I did okay sticking to the Menu plan last week. We ended up with Pork Chops on Wednesday and eating out on Friday. That makes a total of 3 times eating out last week. The kids and I had lunch out on Thursday, Matt, myself and the babies ate out on Friday and again on Sunday after church. Friday night was a necessity as it was 6:30pm and everyone was starved so. This week I hope to do better and stay on track. I will be posting about all my shopping this weekend later but I wanted to make myself start to plan first.

Monday- Matt has a dinner meeting and I have ALOT of food to prepare so that it does not go bad so it will be sandwiches or pick a meal for everyone at home.
Tuesday- Steaks on the grill… pasta salad and fruit
Wednesday- Crockpot Lasagna with a batch to freeze for the summer
Thursday- Chicken ??? not sure how or why, may try a new recipe or just make a chicken pie or fried chicken
Friday-

So last week we threw out the menu plan on Thursday and actually ordered Pizza on Friday because that is what we wanted. But at least we were able to spend $20 and feed us all with enough left for breakfast for Matt, Haley and I on Saturday. This week is going to be difficulty as we have something scheduled every afternoon except on Monday. The idea this week is convenience. I am hoping to do the Crockpot Lasagna on Wednesday and put one back in the freezer but it will depend on how long I spend at Super Doubles. But you will notice I have a back up plan just in case or I can always switch my Friday and Wednesday. Flexibility is good this week.

Monday- Country Fried Steak, vegetable and pumpkin pie (Angel Food)
Tuesday- Left-overs from our Mexican dinner party 🙂
Wednesday – Crockpot Lasagna or Frozen Pizza
Thursday- Seafood night- steamed crab legs /fried shrimp
Friday- Shake n bake Porkchops

This should work, next week I hope to use some of the food I purchase at Harris Teeter!

We stuck to our plan last week for every night except for Friday. I actually ended up working 4 hours so Matt was at a lost of what I had planned for dinner. So he made Kielbasi with rice. It is one of the recipes he remembers his mother making so it is like a comfort food for him. We are both disappointed with the Kielbasi from Angelfood as it was rubbery but it got eaten. Because of our van troubles it is going to be even more important that we stick to the menu plan this week. I will be working on both Wednesday and Friday night so those have to be quick or prepared ahead items. I am seriously thinking that we may re-arrange the meals but stay with the basic 5.

Monday – Grilled chicken and steak. (My parents are coming over for dinner, my mother works full time so this is a real treat for someone else to cook.
Tuesday- Chicken ciccatore
Wednesday- Meatloaf
Thursday- Sausage and egg pie or pork chops???? ( yeap I am going to decide at the last minute)
Friday-Tator tot casserole with half frozen for another “summer” meal

So this week is going to be crazy with me working on Monday, Doctor appointments on Tuesday, Dentist appointments on Wednesday and Angel Food ordering on Thursday morning. My thoughts are to make quick and easy meals to keep us from eating out!

Monday- Spaghetti with salad and fried mozzarella sticks(HT freebie)
Tuesday- Breakfast casserole(Matt’s version, he plans to make it Monday night) with Pancakes
Wednesday- Taco Rice on burrito shells
Thursday- Grilled chicken with either pasta salad or left over salad from Monday!
Friday- Seafood of some sort from Angel Food

I am excited that Matt is getting involved with planning. He is doing awesome with taking over the weekend cooking unless I ask and now to help with normal week stuff will be great!

Matt and I discussed yesterday how nice it is to have a Menu plan for the week. He is great (Ok) with the idea that on the weekends we grab something quick and easy from the freezer or he is in charge of cooking :)!
Spring including warm, pleasant, not to humid weather has arrived and that means we will be using the grill ALOT!

