January 2019 Meal Plans

My goals for 2019 is simple. I want to save as much money as I can in the grocery stores. I would love to cut back to spending around $65-70 a week!  I know one way to do that is to plan meals. I don't like to assign a meal to a certain day because it doesn't work for my family. It is a rare occasion that we are all here at the same time.

So... I keep a list of what we currently have in our pantry and freezer(s). This link is one that I made a few days ago and hasn't changed much. You can scroll down on the blog to see a couple of hauls I made over the weekend. I have added just a small amount to both lists since I made it. As you will see if you scrolls down, I did grab some ground beef/chuck that was one sale. I made hamburger steak sized patties with most of the ground chuck for a meal. The rest of it went into the freezer. One pack of the ground beef was cooked with some onions and other was placed in the freezer. The chicken tenders was divided into two freezer bags with a family size serving and placed in the freezer as well. These and other products that I got over the weekend will not be seen on the pantry/freezer lists.

Here is the meals that I plan to make some time in January.
1. Traditional New Year's Day southern meal: black-eye peas, turnip greens, and cornbread. For our pork, I will fry up some smoked sausage. Or when I start the dried peas in the crockpot, I will add the sausages in there to cook all day.

2. baked lemon-pepper fish, squash-zucchini casserole.

3. baked potato bar
,
4. I still have a small pan of chicken & dressing in the freezer. I will reheat that and serve with italian green beans, and fried potatoes.

5. biscuits and gravy, salmon patties

6. BBQ, potato salad, baked beans

7. Hamburger Helper, Cal blend veggies

8. enchilidas, rice, beans

9. pintos and cornbread

10. sloppy joes, french fries or chips

11. steak fajitas, rice, beans

12. quiche, hash brown patties

13. Crockpot Lasagna, garlic toast, broccoli

14. tomato soup, grilled cheese

15. chili

16. Hobo dinner: It is basically the ground chuck patties wrapped up in foil with sliced potatoes and other veggies and baked in the oven. Could be baked over a fire or grill as well!

17. grilled chicken tender sandwich, french fries

18. tator tot casserole, broccoli

19. turkey pot pie

20. spaghetti, garlic bread

21. leftovers

22. Hamburger Helper, salad

23. biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs

24. pintos and cornbread... again!

25. quesadillas, chips & salsa

26. kraut and hot dogs, mac and cheese

27. fried chicken tenders, mashed potatoes, peas

28. burrito, chips and salsa

29. corn dogs, fries or chips

30. pancakes, sausage, fried potatoes

31. New Recipe!!

A Family of Five

Here is a little about our family.

1. Head of Household works full-time. He is scheduled off every Sunday and Wednesday. The other days he would work a variety of shifts from early morning to late evening.

2. Me! I work in the lunchroom at a local high school.  My schedule is the pretty much the same as school kids. I go in at 6:30 am and get off around 1:30-2 pm. Our truck day is Wednesdays so we have to wait till it arrives so we can unload it. It usually comes right at 12-12:30 so we rarely have to stay over.

3. Teen Boy - This one has graduated high school and is really almost not a teen. He will be 20 in March and works at the same place with pretty much the same schedule as his dad. He is also off on Sundays and Wednesdays.

4. Teen Girl #1 - This one will be 17 in just a couple of weeks. She is currently looking for a job that will take her away from home even more than she already is. She is in lots of clubs at school which is very active and travels away over night at times.

5. Teen Girl #2 - Just turned 14! This young one is in band. Those who don't know... band takes up a lot of time, effort, and energy.

Both girls are gone most weekends to spend time with their home-schooled friends. Their friend's family does go to church with us and are very precious!! I tell the mother that she doesn't have to let the girls come over so much but she says she truly doesn't mind.

Another Small Haul

This small haul came from another small town grocery store. They had some great sales today. I did grab more beef because this store had ground chuck on sale for $2.99 a pound. I have several meals coming up that this will be great in!

JOHNSON'S GROCERY STORE:
four boxes of Hamburger Helper - $.99 each
two Red Barron Pizzas - $2.99 each
pepper sauce - $1.99
can of pinto beans - $.89
cake mix - $1.25
frosting - $2.19
two bags of coffee - $2.99 each
2 liters of soft drinks - $.99 each
ground chuck - $9.42
family pack of unbreaded chicken tenders - $6.94
and marked down from the deli... container of lemon icebox dessert - $1.49 and a box of four smoked chicken breasts - $3.00   This was our lunch!

