Menu Plan Monday 11/2-11/8

**Another week is upon us so that means it is time for another menu plan! This is just a plan and it could change on the cook’s whim!

Last week's menu plan went off without too much trouble. I made all my “favorite” dishes and made sure to alternate the type of meat each night so things went smoothly! I got some baking done this past week too! For my birthday, hubby arranged for the kids to spend the night at Grandma’s so we were able to go out on date to Red Robin and have some time to ourselves (something that is a rarity with 5 kids).

The roses are my birthday gift from my hubby! Aren’t they beautiful!?!?

This week's shopping trip was a major shopping trip! I should not need to get anything the next two weeks other than milk, fruit, and WIC!

I am throwing in a new recipe into the mix along with other family favorites. Also this week, we have another birthday in the family! My youngest son, P, turns 2!!

Lunches listed are for the kids and me. Usually with our lunches I serve carrot sticks, and some kind of in-season fruit along with juice or water to drink. Hubby usually takes dinner leftovers each day along with several items for snacks.

If you are looking for some inspiration you can find links to my menu suggestion lists over in my right side bar down by Organizing Junkie's button.

A special thanks to Laura-Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday! Need help with your menus; go check other delicious meal plans that have been linked at Laura-Organizing Junkie's site! **

Sunday (11-2)
Breakfast: eggs, sausage links, hash browns, and cinnamon rolls
Lunch: sandwiches & chips
Dinner: chicken nuggets, mac & cheese and peas
Snack: snack basket

Monday (11-3)
Breakfast: cereal and toast or muffins
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: roast, carrots, & potatoes served with homemade rolls
Snack: snack basket

Tuesday (11-4) Remember to vote!!
Breakfast: waffles & sausage
Lunch: pizza treats
Dinner: king ranch chicken(new recipe), rice & corn
Snack: snack basket

Wednesday (11-5)
Breakfast: bagels, cereal, & yogurt
Lunch: sandwich & chips
Dinner: roasted pork loin, cheesy potatoes, and green beans
Snack: cookies & milk

Thursday (11-6) Happy 2nd Birthday to P!
Breakfast: french toast and sausage
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: Burgers/hotdogs, fries, and corn
Snack: snack basket

Friday (11-7)
Breakfast: cereal and toaster strudel
Lunch: sandwiches & chips
Dinner: roasted chicken, mashed potatoes & gravy, and peas
Snack: ice cream night

Saturday (11-8)
Breakfast: “Cook’s Choice”
Lunch: ??? probably leftovers!
Dinner: chili, rice, and cornbread muffins
Snack: snack basket or popcorn

November Sam's Run

Yesterday along with going to regular grocery stores, I made my monthly Sam's run! I spent a little more than I usually do in a month's time there, because with seasonal baking season approaching I grabbed some things that I would normally buy in small quantities and I was out of stock on a few things(pepperoni, baby wipes, fries to name a few) that I get every 3 months!

Here is what I got for the month of November...

• 25lbs brown sugar $13.99
• 30lbs french fries $17.28
• 720 ct Huggies Natural Care wipes $14.86
• 12 ct individual size Red Baron pizza $10.76
• 60ct Eggo waffles $8.02
• 32 ct. Go-Gurt $7.64
• 2pk Nilla Wafers $5.22
• 4lbs. Goldfish crackers $7.44
• 140 ct. Pizza Rolls $9.27
• 5qt vanilla ice cream $5.02
• 12pk chicken broth $5.88
• 3pk-44oz Heinz Ketchup $6.34
• 15oz Minced Onions $4.64
• 5lbs Honey $9.58
• 5lbs mild cheddar cheese $13.28
• 2 pk-40 oz Jif Peanut Butter $7.13
• 5 lbs Country Crock $4.42
• 90 oz Mini asst. candy $9.28 (trick or treating candy)
• 36 ct. Pillsbury biscuits $5.46
• 6lbs Ore Ida Hash browns $4.88
• 2lbs Canadian bacon $7.62
• 5lbs frozen corn $4.76
• 48 ct. string cheese $7.79
• 20 oz real bacon bits $6.88
• 3 1/2 lbs beef hot dogs $7.86
• 5lbs pepperoni $12.57
• 960 ct paper napkins $7.87
• 25lbs all purpose flour $10.08

Total with tax: $237.42

Shopping Sales & Clearance Racks!

