday - Fried turkey breast, stuffing, steamed cabbage
Wednesday - Chicken and rice, pickles, slaw
Thursday - Cubed pork chops, macaroni and cheese, steamed broccoli
Friday - Fish sticks, frozen french fries, leftover slaw
Saturday - Grilled something

For more menu ideas, check out the links on Organized Junkie.

MckLinky Blog Hop

This week I am participating in a new blog hop. This blog is all about my experiences with trying to feed my family for less using the resources that I have available in a small town with no CVS or Walgreens and only 2 local grocery stores. I post about frugal ways that I have found that work and things that don't seem to be working for me. Join the blog hop and come back and visit my blog often.