Category Archives: Menu Planning

Recipe Challenge 33,34 and 35

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A couple of things have slowed us down on the recipe challenge. The first of which is the weather, it is finally summer time weather in North Carolina. I am definitely a seasonal eater, give me soups and casseroles in the winter and salads and sandwiches in the summer. Another reason, is that we are trying to eat and use up the items we are given from the school lunch. The kids usually get an apple juice, a chocolate milk, a fruit, a vegetable along with a lunch item and breakfast items. Given all this it may be a very good thing that we are WAY ahead on trying 52 new recipes this year.

#33- Pioneer Woman Mini Strawberry muffins- These actually were really good however they stuck in my mini muffin pan. We used a spoon to eat each individual muffin. I am going to label this a no because I don’t know what went wrong or how to fix it!

#34- Strawberry Coffee Cake. This is from my favorite recipe site Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures! It was awesome, we shared with friends and they had to have the recipe to make themselves. I did make a couple of changes, used fresh strawberries, mix the sugar and strawberries together for the filling and finally topped with Cool Whip.

#35- Creamy Ranch Chicken Casserole Recipe- I am not sure where I found this one as it came out of my drawer. It appears to be from Tasty? but I am still unsure. Lily made this for dinner on Monday. Our chicken was not unthawed completely so it took a long time to bake. Kendall LOVED it and it was all eaten. I am going to give it a definite maybe. Lily followed the directions and kept the chicken whole. I am thinking I would like to cut the chicken up to smaller pieces so it will cook quicker but also so that it will be more of a casserole and the flavors will blend better!

Official Count of Recipe Challenge
Repeating 16
Maybe 8
No 11

Menu Planning Monday

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June 1st! I am excited because my work count down can officially begin! I have 10 days left till summer! In other good news, this week appears to be busier than we have been in several months! Piano, orthodontist appointments and baseball all added to the schedule! For this reason I am going quick and simple. I also have a recipe challenge post for later this week as well!

Breakfast– Saturday-Biscuit King (becoming Saturday morning tradition). Sunday-, bacon, eggs and biscuits. Monday- , Tuesday,  Wednesday, Thursday, Friday-choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, sausage, pancakes,  cereal or grits, breakfast burritos or omlets have been added for the next couple of weeks.

Lunch-  Saturday-Outback to celebrate our anniversary. Sunday-Baked ziti and homemade strawberry coffee cake. The kids will have school delivered lunches, Matt has 2 days of chicken sandwiches and 2 days of hamburgers I am going to return to eating at least one salad a week and also continue with some left-overs on other days.

Dinner-  Saturday- left-overs Sunday-pizza purchased at Aldi (this will be a good repeat) , Monday- Chicken Ranch Casserole with green beans or other veggie or fruit from fridge (Lily in charge and new recipe). Tuesday- Mini chicken tacos Wednesday- left-overs. Thursday-Pork Fried Rice and egg rolls Friday- Hamburgers and FF.

Monday Menu Plan

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I was very surprised last night when Zach told me, “Mom you need to get the board up! I don’t know what my life looks like. ” The board he was referring to is our white board that includes our menu plan for the week and the schedule for the week. I was waiting because today (Monday) is Memorial Day. We are all enjoying a day off of work and school. We have several things happening this week including piano, swim team sign up and hair cuts. You will notice we are switching to a more summer oriented menu as well.

Breakfast– Saturday- Bagels from a local shop. Sunday- Hash brown casserole, bacon, eggs and biscuits. Monday- sausage and left-overs, Tuesday,  Wednesday, Thursday, Friday-choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, sausage, pancakes,  cereal or grits. I may add a baked oatmeal to the mix depending on what is happening.

Lunch-  Saturday-Left-over pizza Sunday-Chips and salsa or left-over breakfast. Monday- left-overs. The kids will have school delivered lunches, Matt has 2 days of chicken sandwiches and 2 days of hamburgers I am going to return to eating at least one salad a week and also continue with some left-overs on other days.

Dinner-  Saturday- Pizza bites Sunday- KFC, Monday- hamburgers on pretzel buns. Tuesday-Burritos. Zach is in charge Wednesday- Million Dollar Spaghetti pie. Lily will make two one for the freezer. Thursday-Chicken Sandwiches and French Fries. Friday- Pepper Steak in crock potand egg rolls, Kendall is in charge.

Menu Plan

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I was very successful last week in getting the freezer stocked with lots of easy to fix meals. The only items that I can think of that I want to add to the freezer are veggies from this summer. I am holding out hope for an awesome garden. I need to make a couple of Baked Ziti but I also need to purchase the sausage for this so it may be a couple of weeks and later this summer we need to restock the breakfast meals especially the omelets bags. This week it is back to cook and enjoying some different meals hopefully.

