Experimenting with a Two-Week Menu Plan

 

I'm changing things up around here a little in order to strive for more efficiency. Not only am I experimenting with doing much of my cooking ahead, but I'm also trying my hand at planning two-week menus instead of one-week menus.

Kate, from Stolen Moments Menu Planning, asked if she could make a sample month-long menu plan for me to try out and review so I'm basing much of this two-week menu plan off of that. But I'm also adding in things I already have cooked up in the freezer and other items I have on hand which need to be used up.

I printed this Two-Week Menu Plan Template here and jotted down the full menu. However, since I don't like to be completely "boxed in" when it comes to menu plans, I wrote it in pencil! I'm going to do my best to stick with what's written here, but I'm sure there will be some adaptations as I go along.

I'm also going to be making some cookie dough and baking mixes to freeze this week. I'm finding that cooking ahead is benefiting me so much, I'm looking for other ways to maximize my efficiency in the kitchen. If my efforts turn out satisfactorily, I'll be blogging about them later on this week.

By the way, if you have any great Baking Mix recipes, I'd love to have the links or recipes. I've never done something like this before so I haven't a clue what I'm doing. But I might as well jump in and try, right?

Here's the plan:

Week 1 Breakfasts:
Sunshine Toast, apples, orange juice
Blueberry Banana Smoothies
Pumpkin Waffles, apples, orange juice
Southwest Scramble (scrambled eggs with hashbrowns, cheese, peppers, onions, and tomatoes), fruit, orange juice
Cereal x 2
Blueberry Coffee Cake, orange juice

Week 1 Lunches:
Cheese quesadillas, spinach
Homemade mac & cheese, applesauce
Baked potatoes with broccoli and cheese
Egg salad sandwiches, carrot sticks
PB&J sandwiches, applesauce
Leftovers
Bean and Cheese Burritos

Week 1 Dinners:
Chicken Tetrazinni, homemade applesauce, peas
Dinner at Grandma's house
Ziti, homemade bread, green beans
Turkey Sausage Corn & Broccoli Bake, fruit, banana bread
Homemade Barbecue Chicken Pizza, fruit, chocolate chip cookies
Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore over noodles, fruit, homemade bread
Leftovers

Week 2 Breakfasts:
Peanut Butter Toast, fruit, orange juice
Yogurt, Fruit, and Granola Parfaits
Mini Blinis, fruit, orange juice
Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal (without pecans), fruit
Cereal x 2
French Toast, fruit, orange juice

Week 2 Lunches:
PB&J, carrots
Homemade mac & cheese, peas
Egg salad sandwiches, carrot sticks
Cheese quesadillas, fruit
Lunch at Grandma's house
Leftovers
Cheesy Rice and Broccoli

Week 2 Dinners:
Country Breakfast Pot Pie, fruit
Ziti, homemade bread, green beans
Chicken Tetrazinni, applesauce, carrot sticks
Hamburger Vegetable Soup, homemade bread, cheese, apples
Homemade Barbecue Chicken Pizza, fruit, chocolate chip cookies
Dinner out
Leftovers

Snacks
Apples
Carrot sticks
Homemade Bread
Homemade hot chocolate
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Apple Pie
Applesauce
Cheese and crackers
Banana Bread
Chocolate Chip Cookies

See more menus for this week over at Organizing Junkie.

This week's menu plan (and how I learned the hard way that no menu plan = disaster!)

In a very uncharacteristic move, I jumped off the menu-planning bandwagon for the past two weeks. We had plenty of food on hand and I figured it wouldn't be too much trouble to wing it.

Was I ever wrong!

Trying to "fly by the seat of my pants" when it came to menu-planning was disastrous! We not only resorted to take-out a few times (outside of our once-a-week Dinner Out night), but we had little variety in our meals. And, worst of all, I found it took me a great deal of mental energy to try and figure out from day-to-day and meal-to-meal what we'd be eating. Five o'clock would sneak up on me from out of the blue every single night and I had no plan... again.

So, no more skipping the meal-planning around here. Two weeks of that madness was plenty enough for me. I'm committed to make this a priority now that I've seen how much time, effort, and money it saves!

Here's this week's menu plan:

Breakfasts
Fresh carrot/apple juice, Kashi waffles (free at Target last week)
Fresh tomato juice, Blueberry Banana Bran muffins from the freezer
Strawberry/blueberry/banana smoothies, toast
Cereal x 2
Fruit, muffins
Homemade cinnamon rolls, turkey sausage, fruit

Lunches
Healthy choice meals (free with coupons last week)
Quesadillas, fruit salad
Green pepper strips, fruit salad, PB &J sandwiches, stuffed eggs
Fried egg sandwiches with tomatoes
Bean soup, muffins from the freezer, carrots
Leftovers
PB&J, fruit, granola bars (free with coupons last week)

Dinners
Farmhouse Chicken, biscuits, grapes, peas
Chicken Pot Pie, fruit salad, broccoli
Southwest Roll-ups, corn and tomatoes, fruit salad
Homemade Pizza, fruit, ice cream
French Toast, turkey sausage, fruit
Out to Dinner
Homemade Mac and Cheese, grapes, homemade bread

Snacks
Granola bars
Cereal
Fruit
Veggies
Muffins from the freezer
Cheese and crackers
Ice cream

It's only Tuesday and I'm already seeing a huge difference in having a plan. But you think I should know that by now for how often I preach the virtues of having a menu plan. Sometimes, even us frugal zealots need to be reminded of this again, though! :)

This week's menu plan

After a few crazy weeks of pulling off a wedding and going on vacation, we're ready for life to slow down here and move into a more normal routine. We do have a big garage sale planned for next week, but I'm having lots of help with that so I'm hoping it's not a huge amount of work to pull off!

We were blessed with some fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes, cucumbers, and corn on the cob so we'll be incorporating that into our menu for this week.

Here's what's planned for this week:

Breakfasts
Cereal, orange juice
Banana Strawberry Blueberry smoothies, toast
Blueberry Bran Muffins (new recipe which I'll be posting soon), scrambled eggs
Cereal, fruit
Oatmeal with brown sugar, fruit
Brown Sugar Biscuit Twists, fruit
French Toast, turkey sausage, fruit

Lunches
Homemade Pita Pockets with melted cheese, carrots
Baked Potatoes, broccoli, cheese
PB&J, cantaloupe, carrots, cookies
Spinach, brown rice, and cheese casserole, cucumbers
Leftovers x 2
Lunch at friends' house

Dinners
Lasagna Bake, Homemade Bread, Broccoli, Cherry Crisp (my mom made this for us--yum!)
Homemade Barbecue Beef Pizza, cucumbers and tomatoes
Layered Nacho Dip, chips, corn on the cob, cucumbers and tomatoes
Dinner out
Office Party--dinner provided
Grilled steak, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, fruit
Steak and Cheese Calzones, peas, fruit

Snacks
Protein bars
Blueberry Bran Muffins
Cheese/crackers
Fruit/Veggies
Chips/Salsa
Cereal
Popcorn

See a couple hundred more menus for this week over at Organizing Junkie!

This week's menu plan (and simple and inexpensive vacation food ideas wanted!)