Here a couple of days ago, hubby and I went to Kohl's to return a pair of jammies that didn't fit the boy who Grandma intended them to fit. So we went and exchanged them for some lounge pants to go with what he already had and we did some other shopping!! BOY did we make out like a bandit!

Here is what we got....


outfit for daughter...girly sweatpants and a layered shirt. The short sleeve shirt part is a fuzzy fleece with a hoodie while the long shirt part is just a light weight knit. Brand new outfit for $16.50! Grandma had sent us $15 to spend!

2 outfits for youngest son...two long sleeve shirts and two pairs of jeans(no holes!). Total for those outfits $24.00! Grandma sent us $25 to spend! We also found him a pair of flip flops for next summer for 80¢!!! We grab two pairs of the flip flops because one pair we are going to put in our Operation Christmas Child Shoebox!

After getting those outfits, we also started checking the clearance racks and found shorts for the older boys!! These shorts were originally $22 a piece! However, six pairs were marked for $2.20 each and one pair was $6.40 and another pair $3.20!!! So 12 yo boy has 3 pairs of dress shorts, 10 yo boy has 3 pairs of dress shorts, and 8 yo boy has 2 pairs of dress shorts ALL for $22.80!!!

All total with tax everything was $68.79!!! So if you can get to Kohls and have the patience to check out their clearance racks where things are marked at 80% or 90% off!! You can score some brand new clothes at thrift store prices!!

Weekly Shopping Trip--Saved (approx) $113.22

After not going to the grocery store to do any major shopping over the last two weeks, I decided with it being "payday" today that I would do some restocking of my pantry and freezer! I went to FIVE different stores! However, I am once again stocked up for at least another TWO weeks! Some of the stockpile items that I picked up today are for my seasonal baking projects that I will be doing in the next month. One of my five stops was at Sam's, you can read the details here!

Also yesterday I took the time to break down my grocery budget so far for the year, you can see the "big picture" here!

First stop...Family Fare (I got LOTS of Manager's Special Meat today!)

• 1.83 lbs Sirloin Tip Breakfast Steaks $6.65
• 2.00 lbs Cube Steak $5.58
• 2.60 lbs Sirloin Tip Roast $8.17
• 2.28 lbs Thin Cut Pork Loin Chops $8.28
• 7.72 lbs Boneless/Skinless Chicken Breasts $15.36
• 4.32 lbs Ground Beef from Round $10.55
• 5.39 lbs Ground Beef from Chuck $12.03
• 1 bag of shredded lettuce $1.00
• 3 bags baby carrots $3.00
• 2.59 lbs butternut squash $1.30
• 2.11 lbs bananas $1.46

TOTAL: $73.38
SAVINGS TOTAL: 44.08

Next stop....Gordon Food Service(I get a 5% discount)

• 50 ct variety box of chips $9.44
• 30 ct box apple cider donuts $6.64
• 20 oz pumpkin pie spice $9.78
• 30 ct petite plain bagels $5.98
• 500 ct paper baking cups $3.79

Total: $35.86
SAVINGS TOTAL: $1.92(includes discount)

Next stop....Aldi's...

