Friday, February 27, 2009

menu planning thurs..friday

Clean Out The Fridge Friday! leftover manwich for lunch, pizza rolls for babysat kid. pretty sure i came home & ate something but who knows what?

sat: hmmm it was just me & the girl.. she ate a cupful of raw broccoli then we had gingerbread cookies & milk ;)

sun: yeah, we ate out. la hacienda. leftovers to take to co-op for lunch too! thanks mark.

meatless mon: for breakfast we had jelly biscuits, which were really good but shelley you didn't warn me that they'd look like a biological disorder!!!!

for dinner, sophie had her book-it pizza of course! i had teriyaki noodles with sauteed mushrooms & asparagus (and packed up the leftovers for bo to take in the truck). YUM!! brady came home & had corn pops. *sigh.*

tues: we're going to have Rotisserie-Style Chicken in the (new 7-qt oval) Crockpot! maybe with sweet potato fries! Yummie!!

weds we can have tex mex chicken & beans with the leftover chicken and the 17 jars of salsa in the fridge. we'll be gone a lot of the day and brady'll come in late, so it'll be good to have something in the crock pot.

thurs something w/ chicken broth? running out of ideas... what i'd really like is a box of samoas...

rice cooker mac & cheese

Friday, February 20, 2009

Thursday:
bkfst was a box of aunt millie's muffins 1.30 after q
lunch was manwich burritos, heck i dunno, the costing is going out the window isn't it? LOL
dinner was 2 freschetta pizzas 6.75

Friday:
b will have cereal & milk
soph & i will have forage
CNS for lunch 1.50
dinner will be just bo & me!
we'll prob forage, maybe go out, depending on what he feels like.

sat:
bkfst, bo'll make mushroom-asparagus omelettes YUM
lunch might be forage. asian pasta & sauce?
dinner will be meatloaf, steamed broccoli, sauteed mushrooms & crashed potatoes

sun:
bkfst, bo'll make mushroom-asparagus omelettes YUM
lunch: mac & broc pasta & sauce
dinner will be early and/or carryout at the meeting; maybe twilight afterwards.

mon: a broth/bean soup in crockpot, pizza to co-op

tues: ravioli bake

wed:

ohhh what do i have to work with...
pasta & sauce (both lipton and otherwise)
frozen pizza
ravioli
beans
rice
beans & rice
chili in the freezer & in cans
manwich in the fridge
biscuits & gravy
tortillas
turkey broth & bones to make more
sliced turkey for manhattans or whatever
meatballs

Friday, February 13, 2009

mealbox & delicious

ok i had a couple minutes to play around w/ meijer's mealbox tonight,
and
(i realize everyone else probably already knew this)
do you know the recipes they post (at least the ones in the "budget" category)
all use mostly sale and/or coupon items??
i wonder if $5 Dinner Mom knows about this?
surely everyone does and i've just been too busy to look.

i'm really impressed! will be spending more time looking around there soon...

also this great post from bread of angels gives explicit meal-planning steps for frequent entertaining. the same lady guest-blogs a tutorial on how to use Delicious at Organizing Junkie.

delicious & mealbox -- two new toys to play with!!!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Meal Plan Thursday *wk of 2/12, editing as i go

the goal this week is to spend the least $$ possible.
unfortunately i can't think without ground turkey in the house,
so my main shopping will be at sam's.
otherwise, my rule is to use what we have.

Thursday: bkfst was leftover blueberry bread -- free :)
first lunch: quesadillas
second lunch: taco bell $18 can you believe i let them talk me into this??!!
dinner: veggies & hummus from sam's. a little more than half, so about $8

**MAYBE this time i'll just go with a list of options & considerations, since scheduling it out just gives me something else to change***

Friday $6.90
forage for bkfst & lunch. pizza rolls. .60. cukes, tomatoes, hummus for snack. $5?
Buffalo Turkey Sandwiches for dinner *yum!*
*leftover turkey so cost figured into last week; free frank's redhot, free buns, water; miracle whip & ranch dressing negligible, blue cheese free from dad. delicious, and even better with triscuits instead of buns! .80 cookies and .50 milk if we drink about a quart.

Saturday: david made egg sandwiches for bkfst!
*get boy to movie non-date at 2pm. soph was gone too.

Sunday: CNS & egg mcmuffins for bkfst. clam chowder lunch .75. turkey noodles dinner.

Monday: co-op; choir; no brownies.
day from hell. pizza rolls for lunch; leftovers for first dinner; snack & gs cookies for 2nd dinner.

Tuesday: gymnastics at 6. i'll cook 2.5# ground turkey, make manwich for lunch & freeze the rest.

