Category Archives: Menu Planning

Bunches of Breakfast

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One of the areas that few people talk about is breakfast meals. I am assuming that most plan to eat the cheap  cereal for months on in. However that just would not happen in this house. I LOVE breakfast, it is probably  my favorite meal. Now that school is back in session, it is hard to eat a quick and healthy breakfast that does not cost a lot. Over the past few weeks we have developed a list of breakfast items that seem to be working for us.

  • Cereal at least once a week, currently we have several varieties of Cheerios. My price point is $1 a box so I try to stock up when I can.
  • Poptarts- depending on the flavor we have, some weeks the kids could eat this several times a week. But I can definitely say these are one of the foods I refuse to eat.
  • Eggs- Fried or scrambled.  Over the summer it has been really  nice to add fresh green peppers, ham and onions to make a quick omelet. The kids are starting to enjoy plain fried eggs which take less than 3 minutes to fix.  Last week I was given the following recipe which I plan to make over the weekend and we can re-heat at least one time if it last. I  made it last weekend but we did not have any leftovers.
      • 10 eggs whisk together, 2 cups of cottage cheese, diced onions, diced green pepper and spinach. Bake at 350 for  45 minutes.
  • Pancakes- These are a great meal that we can prepare ahead. I place in a ziplock bag and simply pop in the toaster any morning when the kids ask for them.
  • Baked Oatmeal- our current favorite is Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chips. The recipe can be found here :http://www.lynnskitchenadventures.com/2009/05/peanut-butter-baked-oatmeal.html.   I timed this last night and it took 10 minutes from start to finish. I set the stove to cook and we wake up to a warm breakfast. I also have tried apple oatmeal in the crock pot not bad but with all the variety and ease of this recipe, honestly this is better and easier!

On the weekends we tend to make bigger more traditional breakfast meals but these are quick and everyone enjoys!

Restocking

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Over the past several months we have been working on cleaning out our freezers. I am happy to say that task is complete. We currently have chicken broth/stock and beef broth in our large chest freezer along with a 20# box of chicken tenders/nuggets. In our second stand up freezer we have veggies. It is quite full but all these are easily seen and I now know what can be used. The plan/goal of the next several weekends will be to restock.
We are a busy family and most weeks, we have extra activities three to four nights a week. One of the most successful ways that we have found to make these evenings go smoothly and not end up eating out is by  have an assortment of items in our freezers that when combine make simple meals.  We have recently purchased 120# of boneless chicken breast, these will be picked up mid October. I am already collecting recipes to use to make meals with at least the first 40#. The remaining will be divided into portion bags and use for grilling or other things.  My hope is that we can find several of meals that we really like and can then just add ingredients together.

This weekend, I am cooking and freezing beans. A can of beans on sale usually is about $0.50 to $0.75 each. A bag of beans is around $1.00. Currently, I have 4 variety of beans soaking overnight; pintos, red beans, black beans and navy beans. I have washed and looked them over, actually removing one rock today.  They will soak overnight. I will cook overnight on Friday night and then divide up and freeze on Saturday.  Each bag of dried beans will produce 3-4 cans so the saving add up quick, in addition to a significant decrease in sodium. We mainly use beans as soup ingredients, because I don’t like the taste of them.

By the end of October, my goal is to have the freezers restocked and ready for the winter.

Stretching Your Dollar and Ground Beef

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I wanted to share today how we have managed to stretch our ground beef over the past several days.  These are simple and fast, but because my family  really does not like left overs this is a way to stretch the ground beef.

Start with 3-4 pounds of ground beef and simply brown.
Tacos are first, add the seasoning and water. Enjoy!
Sloppy joes are next add one can of rotel and enough ketchup to make the remaining meat look “soupy”. Let this mixture simmer for about 30 minutes or so. Add bread and cheese.
The remaining mixture can be used in several different ways; chili(or sloppy joe) cheese fries, hot dog chili, spaghetti sauce.

We actually have practiced this for the past couple of days. We have actively been raising money for Haley’s summer youth trip to the National Youth Conference. Our first meal was pintos, I brought home leftovers and made refried beans. The next meal was a “Mexican Meal” we used the refried beans and add Taco meat. I definitely over purchased the meat, so we frozen the remaining 10 or so pounds. This past Sunday was our “Soup and Sandwich” Meal. I used the above recipe to change the taco meat into sloppy joes. Because the meat had been frozen one time, the remaining meat was sent home with several families. Matt has enjoyed several meal of Sloppy Joes but the kids really did not like this idea so the other idea became part of the plan. Tonight Matt was able to use up the remaining meat mixture in a baked spaghetti which was really good!