• 3 cans evaporated milk $2.07
• 2 cans sweetened condensed milk $2.78
• 6 cans cream of chicken soup $2.94
• 4 cans cream of mushroom soup $1.96
• 1 carton whipping cream $1.59
• 2 bags chopped pecans $4.98
• 1 bag chopped walnuts $2.99
• 2lbs carrots 99¢
• 1 head lettuce 99¢
• 3 jars marshmallow creme $2.85
• 1 bottle light corn syrup $1.69
• 3 dozen eggs $2.97

TOTAL: $28.80
SAVINGS TOTAL: LOTS! On my receipt it says that I got 28 items so if you divide that number with my total, my average cost per item was $1.03!!

Next stop.....Meijer...

1st transaction....

• 4 lbs stick margarine $2.84
• 4 boxes jiffy muffin mix $2.88
• 4 dozen eggs $3.96
• 2 boxes Jello pudding 62¢
• 1.03 lbs fresh catfish $4.85
• 1 bag 50/60ct shrimp $2.99
• 4 loaves bread $3.96
• 3 bags Birds Eye frozen veggies $2.00
• 4 lbs bacon $8.00
• 2 cont. country crock $3.90
• 2 bottles Juicy Juice $4.00
• 3 boxes Toaster Strudel $4.35
• 2 boxes Bagelfulls $2.00
• 2 boxes chicken nuggets $3.25
• 2 boxes Cinnamon Life $3.00
• 2 boxes Cap N Crunch $3.00
• 6 boxes 12 ct. Poptarts $12.00

Total: $67.60
SAVINGS TOTAL: $51.43(Meijer Promotions $2.00; Non-Coupon Savings $35.43; Coupon Savings $14.00)

2nd transaction....

• 2 boxes Jello Pudding 62¢
• 4 pkgs. hamburger buns $3.96
• 2 bags Birds Eye frozen veggies $1.67
• 2 boxes chicken nuggets $4.00

Total: $10.25
SAVINGS TOTAL: $15.79 (Non-Coupon savings $12.29; Coupon Savings $3.50)

GRAND TOTAL: $329.11
GRAND TOTAL OOP: $215.89
GRAND TOTAL SAVINGS: $113.22 (not including the savings of shopping at Aldis!)

For more savings stories head over to MoneySavingMom's Super Saturday Savings and Becentsable's Centsable Saving Stories.

Ten Months of Groceries!

Its the end of the month, so it is "payday" along with "pay bills day", which means I am working in my Quicken program crunching the numbers. Looking at where we are going for this next month and looking at where we can improve from what we spent last month.

Anyway, I like going and looking at our groceries category to see what was our final monthly total. Well today I decided to look at the big picture in the grocery category, in other words what have we spent for just food to feed my family of seven.

You have seen my weekly savings shopping posts with the totals so I thought I would take the time to give you a look at the big picture as well.

Here is the breakdown...

Grand Total spent on 10 months of food: $5,422.42
Monthly Average Total: $542.24
Average PER Day for 305 days: $17.78
Average PER meal(3 meals each day) for 7 people: $5.93

Now just for comparison, I went to the USDA's Food Plans that are published each month to see if my numbers would fall in their different plans. I decided to start with the "thrifty plan" and here is what I found...

They based their figures on the 2005 MyPyramid food intake recommendations. So looking at the charts and the fine print for a family of 7, I am to take the individual prices in the different age groups and subtract 10% off each amount. So I took the numbers in the "monthly thrifty plan" and did my adjustments and came up with a total of $854.82 for the month. Which figures out to $8548.20 for the 10 months! Average per day would be $28.03 and $9.34 per meal each day! I like my figures better! :)

I know that I have picky eaters who could care less about eating fruits and veggies, so I know that they probably don't get the daily recommended amount. However, I still have fruits & veggies available for consumption on a daily basis, even if it is mostly apples, grapes, carrots and corn!

Putting all the numbers aside, with my figures and shopping methods we have been able to keep up on a freezer and pantry stockpile! We have been able to share meals with others. We are just picky enough in our eating habits that we eat meat at every dinner meal but I keep the meals simple. We also don't do meatless or breakfast meals for dinner! We don't do a lot of processed foods, however, I do keep things like chicken nuggets and frozen fries on hand for quick meals. I make from scratch the majority of our snacks and sweet tooth longings.