I'm excited that this week is the Fourth of July! We're heading to Kansas City for a few days for a family vacation and very much looking forward to that.

Since our family is still small and eating out is still fairly economical, we usually "splurge" on vacations and bring very little of our own food. Instead, we eat out or get quick-fix foods at the grocery store while we're gone. It makes it much more relaxing for me to not have to worry about planning, packing, and fixing food for a few days and it truly makes it more of a vacation for me! Because of this, I'm only planning four days' worth of meals for this week:

Breakfasts
Strawberry smoothies, toast
Waffles, cantaloupe, yogurt
Banana bread, scrambled eggs, fresh carrot/apple juice
Oatmeal, fruit

Lunches
Homemade pigs in a blanket, cucumber slices, apple slices
Homemade Pita Pockets with melted cheese, peas, fruit
PB&J, carrots
Tossed salad with hard-boiled eggs, crackers and cheese

Dinners
French Toast with fresh-whipped cream and homemade strawberry syrup, cantaloupe
Chicken Tetrazinni, homemade bread, green beans, grapefruit
Meatballs, homemade bread, sliced cucumbers, baked potatoes, green beans
Homemade BBQ Chicken Pizza, fruit

Snacks
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Blueberry Streusel Muffins
Crackers and cheese
Apples
Carrot sticks
Granola bars

For those who may have missed it, you can see what we purchased at the store this past week here. However, do remember that that is not all we're using to make the above food and meals since we shop using the "Buy-Ahead Principle".

Do you bring your own food when you go on vacation or do you splurge and eat out/buy quick-fix foods or a little of both? If you bring your own food, I'd love to hear what you bring and how you pull it off. It seems like a lot of work to me, but I'm guessing that as our children grow older, eating out is going to be much less feasible and much more expensive so I'd love to hear your ideas and suggestions!

This week's menu and planned Baking Day

I'm finally getting back into the swing of baking and cooking around here and it feels so nice after taking an extended break after Silas was born. I'm hoping to have another Baking Day tomorrow so I planned for that when making out our menu and grocery list for this week. If you'd like to join in the Baking Day tomorrow, I'll be posting some pictures and recipes throughout the day and a Mr. Linky round-up at the end of the day. Stay tuned for that!

Here's the plan for what we'll be eating around here this week:

Breakfasts
Oatmeal, blueberries
Strawberry smoothies, muffins
Granola over yogurt with blueberries
Cereal, peaches x 2
Waffles, cantaloupe, yogurt
Scrambled eggs, toast, juice

Lunches
Layered nacho dip with chips, fruit
Homemade pigs in a blanket, cucumber slices, apple slices
Leftovers
Macaroni and cheese, peas, apple slices
Cheese quesadillas, carrot sticks, cantaloupe
Baked potatoes with cheese and broccoli
Tossed salad with bard-boiled eggs, crackers and cheese

Dinners
Chicken Tetrazinni, tossed salad, homemade bread, green beans
Grilled steak, corn, sweet potatoes, fruit salad, homemade bread
Meatballs, twice-baked potatoes, homemade bread, sliced cucumbers, green beans
Grilled salmon, baked potatoes, corn, tossed salad, fruit salad
Farmhouse Chicken, fruit, tossed salad, homemade bread
Pizza Night (at church)
Dinner Out

Snacks
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Blueberry Streusel Muffins
Crackers and cheese
Apples
Carrot sticks
Granola bars

Baking Day Plan
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Banana Bread
Blueberry Streusel Muffins
Homemade Bread or Rolls
Waffles
Homemade Pita Pockets

For those who may have missed it, you can see what we purchased at the store this past week here. However, do remember that that is not all we're using to make the above food and meals since we shop using the "Buy-Ahead Principle".

See more menu plans for this week over at Organizing Junkie.

This week's menu

I'm trying to slowly ease back into cooking after taking the last few weeks off because we were blessed with so many delicious meals after the birth of Silas. (Can you believe our church friends and family brought us almost a month's worth of meals? How incredible is that?!)

However, as many of you know, I cooked up a bunch of food before Silas was born so our freezer is still rather stuffed with casseroles, breads, and so forth. I'm planning to use a few meals from the freezer each week over the next few weeks and then make some simple meals from scratch the rest of the days. By then, it should be about three months after Silas' birth and things should be pretty back to normal around here.

I can't even begin to express how much of a help the meals we were given were or how nice it is to know our freezer is still packed with meals! If you have the chance to cook up food for your freezer before a big event like the birth of a baby, definitely take the opportunity. You won't regret it! Not only has it saved us time to have food already made up, it has also saved us a lot of money since we're not tempted to order carryout or buy convenience foods.

I'm especially excited about our menu this week because our little container garden is finally starting to produce lettuce. I'm looking forward to lots of fresh tossed salad this week as a result. Hopefully, our tomatoes will start ripening soon as well. There's just nothing as good as a fresh-from-the-garden tomato, is there?!

Here's this week's menu plan:

Breakfasts
Cereal, juice
Granola over yogurt with peaches
Toast, scrambled eggs with hashbrowns and cheese, strawberries
Oatmeal with brown sugar and peaches
Strawberry smoothies, toast
Pumpkin waffles, peaches
Cranberry muffins, yogurt, strawberries

Lunches
PB&J, carrot sticks, cheese, fruit
Tossed salad with hard-boiled eggs, whole-wheat toast
Baked potatoes with steamed veggies and cheese
Crackers, cheese, fruit, carrot sticks
Homemade mac and cheese, steamed veggies
Leftovers x 2

Dinners
Grilled Salmon, baked potatoes, tossed salad, corn on the cob, homemade bread, strawberry shortcake
Turkey sub sandwiches, fruit salad, cucumber and tomato salad
Marinated steak, sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, homemade bread, fruit salad
Lasagna casserole, green beans, fruit salad, french bread
Beef hot dogs, corn on the cob, fruit salad, twice-baked potatoes
BBQ Chicken Pizza, fruit salad, tossed salad, ice cream
Dinner out

Snacks
Cereal
Fruit
Veggies
Muffins
Crackers/cheese

By the way, we spent $41 on groceries this week. You can see the groceries we purchased this week here, in case you missed it.

Check out more menu plans for this week over at Organizing Junkie.

This week's menu plan

I'm finally getting back into regular menu-planning after taking a few weeks off to have a baby. And it feels so good! I'm sticking to simple meals since it's our first week of our official homeschool year and the goal of this week is to be consistent with our new schedule. I can quickly get side-tracked in the kitchen so I made the menu really easy to try and deter myself from losing focus!

We're mostly eating from the pantry and freezer as these are rather full and in need of a little pairing down. We did spend $33 at the store buying produce and dairy products, but the main staples for these meals we already had on hand (which is the beauty of stocking up on sales!).