TOTAL: $51.55

We also went by the discount bread store where I only picked up a few things.

FLOWERS BAKERY:
two packs of whole wheat hamburger buns - $.78 each
bbq bread - $.89
loaf of butter-bread (never heard of this!) - $.89

TOTAL: $3.67

Small Grocery Haul

Tonight we went to a nearby city to check out a Goody's clothing store that was closing.  I already knew that in this city was a Piggly Wiggly who had ground beef for $1.98 a pound. That is a huge stock up price for me. So we made a pit stop on the way home! Of course I can never walk out of a grocery store with one intentional item.  

Piggly Wiggly:

About 8 lbs of ground beef (2 packs) - almost $16

4 lb bag of dried pinto beans - $2.99

2 blocks of Kraft chunk cheese & 1 bag of shredded - 3/$5

hash brown patties - $2.19

Virginia baked ham deli meat - $2.98

2 cans of Grands buttermilk biscuits - $1. each

and a small container of baked apples from the deli marked down to $.81 

Total: $34.81

My oldest sister texted and asked if I wanted to go with her to a discounted bakery and to a thrift store in the morning. Since I am trying to save some money in the next month, I said sure.  If we go and I buy anything, I will share another post tomorrow afternoon!

Keeping Waste Low

One thing that really surprised me when I started working in the lunchroom.It was the amount of food we had throw out after lunch was served. If it was on the line, we can not save it for any reason!  As some one who has struggled to put on the table for the family, this bothered me greatly! I am still not used to it but do completely understand the reasons behind it. I am not that way at home. This is why my menu changes as it has this week. I hate to toss out food!

This week we will not be eating sloppy joes. When I purchased the veggie platter to take to my parents house, I grabbed one of the larger ones hoping and praying that there would be leftovers. We actually had few celery stocks, grape tomatoes, and a ton of baby carrots left. Perfect to make a pot roast! I will toss a chuck roast, potatoes, carrots, and an onion in the slow cooker tomorrow morning for a tasty supper.

Pantry/Freezer Inventory

I thought I would share the pictures of my pantry and freezer inventory lists. Both has too much food to type it out. I am old fashioned and use regular old notebook with a pen to make my lists. These sheets I was in a colorful mood so I used my PaperMate Flair pens.  For every food item we have, I use a tally mark. Then as we use the food, I cross off a tally mark. If there is no more of the individual item, I highlight the food and add it to my grocery list. It is a basic list that rarely changes. Of course, not on the lists are the seasonings like salt, pepper, parsley flakes, minced garlic/onions, chicken/beef bouillon cubes,  and etc. I also keep shortening, coconut oil, cooking oil/spray, butter, vanilla flavorings, and other baking essentials on hand. Including flours and sugars in the freezer.  I do write out new inventory lists at the end of each month. That way it is easy to see what we have left that I can plan a menu around for the new month!

Here is what is currently in my pantry:

I don't rightly remember if I included the food in fridge freezer or not. If not, it is mostly used for leftovers, breakfast meals, frozen entrees, ice cream/frozen desserts, and what ever is on the menu for the next few days. I hate going out to the shop where we keep our freezer(s) every day! Yes.. we have two freezers but the chest freezer is currently empty and unplugged. We use it when we make a big Sam's Club haul!  So here is what is in the freezer:

Sunday Morning

Good Morning, everyone. It is a rainy morning here and it is almost time to get everyone up and ready for church. Actually... I should say that it is pouring rain outside. While I really would love to crawl back into bed, I can't at least until this afternoon.

Yesterday morning I made some homemade biscuits and some fresh sausage for breakfast. I thought I had made enough to have some to reheat this morning. We nibbled on the biscuits all day and I think that there is maybe 3 left. A few pieces of sausage remain too. That sausage was from a friend who had killed a pig in the spring and was cleaning out her freezer for some venision. Let me tell you... tbat sausage was the best I have had in a long time! It will be a first come, first served breakfast this morning.  I will make some scrambled eggs and muffins for those who sleep too late.