Monday- Hamburgers, Chill cheese fries sounds great as well today!
Tuesday-Chicken-broccoli-rice-cheese casserole. (My plan is the make enough to freeze one dish for the summer!)
Wednesday- Steaks
Thursday- Taco Rice Nachos (Making a double batch of Taco Rice to freeze for the summer)
Friday- Spaghetti

I am convinced that one of the reason that I am doing better with budgeting especially groceries is the fact that I am now planning our meals at least by Monday. This makes it much hard to say “Let’s just eat out because I know what I want to fix and we have stuff in the freezer for the rough days. This week in general should be fairly easy as I don’t have any time at work scheduled and it really doesn’t sound like I will get any and other than driving around Amanda nothing in the evenings. Tuesday we will be going to Greensboro to get the little girls swim googles, diapers at Harris Teeter and a small trip to Costco. Wednesday is Matt’s birthday so we will be making a cake during the day as well as going out to eat somewhere for his dinner???. I LOVE the grill in the spring and summer so at least 1 if not 3 of our meals will start being based on using it. We do have to get it filled so that is another trip!

Monday- Apricot Pork chops in the crockpot, maybe a broccli rice cassrole or maybe just a fruit and veggie.
Tuesday- Steaks on the grill and a salad
Wednesday – Happy Birthday MATT!
Thursday- Grilled chicken and pasta salad
Friday- Seafood night (probably grilled or steamed jumbo shrimp, deviled crabs) side dishes will be leftovers from the week or steamed corn on the cob!

I am posting this one day late this week but am including two weeks in my planning. My life is ahead of me right now and I am trying not to stress! I am planning to get caught up on posting soon! But in the mean time. I just checked back on my plans for last week and we ended up eating Seafood twice on Tuesday We also had spaghetti on Sunday after our Harris Teeter trip with some bread sticks and cheese sticks. I ended up ordering Pizza on Friday. But that is the only time we ate out!

Plan for this week
Monday- Clean out the fridge night!
Tuesday-Hamburger Steaks with salad
Wednesday- Grilled Chicken (Matt) with slaw and potato salad or regular salad, pineapple for desert
Thursday- Tilapa (Broiled or saute) with some veggies
Friday- Chimicagas

Week of April 12th
Monday- Chicken Fried Rice(large batch with some to freeze)
Tuesday- Spaghetti
Wednesday- Pork Chops ( crock pot something or meal in one)
Thursday-Salisbury steak ( double/triple batch to freeze) rice and veggies!

I am really like posting my menus on Monday. Last week we change things up a little bit because I had a ton of potatoes that were starting to go bad so on Thursday I made a huge batch. We tried the Dion mustard beef steaks from Angel Food. They were actually ok, I broiled instead of using the grill because it was raining. I took some of the potatoes to make a Shepard Pie for dinner on Friday. This actually turned out really good and we will have for lunch several days this week. I still have a LARGE bowl left so I am thinking of freezing or making potato cakes for a breakfast for dinner night!
I am also trying something new, typing it up on Saturday when I had some extra time and schedule to be posted on Monday. Let’s hope it works.

This weeks Menu:
Monday: Ranch chicken, sweet potato cassrole, and of course mash potatoes and slaw
Tuesday: Spaghetti and Garlic bread
Wednesday: Crock pot chicken with onions and carrots (slow cooker recipe)
Thursday : Pork chops (not sure how)
Friday: Breakfast for Dinner

I really don’t feel like blogging right now..in fact I would prefer to be sleeping (naptime). But in an effort to post often on my blog and so that I actually can say I have a plan for the week, I am going to start Monday Menu Post. Last week we went off track because I realized I did not have any mozzarella cheese on Tuesday for the chicken. I guess the fact that we only ate out on Sunday was a good thing 🙂 So now on to the plan

Monday-Steaks (angel food) Leftover sides from the fridge and green beans
Tuesday -Roast with potatoes and carrots (microwavable)
Wednesday- Baked Ziti (Leftover from Saturday)
Thursday- Shrimp Scampi (Bagged meal)
Friday- Mexican night aka I have not a clue