Here's the plan:

Breakfasts
Kashi waffles, strawberries, yogurt
Strawberry smoothies, muffins
Banana bread, oranges, yogurt
Cereal, juice or fruit x 2
Oatmeal, grapefruit
Pumpkin waffles, strawberries

Lunches
Spinach Rice and Cheese Casserole, fruit
Tossed salad (using fresh-from-the-container-garden lettuce!) with hard-boiled eggs and cheese, bread
Baked potatoes with broccoli and cheese, peaches
Pot roast, corn, toast, tossed salad
PB&J, carrots, applesauce
Leftovers x 2

Dinners
Ham and Cheese Stromboli, broccoli
French Toast with strawberries and freshly-whipped cream, hashbrowns
Chicken BBQ Pizza, corn on the cob, fruit salad
Turkey sub sandwiches, chips, veggies
Mini Meatloaves, mixed steamed veggies, bread, sweet potatoes
Steak, corn on the cob, grapefruit, cucumber and tomato salad, bread
Dinner out

Snacks
Yogurt
Fruit
Granola bars
Muffins
Cereal
Cheese/crackers

Check out more menu plans for this week over at Organizing Junkie.

Menu Plan Monday: Eating From The Pantry Challenge

I ended up not going grocery shopping at all last week and while we're getting low on some basic supplies, I decided it would be fun to challenge myself to see if we could go another five days without going to the grocery store. So welcome to the Eating From The Pantry Challenge!

My personal rules for this challenge are that I cannot dig into the After-the-Baby Freezer Stash and I also must try to use up as many odds and ends as possible. In addition, I'm going to try to come up with fairly balanced and nutritious meals, though they might be a little different and less-varied than our normal fare.

I'll be blogging what we eat each day, along with pictures and maybe even some recipes. My hope is that we not only make it until Friday of this week without hitting the grocery store, but also that this challenge to myself might inspire you to stretch what you already have a little farther or be more creative with what you have on hand.

Sometimes it's so easy to become accustomed to going to the store every week (or multiple times per week!) that we aren't as good of stewards with what we already have in our cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer. This can not only lead to waste, but unnecessary expenditures.

To aid me in coming up with meals for this week, I made up a list of meal ideas to work from based upon things we have in our cupboards, freezer, and refrigerator which need to be used up. We may or may not use all of these this week, but they will certainly serve as a springboard for ideas.

Here's the potential ideas list:

Breakfast Ideas:
Baked Oatmeal
Cream of Wheat
Pumpkin Waffles
Organic toaster pastries
Biscuits and gravy
French Toast
Bagels

Lunch Ideas:
Grilled cheese sandwiches
Baked potatoes
Shrimp
Beans and rice
Egg salad sandwiches
PB & J sandwiches
Leftovers

Dinners:
Stirfry
Steak
BBQ Beef sandwiches
Spinach rice and cheese casserole
Lasagna
Cheese and veggie pizza

Stay tuned for the daily scoop on what I concoct using what we have on hand! For more menu ideas, check out Organizing Junkie.

What's on the menu this week

 

Our freezer is quite stocked, but I have a few more items I still wanted to make up to add to it before the baby comes so my goal is to finish those this week. I've planned them into our regular menus so that I can just double or triple a batch of whatever I'm making to make it much easier and efficient. At this season of my life, this is one of the easiest ways for me to make up food for the freezer--especially when it comes to main dishes.

Here's the proposed menu:

Breakfasts
Whole-wheat pumpkin waffles, fruit  
Strawberry smoothies, toast
Banana bread, apples, scrambled eggs with cheese
Oatmeal with brown sugar
Blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs
Cereal

Lunches
Homemade pita pockets (make extra for the freezer) with melted cheese, apples
Veggie frittata
Spinach brown rice and cheese casserole (make extra for the freezer)
PB&J, carrots
Apples with peanut butter, cranberry pumpkin muffins
Baked potatoes with cheese and broccoli
Egg salad sandwiches, apples
Leftovers

Dinners
Steak, wild rice, steamed veggies, banana bread
Homemade BBQ Beef Pizza, veggies and dip
Three-Cheese Baked Spaghetti (make 2 extra for the freezer), cooked carrots, Italian cheese bread
Steak, baked potatoes, green bean casserole
Quiche, grapefruit
Veggie and steak stir fry over brown rice
Dinner out

Snacks
Muffins (from the freezer)
Cereal
Veggies
Apples
Granola bars

This week's $42 shopping trip and menu

Kathrynne and I went shopping at Walgreens, Dillons, and Aldi on Saturday afternoon but I didn't get this posted on Saturday evening like I'd hope since we were gone until late in the evening and then as soon as I sat down to post our electricity went out unexpectedly and was off for a few hours. How's that for a good excuse (and a very long run-on sentence)?!

At any rate, here's what we bought:

We purchased Ritz crackers, Sambucol, and fillers at Walgreens and somehow ended up spending $0.14 out of pocket for all that! Reminds me of the great deals I used to get at CVS!

We mostly bought sale items, free-or-cheap-after-coupon deals (including diapers for $3.97 using the $3/1 Kroger Comforts coupon) and mark-downs at Dillons and spent a total of $22.50. Plus, we received $2.50 back in catalinas for buying the two Glucerana cereals (which were already free plus overage after the $5/1 coupon!).

Then we hit Aldi for their sales and some staple items and we spent $19.33 there.

All totaled, we spent $41.97 for groceries this week. We had raised our grocery budget up to $60/week until the end of my pregnancy, but I'm attempting to whittle it back down to $40 or $45/week so we can get back on our usual budget after the baby is born. Our pantry and refrigerators are staying so well-stocked that I think it's going to be very doable, but we'll see!

For those who enjoy seeing what we're eating, here's this week's menu:

BREAKFASTS
Blueberry pancakes, yogurt, fruit
Green smoothies, banana bread
Cereal, fruit
Scrambled eggs with cheese, toast, fresh juice
Cranberry pumpkin muffins, fruit, yogurt
Biscuit twists, fruit, scrambled eggs

LUNCHES
Shrimp, steamed veggies
Baked potatoes with broccoli and cheese
Egg salad sandwiches, carrots
Cheese slices, grapes, pumpkin muffins
Spinach brown rice and cheese casserole, fruit
Leftovers x 2

DINNERS
Ritzy Chicken (make an extra to freeze for after the baby is born), cranberry bread, grapefruit
Homemade pizza (make extra dough to freeze for after the baby is born), fruit
Steak, baked potatoes, green bean casserole, cooked carrots
Farmhouse chicken (make two extra pans to freeze for after the baby is born), homemade bread, veggies, grapefruit
Mini Meatloaves (make extra to freeze for after the baby is born), brown rice, veggies, grapes
Steak, homemade bread, grapefruit
Dinner out

SNACKS
Cereal
Fruit
Cranberry pumpkin muffins
Banana bread
Cheese
Granola bars

I'm working on stocking up our freezer for after the baby is born so I'm slowly incorporating the meals I want to make and freeze into our weekly dinners. It's much easier and manageable for me to do it this way right now. You can see the list of meals I'm hoping to have our freezer full of before the baby comes here.

For more menus this week, check out I'm An Organizing Junkie.

Menu Plan Monday: This week's $10 menu

As I mentioned on Saturday, we skipped shopping this week aside from a quick run to the store my husband made for milk, butter, and ice cream. I was planning to stop by and pick up some fresh produce, but after thinking it through, I decided to challenge myself and see if I could plan a fairly healthful menu based upon what we already have on hand.

