Menu Plan Monday-March 21st

It's been cloudy around here over the weekend and we are hoping for some rain tomorrow. Seems like a good soup day. So, that's how we're starting off this week's menu plan!

Monday: Ham & Bean Soup with cornbread
Tuesday: Spaghetti with homemade meat sauce and salad
Wednesday: Turkey with steamed veggies 
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Homemade pizza


Here's hoping we can stick with our plan!!

What are YOU eating this week?

Menu Plan Monday-Feb. 28th

We're on a roll with plans laid out two week in a row! :) Whew!

Monday: Grilled steak, freezer mashed potatoes, steamed veggies

Tuesday: Marinated chicken breasts with salad

Wednesday: BBQ Beef sandwiches with fresh veggies and chips

Thursday: Leftovers if enough or pasta dish from the freezer

Friday: Fish Fry at the Quilt Festival

What are YOU eating this week?

*For hundreds of ideas, check out orgjunkie.com

Menu Plan Monday-Feb. 21st

After yet another few weeks with no plan in place (clearly still not great on menu planning consistency), I was determined to start this week off right. A blustery, rainy weekend here had us coming up with warm & hearty options!

Monday - Chili with garlic bread and fresh veggies

Tuesday - Hamburger-Macaroni Goulash with steamed veggies (already made from my round of pasta dish freezer cooking)

Wednesday - Marinated chicken breasts & green salad

Thursday - Leftovers

Friday - Creamy Italian Chicken with steamed veggies

What are YOU eating this week?

Menu Plan Monday-Jan. 24th

After the craziness of the holidays and some kind of post-holiday rut/funk at our house, we finally have a menu plan again! While it may seem silly to say that I'm excited about a menu plan, it's true...I am SO excited about this!!! There's nothing particularly fancy or exciting on the menu--just feels good to have a plan in place again. And, the little freezer cooking session I did last week definitely helped!


So, here's what our first plan of 2011 looks like:
Sunday: Chili served with french bread & carrot sticks
Monday: Taco bar (using some of the meat from the freezer cooking session)
Tuesday: Chicken tenders, homemade potato wedges, and green salad
Wednesday: Eggplant Parmesan (a meal already made in the freezer) & steamed veggies
Thursday: Leftovers or Ham & Bean Soup (already in freezer)
Friday: Homemade pizza night


What are YOU eating this week?

Menu Plan Monday-11/1

It's hard to believe that it's November already!  I'm not entirely sure where the month of October went!!  With all the weekend festivities, I hadn't even given this week a thought (until now).  While I would so love to be doing various warm fall dishes--like chili and soups, it is decidedly NOT very fall-like this week, with temperatures close to 90 through Wednesday.  So, I'm not feeling like Pumpkin Chili should be on this week's menu. Hopefully soon though.

  

Instead, here's what the week looks like...
Monday - leftover pizza from the weekend
Tuesday - Salad bar 
Wednesday - Cold pasta salad (loaded with lots of leftover veggies from the previous night's salad bar) and chicken
Thursday - Leftovers (if enough) or egg-plant parmesan (a freezer meal prepared last month)
Friday - Grilling (either burgers or chicken)
What's on your menu this week?

Menu Plan Monday-10/18

A trip out of town had me seriously thrown off last week with menu planning and our evenings definitely suffered as a result.  So, this week, I'm back at it--hoping to ensure less chaos & crabbiness in those evening hours.
Here's what our week looks like:
Monday--Creamy Italian Chicken with broccoli 

Tuesday--Marinated Chicken breasts with salad
Wednesday (forecast for rain & much cooler temps--here's hoping!)--Homemade chicken noodle soup & grilled cheese sandwiches
Thursday--Leftover buffet
Friday--Hamburgers on the grill 
Saturday--Pumpkin patch dinner out! :)


What's on YOUR menu this week?

