Menu Plan Monday 1/18-1/24

Last week's menu plan went off without too much difficulty...the plan was followed and my not so frugal dinner from the week before was able to be reworked into a new leftover makeover meal!  Hubby and I had a date night on Friday night which consisted of going to McDonald’s in between shopping for a new entertainment center to fit our new 40” LCD TV and our other components.   The kids stayed home with my mom and they had beef goulash, one of my quick meals from the freezer! 

This week’s shopping trip was the week of doing a little bit of stocking up because of the good sales!   I need to get to Sam’s Club today to do my monthly grocery shopping trip then I will be set until the end of the month with groceries other than milk and WIC items.

This week’s menus are some family favorites along with some new dishes.  It should be an interesting week to see the kids handle the mixture of the old tried & true with some new to try dishes.

Lunches listed are for the kids & me. Unless we are having leftovers, our lunches are served with apple slices or baby carrots along with fruit juice or water.  Hubby usually takes a dinner leftover for his work lunch.

A special thanks to Laura-Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday! Need help with your menus; go check the over 300 other delicious meal plans that have been linked at Laura-Organizing Junkie's  site or look down in my right sidebar for my menu suggestion lists!

Sunday (1-18)

Breakfast: eggs, sausage, hash browns, and cinnamon rolls

Lunch: leftovers

Dinner: ???

Snack: snack basket

Monday (1-19)

Breakfast: cereal and apple cider donuts

Lunch: sandwiches and chips

Dinner: Taco Bar @ ds #3’s request

Snack: snack basket

Tuesday (1-20)

Breakfast: waffles

Lunch: leftovers

Dinner: Chicken Club Sandwiches, seasoned pan fries, and corn

Snack: cookies & milk

Wednesday (1-21)

Breakfast: bagels and cereal

Lunch: sandwiches & chips

Dinner: Marinated Italian chicken, noodles, green beans, and homemade rolls

Snack: snack basket

Thursday (1-22)

Breakfast: French Toast and bacon

Lunch: pizza

Dinner: Crockpot sliced steak(recipe below)& gravy, rice, peas and crescent rolls

Snack: snack basket

 

Friday (1-23)

Breakfast: cereal and toaster strudel

Lunch: sandwiches & chips

Dinner: homemade burger or hotdogs, fries, and corn

Snack: ice cream night                                      

 

Saturday (1-24)  

Breakfast: “Cook’s Choice”

Lunch: ???  probably leftovers

Dinner: crockpot roasted whole chicken, mashed potatoes & gravy and green beans

Snack:  snack basket  or popcorn

 

 

Crockpot Sliced Steak (modification of a beef stroganoff recipe that I have made up using what I have on hand!)

1 family pack top round steaks (3 steaks)

1 pack onion soup mix

1 can beef broth

Combine together in the crockpot. Simmer on low for about 6 hours. When the steaks are done, take out and slice thin.  Make up a mixture of flour/cornstarch & milk and use with the broth in the crockpot to make up some beef gravy.  This can be served over rice, noodles or mashed potatoes. 

Weekly Shopping Trip--Savings $86.80

I went to Meijer this week where they had a great sale going on. You can read about all the deals here.  Lately, Meijer is only accepting two internet coupons per product. For example, I wanted to buy 8-15 ct Totino's Pizza Rolls this week and I had 2-$1/2 internet coupons and 2-$1/1 internet coupons well they would not allow me to use all 4 of those coupons in ONE transaction, so I split up my transactions! Hence, I took the time to plan my trip in a very detailed manner because of the sale and having multiple internet coupons.  Doing the two transactions proved to be successful because I saved more than I spent for my weekly trip!

Here is the breakdown with the prices after sales and coupons...

1st transaction: 

• 5.89lb whole fryer chicken $5.24
• 10lbs red potatoes $5.00
• 2 Warm Delights $1.50
• 9  tubes Grands Biscuits $6.50(72¢ each)
• 3 Brown & Serve Sausage links $2.00
• 2 pkgs. English Muffins $2.00
• 4 Totinos Pizza Rolls $1.60
• 2 bags Steamers $2.00
• 1 box(40 oz) Bisquick 99¢
• 4 tubes Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls $4.00
• 2 tubes Pillsbury Crescent Rolls $2.00
• 1 can Frosting 84¢
• 2-6pk Yoplait Kids Yogurt $3.00
• 2 -4pk Yo Plus Yogurt $2.00
• 14 single serve yogurts $5.50 (39¢ each)
• 2 boxes Toaster Strudel $3.00

Total: $101.03

Total OOP after using bottle deposit refunds: $42.47

Savings Total: $53.36 (promotions $2.00; non-coupon $37.46; coupons $13.90)

2nd transaction: 

• 7 bags Steamers $5.50(79¢ each)
• 4 boxes Totinos Pizza Rolls $1.00(1 free plus coupons)
• 4 tubes Pillsbury Crescent Rolls $4.00 
• 4 tubes Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls $4.00
• 2 boxes Toaster Strudel $2.00

Total: $43.94

Total OOP: $15.50

Savings Total: $28.44

GRAND TOTAL: $144.77

GRAND TOTAL OOP(out of pocket): $57.97

GRAND SAVINGS TOTAL: $86.80 (includes using the bottle deposit refunds)

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

Another Leftover Makeover Meal

Remember my not so frugal dinner mishap from last week??? The mistake of too much spice in my homemade chicken stew!?!!