Here's what I came up with using what we already have on hand from previous shopping trips and the $10 shopping trip my husband made:

Breakfasts:
Banana muffins, fresh juice, milk
Strawberry smoothies, whole wheat toast
Oatmeal, apple juice
Pancakes (from the freezer), oranges
Scrambled eggs, fresh juice, banana muffins
Strawberry smoothies, pancakes (from the freezer)
French toast, oranges

Lunches:
Egg salad sandwiches, applesauce
Roast beef sandwiches, oranges
Grilled cheese sandwiches, broccoli
PB&J, applesauce
Rice and beans with cheese, veggies
Spinach brown rice and cheese casserole
Leftovers

Dinners:
Roast in the crock pot with gravy over noodles, homemade bread, green beans, grapefruit
Chicken broccoli rice casserole, steamed veggies, homemade bread
Steak, mashed potatoes, broccoli
Beef Stroganoff, steamed veggies, homemade bread
Beef hot dogs, broccoli with cheese
Meat balls, brown rice, steamed veggies
Dinner out

Snacks:
Granola bars
Homemade hot cocoa (organic cocoa, milk, and a little sugar--yum!)
Bran muffins (from the freezer)
Banana muffins (from the freezer)
Breyer's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream (my current pregnancy obsession!)
Strawberry smoothies

And that's that! I was pretty excited to see how the stockpiling I've been doing over the last month or two to replenish our supply after our move and prepare for the baby is starting to pay off in allowing me to have more ingredients to work with!

For more menus this week, check out Organizing Junkie.

This week's ~$60 menu

Here's the planned menu for this week using these groceries and what we already have on hand in the freezer and in our cupboards:

Breakfasts:
Cream of wheat, fresh juice
Whole-wheat waffles (from the freezer), strawberries, yogurt
Granola over yogurt with fruit
Banana muffins, scrambled eggs
Pancakes (from the freezer), strawberry smoothies
Whole-wheat waffles, hard-boiled eggs, fresh juice
Oatmeal, juice

Lunches:
Annie's Mac and Cheese, oranges
Shrimp, steamed veggies, toast
Egg salad sandwiches, apples
PB&J, veggies
Spinach rice and cheese casserole, strawberries
Leftovers x 2

Dinners:
Steak, mashed potatoes, green beans
Roast over noodles with gravy, steamed veggies, grapefruit
Meatballs, mashed potatoes with cheese, steamed veggies, muffins
Chicken broccoli rice casserole, grapefruit, scones, green beans
Beef hot dogs, steamed veggies, homemade bread
Chicken burgers with cheese, broccoli, fruit salad, homemade bread
Dinner out

Snacks:
Waffles
Banana muffins
Granola bars
Strawberries
Apples
Cheese

This week's almost-$60 menu

I'm happy to finally be jumping back into more normal menus, baking, and cooking around here after a few weeks of stepping back from all but the basics for Christmas, New Year's, and traveling. However, I'm still trying to keep things simple since I'm 6 1/2 months pregnant and not usually oozing with energy as a result!

You can see what we bought for $62 at the grocery store this week here. And you can see why we've temporarily raised our grocery budget here (in case you missed it earlier).

One thing I do know I'm going to make a priority this week is to get back on track with having a bi-weekly Baking Day. It helps so tremendously when our freezer is stocked with breakfast, snack, and bread items. My planned Baking Day for this week is tomorrow and I'll be inviting you to join me, if you'd like. Stay tuned for more...

And without further ado, here's what's on the menu this week:

Breakfasts
Granola over yogurt with fresh apple/orange juice
Whole-wheat waffles with blackberries, scrambled eggs, orange juice
Oatmeal with brown sugar and apples, orange juice
Peanut butter banana smoothies, toast
Bran muffins, yogurt, fresh apple/orange juice
Whole-wheat pancakes, yogurt, orange juice
Breakfast pita pockets (whole-wheat pita pockets with scrambled eggs and cheese), grapefruit

Lunches
Spinach brown rice and cheese casserole, oranges
Shrimp, brown rice, steamed veggies
PB&J, yogurt, oranges
Whole-wheat pita pockets with melted cheese, steamed veggies
Annie's Mac and Cheese, applesauce, broccoli
Egg salad sandwiches, oranges
Leftovers

Dinners
Steak, sweet potatoes (I just cook and mash sweet potatoes and then bake in the oven with a little butter and brown sugar--yum!), homemade bread, steamed veggies
Roast with gravy over noodles, steamed veggies, homemade bread
Turkey burgers with melted cheese, steamed veggies, homemade bread
Steak, green beans, mashed potatoes, grapefruit
Salmon, wild rice, steamed veggies
Beef strips with gravy over noodles, green beans, sweet potatoes
Dinner Out

Snacks
Bran muffins
Cheese
Fruit
Yogurt
Peanut butter toast

See more menu plans for this week here.

Our $60 menu this week

I didn't get a picture snapped of our shopping trip from a few days ago, but here's what's on tap to be served this week (keep in mind that this is a bit different--and more expensive--than our normal menus since I'm trying to get in plenty of protein and iron to keep up my nutritional requirements for this pregnancy.):

Breakfasts:
Pancakes, cottage cheese, fruit
Homemade granola over yogurt, fruit
Cheerios, orange/banana smoothies
Cream of Wheat, fruit
Peanut butter banana smoothies, toast
Scrambled eggs with cottage cheese (cooked in for extra protein), bran muffins, juice

Lunches:
Mozzarella sticks, veggies, apples with peanut butter
Salmon, broccoli, bran muffins
Shrimp, baked potatoes, fruit
Cheese quesadillas, mixed veggies
PB&J, oranges
Leftovers x 2

Dinners:
Steak, mashed potatoes, broccoli
Hamburger patties with melted cheese, toast, fruit
Meat loaf, green beans, homemade bread
Chicken over brown rice, broccoli
Beef stir-fry over rice
Steak, sweet potatoes, homemade bread
Dinner out

Snacks:
Bran muffins
Apples/oranges/bananas
Banana bread
Peanut butter toast
Granola bars
Frozen yogurt

See more menus for this week here.

This week's shopping trip and almost-$40 menu

Our shopping trip today:

We had a great shopping trip today at both Aldi and Dillons (Kroger). I especially enjoyed the Dillons trip as we were about to get two big bags of apples marked down to $1.49 each along with some skim milk marked down to $0.73. I just always love the adventure of spotting mark-downs; you never know what you might find!

I also discovered, much to my delight, that the Goody Ouchless ponytail holders were on sale for $2 so using this $2/1 coupon, we were able to get five packs free. And just in time as we somehow lost almost every ponytail holder we own when we moved (how does that happen?!). I'm guessing these are on sale at all Dillons stores and maybe some other Kroger stores so be sure to check.

Before coupons and sales, our total was around $105 at Dillons. After coupons and sale prices? $26.76! Gotta love those deals; who would ever pay full price for this stuff, though?