I am sure that I could get my current monthly figure of $542.24 to be lower but with all the food price fluctuations recently I don't think I can do without some major changes in our eating habits.

So there you have the big picture of my grocery shopping! Just one side note, so far for non-food items(things like shampoo, body wash, laundry soap, fabric softener, stain remover, bathroom cleaners, toothpaste, etc), I have spent $956.31 for 10 months or $95.63 per month! That figure won't be changing too much because I did a lot of stockpiling at the beginning of the year when I was trying out the drug store shopping scene and found that type of shopping was not for me.

Frugal Friday--Homemade Trail Mix

We love homemade trail mix just about as much as the bags of Chex Mix that I get at the store for $1. Probably even more than the store bought because it is always an adventure for my kids as to what combination I have put together. I have found that I can make homemade trail mix for about the same price!

We do different combinations of trail mix depending on what types of things I have opened. I have found that when I have bags of crackers, pretzels, cereal and other things that are just about gone it makes it easy to combine those bags into one bowl for a trail mix. It makes those things stretch just a bit further and gets rid of those bags of things that isn't quite enough to feed everyone. The one pictured above has goldfish crackers, pretzel sticks, and fruity cheerios mixed together that I fed to the group of 9 kids that I had here about 2 weeks ago!

Some of the other combinations that we have done:

• Rice Chex, pretzels, Cheerios, M&Ms, goldfish crackers and peanuts
  
  


• Cheerios, goldfish crackers, chocolate teddy bears, and peanuts
  
  


• Cheez-its, Corn Chex, peanuts, and M&Ms
  
  


• Cheerios, goldfish crackers, honey teddy bears, smarties
  
  


• Cheerios, goldfish crackers, Froot Loops, pretzels, chocolate chips
  
  


• Popcorn, Cheerios, goldfish crackers, peanuts and M&Ms
  

You could add raisins or dried fruit to the above combinations. We don't like raisins or other dried fruits so those items don't make it into our homemade trail mixes.

I am looking for ideas for different combinations!! If you make your own trail mixes, what combinations do you do that are kid-friendly?

For other frugal tips, recipes and more; head over to Biblical Womanhood.

**reposting from earlier this month**

In Honor of My Birthday!

Earlier this week, Jaime-Thrifty in Cincy tagged me to do a 7 things about me blog post. So since today is my birthday, I thought I would celebrate things here by telling 7 things about me.

Here's the official rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share seven facts about yourself.
3. Tag seven people, listing the links to their blogs.
4. Let the seven people know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So without further ado, my 7 things...

1. I love the mountains! For our honeymoon, hubby and I spent a week in the Gatlinburg, TN area! What beautiful country it is down there!

2. I love Mexican type foods. In my second year of high school Spanish class, we took a "field trip" to an authentic Mexican restaurant for lunch. What a treat!

3. I love working with disabled people. In high school, I took two week long mission trips to the Shepherd's Home in Wisconsin. Also, growing up my family was a foster family to over 40 disabled children. I also went on two missions trips in college to Jamaica to work on building a deaf village for the deaf.

4. I love Fall. If I had to choose for one season all year around I would choose Fall because of the colors and cooler temperatures.

5. I love to relax and work on puzzles rather than read a book.

6. I was able to do my student teaching with my 6th grade teacher, who was my favorite teacher going through school!

7. Other than leaving the state to go to college, I have lived in the same state and in the same city all my life! Through all those years, I have lived in each quadrant of the city!

There are my 7 things! Now to tag others...well I have decided that since it is my birthday, I am going to celebrate and break rule #3 by tagging NO ONE!! Everyone is off the hook this time!

Parenting Series--ABCs Christian Parenting--Part 6

This week in my parenting series we are going to talk about a subject that I am sure for some is difficult to do, esp. when it comes to our child. That subject is forgiveness. Like I said last week, each of these topics are getting to be a little more challenging.