Breakfast– Saturday- Biscuit King! Sunday- Matt made bacon and waffles  Monday, Tuesday,  Wednesday, Thursday, Friday-choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, sausage, pancakes,  cereal or grits. Nothing new or special here

Lunch-   Saturday-Pizza from Recipe Challenge 27 Sunday- Olive Garden treat for Mother’s Day. The kids will have school delivered lunches, Matt has 2 days of chicken sandwiches and 2 days of hamburgers I am going to return to eating at least one salad a week and also continue with some left-overs on other days.

Dinner-  Saturday- Left-overs or sandwiches Sunday- left-overs Monday-Chicken pot pie (new recipe, that Lily will make) Tuesday-Taco Pasta (Zach is in charge) . Wednesday- Ranch Potatoes and Pork Chops (another new recipe) in the crock pot. Thursday-Chicken Sandwiches and French Fries. Friday- Orange Chicken and egg rolls.

Just a normal week around here! We are starting to pick up some activites with me working two nights this week and piano but slow and steady still wins the race.

Prepping Ground Beef

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As COVID-19 continues, we are seeing changes especially at the grocery store, not only are prices starting to rise but we are continuing to see limits and stores out of stock on many items. We have been finishing the last of our cow purchased two years ago and were running on the low end of meat. I was so excited to find the chicken on sale last week. After processing it, Matt and I talked and decided that instead of continuing to wait to purchase beef we felt the need to stock up. I knew that we could not afford to purchase a whole cow right now and also that supplies are not great in the area as well. I decided to head to a local meat market to complete the stock up. I did not purchase any steaks as these are a treat and I can purchase a meal for around $30 when we chose. I also did not get any stew beef as I see at least 2 packs in the freezer and no cube steak as we have probably 4 packs of this left. I did purchase 3 meals of pork chops and 3 sets of wings. The biggest purchase was 40lbs of ground beef. I was a little surprised at finding even at this market, ground beef had a limit. They did not care about packaging but had a strict limit on the pounds that could be purchased. This is totally new for them as I often purchase large quantities for church functions or simply to save myself a trip.

I already had a plan in mind for most of the ground beef but it has taken several days to complete it. I will add that both Lily and Kendall have worked hard several days along side of me to get it all in the freezer in useable portions.

Zach helped me fry up the first 10 pounds, we bagged 2 1-pound bags of cooked meat and threw the rest in the crock-pot to make taco meat. We enjoyed tacos for dinner. I froze 4 1# bags of taco meat along with a single serving of taco meat.

Next up in the crockpot was sloppy joe mix. The recipe I use calls for 6 pounds of cooked meat. This recipe is a little time consuming to prepare but after cooking on low for 4 hours it is definitely worth the effort. We enjoyed sloppy joes for dinner and I bagged 12 bags of sloppy joes for future use. The secret to bagging is 3/4 cup per bag which equals 2 tablespoons per sloppy joe for six people. This is a meal that is quick and no left-overs.

Lily, Kendall and I made 4 bags of Salisbury steak from the remaining 4 pounds of raw meat. The girls ended up making around 50 meatballs which we froze for later use. I am going assume that is another 3 meals.

Cooked ground beef is an easy cheat for a quick and simple meals. I decided to go ahead and fry another 8# and bag up individually. I decided to bag up 4 1# portions and 2 2# portions of raw meat as well. Last but not least I made and froze 18 meatloaf muffins, this will provide us with 3 meals.

A Grand total of 44 meals from 40# of ground beef! I am super excited with this and even more so that I can grab and go to throw together an awesome meal!

Menu Planning Monday

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I know that I always do better with a goal and a plan. I am counting down the weeks until my summer vacation begins (6) so in the process I want to get a jump start on what the summer may bring. I realized last year that I needed to use some of my free time to stock the freezers with quick and easy to complete meals for the fall. I need to start planning for fall 2020. We will go from over six months of limited to no extra activities to three kids in three spots/ activities along with my return to full time work. The goal is to get the stocking done before the summer starts! This week, we should be making a large beef purchase and I will be working full steam ahead on cooking. The good news is that I only have one night scheduled in Guam this week and I gain an hour a day simply by working at home. You will notice that we did well this week with only one meal of eating out!

Breakfast– I was able to get a jump start this week by making Sausage muffins on Sunday! I need to make up some baked oatmeal bags and continue to add choices such as French toast and waffles to the freezer when ever possible. Saturday- bacon and eggs . Sunday- Sausage muffins.  Monday, Tuesday,  Wednesday, Thursday, Friday-choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, sausage, pancakes,  cereal or grits. –Still have not gotten around to a baked oatmeal but really do need to make one this week.