I ended up spending a few dollars more at Dillons than I was originally planning to so I took a few minutes before going into Aldi to cross a few things off my list that I didn't have to get this week and also took a quick inventory of how much leftover grocery money I had stashed away from staying under budget in recent weeks.

At Aldi, we picked up a few staple items we needed, 3 lbs. of sweet potatoes for $0.99, and some fruits and veggies to round out our menu. Our total there was $15.07.

So all totaled, we spent $41.83--a little over our $40 budget, but using the extra cash from the past few weeks that we've stayed a little under budget, I didn't have to have them take anything off my order! Yay! And next time, I'm going to plan a little better and make sure I don't get carried away on deals at Dillons like I seemed to do a little of this week! :)

Here's our menu for the week (As always, this is using ingredients purchased this week and ingredients we've stocked up in past $40 shopping trips. We didn't buy any meat or many veggies this week as our freezer is still stocked with those from past sales.):

Breakfasts
Pumpkin apple breakfast bread, yogurt
Whole-wheat pancakes, yogurt, juice
Oatmeal with bananas, flaxseed, and brown sugar
Cranberry wheat muffins, fruit, milk
Banana peanut butter smoothies, toast
Granola over yogurt with fruit
Healthy Harvest Muffins, yogurt, juice

Lunches
Egg salad sandwiches, carrots
PB&J sandwiches, pears
Cheese quesadillas, grapes
Salmonettes, muffins, apples
Steamed veggies over rice
Rice cakes, yogurt, carrots

Dinners
Enchilada casserole, green rice (I'll have to share the recipe for this sometime soon; it's a family favorite!), broccoli
Goulash, homemade bread, veggies
Church dinner--I'm bringing scalloped potatoes, apple pie, and banana bread
Chicken broccoli rice, homemade bread, grapefruit
Homemade pizza, fruit
Steak stir fry over brown rice, homemade bread
Dinner out

Snacks--Muffins, yogurt, apples, carrots

For more menu inspiration, head over to Organizing Junkie.

$40 Menu Q&A: Aldi, menu-planning, recipes, and our budget

Since there were a number of questions on this week's $40 shopping trip and menu post, I decided to answer them in a separate post for those interested.

Do you know of anyone who blogs about sales at Aldis? Aldis moved my city recently, but the closest one is about 15 minutes from my house (I have 3 other grocery stores within 5 minutes of my house.) So I don't plan to go to Aldis often, but would like to know when they have specials. Any tips or ideas for shopping there?

Aldi doesn't really run many sales but their staple prices are often much lower than grocery store prices. I'd recommend you make a trip or two to Aldi in the next few weeks to familiarize yourself with the store and compare prices.

You might find that a trip there once a month to stock up on staple items will help you to lower your grocery budget. Or you may find that you can usually beat their prices with store sales and coupons. Either way, it will be good to know.

For more advice on shopping at Aldi, check out this article.

I have a question about your meal plan, shopping lists and recipes - how long does it take you to do this every week? I'm in desperate need of guidance in this area - we spend $300 - $500 dollars A WEEK on groceries and other household supplies, yet we never have anything to put together balanced meals! I'm looking for a place to start so any advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated!

First off, remember that I didn't start menu planning and feeding my family on $40 a week last week or even last year. I've been at this for years and the practice really does make a difference.

As for how long it takes me, well, that really depends upon how good the sales are. On dismal sale weeks, I usually try to use what we already have on hand and then hit Aldi for the rest. So the whole menu-planning and grocery-list-writing process might take me 20 minutes or so.

On good sale weeks, I take more time to scour the ad, match-up coupons, find printable coupons, and then make our menu and grocery list. All told, it might take me 45 minutes to an hour. I rarely ever spend longer than that.

My advice for you would be to start our slowly. If planning a week's worth of meals seems daunting, try to just plan a week's worth of simple dinners. Go through your cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer and make sure you have everything on hand to make all the recipes you've chose. Plan side dishes, too. And then force yourself to stick with it! Sometimes the determination to see it through is half the battle.

Also, your family needs to be on board with you. If Mom's determined to shop once per week and stick with a menu but everyone else complains and whines and refuses to go along, chances are you likely won't be able to make it work.

Have a family meeting, let your family members give input on meals and snacks, and work out a plan. And then work the plan! Don't expect changes to happen overnight, but be encouraged as you start heading in a more organized and cost effective direction. You can do it!

Do you add up your price (net of coupons) on your calculator each time you add an item to your cart? I know I would forget something and never quite get my total right! How do you stay so perfectly within budget?

Yes. My biggest help is that I only bring $40 cash to the store. No credit card (we don't have those--thanks, Dave!), no debit cards, no nothing else besides the cash. Believe me, when you know you only have your allotted amount to spend, you usually are pretty determined to stick within the budget!

I usually try to leave a few dollars extra wiggle room and have mentally picked out a few items in my cart that I can always take off my order if I end up being overbudget. That has happened a few times and I want to be prepared.

Ok...spill your recipe for peanut butter smoothies. I bet my kids would love them!

Here you are:

Yummy Banana Peanut Butter Smoothies

3/4 to 1 cup sliced frozen bananas (like this)
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon peanut butter

Blend in the blender until smooth. The above makes about 13-15 oz. I can drink all of that  for breakfast but I'm also pregnant and nursing.

Word to the wise: Do not give these smoothies to young children who like to make messes. Otherwise, in the process of eating it, they will spill it all over themselves and your kitchen and you'll have sticky banana goo to clean up. Ask me how I know. :)

What is crockpot ragout? Could you share a description or recipe? I love using the crockpot.

Here's the recipe. This is my first week to try it so I can't say whether it'll become a regular at our house or not.

do you have a recipe site? i have wanted 2 of your dishes now...enchilada casserole and another taco dish you made. please share!

No, I don't have a recipe site and I'm afraid I'd not be a very good candidate for a recipe blogger. You see, I'm not one to use recipes very often. After years of tinkering in the kitchen, I've found I prefer to use recipes as a guideline or launching pad rather than a strict standard to be followed.

For instance, the enchilada casserole will be based upon a recipe but then highly modified based upon the mood I'm in, our taste preferences, and the ingredients we have. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but my hubby loves most everything I cook and I do, too. Plus, the creativity in the kitchen helps us to use what we have on hand and spend less at the store. So I guess you could say it's a good problem that I don't like to follow recipes very carefully. :)

Would you consider doing a post about your ENTIRE budget? I would love to see a real world example of a real family's entire budget.

Here's a link to a post on my old blog which has both our bare-bones $1000/month law school budget and our current budget. We've modified it a bit since that post was written, but it's very similar. Feel free to ask if you have any questions. I can't promise I have great answers, but I'll try to answer as best as I can!

This week's $40 shopping trip and menu

We did our weekly grocery shopping at Aldi and Dillons this week. Here's what we came home with:

I was so excited to find some mark-downs on bananas, steak, milk, and yogurt. Plus, with the sweet mix-and-match sale going on at Dillons, we were able to score some other great deals--including a number of free and more-than-free items.

The best deal was the Scotch-Brite nailsaver sponges which were on sale for $1 and part of the mix-and-match sale of Buy 10, Get $5 Back. I bought five and using five $1/1 coupons, I was paid $0.50 for each one I bought. And we just opened up the last package of sponges I'd purchased on a deal last year. I love it when sales work out like that!

