Menu Monday

Hard to believe its Monday again and time to link up with Orgjunkie! I was off yesterday and got a grocery shopping trip worked into my day and was able to really feel prepared for the week ahead. Sticking to a budget has been easier than expected. Last night I spent $50 for the week. I know I know - how much do I think it takes to feed 2 people but really it can add up fast. Also when you shop at random you spend more and always end up heading back to the store for that forgotten ingredient or what ever is missing to complete the entire meal. Here's what I bought and what our menu looks like this week.

Monday - Chicken ($5) I marinated it with left over marinade from last weeks pork chops. I had a can or corn and a package of yellow rice in the cupboard.

Tuesday - Pasta ($2). I have a jar of vodka sauce in the cupboard. I'm adding in Ham ($5) and frozen peas ($2)

Wednesday - Turkey meat loaf- ground turkey ($5) paired with boxed scalloped potatoes from the cupboard.

Thursday will be a late night at work so the Hub's will be on his own or eating left overs.

Friday - I'll be headed out with the girls for a friends bachelorette party! Cant wait to dance the night away and celebrate this exciting time!

No exactly the most healthy or freshest meals but they will fill the belly and maintain our calorie conscious diet. As you can see we have lots of food in the cupboards which is funny because when I don't meal plan I open them up and think that "we don't have anything for dinner!" turns out there was food there all along!

What do you have in your cupboard? Bet with a little planning you could put the stuff in there to use and create a simple yet delicious and cost friendly meal or two.

Menu Monday

Another week is here I don't know about you but last week flew by! I'm linking up again with I'm an Organizing Junkie to post our weekly menu. Here is what we are planning this week.

Monday - Jennie O burgers, Corn on the cob and french fries (left over from Friday when the hubs surprised me with a movie & Dinner date)

Tuesday - Taco Tuesday, a tradition we started a while ago but have not been to lately because we have a connect group we go to from church but this week we had a Sunday brunch. Check them out and see if you have a location near you. We love it and $4.99 for two tacos, chips and a drink? Cant beat it!

Wednesday - Mom's Chicken pot pie, a childhood favorite that I've been craving. Give it a try and I guarantee you'll love it too!

Thursday - We've been invited to dinner at a friends - cant wait!

Friday - I'm closing at work so the hubs will be on his own.

This week breakfast is bagels and lunch is cold cuts, yogurt and rice cakes.

Not too much cooking but seeing as I have a busy week ahead of me its nice to know that the meals are planned. I also find it less stressful to plan ahead so the Hubs can help out too! I've been faithfully logging my meals and keeping track of my calories. Meal planning is definitely helping track $$ and lbs!

Whats your menu look like this week?

Back on Track

The whirl wind is calming down and its time to get back on track. Back to blogging, Back to cooking, Back to cleaning, Back to routine, Back to health . . . (Was I ever there?)


I'll got a few topics that need to be blogged about but today I'll start with our menu for the remainder of the week. We closed on the house October 1st, we painted and moved in all in one weeks time (Blog #1). I attended a work conference in NOLA.We celebrated our 1 year anniversary with a cruise and got back Monday (Blog #2)  and it was right back to work Tuesday morning. I am now full circle with this Blog and still have so many new recipes to try so I plan to recap my year and set some goals for the next(Blog #3). . . just a little to keep up hanging . . .


I went grocery shopping for the first time in about 2 months . . .wooowee did we need some food in this house! I'm grateful for an amazing husband who doesn't complain when I fall off the cooking band wagon!  I LOVE fall and have lots of plans to celebrate the season by cooking and baking up a storm!


This week's menu is as follows


Tuesday - Taco Tuezday of course!
Wednesday (tonight) I close to the hubs will have to fend for himself
Thursday - Butternut Squash Soup (Blog #4)
Friday - Spaghetti
Saturday - I work late so it will be left overs
Sunday - Lettuce Wraps made by the master chef himself (Blog #5)


As you can see we've got a lot of catching up to do! So check back in this weekend.