Lunch-   Saturday- pizza and ham and cheese sliders. Sunday- Gregg’s (local restaurant) .The kids will have school delivered lunches, Matt has 2 days of chicken sandwiches and 2 days of chill that he made on Saturday. I am going to return to eating at least one salad a week and also continue with some left-overs on other days.

Dinner-  Saturday- Left-overs Sunday- chicken nuggets Monday-Hamburgers and French fries (hamburgers are in the freezer) Tuesday-Taco Tuesday (the plan is to make a crock pot full of taco meat and freeze the left-overs to use in the summer and fall. Wednesday- Sloppy joes and tator tots ( Again made in the crock-pot with the left overs frozen for use later). Thursday-Spinach Ravioli (Lily’s in charge) Friday- BBQ chicken pizza. Zach is in charge.

I will also be cooking and freezing one pound bags of cooked ground beef to use in meals. Next weekend, I plan to make 5 dinner packs of Salisbury steak and several pans of meatballs to freeze. This should use up the 40-50# of ground beef I am planning to purchase. I will also need to purchase several packs of Italian sausage as I would like to get at least one baked ziti in the freezer. Hope you will stay around for the ride and please share if you have a great recipe that you think we would enjoy especially if it can be doubled!

Menu Planning Monday

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Last week was interesting to say the least. I talked a lot about it here. I will also admit that I am getting tired of meal planning and eating at home. That may have been the reason that we ate out three meals this weekend. Today, I am a little more back in the grove and since it has been finalized I need to stay in the grove until June 15th (last teacher workday). I have a goal in mind. The goal for this week is to get a new normal routine going so we can survive and thrive in the next seven weeks. Overall I want to get a lot done ahead so that when summer arrives and I am not tied to the computer for the majority of the day. We can enjoy the park, the pool, the zoo basically just relax and enjoy! One positive is for the next six weeks the kids have lunch provided by the school. I should mention that we picked up and processed 160# of chicken breast on Friday last week so you will see that on the menu more often.

Breakfast– This is the area that we are going to begin to struggle in probably within two weeks as we finish up the individual cereal boxes. I do have a plan to start stocking up on breakfast food and we will be able to use what is already in the freezer. Saturday- Bagels from a local restaurant . Sunday-Sausage egg crescent rolls and Cream cheese crescent rolls. .  Monday, Tuesday,  Wednesday, Thursday, Friday-choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, sausage, pancakes,  cereal or grits. –Still have not gotten around to a baked oatmeal but really do need to make one this week.

Lunch-  Saturday-left-overs Sunday- Matt and I grabbed Steak and Shake while going to Costco. The kids ate left-overs .The kids will have school delivered lunches, Matt has 2 days of chicken sandwiches and 2 days of hamburger. I am struggling with lunch for me. Monday- Salmon Quiche, Left-overs and at least one day for a salad should get me through the week.

Dinner-  Saturday- Chinese from Panda Panda. Sunday- Left-overs and Chicken Nachos from Amanda. Monday- Chicken and Broccoli casserole. (made last week so heat and eat). Tuesday-Cheese Quesadilla and Mexican Rice (Zach’s night) Wednesday- Grilled chicken and salad, Thursday-Shrimp and French Fries (Kendall’s in charge) Friday- Million Dollar Spaghetti Pie( this will make 2 meals) Lily in charge.

Menu Planning Monday

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This weeks plan is looking ALOT different. In fact we are trying something total new because why not? I discovered when cleaning off my desk that I had actually printed a freezer meal plan twice. This is a free plan that included the shopping list and seven complete meals. Last week, the kids each took a day and were in charge of dinner so I asked if they wanted to help try out this menu plan. Everyone is in! I took the shopping list and of course shopped my freezer and pantry first. Matt and I headed to the store on Saturday to grab the remaining ingredients. I was shocked that I spent only $32.10 to purchase the rest of the items needed for seven meals. That breaks down to $4.58 a meal or $0.76 a person per meal. In order not to waste anything on Sunday, I prepared and froze the three remaining meals that we will not use this week. I am going to be starting back to work in Guam this week as well so quick and easy to get started meals may become very important over the next few weeks. I am not sure how I will report on the new recipes this week individually or in a group we shall see.

Breakfast– Saturday- Cinnamon Roll Waffles . Sunday-Eggs and toast or cereal.  Monday,Tuesday,  Wednesday, Thursday, Friday-choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, sausage, pancakes,  cereal or grits. –Still have not gotten around to a baked oatmeal but really do need to make one this week.

Lunch-  Saturday- Gregg’s (a local restaurant) Sunday-charcuterie board with all ingredients on hand. The kids will have school delivered lunches, Matt has 2 days of brats and 2 days of hamburger. I will eat left-overs or sandwiches.