Before sales and coupons, our total would have been right around $70. After coupons, we paid right around $14.50! Gotta love Kroger!

We picked up a few staple items at Aldi and spent right around $25.50. So it worked out to be almost to the penny $40 for groceries this week. It's amazing how only having cash and a calculator forces you to stick with the budget!

Here's our menu for this week:

Breakfasts:
Pancakes, yogurt, juice
Banana/milk/peanut butter smoothies (these are soo good!), whole-wheat toast
Oatmeal, fruit
Banana bread, yogurt, fruit
Scrambled eggs, toast, juice
Granola over yogurt with fruit
Cold cereal with fruit

Lunches:
Egg salad sandwiches, carrots
Baked potatoes with cheese, veggies
Leftovers
Beans and rice, veggies
PB&J, carrots
Rice cakes, yogurt, fruit
Grilled cheese sandwiches, fruit

Dinners:
Chicken noodle soup over mashed potatoes, homemade bread, grapefruit
Birthday dinner for my mom at my family's house--I'm bringing make-ahead mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, and pumpkin rolls
Crockpot ragout, homemade bread
Meatballs, twice baked potatoes, veggies, homemade bread, pear crisp with whipping cream
Enchilada casserole, green rice, veggies
Hamburger mashed potato casserole, fruit
Dinner out
(Can anyone tell that I'm craving anything with potatoes right now?!)

Snacks:
Banana bread
Granola bites
Fruit
Yogurt

Our $40 menu this week

You can see the groceries we bought this week here for $38. Of course, we're not just using those to make the following meals; many of the ingredients are coming from things we already had in our cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer.

The beauty of bargain-shopping is that stocking up on sales enables you to have a variety of ingredients at your fingertips at all times. With our move and my break from shopping while in my first trimester, our stock was somewhat diminished. However, I'm hoping to quickly replenish it all the while sticking to our grocery budget. Follow along with my shopping trips over the next few weeks to see if I'm able to do that!

BREAKFASTS
Whole wheat waffles (From the freezer--I made a batch of these during breakfast one morning and froze them.), homemade yogurt, grapefruit
Whole wheat toast, scrambled eggs, apple juice
Homemade granola over homemade yogurt with strawberries
Whole what pancakes (from the freezer), yogurt, orange juice
Cold cereal, apple juice
Banana muffins (from the freezer), yogurt, strawberries
Fruit smoothies, whole wheat toast

LUNCHES
Mixed green salad with hard-boiled eggs and shredded cheese
Beans and rice with cheese, steamed veggies
PB&J on whole wheat, carrot sticks
Baked potatoes with cheese and broccoli
Egg salad sandwiches on whole wheat, apples
Leftovers
Soup in the crock pot, mixed green salad, whole wheat bread

DINNERS
Lasagna, steamed veggies, whole wheat bread
Snack foods (We're going to an election watch party where food will be served so I'm just feeding the girls some snackie foods before we go to tide them over.)
Taco pie, steamed veggies, grapefruit
Goulash, steamed veggies, whole wheat bread
Meatloaf, cooked carrots, baked potatoes
Dinner out
Leftover (Sunday night)

SNACKS
Yogurt with fruit
Cheese
Banana muffins
Carrot sticks
Apples

Our $40 menu for this week

After weeks of living in survival mode with our move and my morning sickness, I am so happy to be settled down a bit, feeling almost 50% myself again most days, and to be  ready to start cooking, baking, and menu-planning in earnest again.

Since I'm pregnant and nursing, I'm especially taking care to eat well and get in lots of nutrition--especially when it comes to fruits, veggies, whole grains, and protein. The challenge is to come up with a creative, balanced menu that meets all of my nutritional requirements on $40 per week. It's a fun new adventure!

Here's what I came up with for this week:

BREAKFASTS
Whole-wheat griddlecakes with pear butter, oranges, milk
Eggs, whole-wheat toast, grapes, milk
Homemade granola over yogurt, fruit, orange juice
Whole-wheat waffles, oranges, milk
Fruited oatmeal with yogurt, bananas, orange juice
Bran muffins, cottage cheese, fruit, orange juice
Banana muffins, yogurt, fruit

LUNCHES
Tuna salad on whole wheat toast, steamed veggies
Mixed greens sprinked with chopped hard-boiled eggs and grated cheese, whole wheat toast
Baked potatoes with cheese and cottage cheese, steamed veggies
Beans and brown rice with cheese, steamed veggies
Turkey sandwiches on whole wheat toast, steamed veggies
Leftovers
PB&J on whole wheat toast, fresh veggies

DINNERS
Chicken enchiladas, steamed veggies, mixed greens salad
Meatloaf, baked potatoes, mixed green salad
Chicken and brown rice in the crockpot, steamed veggies
Homemad mac and cheese with ground beef and onions, steamed veggies
Chicken and veggie pizza, mixed green salad
Dinner out
Leftovers (Sunday evening)

SNACKS
Bran muffins
Banana muffins
Veggies/Fruit
Granola over yogurt with fruit

To see more menu inspiration for this week, visit Organizing Junkie.

Super Savings Saturday: This week's $40 shopping trip and menu

Back by popular demand and because I actually went shopping this week, here's what $40 total bought at CVS, Aldi, and Hen House:

Our CVS deal is worth mentioning since it would work well for a newbie:

Bought 2 Children's Advils at $5.79 each, used 2 $1/1 coupons
Bought 2 boxes SmartStart priced at $4.59, on sale B1G1, used 2 $1/1 coupons
Paid with $12 in ECBs and $0.59, Got $11.98 ECBs back!

(Read more about these deals and where to find the coupons here.)

Another deal I was excited about from Hen House: we got Kathrynne's ultimate favorite yogurt Yoplait yogurt drinks for $0.48 per pack of six. (They were on sale for $1.98 and we used the $1.50 coupon here.)

Our combined three-store trip wasn't anything incredible, but we got enough groceries to last us for the week, along with a few extra treats, and we spent right at $39!

Here's the menu for this week:

BREAKFASTS
Cereal, fruit
Yogurt, fruit, homemade bread
Banana bread, fruit, yogurt smoothies
Fresh juice, English muffins, scrambled eggs
Homemade cinnamon rolls, fruit, yogurt
Breakfast burritos, fruit
Cereal, fruit

LUNCHES
PB&J, fruit, carrots
Cheese quesadillas, veggies
Baked potatoes with broccoli and cheese
Leftovers x 2
Split peas, brown rice, cottage cheese
Yogurt, banana bread, veggies

DINNERS
Lasagna casserole, homemade bread, salad, green beans
Beef hot dogs, potato salad, veggies, fruit, icecream bars
Italian meatballs over rice, homemade breadsticks, salad, steamed veggies
Beef sausage and onions, scalloped potatoes, grapefruit, homemade bread
Burritos, salad, fruit, corn
Grilled chicken, salad, homemade bread, fruit
Leftovers or dinner out

SNACKS--Veggies, banana bread, yogurt, fruit, cereal, cheese quesadillas, toast, cheese

::::::::::::

How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week or other ways you saved money on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below. **To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post. Links going to the homepage of your blog or any other part of your blog besides the direct link to your Super Savings Saturday post will be deleted.**

The two-week menu for this week and last week

I'm a little late in getting this posted (only a few more days and we start on a new menu!) but I guess that means this menu is also more accurate since it's more what we actually ate, not what we planned to eat!