Instead of dumping the pot of leftovers and wasting the food, I decided to hang on to the leftovers from the mistake to see if I could possibly turn what was left into another dinner...basically trying to make another leftover makeover meal.  

I was successful!!  I managed to make another dinner meal for all seven of us plus a lunch meal for about half of us!

I added a can of broth and water.  I then added flour/cornstarch/milk mixture to the stew, basically working towards a milk gravy consistency.  For part of the milk, I used about 1/3 cup plain yogurt.  I added about 1 tbsp. minced onion.  I added 4 more diced, raw potatoes to the stew because the other potatoes had almost "dissolved" into the liquid that didn't get dumped out when we initially finished the too spicy stew.   I brought the stew to a boil to cook the potatoes. While the potatoes were cooking through I cooked some buttermilk biscuits.  Once the potatoes were cooked through, I added about 8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese to the stew/chicken pie filling.  Adding the cheese helped to cool the mixture down some without adding more liquid.

Once everything was heated through, I served the chicken veggie mixture which was about the consistency of pot pie filling over the buttermilk biscuits.  It was yummy!  

To think that I only used 5 boneless skinless chicken breasts in this pot of stew!  I was able to get 2 1/2 full meals out of the whole mixture!  Now I am feeling like my not so frugal dinner turned into a frugal dinner for my family!

The lesson learned from this experience is don't be afraid to try to rework or makeover a meal that did not turn out right the first time!

For other frugal tips, recipes, and resources, head over to Biblical Womanhood!  This week, Crystal has links for getting birthday freebies!

Thursday Thirteen New Recipes(to me!)

The 3 Moms over at Happy To be at Home are now hosting the Thursday Thirteen.  While I have never participated in this blog carnival, I have read many other blogs who have participated and I have enjoyed reading their lists. So I thought today I would join in the fun and list 13 recipes(in no particular order) that are new to me that I would like to try over the several months!

1. Kate's Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake
   
   
2. Gretchen's Cheeseburger Soup
   
   
3. Andrea's Homemade Noodles
   
   
4. Melinda's Chicken Alfredo Pizza
   
   
5. If Only I had Super Powers' Chunky Choc. Peanut Butter Bars
   
   
6. FishMama's Yummy Raspberry Muffins
   
   
7. SH's Whole Wheat Peach Muffins
   
   
8. Ranae's Funnel Cakes
   
   
9. Laura's Breakfast Cookies Yes! I am probably the last one in the blogosphere that hasn't made these cookies! LOL!
   
   
10. Amish Baked Oatmeal
    
    
11. 2am Feeding Bars
    
    
12. Erin's Texas Cowboy's Pie
    
    
13. Lynn's Waffles
    

Hopefully now making a list of the recipes will inspire me to actually make them rather than procrastinating and fearing that the family will not enjoy them!

For other's Thursday Thirteen lists, head over to Happy To be At Home!

Homemade Pizza Crust & Breadsticks Success

I haven't made homemade pizza dough and breadsticks in a while because my hubby has complained to me about the salty taste of the pizza.  So last night, I decided to put my no rise yeast dough recipe to the test!  I have used the recipe for rolls before but hadn't even thought about using the no rise yeast dough recipe for pizza crust. 

So I made up the dough and made breadsticks first.  Here is the steps I did for the breadsticks...

1. Once the dough was mixed up, I divided it into 3 parts.(later I would realize that I could have divided it more!)
2. I took one part of the dough and rolled out the dough into a rectangle shape.
   
3. I took my pizza cutter and sliced the dough into stripes.
4. I melted 3 TBSP. margarine once melted I added 2-3 tsp. garlic powder and stirred the two together making a garlic butter sauce. 
5. I took my slicone brush and brushed the garlic butter sauce on the stripes of dough. 
6. I sprinkled grated parmesan cheese liberally over the dough. 
7. I put the dough into the oven at 400° for 10-15 minutes. and the end result.....

After doing the bread sticks, I took the other two parts of the dough and rolled them out for a large and medium size pizza. I used my large Pampered Chef pizza stone and my regular size Pampered Chef pizza stone.   With using my stones I decided not to grease them.   I cooked the dough on the stones for about 10 minutes BEFORE adding the toppings. This will help eliminate soggy crusts! When I took the crusts out after cooking them that is when I realized that I probably could have made three pizza crusts from the two crusts that I had done. 