FORGIVE your child’s wrong doings as the Lord forgives you and start over together with God's grace and love.

When I read that sentence several different thoughts started pouring into my mind. Thoughts like "do unto others as you would want them to do to you" and Ephesians 4:32--"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." and "forgive as God forgave you"(Colossians 3:13)

These verses just don't apply to us when we are dealing with other adults but they apply when we are dealing with our child too! With being a stay at home mom, I can go days without interacting with other adults(besides hubby). However, I interact with my children on a daily basis and I can tell you that they are not perfect and they do wrong and yes I have to discipline them. In an effort to be a good example, I make sure that I take the time to forgive them as well after I explain to them why I felt that they had done wrong.

I am sure that forgiveness doesn't come easy for some of us(I know it doesn't come easy for me). We want to be angry and hurt rather than forgiving. It is so freeing though when we do forgive, esp. when our children do something to hurt us. Something as simple as them breaking our rules that we have established can hurt us. Or having a teenager that rebels and goes totally the opposite way that we as parents have taught them can hurt us as well. In each of those instances, we are to take the "high road" and forgive them. We might not like what they have done but they are our children and we need to forgive them.

Elizabeth Elliot said it well in one of her Back to the Bible broadcasts, "Now in order to forgive others, you and I must know that we have been forgiven, that we have received grace, that we have had our sins canceled on the cross. How can we forgive someone else if we have not received the grace of God that forgives us? But the deeper our recognition of our own need of that grace--the worse our sins appear to us to be, the more we marvel at the amazing grace of God and the more humbly we accept the grace that He gives to us--the more ready we will be to offer to someone else the grace of forgiveness, someone who has abused or cheated or betrayed or lied about us. We must receive God's grace for ourselves first."

Once we realize that we have God's grace we can share it with our child!

Don't let that guilt you feel because you think you didn't raise your child right, hence the reasoning behind their waywardness, get in the way of you forgiving them.

All about "E"

We have gotten a little behind with our letters! I have been busy with household duties and getting my older boys back on track with their schooling so my daughter and I have not done "school" every day.

Anyway, here is a list of things that we have done for the letter "E".

We talked about our planet, Earth. We did pages from the space theme over at Learning Page(to access the pages become a member for free). The pages were talking about the moon going around the Earth, the planet Earth is the third planet and identifying Earth from other objects. We talked about the fact that we live on planet, Earth and that God created it. Our verse for the week was Genesis 1:1.

The number we worked on was "eleven". We counted different objects up to eleven along with learning how to write two ones close enough together so that someone knows it is "11" and not two separate ones.

We talked about "ears" and how they are needed for listening. A common question around here this past week was "Are you using your ears to listen?" I also showed her that different living things have different kinds of ears. Human ears are different from elephant ears. Dog ears are different from bunny ears.

We also put together both the "short e" and "long e" books that were in the First School's E Lesson Plans.

We talked about envelopes and what goes in envelopes. We also talked about mail carriers because according to my daughter they carry alot of envelopes!

And what would the letter E be without talking about elephants! We walked around like elephants! (sorry no pics of that! LOL)

We also watched Sesame Street to see Ernie and Elmo!

We ate eggs and egg noodles. I was going to make homemade egg noodles this week but got too busy so we just ate store bought ones.

I hope that this gives you some ideas as to what activities you can do with your preschooler or kindergartener where they are learning and you are not having to "break the bank"!

Works For Me Wednesday--Entertaining

When one thinks of a kid's party it is the hostess that does all the work by making all the food and the guests come bearing gifts(that really are not needed) and eat all the food and usually the hostess is the only adult at the event. However, that can make a party quite expensive line item on one's budget. It also can be very nerve racking trying to keep them all entertained so they do not destroy the house.