Menu Monday

This was my first time doing meal planning for 2 weeks and I think I like it. Here we are starting week 2 and I don't need to grocery shop or stress about what to make. All I had to do was adjust the meals to my work schedule so that dinner would be ready before 10 o'clock at night.

I saved the meals with ingredients would last the longest for this week to alleviate the need to run to the store. I am at a loss as to the most realistic, fresh and price conscience place to shop. I was going to our local grocery store, Publix, which I love they usually have a fantastically fresh produce selection but Walmart still is the best place to buy non perishables and paper products. I hate having to make 2 stops. I have been thinking of trading off and shopping each once a month - maintaining my bi-weekly trips. I would also like to frequent our local farmer market but my work schedule makes this a tad hard, We have a local Co-Op that I'd like to try and my BFF has a butcher she goes to for quality meat and great prices. In a perfect world I'd buy on of those vacuum sealers and shop the butcher and Walmart once a month and make weekly trips to the farmers market, but I am still at the trial and error stage of nailing down a routine that works for me. I'm open to suggestions and hearing about how you divi up your shopping.

Now on to the menu - here's what I have in store for the week.

Monday - Kielbasa Pasta - (well that's what I named it tonight) Its a meal I grew up on but we just called it Kielbasa  which is fine if it is the only form you eat it but should I find another dish with this ingredient it'd be hard to differentiate. All you do is saute carrot slices, kielbasa slices and an onion. Boil egg noodles and drain. Mix the two and volia a great smelling home and a flavorful dish on the table.

Tuesday - Taco Tuesday for the hubs and work for me, I'll take left overs.

Wednesday - Meat Loaf, Mashed Potatoes and Corn

Thursday - Aunt Lori's Chicken Tortilla Soup - Stay tuned as this is my family recipe for the week.

Friday - Lasagna & Garlic bread ( unfortunately I work 11-8 so Stouffers will be hosting this meal but its a good sub when there no time to make it from scratch)

Saturday the MR will be taking me out on a good by dinner as he's leaving to do more traveling for work.

Sunday will see me alone with the Pup but I have a wedding shower to go to for a co-worker and I going through my Dips and Desert recipes to try and work in a 2nd recipe for the week.

Missin My Kitchen

This summer has thrown me thru a loop. With me changing job locations and a husband who likes to globe trot - we lost all semblance of normalcy and routine. I wont lie it took a much bigger toll on me that I expected and the last 2 months have been pretty tough.

 Mentally I have been counting down to September when I expected things to slow down. It has been my excuse for every thing. When will I start to eat healthy? In September. When will I make it back to church? In September. When will I keep my house clean? In September. When will I start working out? In September. Well I've got 2 weeks and a lot to do so I'm attempting a just start.

I spent last week with my family in New York and then we spent the weekend in MD with the Hub's family celebrating the BEE-U-Tee-Ful wedding of his brother! After a nightmare of a Southwest flight we made it home at 1am. Thankfully I was off today and took advantage of the day to get my Sh*t together. DR appointment rescheduled - check, Bills paid - check, Vet price quotes for neuter and shots - check, Mountains of dirty clothes washed and folded - check. but the biggest thing to tackle - grocery shopping.

It all started with a "little" List

That turned into this

That finally enabled me to bring back MENU MONDAY for 2 weeks! And the double bonus - I will tackle 5 family recipes! Tomorrow marks 10 months in and I still have a lot of cooking and baking to complete or else I may request an extension to complete this experiment!

Woo hoo this excites me! So here is whats planned for this week.

Monday

Chicken Pot Pie - by Aunt Jeanne

Cheesy Rice & Beans - by Aunt Jeanne

Tuesday

Taco Tuesday - @ Tijuana Flats

Wednesday 

Flank Steak - by the Newest MRS. Fij (as of Saturday to be exact)

Baked Potato

Tomato Salad

Thursday

Ham

Scalped Potatoes - again by the new MRS

Friday

Grilled Chicken & Veggie Skewers

Grilled corn on the cob

Stay tuned for more recipes, reviews and menus!