Menu Plan Monday-10/4

It is good to be back in the swing of things with our menu planning and I'm pleased to say that last week's went well.  As did the egg plant parmesan (and I made enough for two, so we have one waiting in the freezer for another week)!

Now, on to this week's short plan:

Monday--Easy Shepard's Pie (Recipe below)

Tuesday--Creamy Italian Chicken over noodles with salad
Wednesday--Left overs
Thursday--Dinner at parent's house for the Thursday night Nebraska game!  Go Big Red!
Friday--Vegas baby! :)  (We have some easy things in the freezer for my parents to do with the boys for the weekend)


Easy Shepard's (Cottage) Pie:
This is a great recipe to use leftovers with!  
You need about 1 1/2 pounds of beef.  I'm sure you could use ground, but I like to use leftover roast meat!  
I have a lot of canned soups from couponing, so I just mixed up the beef with a can (minus about 1/2 the broth) of beef barley soup.  I think vegetable beef or any other beef soup/stew would work fine.  This seemed like a quick & lighter swap for the traditional gravy this recipe normally calls for.
Dump the meat mixture into the bottom of a casserole dish.  Then, top the meat with green beans.  On top of that, place a layer of mashed potatoes (in my case, these were also left over).  
Then, place in the oven on 350 for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes start to brown. Top with a little cheese if your taste buds so desire.
Super easy (especially if you have leftovers) and yummy! 

Menu Plan Monday-September 27th

After a menu planning hiatus from being out of state visiting family, vacation recovery, and dealing with a sick baby, we are now back in the swing of things with menu planning.  

So, here it is:

Monday--Eggplant Parmesean*

Tuesday--Salad night with chicken & lots of veggies

Wednesday--Turkey Kielbasa sausage with potatoes and veggies

Thursday--Leftovers

Friday--Tacos & black beans

(Saturday & Sunday--I have yet to plan the weekend out as I find that things always seem to come up).

*I've never made this before and honestly am not sure that I've ever eaten eggplant before.  But, I wanted to give it a shot as I thought it would be a nice, frugal way to try out a meatless dish (since I got two eggplants for $2 at the store).  I followed these directions exactly.  We'll see how it tastes tonight, but so far, it looks quite good!  And, two yielded plenty for two complete dishes, so I put one in the freezer to have another time.  See directions for the freezer here.

As always, head over to orgjunkie.com on Mondays to get hundreds of menu planning ideas.

Menu Plan Monday-A History

So, I never really thought I would actually be one to menu plan, but between trying to save money & be healthier by eating out less, having LOTS more variety of food from my new-found couponing addiction, and a little motivation from a new blog I discovered, I decided to attempt a plan for the week for first time at the beginning of August.  
This was it: 
Monday: Zuccini Pasta Bake/Casserole (the ingredients made 2, so one is in the freezer & ready to go for another day! YAY!)

Tuesday: Marinated Chicken Breasts & Salad

Wednesday: Baked Potatoes

Thursday: Leftovers or skillet meal from freezer

Friday: Homemade Pizza

(Saturday & Sunday we have some tentative plans and might not need meals at home, so those are TBD). 

At the time, I as so unsure about how things would go. But we were very pleasantly surprised! We managed to stick to our plans for the rest of the month with no fast food and no unplanned eating out or grocery store runs!  That was HUGE for our family.  By the end of the month, I was even starting to get fancy with trying out at least one new recipe each week complete with recipe links and pictures:

Monday: Chicken Cordon Bleu  with parmesan crusted zucchini

(They turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself! See...)

Tuesday: Shredded beef tacos, black beans, chips & salsa

Wednesday: Leftovers if there is enough or Orange Chicken Stir Fry

Thursday: Scrounge--clear out the fridge

Friday: Airport food court!! Then, no menu plan for 9 days!! :) 

If you haven't tried menu planning, I encourage you to give it a try!  For lots of inspiration & ideas, head over to orgjunkie.com and check out Menu Plan Monday!