 

 

Day of Cooking 4/13/2013

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One of the things that I have not done in over a year is spend a day preparing food that then is easy to heat up and serve as meals. I have done this several times a year in the past. With our focus this month on reducing all expenses, I decided to spend my day in the kitchen. I purchased a total of 12# of ground beef from Costco on Thursday and Matt had picked up an order of Chicken from Zaycon Foods on Tuesday so I knew we probably had everything I need to cook most of these items. I spent a total of 8 hours in the kitchen today including clean up time and I took several breaks. I was able to assemble 15 different meals. I have a list of these meals along with all the different other meats we have on the fridge. We will mostly like have one or two a week and then wait a week before having the same item again. I find it much easier to prepare a larger quantity at once. I first heard of freezer cooking several years ago, most of the recipes I use are from 30 day Gourmet, I have not purchased any of their books but printed out a ton of recipes from their site.   Here is a list of what we have, most have recipes with them.

1 pack of cooked ground beef this will be great for chili or another dish
2 meals of Chicken Fried Rice this is Haley favorite meal of all time.
2 Cheeseburger Pies
4 Packs of Salisbury Patties
4 packs of Taco Rice – one of these is actually to take with us to the Beach in August. It was a favorite last year.
2 meatloaf This is a recipe from my mother, I will place at the end if you are interested. I have taken one of Matt’s sisters idea (cheese) and add to make it even better!
1 Baked Ziti For our lunch tomorrow

We had one of the meatloaf for dinner tonight along with Pineapple casserole and Paula Deen Mac and Cheese

I plan to finish the night by making a Baked Oatmeal that I will set for the oven to bake first thing in the morning!

I started by making a huge batch of Rice since I planned to make several items that called for it. I also browned up 6 lbs of ground beef at once and spread between several dishes. I like to clean up as I go. So I was able to use my Kitchen Aid mixer for several things after a quick clean. I will say that it made especially the Salisbury patties much easier. Currently I am just under $200 left in the grocery budget for the month. I have a list of 35 main meal items on the fridge so maybe I can keep our budget way down and transfer the money to other needs!

Do you have any good recipes to share along these lines if so leave a comment!

Meatloaf
1 ½ Lb ground Beef
¾ cup Bread crumbs
1 T prepared Mustard
2 T Ketchup
1 cup Milk
1 sm onion 1 cup Cheddar Cheese
Blend onion and milk in blender. Mix together all above. Place half in loaf pan. Cover with layer of Cheddar Cheese. Place remaining meat mixture on top be sure to round the ends so that the cheese is sealed. Top with the following, after mixing together
¾ cup brown sugar
2 cups Ketchup
1 ¼ tsp prepared mustard
¼ tsp nutmeg

A Productive Day in the Kitchen

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We are a busy family, we need things to be as convenient as possible. We also are trying very hard to be good stewards of the money that God has provide. Combine all of these things for the maximum benefit, the result is a day in the kitchen. I discover Freezer Cooking several years ago, I even used recipes from the site http://www.30daygourmet.com/.  I also have learn what our family likes and adaptive some other things to do to make evening meal especially easier and less expensive. Matt loves bread so of course I made some artisan bread. (Disclaimer: I have not purchase the rights to any recipes, I use google and tried only the free ones from 30 day).

Here is a list of things that have been finished or if indicated will be finished on Sunday.  I am including only one list because we also made a trip to Walmart today and the kids have not been neglected :).

Breakfast- Baked Banana Oatmeal (Confession: this is a site I discovered yesterday, I can’t wait to try out many more of her recipes).
Lunch- Ham and cheese crescent rolls
Dinner- Salisbury Steak with gravy, mashed potatoes and squash casserole.

Frozen Meats- 3 Salisbury Steak (30 day gourmet)
                        3 meals of shredded chicken
                        2 Cheeseburger Pies (30 day gourmet)

Other Frozen things- 5 cans Navy/White Beans
                                9 cans of Chicken Brooth/ I simply threw all the throw away parts of chicken back in crock pot, filled with water to the brim and cooked on low for another 6 hours.

Finished on Sunday            did
To be completed– I will try and remember to list actual quantities after they are finished. These are all soaking and will cook overnight. We will finished up on Sunday afternoon!
                           3 cans Re-fried beans
                           3 cans of Black beans
                           3 cans of Red beans
                            

Saving Money- A look at the Numbers!

