Week D

Menu Plan Week D

Breakfast Menu Plan

Dinners:

1. Wild Rice Soup - recipe coming!
2. Mex Mix Bake
3. Buffalo Wings
4. Chili - my husband throws stuff in a pot and it's delicious; when I do this it's nasty
5. Stir Fried Rice
6. Open (leftovers or a new recipe)
7. Open (leftovers or a new recipe)

Sides: baby carrots, sautéed broccoli or cauliflower, salad, green beans, peas, green/red peppers, roasted veggies, sweet potatoes, fruit, cheese, cauli/rice, bread

Note:
My husband usually eats lunch at work, I eat leftovers and the kids have either beans and rice, chicken/tuna salad sandwiches/lettuce wraps or leftovers.

Recipe - Mex Mix Bake

This is another "throw together" type thing. Of course my husband throws this together and my kids RAVE about it. I throw it together and it's okay, edible, but nothing fantastic.

• You need some "Mexican" flavored meat. I usually use leftover meat and I'll add a lot of chili powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
• Shredded Cheese
• Salsa
• possibly tortilla chips - I'm trying not to serve "junk food" as often so I'd like to exclude these, but my family is rebelling a bit. For now I'm just going to reduce the amount of chips I use. Which explains why my kids prefer my husband's cooking!

1. Mix the meat and salsa together
2. On a cookie cheese layer the tortilla chips, meat/salsa mixture and sprinkle with cheese
3. Put it in the oven at 350 for about 20-30 minutes

Serve with lettuce/spinach, sour cream and tomatoes. Baby Carrots on the side.

Groceries on a Budget Button

Menu Planner

Steps in planning....

1. Print out a menu planner and fill in all activities for the week that could cause interference with cooking (ie. sporting events, appointments, working late, etc.). 
2. Plan meals around these events. 
3. Make more food the nights you will be home so you can re-heat food the nights you are busy.
• For example, we will be at a cross country meet one night this week so when I make burgers for dinner I'll also fry 1 pound of burger for tacos.

Recipe - Clam Chowder

I'm using a combination of recipes from allrecipes and will make a few changes I'm sure. Apparently you can add carrots and parsnips then thicken with cream cheese instead of flour. I haven't tried this yet, but will soon!

Clam Chowder III
Cathie's Clam Chowder

Crockpot Chicken and Black Beans

Here's the easy/fast recipe which I rarely follow:

• 4-5 boneless chicken breasts
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can corn
• 1 jar salsa , any kind
• 1 package cream cheese

Directions:
Take 4-5 frozen, yes, frozen, boneless chicken breasts put into crock pot. Mix the beans, corn and salsa together. Cook in crock pot on high for about 4-5 hours or until chicken is cooked.  Add 1 package of cream cheese (just throw it on top!) and let sit for about 1/2 hour. My notes: All crock pots cook differently so make sure you are home when you try this for the first time!

My notes: This recipe is all over the internet so I'm not sure who to give credit to. I'll tell you what I do differently:

1. Try to get local chickens when possible. If that is not possible then I cook a whole "smart chicken" and use the cooked meat cut into bite size pieces. 
2. Use dried black beans that I've cooked.
3. Don't add corn because of allergies.
4. Make salsa .
5. Mix all ingredients together and warm in a pan until hot or put in a crockpot on low for an hour or so.

Check out Grocery Cart Challenge for other great recipes.

Menu Plan Week B

Breakfast Menu Plan


Dinners:

1. Taco Salads
2. Jambalaya
3. Clam Chowder
4. Chicken and Beans
5. Open
6. Open
7. Open

Sides:
baby carrots, sautéed broccoli or cauliflower, salad, green beans, peas, green/red peppers, roasted veggies, sweet potatoes, fruit, cheese, cauli/rice, bread

Note:
My husband usually eats lunch at work, I eat leftovers and the kids have either beans and rice, chicken/tuna salad sandwiches or lettuce wraps or leftovers.

Menu Plan Week A

Breakfast Menu Plan



Dinners:

1. Roast Sticky Chicken
2. BBQ Meatballs
3. Chicken Ala King
4. Taco Omelets w/ salsa
5. Stupid Easy Sausage and Potatoes
6. Open
7. Open

Here are the sides I'll be serving:

Sides: baby carrots, sautéed broccoli or cauliflower, salad, green beans, peas, green/red peppers, roasted veggies, sweet potatoes, fruit, cheese, cauli/rice, bread

Note:
My husband usually eats lunch at work, I eat leftovers and the kids have either beans and rice, chicken/tuna salad sandwiches or lettuce wraps or leftovers.

Menu Plan: Breakfast

I don't eat grains and rarely fix them for the rest of the family.

Breakfast:

1. Sausage (with ground pork when we have it) and fruit
2. Sausage and fruit smoothie
3. Sausage and yogurt parfait with homemade granola
4. Sausage and oatmeal
5. Sausage and scrambled eggs with salsa
6. Sat/Sun - whatever is leftover and french toast, pancakes, waffles, bacon, smoothies??? who knows

As you can see there is a lot of sausage the menu. It's the ONLY thing that keeps my kids full until 12:30 lunch time. They eat breakfast about 7:00AM and it's a long time until lunch for them.