To see our $76 grocery trip, go here. I kept things really simple for these two weeks as we had a lot of things going on and I was feeling the need to keep things simple.

Here's the menu:

BREAKFASTS (I try to shoot for a combination of two servings of whole-grains, one serving of protein, and one to two servings of fruit for all of our breakfast menus.)

Cereal, fruit x 6 (We usually have more variety but since I bought 15 boxes of cereal on our shopping trip? We're lots of it right now. And did I mention how easy cereal is to serve for breakfast?!)
Juice, English muffins, yogurt
Strawberry smoothies, toast
Blueberry cream muffins, scrambled eggs, fruit
English muffins, scrambled eggs, fruit
Orange/carrot juice (made in our juicer), toast, yogurt
Whole-wheat waffles, yogurt, fruit

LUNCHES (I try to have a combination of a serving of protein, one to two servings of whole grain/complex carbohydrates, and two servings of veggies/fruit for our lunch menus.)

Chicken fingers, apples, rolls
Split peas, brown rice, cottage cheese
PB&J, oranges, broccoli
Leftovers
Turkey sandwiches, mixed vegetables
Quesadillas, carrots
Burritos, veggies
Scrambled eggs, spinach, mashed potatoes
Tuna sandwiches, carrots, apples, Chex Mix
Salad, homemade bread
Split peas, brown rice, fruit salad
Spinach/cheese/rice casserole, fruit
Leftovers
PB&J, apples, carrots
Turkey sandwiches, mixed veggies
Chicken fingers, bananas, mixed veggies, whole-wheat toast

DINNERS (Dinners are similar to lunches in that I try to have a combination of one to two servings of protein, one to two servings of whole grains/complex carbohydrates, and at least two servings of fruit/veggies.)

Homemade mac and cheese, broccoli, homemade bread
Haystacks, rice
Waffles, fresh juice (we often have this on Sunday evenings and I make up extra waffles to use for breakfast and snack s throughout the week)
Lasagna casserole, green beans, bread
Hamburger mashed potato casserole, homemade bread
Leftovers
Italian chicken over brown rice
Dinner out (we had a gift card)
BBQ meatballs, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, mixed veggies
Dinner at friends' home (bring bread and fruit)
Hamburgers, mashed potatoes with basil, grilled onions, corn-on-the-cob
Lasagna casserole, toast, green beans
Beef hot dogs, fruit, pasta salad
Dinner out

SNACKS (We usually have at least two snacks per day--the fact that I'm still nursing Kaitlynn means I'm often hungry and three meals per day just doesn't cut it for me! I try to serve at least one healthy snack a day and then one snack is usually something less healthy like Chex Mix or cookies.)

Fruit (apples/bananas)
Raw veggies (carrot sticks)
Cheese
Quesadillas
Popcorn
Chex Mix
Animal crackers
Cereal
Blueberry muffins
Homemade bread
Whole-wheat chocolate chip cookies
Ice cream

Q&A: The Menu Edition

Whenever I post one of our weekly menus, I seem to get an onslaught of questions. Rather than try and answer all the questions left on this week's menu post in the comments section of the post, I'm answering some of them here:

Do you ever have to mix up your menus? Like when you forget to take the meat out of the freezer? Do you just substitute another meal that you planned for later in the week? I guess what I am asking is: is this a *plan* or a *guide* for your meals?

Do I ever mix up the menus? Um, actually, I don't think I've ever followed a menu completely accurately. That would be boring, you know. Just as I rarely ever follow a recipe to a tee and cannot--for the life of me--stick on a strict schedule, I also love to mix things up when it comes to menus.

The menu serves as my guide, not a rigid, must-follow-exactly taskmaster. I know that I have a plan in place for the week and enough food to carry out this plan but if another idea strikes my fancy, I can always change course in the middle of the week and make substitutions where needed.

I know that this method would drive some people batty, but it works well for highly-distracted "creative" people like me.

Your menus sound really yummy and healthy- do your kids eat the same as you and your husband? I don't see very much meat at all- what else are you counting as a protein besides eggs?

We pretty much all eat the same; I'm not into making four different kinds of dinners--too much work for a simple person like me! I cook to please my husband primarily so I've tried to encourage my girls to learn to "eat what's set before them". They don't always eat everything but I do have them try everything and most of the time, require them to eat at least a bite or two of those items they aren't very fond of.

I know that our menu might look shockingly protein-bare to the average American who has been raised that protein is only found in meat and eggs. In actuality, there is protein in a wide variety of food groups--even in fruit, believe it or not!

Since meat is expensive and many of the types out there are not that healthy anyway (hormone-laden, MSG-laden, etc.), we've opted to derive our protein from a variety of sources including cheese and dairy products, eggs, legumes, and vegetables.

We have at least one meat-heavy meal per week: hamburgers, beef hot dogs, barbecue meatballs, etc. We normally have one or two meatless meals per week (often lasagna, spaghetti casserole, or a Mexican dish--we just omit the meat and no one notices!). The rest of our dinners have some meat in them but it's usually not in large quantities.

When we were first married, we were living on so little (less than $1000/month many months!) that we couldn't afford much meat at all. We bought a bag of chicken from Aldi for $6.99 and this had to last us for two weeks. We didn't buy beef at all for two years unless I could get it on some incredible mark-down price. We were willing to make these sacrifices because we wanted to stay out of debt through law school.

Now that our income has increased, we've been able to afford more meat, but we still have limited it as this helps keep our grocery bill lower. However, we are planning to purchase a freezer and a fourth of a cow from a local farm whenever our tax stimulus check decides to mosey it's way to our mailbox. Since we'll have a freezer full of hormone-free, organic beef, I'm guessing meat might make its way into more of our meals. We'll see!

I am curious, how do you afford to eat dinner out once per week on your budget??

Our eating out budget is separate from our grocery budget. I know this really throws some people off, but it's just the way we roll.

We like to go out to eat and since we're currently living on almost less than half of our income, it's a splurge we've decided to allow ourselves.

That said, when we go out to eat, we do it the frugal way: we use coupons, we go to inexpensive restaurants, we hit the free birthday dinners and other free restaurant deals, we order water, we split entrees, and so forth.

For some, going out to eat is a $40 or more affair. For us, we can often get in and out for less than $20 (or less than $10 if it's fast food).

We don't always go out to eat once per week, but I would say that we usually go out at least once a week--sometimes for dinner, sometimes for lunch or breakfast on the weekends, or sometimes for dessert if our eating out budget is almost maxed out for the month!

Where is the meat from your menu plan coming from? (BBQ Beef Pizza, hamburgers, taco salad, etc.). Are you pulling that from previous stock-ups? How much of your 2-week menu plan is leveraged from stock vs. this 2-week trip?