Menu Monday

My attempt is to plan my meals each week but the last few have been so busy that I have not been successful. This week how ever Mr Fij and I have a normal week so i'll be back on track this week at least. I even have the weekend off and its a holiday weekend to boot! Here's whats planned.

Monday - Crock Pot Ribs w/ mashed potatoes (See recipe here - thanks to my little sister Nicole for the recipe!)

Tuesday - Chicken & Veggie Skewers on the grill w/ Salad (I just marinate Chicken cubes, green and yellow peppers, cherry tomatoes and zucchini - pop them on some skewers and throw on the grill - its a colorful summer meal that takes no time at all and gets you out of the kitchen)

I'll also be making Easy Summer Cake  for my Wednesday morning managers meeting at work - recepie thanks goes out to the Mr.'s Grandma.

Wednesday - Pasta & Garlic Bread ( My pasta sauce mood varies - some times I feel like scratch and some times grab the jar. This week will be browned sausage with jar sauce over pasta . .  .due to time i'll be cheating this week)

Thursday- Mr and I both work late so left overs

Friday - BFF B'day celebration @ Opa  (a fantastically fun Greek restaurant)

Saturday - Beach Day

Sunday - Red Hot and Boom 4th of July Celebrations.

A fun but busy weekend ahead! Check back for pictures and reviews of the Ribs and cake recipe.

Whats on your menu this week?

Meal Planning Monday.. .errr Tuesday?

 

Ok this was officially one of the easiest recipes ever! Pretty tasty too! Cant beat those two! Made it out of work my 5:30 home by 6 and dinner on the table by 7 - not to shabby!

I've been working really hard to do weekly dinner planning and its turning out to be quite a success! Being that the Mr and I work different schedules and I am usually not home 2 nights a week (minimum) it can be a challenge.

right now the goal is a home cooked meal Monday through Thursday and only eat out on the weekends. A few factors brought this plan to life. Mainly we were spending WAY too much $$$$ eating out and letting food at home go to waste before we came around to eating it resulting in not so fun weekly refrigerator cleaning. :( Another is that we are really trying to eat more healthy and count calories. I know that restaurants have come along way by offering healthy options and listing calories but we tend to over indulge when we eat out and too many of those dinners add to too many pounds on the scale! Time is another factor - by eating out our days were becoming ridiculously long and it felt like we were NEVER home together! My earliest day out of work is 4pm and then I have a minimum 30 minute commute without rush hour traffic, so factor that in and I'm looking at closer to an hour, other days I work until 7pm and that means after a sit down dinner out we don't get home until almost 9. I'd much rather come home cook and relax in our own space than add another 2 hours or so away from home to my day.

 All this to tell that now  I usually grocery shop on Mondays and buy based on my weekly menu (which I post on the frige as a reminder and makes it harder to cheat!) I do admit that my definition of "home cooked"  very basic -  I consider any meal cooked at home - home cooked :) One short cut I take is Birds Eye Viola dinners - they are pretty healthy and the veggies tastes really fresh. I usually make these and Tupperware them up for dinners on the nights I close or as a lunch option if we don't have left overs. We also have a great group of friends that we rotate hosting weekly dinners with. This takes the weight off my shoulders one night a week as we each host about once a month.

Here is this weeks menu

Monday
Lunch - Me- Frozen Pizza M -lunch out with Co-workers
Dinner Viola Garlic Chicken

Tuesday
Lunch Me & Mr - Vila Chicken and Penne
Dinner - Cheesy Chicken Enchilada & Spanish Rice

Wednesday
Lunch - Left Over Enchilada
Dinner - Crock Pot Potato Soup ( which is currently simmering away making my house smell delish)

Thursday -
Lunch - Left over soup or enchilada
Dinner (my turn to host)- Spicy hot dogs & Mashed Potatoes

Friday -
Lunch - Left Overs
Dinner - Happy hour with one of My BFF's

So there is my plan for the week and I'll be able to check off two Family recipes - (which is great as I've fallen a little behind!)

What about you my wonderful blog stalkers? Any menu planning advice or tips? What works for you? I'd love to hear some feed back as to whats taking place in your kitchen! Until next time . . . Happy meal planning.