At any rate, the pizza turned out delicious!! The picture above shows you what was left of my two pizzas! The crust was definitely still a thick crust rather than thin crust but it wasn't too doughy and still got rave reviews from the family!  Hubby also commented  that the pizza tasted a lot less salty than my previous attempts at homemade pizza! 

So I think I have finally found a new pizza dough for my family! Now to find a pizza sauce that doesn't taste salty but still has flavor! 

For more kitchen tips, ideas or recipes; head over to Tammy's Recipes OR head over to Blessed with Grace

Also check out the weekly round-up of great posts over at Blissfully Domestic!

All about "G"

This past week we got back into the swing of school and that included my kindergartener.  We learned the letter G!

It wouldn't be "G" week at my house if we did not read the book the Green Eggs & Ham at least a couple times during the week!  I am not sure why my kids love this story about trying to get someone to eat green eggs & ham but they do so it is a favorite around here!  Funny thing is I can't get them to eat the green eggs!  
Grapes are one of the favorite fruits around here!  We like them fresh rather than frozen!

Graham crackers were fun to eat this week but taking frosting and making homemade "stick cookies". 

We learned about gems. We learned about glasses and talked about different people that wear them. 

For Bible class we read the story about David and the Goliath the Giant!

We talked about the color green. 

It is cold outside so we wore gloves to keep our hands warm.

Our science for the week was learning about giraffes.

Stay tuned for our "H Week", we are talking about hair, hearts, and heaven!

Taming Those Stacks of Schoolwork

Do you have stacks of schoolwork papers like this around your home?? It is getting to that time of year where we need to start thinking about what we need to keep of that stack of papers from our school year. If you are like me you have saved every paper so far that your child has done over the course of the year, hence having the huge stacks of papers! Well I am here to tell you that you do not need to save every paper!

Read my article with some steps on how to conquer those piles, over at Happy to be at Home.

Menu Plan Monday 1/11-1/17

** Can you believe that we are already into the second full week of January!?!  Time seems to flying by again this year! How are those New Year’s goals or resolutions coming along?  One of my goals is to cook & bake more healthy foods for my family and to start by staying away from the take-out food!

Last week's menu plan went off without too much difficulty despite not having a couple of days planned with a dinner meal.  I made it through the whole week without resorting to getting take out for the family!  That is a great feat because of the last couple of months especially it seemed like I was resorting to take out food at least once a week! That isn’t too bad considering that my hubby really doesn’t know how to cook so going and getting take out is his way of giving me a night off in the kitchen. Instead of doing take out on those days that I did not have a dinner meal planned, I took the time early in the day to find things to use out of my pantry and freezer stockpiles.

This week’s shopping trip was the week of doing a little bit of stocking up along with getting what I needed for meals for the next two weeks!  Yes it was payday grocery week.  Now to get the next couple of week’s meals planned without having to hit up the stores again!

This week’s menus are what I would call in my “quick meal” category.  There is not a lot of prep work that needs to be done for these meals.  If there is prep work to be done, it is minimal and my older kids can handle getting the meal on the table.   The four older kids have swimming lessons starting on Thursday afternoon so Thursday’s dinner over the next seven weeks is going to be a quick throw together or crockpot meal!

Lunches listed are for the kids & me. Unless we are having leftovers, our lunches are served with apple slices or baby carrots along with fruit juice or water.  Hubby usually takes a dinner leftover for his work lunch.

A special thanks to Laura-Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday! Need help with your menus; go check the over 300 other delicious meal plans that have been linked at Laura-Organizing Junkie's site or look down in my right sidebar for my menu suggestion lists! **

Sunday (1-11)

Breakfast: eggs, sausage, hash browns, and muffins(from a box)

Lunch: leftovers

Dinner: Crockpot beef gravy over noodles served with green beans and rolls

Snack: snack basket

 

Monday (1-12)

Breakfast: cereal and toast

Lunch: sandwiches and chips

Dinner: homemade pizza and breadsticks (carry over from last week)

Snack: snack basket

Tuesday (1-13)

Breakfast: waffles

Lunch: sandwiches and chips

Dinner: chicken stew leftovers thickened up to served over biscuits

Snack: cookies & milk

Wednesday (1-14) 

Breakfast: bagels and cereal

Lunch: leftover spaghetti

Dinner: ham steaks, mashed potatoes, and corn

Snack: "mystery snack"

Thursday (1-15)

Breakfast: Pancakes and bacon

Lunch: bagel bites

Dinner: chicken tenders, fries, and carrots

Snack: snack basket

 

Friday (1-16)

Breakfast: cereal and toaster strudel

Lunch: sandwiches & chips

Dinner: “Long John Silver’s night-Homemade Style”—chicken, fish, and shrimp served with baked potatoes, and corn  

Snack: ice cream night                                      

 

Saturday (1-17)  

Breakfast: “Cook’s Choice”

Lunch: ???  probably leftovers

Dinner: ????

Snack:  snack basket  or popcorn