Dinner-  Saturday- Left-overs from Gregg’s (yes it was this much food!). . Sunday- Left-overs. We are making a dent so this is a good thing! Monday- Tuscan Tortellini Soup (Lily is in charge) Tuesday-Matt’s birthday and he chose to eat at Nick’s again! Wednesday- Sausage and peppers over Rice (Zach is in charge) , Thursday-Sloppy Joe Chicken Philly cheese steak Friday-No bake Lasagna with Spinach(Kendall in charge).

Menu Planning Monday

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We are entering week 5 of our “stay at home order.” I am very hopeful that we have four more weeks until the school go back to regular classes. We are continuing to eat our of our freezers and pantry for the most part. I have decided that I am not going to Costco until I absolutely have to or May 1st. We are on our last roll of paper towel so it may force my hand a bit. I really don’t want to go by myself as it is a forty-five minute drive each way but we shall see. Yesterday, Easter, the kids all decided that they want to be more involved in cooking. In fact, they have decided that they will each be in charge of dinner one day a week. We will give it a try and see what happens. I did add the stipulation that you had to use the items/ingredients that you have on hand. We do have a significant amount of left-overs so they will appear regularly on the menu. A final difference you will see this week is that the kids are eating lunch. Meal delivery is on Spring Break as well.

Breakfast– Saturday French Toast casserole. Sunday- Sausage and cheese cresant rolls and cream cheese cresant rolls( I will share this recipe tomorrow) .  Monday- Left-overs from the fridge, Tuesday,  Wednesday, Thursday, Friday-choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, sausage, pancakes,  cereal or grits. –Still have not gotten around to a baked oatmeal but really do need to make one this week.

Lunch-  Saturday- Left-overs Sunday- Left-over from Fridge. I did make some ham salad and Matt made pimento cheese this week as well so those will be choices for lunch along with a salad and of course left-overs.

Dinner-  Saturday- Spaghetti and meatballs. I ended up reading the recipe wrong and made enough extra spaghetti noodles that we had a full meal on Saturday. We are currently out of bacon and meatballs. Sunday- Ham, fried apples and Mac and cheese from Cracker Barrel, cream corn, carrots, squash casserole, green bean casserole, deviled eggs and potato salad. Monday- Left-overs Tuesday-Mini Tacos Wednesday- Green pepper soup (Kendall is in charge) , Thursday-Chicken pasta (new recipe) Lily in charge Friday-Beef and broccoli in crockpot (Zach in charge).

Monday Menu Planning

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My refrigerators are as empty as I can remember them being in a long long time. In fact, I could likely combine the two and just use one this week. The reason is that I have not stepped inside a grocery store in twelve days. This is definitely a record for me. We are nowhere near out of food. In fact except for maybe five items we could survive another 2 weeks just on what we have. I am planning to go to the grocery store on Wednesday or Thursday of this week. I know I need to pick up a green pepper for the steak fajitas on Thursday so I will probably grab a couple of needs at that time. I would be awesome if I could limit the trips to the store to less than 3 for the month but we shall see. This week I will be working from home the entire week but not sure if that includes Thursday and Friday as far as working goes. Matt will go to the office on Tuesday. After some thought and discussion, we plan to cook most meals this week and save our ordering in meals for the weekend. It may be simpler at some point just to eat at home but we have not arrived at that point quite yet.

Breakfast– Saturday bacon, eggs and toast. Sunday- pancakes and sausage balls. I did manage to freeze a batch of pancakes for later use as well.  Monday, Tuesday,  Wednesday, Thursday, Friday-choice of breakfast muffins, eggs, sausage, pancakes,  cereal or grits. – I definitely plan to do a baked oatmeal one day this week. I am thinking most likely Thursday. But we shall see.

Lunch-  Saturday- Classic pasta salad with ham, tomato and pepperoni added, Sunday- Left-over from Fridge. Last week the kids had hamburger, 2 uncrustable, chicken sandwich and egg roll. Each day they also get at least one vegetable so that adds in. I ended up purchasing lunch for us on Thursday. I have been eating a combination of left-overs and sandwiches for lunch. I am going to assume the trend will continue this week without the meal out.

Dinner-  Saturday- Chinese from our favorite local restaurant with enough for another full meal on Sunday. , Sunday- Left-overs Monday- Chicken Nuggets and carrots (This is my busiest day at work this week so I wanted to keep it simple) Tuesday-Big Breakfast Wednesday- Creamy Chicken spaghetti in the crockpot , Thursday-Steak fajitas Friday-Chicken Bacon Lo mein and egg rolls ( a new recipe).