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I have made multiple shopping trips since Thursday. The main reason why is that our local grocery store has a stock up deal on Diet Cokes and paper products. I discovered these by accident on Thursday and since it seems we pass a Food Lion almost anywhere we go, I am trying to stock up.  Diet Coke 2 liters are on sale for 0.88 each when you buy four. This is the cheapest I have seen them since September and I have gone through my stockpile and actually have been paying around $1.25 each for the past couple of weeks.
So let’s look at these numbers. Standard price for a 2L is $1.25, so far I have purchased 16 at a savings of 0.37 each for 5.92

While picking up a third round of drinks on Friday, I discovered that Hefty paper products are on sale BOGO free, with a coupon on display for 1.00 off 2. So far I have picked up around 300 paper plates, 60 paper bowls and 50 cups. I did send a set home with  my mother to  use at Christmas. I figured out that by using these products instead of the dishwasher twice a day, I am saving at minimum $1.00 a day by reducing our use of  the dishwasher by half. I should have easily enough products to last a month so that is a savings of $30.

Finally, I made a trip out to CVS today because of the information I found on-line, I hoped to get a coupon for 3 12-packs of Diet Coke for $8.00. I was excited to get this coupon. I combined sales and coupons today in order to purchase 9 12-packs of Diet Coke and 4 bags of candy for $25.00. In my calculations, I see the candy as all free because I would not normally purchase it.  My per can cost then is 0.24.  I go through roughly one 12 pack of drinks a week at work. We do have a machine that sells cans for 0.65 each. So by stocking up today I saved 0.42 a can or $4.92 a week. A grand total of $44.98.

Today, I place a whole chicken in the crock pot with several cups of water.  After it cooking all night, I was able to freeze 7 cups of chicken broth. A can of chicken broth is typically 14-15oz or just shy of 2 cups. I saw today that a stock up price on broth was $2.00 for the container, so by freezing the broth I had today I saved at least $6.00. I also was able to shred the cooked chicken that can be used for soups or pies instead of cans.  I should add here that this chicken from Angel Food so I am not sure of the cost.  I figure a good estimate of the savings is $5.00.

My final savings by planning ahead today is $94.00 off our normal grocery bill.

Sticking to the Plan while Life happens!-Menu Planning

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One of our biggest money reducing/saving efforts this month is eating out of the freezer/pantry to reduce at least by half our food budget. So far this month we have spent $294. Honestly, this is the point where I usually have the biggest problem. We are running low on bread and milk, so someone is going to have to go in a grocery store to purchase these in the next several days. The trend is that because I have to buy 2 things, I go ahead and make a list of our wants. The goal is to change this habit. We are starting to run low on snack foods as well as quick/easy items for lunches. But again, I don’t want to purchase because that will definitely sink the budget.

Now is where planning and a little next thought takes place. First I am going to share ways we have been trying to waste not, then I am sharing our plan for this hectic week. Yesterday, for lunch, I made tuna salad. We are short on loaf bread so I cut the hot dog buns from earlier in the week in half and made “subs” for the kids. Lily loved it so much she asked if she could have a sub in her lunch as well. Matt and I ate our tuna salad on hamburger buns. Today, I made a Shepard’s pie for dinner, adding left over carrots and fruit cocktail to make it a meal to feed 6. The reason I chose the Shepard’s pie is that we had a huge bowl of leftover mashed potatoes.

Next is the planning. This week is so hectic with Zach’s cardiac appointment on Wednesday and my oral surgery scheduled for Friday in addition to all the regular weekly activities. Another budget buster for us is grabbing food on the run when things get busy. So I went ahead and planned a couple of meals that are quick and easy. First is spaghetti, no preparation just heat and eat. We have some lettuce that needs to be eaten so it will probably be added in on Monday to make this a healthy meal. Wednesday, we have no idea how long we will be at Amos Cottage but previous experiences have said that we need to plan on a long long day. So I have all ready gotten some chicken drumsticks out of the freezer. On Wednesday morning, we can throw in the crock pot with some BBQ sauce, add the rest of the left over mashed potatoes, frozen green beans from the summer and crescent rolls if time and we have an awesome meal. Finally Friday, Matt was concerned about me not being able to eat and needing to buy something. I checked the freezer we have several varieties of soup and also several cans of soup. I also found a couple of boxes of Jello as well as applesauce so nothing else is needed. Tuesday and Thursday, Matt will have to grab something out to grill or a frozen meal but that is not a big deal! Best news of all will be less than $10 at the store for bread and milk.