So Hubby and I take a different route when it comes to having parties(or even the holiday celebrations). We invite families! This way, the kids can play together and the adults can interact together. This helps hubby and I to get to know our children's friends' parents as well not just the kids.

Okay I am sure that you are thinking how can inviting families actually help not make the party sooo expensive? It would seem to me that the party would be more expensive because there is more people, hence more mouths to feed!

Welllll the answer to your question...instead of requiring the families to bring gifts, we ask them to bring a dish to share. If it is during the summer months, we also tell them to bring meat for their family to grill.

We have plenty of food, and fellowship! Hubby and I feel that having the fellowship with friends is more important than the material gifts one receives at a "party".

Hubby and I follow the "potluck ways" even if we are just inviting friends over for dinner or for the holidays and there is no reason to party! It definitely helps to not break the bank when entertaining in our home.

So not being afraid to ask for help with meals for a gathering or "party" works for me!

To find out what works for others, head over to Shannon's blog--Rocks in My Dryer

Smelling like Fall!

Today the temps around here were in the high 30s! You look out my windows and you can see the leaves changing! You step outside and breathe in the crisp, cool air! Fall is definitely here in my part of the country!

So I am now getting in the baking mood! Today I focused on the pumpkin smell in my house!!


I made this awesome moist pumpkin bundt cake! It has a mild pumpkin flavor and just melts in your mouth! The kids had it for snack today hence the cake being half gone already!



Since I opened just a 15 oz can of pumpkin I didn't have enough for another "big batch" of something so I found a recipe for pumpkin muffins over at Hillbilly Housewife that only called for 1 cup of pumpkin! So I baked up that recipe! Of course, I changed a couple of things in the recipe! I didn't have quite a full cup of pumpkin to put in the batter sooooo I used 1/4 cup of cooked butternut squash along with 3/4 cup of pumpkin to get my 1 cup of pumpkin! I also did not use a 1/3 cup of melted margarine but instead used 1/3 cup of unsweetened applesauce!! The muffins will make a good compliment to breakfast in the morning!

Both of these recipes made my house smell soooo good and fall-like!

Go take a look at the many other Harvest or Halloween type recipes over at Life as a Mom or share some of your own!!

More of Sonshine's Fall Recipe Collection

Autumn Pumpkin Bundt Cake

Autumn Pumpkin Bundt Cake

1 box yellow cake mix

1 pkg(3.4oz) box instant butterscotch pudding mix

4 eggs

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup veggie oil(or applesauce)

1 cup canned pumpkin

2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Whipping cream, optional

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 10 inch bundt pan.

Using an electric mixer, combine the cake and pudding mixes, eggs, water, oil, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice and beat on low speed for 30 seconds; then increase the speed to medium and beat for 4 minutes. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated 350° oven for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely. If desired, serve with whipped cream.

Sonshine's notes: I did not preheat the oven! I did not flour the bundt pan! I used applesauce and not the veggie oil. Once I took it out of the oven I waited about 5 minutes and turned the cake out on a plate and set it on my cooking rack. The batter is thicker than regular cake! However, this cake is moist and melts in your mouth!

Also for other tempting tummy recipes and more; head over to Blessed with Grace!

Homemade Frozen Hash Browns

Back when it was just the two of us, I would take the time to make homemade hashbrowns. I would just shred raw potatoes and cook them. Well that got to be really time consuming once we started having children so I would just buy Ore-Ida frozen hash browns by the 6 lb bag at Sam's every month!

I have been buying them for years! And it seems now that there is 7 of us eating I end up being short for one or two times I want to fix them at towards the end of the month.

So instead of going to the store just for hash browns and since I currently have over 20 lbs of fresh potatoes in my food storage. I took the time to do some research to find a homemade hash brown recipe.

Well what I found were recipes where people cooked their potatoes whole either with the skins on or off, then let them cool for several hours or overnight and then shredded the potatoes for hashbrowns.

