Weekly Menus January 31 – Feb 6

For the past two weeks I’ve been posting my family’s menu in an attempt to both hold myself accountable…and stay organized as well as showing you how the principle of using coupons and stockpiling can actually work. 

I’ve been following my menus very well!  I’m rather impressed with myself.  We will be ordering pizza tonight…because I’ve been up with sick kids and am DONE for the day…but once in a while won’t break our budget.  I will carry over tonight’s meal to tomorrow.

I will be attending BlissDom in Nashville, TN this week and will be gone Thurs – Sunday.  I’m taking SuperBaby with me but Eric and the two big kids will be home by themselves.  I’m trying to keep things simple and easy to prepare this week so I’m not spending a lot of time cleaning up when I could be doing other things.  I went a little over budget ($20) last week stocking up on some things (Juice, chicken) so I have a VERY short list this week and plan to do almost no shopping: bananas, Rice Milk, asparagus, french fries, hot dog buns, deli turkey. 

How about you?  Have you planned your family’s menu for the week?  Start by looking through your cupboards and see what you have on hand…then buy the essentials and stock up on what is on sale!  You will feel more relaxed and organized when dinner time rolls around each night!

Sunday: Make ahead Spinach Manacotti

• I have spinach from our garden in the freezer and I purchased noodles and cheese on sale last week at Hy Vee.  The recipe for this makes a 9×13 which is too much for my family so I will freeze half (without the sauce) for another meal.

Monday: Foil Pack Chicken Marinara

• I have chicken breasts in the freezer I purchased for $1.68/lb at HyVee, tomatoes I stocked up on when they were $0.38/can and mozzerella cheese that was a MONEY MAKER at HyVee when it was 5/$6 with a $5 ONYO + coupons.  I got this recipe from the Kraft Website and haven’t made it before…we’ll see if its a keeper or not.

Tuesday:  Grilled Cheese Sandwhiches, Tomato Soup and Homemade Applesauce

• Daddy will be out of town so its a kid-food kind of night!  I almost always have tomato soup on hand…I like to make it up with a little milk (or soy milk) and some basil…yumma!  Made the applesauce last week in my crockpot with the apples on sale at HyVee.

Wednesday: Tilapia in mustard cream sauce, asparagus, Long Grain Wild Rice 

• Tilapia I have in the freezer I purchased on a monthly trip to Aldi ($3.99/4pieces) and I have the wild rice on hand as well.  I will need to purchase fresh asparagus this week.

Thursday: Chili Dogs, French Fries, carrots and branch (Ranch) 

• My first night away and Dad and the kids will have some “fun food” .  I have Hormel Chili I got on sale, with a coupon for about $0.30/can a month or so ago and I have veggie dogs and hot dogs in the freezer.  I will need to pick up more french fries unless I can convice Eric that he can make oven fries out of potatoes.  I bought a bag of carrots last week to make chicken soup and we can cut those up.

Friday: Left over Chicken Enchiladas

• We had these last week and I froze half of the batch so Eric and the kids could have them while I was out of town…they will be eating while I’m listening to Harry Connick, Jr!

Saturday: Shepherd’s Pie  

•  I use venison from our freezer that my husband provides for us, potatoes I bought on sale at Dillon’s last week and some vegetables and broth I have on hand.  I have one in the freezer for the fam to chow on while I’m living it up in Nashville.