Freezer Cooking

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One of the things that we realized last week with staying so busy in the evenings was that we seem to eat out more just because it is easier. Last week we ended eating out Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday. So after a little of discussion we decided to try and get some food prepared in advance for the upcoming weeks. Matt and I have spent most of the day in the kitchen. We did make a trip to Aldi to pick up some hamburger and ended up buying up canned fruit and other things. We have actually accomplished alot today. We have agreed to make October an eat out of the pantry and freezer month. We will of course have to purchase juice, milk, eggs and bread but these will only be purchased when we have ran out. Along with this plan is to really dig in the freezer and try to clean it out so that we can purchase meat in bulk. I hope that Harris Teeter does not have any special event for the month of October. So here is a list of what we cooked, actually a good start to the month for eating food that is convenient.

3 packages of Taco Rice- this makes excellent taco, burrito, nachos and stuffed green peppers.
4 packs of cooked chicken- I can use these for soup, chicken pies or other recipes.
2 cans of chicken broth
1 Baked Ziti- this is actually lunch for tomorrow that we will share with friends
4 packs of Salisbury Steaks- basically you make and add the gravy to make a much better meal than a frozen meal.
1 pack of cooked grounded beef to be used for Sloppy Joes.
2 packs of Chicken Fried Rice- Haley’s favorite food. This is a good quick meal of chinese.
1 Cheeseburger Pie- It has to be heated for a quick meal this week.
Matt also cooked an awesome breakfast, I cooked Banana Muffins, we had a take and bake Pizza for lunch.

So just above is roughly 16 meals. We also have several packs of pork chops, hot dogs, hamburgers and at least 2 meals of steaks. We should be able to make it through the month with ease!

Grocery Budget…the good…bad and ugly

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I have been really trying to get us on a strict budget this year. One of the areas that I seem to continual struggle in is grocery shopping. As you know, Matt and I decided to clean out our cupboard/freezer starting exactly a month ago. I have been sticking to shopping only for things we are out of and of course CVS. Unfortunately on Thursday we were in town with Costco and went to pick up the items on the list. I can say that we stuck very closely to the list and only add things after discussion. The one exception was “gluten free” crackers we found and bought but Zach because they are delicious and he loves to have crunch foods. We bought drinks for Haley and I at lunch, cleaning wipes, swiffers, milk, eggs, bread, bananas and bacon. Our total was $120 that pushes the total for the month to $420 and with the $40 Matt just took to Walmart for Formula and creamer and diet coke. We are pushing $500 for the month. At this point we are starting to consider if the budget of $600 a month is realistic or should be increase that to $800. At $800 that is approximately $125 a person or $29 a week per person. Looking at the number $800 sounds like a lot but when you take that down to $30 a person a week that seems reasonable, especially when you include diapers for 2, formula and Gluten free foods for Zach and household cleaning products. So I am pretty convinced that I will again increase the budget to set it at $800 a month. But since finding 5 lbs of Hamburger and getting Angel Food in this week. we are also both convinced that we will continue to eat out of the freezers/cupboard until we leave for our trip at Thanksgiving. I am planning on having the first Monday off after arriving home and we most like will make a HUGE trip to Costco at that time unless we realize that we have enough food to go another week. 🙂 Any thoughts or suggestions?

Saturday Catch UP

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This week has been busy as usual. I was trying to decide what made it so busy that I have not been able to post…the only thing I can come up with is that I worked on quizzing every night to prepare for our monthly meet today. At least I have part of the morning before heading that way. So here is the long and short of the week.

Eat out of the pantry/No grocery shopping for the month of October. So far so good, we have had to buy Diet Cokes, cream, milk, formula and eggs. The one exception is that we bought cake mix and icing for Amanda’s cake. But we returned a battery cores so this technically no money was spent on this. I am not sure if I said this upfront but I am continuing to shop at CVS as usual. I do count this in our grocery budget but I usually only buy sale items that we use in the stock pile and diapers. So far for the month we have spent 200 this includes our Angel Food so that is about 1/3 of what I usually budget and 1/4 of what we have been spending. The next 3-5 weeks depending on how long we can actually go will be challenging simply because the food we have left requires thought and preparation. Matt has been using the crock pot several days this week.

Kendall is doing really well with potty training. She has been staying day most days with only 1 accident per day.

CVS has an awesome monthly long deal on AZO products so I have made several trips this week but next week looks lame. I am saving over 80% on all the trips.

The other big news this week is that we finally bought a bed for Matt and I. I will be posting before and after pictures for Wordless Wednesday.