Wednesday: oh man. we were gone from 10am til 10;30 pm! we spent $8 at mcdonald's for bkfst and $15 at pendleton (instead of the usual $20, so that's good). and then i totally redeemed thursday's taco bell debacle, because we came home and had homemade cheeseburgers!! before continuing on our merry way. then i went & pwn'd marsh, cvs, and meijer.

bo will be home this wknd; i'll make meatloaf & crashed potatoes for him one night, and sweet potato fries the other! yum!!! we'll have burritos for lunch tomorrow, and i'll plan next week's meals as soon as i see the ads.

options:
burritos
meatloaf 2#
baked potatoes
BFS
crashed potatoes? i wonder if i could do these with idaho or sweet? hmmmm
Rogan Josh sweet potato fries ohh i can't wait to make these!

after the turkey

well i spent the past 2 days detoxing from caffeine. yay!! the agony has passed and i'm a free woman!!!

last night we had BFS (big fat salad) for dinner,
tomatoes on sale from marsh,
diced turkey, shredded cheese,
homemade croutons which my kids won't eat but their friends like. sigh.

i had leftover thai. yum!

today i think i'm gonna make broth?
it will require washing a big pot, but i think i can muster the strength.

i also think i'm gonna make cheesy mashed potatoes for lunch. big lunch & simpler dinner is working well, although the kids are having a bit of a learning curve. thank goodness they both approve of triscuit melts; that's a great simple supper.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Three Meals from a Hunk o' Meat

aka rubber chicken :)


i don't always feel really creative, so i LOVE that other people have posted their meat stretchers. I'm just gonna put a couple links here, so i don't have to remember later.


LOVE THIS ONE because it's for roast beef; chicken ones seem more frequent. There's also a link in the article to more more roast beef re-dos. also i don't cook beef much, but that's about to change when we get a freezer-full with our TAX CHECK :D

http://www.5dollardinners.com/2009/02/one-roast-three-meals.html

and here's a chicken one
http://frugalfulfillment.blogspot.com/2009/02/one-chicken-three-meals-two-blogs.html

Thursday, February 5, 2009

meal plan thursday -- editing as i go

ohh someone send me strength, i'm really bad at this
but i truly desire to spend much less time thinking about food and meals
so i'm just going to slap something down.
right now.

thursday: we actually had unplanned burritos, which is a quick throw-together we love that i need to remember.

friday: mexican meatloaf (3.50) for lunch. free ground turkey (thanks tammy!), 2 eggs .15, 1/2 bag cheese .75, bag crushed chips $2, little bit of frozen 3 pepper/onion mix .25, 1/4 bottle bbq sauce .35. yuck do not try this at home!!!

**today i decided to have our larger, planned meal for lunchtime rather than hectic, catch-as-catch-can dinnertime. dinners can be lighter, random and easy.

friday evening: chili dinner at tammy's! i bought popcorn during the movie, only to get a refund because there was not one (i assumed the first was mine) but two hairs in it. ick.

saturday: thai food! $110, completely out of the water, totally worth it.
we let the kids order whatever they wanted -- we had purple ice cream!! yum. very nice.

sunday: roast turkey dinner. Did you know you can cook a turkey from frozen??? this is one of the turkeys i got for like $4 over thanksgiving. plus $1.98 for potatoes, FREE no-salt green beans and $1 cream soup. that's $7 AND all meals from the leftovers will count as FREE!! stick THAT in your pipe and smoke it, all you "dinner for $10" websites that act like it's such a big deal!! actually $7.80 if you count the brownies :)

:)

monday: bbq meatballs $3.70 and pizza rolls 1.80 for co-op, triscuit melts ($1?)for first-dinner, i don't remember second-dinner. $6.50

tuesday: ravioli ($2?) bake ($1.00 cheese) w/ spinach (.25?) snuck into the ($1) sauce $3.75. BFS for dinner, with tomatoes .70 and diced turkey. $5

wednesday: company for breakfast! blueberry bread .80, turkey sausage $2.85 = $3.65.
stroganoff meatballs on leftover mashed potatoes? wierd, huh. .90 for meatballs, $1 for cream soup, leftover sour cream & canned milk. already priced potatoes w/ turkey. dinner was 1 can CNS .75 & some triscuit melts ($1?). $7.30 for the day.

THERE!!!! I DID IT!!!!! and the only thing i need to add to my shopping list is canned cream soups. i can make the cream of chicken for the hash brown casserole, but nothing else works for green bean casserole IMO.

that was roughly $30.10 for the week, not counting dinner out and whatever we grazed on like free chex mix, free quakes, granola bars & triscuits. i didn't stick to the original plan, but loved just having a few ideas to pick from. especially since i spent most of this week in agony on the sofa!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Michelle's Mexican Meatloaf Recipe

**** update -- this was kinda yucky. i surely did something wrong. required lots of bbq sauce during eating... i think i'd add half a bottle before cooking.

serve w/ mexicorn

2 pounds ground beef
3 eggs
red pepper
green pepper
onion
1 bag nacho cheese doritos, crushed
oh and barb-q sauce

bake 350

yummy simple hot lunch on a snowy day

i needed a break from being anal. besides, we've mostly lived on tortilla chips and a vat of cheese sauce donated by my dad, and canned soup, and tea. i really need to wash dishes.

today's: $2.85
chunky veg soup (3 cans $2.25)
pillsbury frozen biscuits (6, .60)