So over the weekend, I took the time to go through the peeling and cooking of the potatoes. I peeled them and boiled them whole for the smaller ones and cut the bigger ones in half. Once they were tender-just enough to stick a fork through them. I drained the water and let them cool til after the kids were in bed(about 5 hours). Then I shredded them on a cookie sheet with a piece of wax paper and put them in the freezer to do a flash freeze of them. Once they were slightly frozen I left them on the wax paper and stuck them in a container back in the freezer where I can use them a "sheet" at a time or all at once.

HAH! Frozen hash browns!! The potatoes being cooked there is no browning or anything of them! They look very similar to store bought frozen shredded hash browns!

You can do this method for diced potatoes as well. I would par cook the whole potatoes, cool, dice, and put in freezer bags. :)

You can do this homemade french fries too...par cook then slice then deep fry for about 5 minutes(just so they are a little crispy on the outside--not brown) and cool and freeze.

For other kitchen tips, head over to Tammy's Recipes!

Also go check out this new to me blog, Blessed with Grace that hosts Tempt my Tummy Tuesdays because there is more kitchen or food goodness! Also go to Freezer Food Friday for other freezing recipes!

**updated to answer questions that was left in the comments**

Menu Plan Monday 10/26-11/1

**Another week is upon us so that means it is time for another menu plan! This is just a plan and it could change on the cook’s whim!

Last week's menu plan went off without too much trouble after the rough week before. We tried a new recipe and it didn’t go over with everyone. If I make it again I will try some adjustments to it and see what happens. I did get some baking done last week but I have a ways to go!

This past Wednesday, the kids and I did a “community service day” and had a lot of fun! I wished that I hadn’t rushed out the door that day so that I would have remembered the camera!

This week's shopping trip was to just to get a few things. I wasn’t going to shop at all, however, I couldn’t pass up a couple of good deals that were going on. I made it out of the store for $30 for the week!

This week’s menu is just some run of the mill meals nothing to exciting since we are towards the bottom of the freezer stockpile! It is my birthday this week so I am working at doing some of “my favorites” this week! I still have a baking list that I am trying to get done so hopefully this week I’ll be able to cross off a few more things!

Lunches listed are for the kids and me. Usually with our lunches I serve carrot sticks, and some kind of in-season fruit along with juice or water to drink. Hubby usually takes dinner leftovers each day along with several items for snacks.

If you are looking for some inspiration you can find links to my menu suggestion lists over in my right side bar down by Organizing Junkie's button.

A special thanks to Laura-Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday! Need help with your menus; go check other delicious meal plans that have been linked at Laura-Organizing Junkie's site! **

Sunday (10-26)
Breakfast: eggs, sausage links, hash browns, and chocolate chip muffins(out of a box)
Lunch: sandwiches & chips
Dinner: sloppy turkey joes, fries & carrots
Snack: snack basket

Monday (10-27)
Breakfast: cereal and toast or muffins
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: steak/hotdogs, baked taters, corn
Snack: yogurt, muffins & milk

Tuesday (10-28)
Breakfast: waffles & sausage
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: saucy pork chops, rice and peas
Snack: snack basket

Wednesday (10-29)
Breakfast: bagels, cereal, & yogurt
Lunch: sandwich & chips
Dinner: lemon pepper chicken, noodles, corn, and homemade rolls
Snack: cookies & milk

Thursday (10-30) Happy Birthday to me!!
Breakfast: french toast and sausage
Lunch: pizza
Dinner: “no cooking day”; kids @ grandparents!
Snack: snack basket

Friday (10-31)
Breakfast: cereal and toaster strudel
Lunch: sandwiches & chips
Dinner: steak & chicken tacos
Snack: ice cream night

Saturday (11-1)
Breakfast: “Cook’s Choice”
Lunch: ??? probably leftovers!
Dinner: chicken n’ gravy, mashed taters, corn and crescent rolls
Snack: snack basket or popcorn