When there is a good deal on meat, I usually try to buy enough to last for at least two weeks (provided I can wing it in our $40/week budget). Since not every kind of meat is on sale every week, this ensures more variety and it usually means that we have at least some beef and some chicken to work with each week.

You can see what we bought at the store for this two-week trip here. I already had 2 pounds of ground beef in the freezer, taco salad meat made up and frozen, plus some lunch meat on hand. In addition, I bought two packages of chicken and a package of beef hot dogs. At the rate we're going, we'll still have some of this left to use for next week since we've ended up with more leftovers this week than I was counting on (better to be over-prepared than under-prepared, right?). 

The Two-Week Grocery Experiment: Menu

After determining to try a two-week shopping trip, planning a rough menu based upon the store sales and what I already had on hand, and then taking a few hours to make the big (or so it seemed to me!) $76 shopping trip, I then sat down and made out a detailed two-week menu. I decided to plan a little more than we usually would eat each week, just to be sure we had plenty since this whole two-week shopping thing is completely new territory for me.

Here's the menu:

BREAKFASTS (I try to shoot for a combination of two servings of whole-grains, one serving of protein, and one to two servings of fruit for all of our breakfast menus.)

Cereal, fruit
Strawberry/banana/pineapple/flaxseed smoothie, toast
Blueberry cream muffins, scrambled eggs, fruit
Bagels, yogurt, fruit
Banana bread, yogurt, fruit
Blueberry/pineapple/flaxseed smoothies, toast
English muffins, scrambled eggs, fruit
Orange/carrot/pineapple juice (made in our juicer), toast, yogurt
Cereal, fruit
Whole-wheat waffles, yogurt, fruit
Banana bread, yogurt, fruit
French toast, scrambled eggs, fruit
Oatmeal in the crockpot, fruit
Strawberry/banana/flaxseed smoothie, whole wheat waffles

LUNCHES (I try to have a combination of a serving of protein, one to two servings of whole grain/complex carbohydrates, and two servings of veggies/fruit for our lunch menus.)

Chicken fingers, apple slices, peas, whole-wheat toast
Vegetable stirfry over brown rice with flaxseeds
Split peas, brown rice, fruit
PB&J, oranges, broccoli
Leftovers
Turkey/cheese sandwiches, mixed vegetables
Quesadillas, carrots
Salad, homemade bread
Split peas, brown rice, fruit salad
Leftovers
PB&J, apples, carrots
Turkey/cheese sandwiches, mixed veggies
Burritos, carrots, apples
Chicken fingers, bananas, mixed veggies, whole-wheat toast

DINNERS (Dinners are similar to lunches in that I try to have a combination of one to two servings of protein, one to two servings of whole grains/complex carbohydrates, and at least two servings of fruit/veggies.)

Build-your-own burritos, wild rice mix, southwest corn, fruit salad
French toast, scrambled eggs, strawberry/pineapple/banana smoothies
Taco salad, homemade bread, fruit
Beef hot dogs, corn on the cob, pasta salad, fruit
Homemade BBQ beef pizza, fruit, veggies
Hamburgers, wild rice mix, green beans, corn on the cob 
Dinner out
Homemade mac and cheese with veggies, peas, fruit salad
Baked potatoes with broccoli and cheese sauce, homemade bread, fruit
Homemade BBQ beef pizza, fruit, veggies
Haystacks (build-your-own Mexican platter: Mexican beans, lettuce, tomato, corn chips, cheese, sour cream, salsa), corn
Spaghetti casserole, Italian cheese bread, green beans, grapefruit,
Chicken broccoli rice casserole, homemade bread, fruit,
Dinner out

SNACKS (We usually have at least two snacks per day--the fact that I'm still nursing Kaitlynn means I'm often hungry and three meals per day just doesn't cut it for me! I try to serve at least one healthy snack a day and then one snack is usually something less healthy like Chex Mix or cookies.)

Fruit (apples/bananas)
Raw veggies (carrot sticks)
Cheese slices
Popcorn
Chex Mix
Animal crackers
PB&J
Cereal
Blueberry muffins
Homemade bread
Banana bread
Cookies

See more menus for this week here.

This week's $40 grocery trip and menu

We shopped at Hen House and Aldi for  groceries week, in addition to CVS. We went on Thursday night, not realizing that the Hen House 3-day sale didn't start until Friday. So we waited to buy some of our groceries because I couldn't bear to spend the non-sale prices. Above is pictured our first trip.

[For those of you in the Kansas City area, through tomorrow the LiveActive cereals are on sale for $2.99 at Hen House. Use the $3/1 coupons and get them free!]

And here's the second trip when the 3-day sale prices were in effect! Since we were already going to be right there and waiting would save us around $5-$8, we decided it was worth it.

All totaled, we spent just under $38--with enough change to spare for two trips to CVS.

CVS transaction #1: I somehow ended up with a total of $0.00 after the coupons and ECBs!

CVS transaction #2: Total after coupons and ECBs: $0.93! And we got around $15 ECBs back! Yay!

Here's what's on the menu for this week:

Breakfasts
Banana bread, cottage cheese, strawberries
Oatmeal in the crockpot with bananas
Waffles, grapefruit, cottage cheese
Cold cereal, fruit
Potato pancakes, fruit, eggs with cheese

Lunches
Sweet potatoes, homemade bread, cottage cheese
Beans/rice, guacamole
PB&J, carrot sticks
Baked potatoes, cheese, broccoli
Leftovers

Dinners
"Haystacks" (Build-your-own type of meal we had often growing up--I just set out corn chips, shredded lettuce, Mexican beans, tomatoes, cheese, salsa, etc. and everyone makes their own taco salad of sorts.), corn on the cob
Italian chicken over brown rice, banana muffins, green beans
Lasagna casserole, homemade breadsticks, broccoli, strawberries
Barbecue chicken pizza, corn on the cob, grapefruit
Italian beans and brown rice, chips and guacamole, fruit
Meatballs, corn on the cob, sweet potatoes, homemade bread

See more menus for this week here.

This week's shopping trip and $40 menu

Because we had a little bit more time on Saturday, we hit more stores than normal: Aldi, CVS, Price Chopper, Hen House, and Wal-Mart. Our total was right around $39.80!

This week's menu:

Breakfasts
Whole-wheat pancakes, freshly-made juice
Oatmeal, fresh juice
Cereal, carrot/orange/banana/flax seed smoothie
Baked oatmeal, fruit
Homemade cinnamon rolls, fruit

Lunches
Split peas, brown rice, carrots
PB&J, pears
Mixed green salad, hard boiled eggs, toast
Leftovers
Baked potatoes, broccoli, cheese

Dinners
Chicken broccoli rice casserole, homemade whole-wheat bread, salad, green beans, grapefruit
Chili, apple slices, homemade bread, cheese slices (We're likely going to be having this twice this week since I made such a big pot of it! If so, we'll serve it over rice with cheese sprinkled on top the second night!)
Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, biscuits, mixed green salad
Broccoli and cheddar crepes, homemade cinnamon rolls, fruit salad
Barbecue beef pizza, corn on the cob, grapefruit