We never did eat the grilled cheese and tomato soup for supper either. Pizza was what we ate. It works out great because we will have the sandwiches after church. A quick meal before we go to fight the crowd at Walmart for a veggie tray to take to mom's house.

The Birthday Girl's supper is still good to go. I have my drumsticks ready to bread with the shake-n-bake seasoning. I brought the big bag of broccoli in that we already had in the freezer in the shop. Yes, I purchased more the other day with the complete knowledge I had that bag in there. We do eat a lot of broccoli and as you can see, I do have it on the meal plan again before the end of the month.

I will share my pantry and freezer inventory with you tomorrow. That way you can see exactly how blessed we are with a ton of food! If it wasn't so much, I would add it to the side bar on the side of the blog. Maybe I will do that soon enough. Until then, I will just share a link to the post and update it maybe once or twice a week!

Finishing off 2018 - Meal Plan

I made a new menu plan to help us finish off the year 2018. We haven't stuck too well to the one I made at the first of the month. I still have a filled pantry and freezer so I am going to be using what we already have here well into the new year.

Me and my girls are out of school for Christmas break so this time I am going to include some breakfast and lunch ideas. I have absolutely no plans to get out of this house except for church and family gatherings. This is my time to rest! Ha... yeah, probable won't happen.

Breakfast:  (repeated as needed)
oatmeal or cereal
eggs with toast, biscuits, or grits
pancakes with sausage
smoothies
bagels with cream cheese

Lunch: (served with chips and fresh fruit/veggies)
sandwich of choice - pbj, grilled cheese, deli meat, etc
quesadillas, chips & salsa
burritos or wraps

Now starting with tonight's supper.

12/22 - grilled cheese, tomato soup

12/23 - Birthday girl's choice
shake-n-bake drumsticks, shells & cheese. steamed broccoli
double stuffed Oreos, mint chocolate chip or french vanilla ice cream

12/24 - Christmas at my parent's
We are having finger foods so I will be taking a veggie platter!

12/25 - MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
ham, chicken and dressing, sweet potatoes, green beans

12/26 - pintos and cornbread

12/27 - chicken fajitas, rice

12/28 - sloppy joes, french fries

12/29 - kraut and weenies, mac and cheese, butter beans

12/30 - lemon pepper fish fillets, broccoli, baked potato

12/31 - Hamburger Helper, California blend veggies


Can you tell that there will be a lot of nights where there will only be one or two people here? I don't cook big meals when everyone is gone. I tried to make a simple meal plan and I think I was successful!

Grocery Haul

I didn't get to upload this as quick as I wanted to yesterday. After school, I was able to go to Aldi like I wanted too. Then I spent some much needed time with my son! We went off the mountain where we live to do a little birthday shopping for his little sister. I also picked up a few more things at a Walmart while we were shopping down there. I didn't get a picture because it was late when we came in. Plus... I got more than groceries!

I splurged a little to get some vanilla bean cupcakes and some chocolate caramel coffee creamer. With me being out of school for the next couple of weeks, I needed enough creamer to go in my coffee! As always.. I got my coconut creme flavored creamer too!  Some of this haul includes food for the birthday party. The Birthday girl (child) gets to choose what they would like to eat for their birthday. This time... it was chicken, steamed broccoli, and shells & cheese.  No cake, only double stuffed Oreo cookies. This child also wanted rainbow sherbet but I could only find a small tub for almost $4.  I was able to get two tubs of ice cream of her choice at Aldi for about the same price!

Aldi

mint chocolate chip ice cream - $2.39
french vanilla ice cream - $2.39
2 gal of whole milk - $1.68 each
guacamole mini cups - $3.29
vanilla bean cupcakes - $3.49
fruit round cereal( fruit loops) - $1.29
pack cup of noodles - $1.60
shells & cheese - $.99
whipped topping - $.79
3-pack of yeast - $.89
crushed pineapple - $.79
pistachio pudding - $.49
shredded pepper jack cheese - $1.99
chocolate caramel coffee creamer - $2.19
coconut cream coffee creamer - $1.99
burrito size tortillas - $1.29
yellow onions $1.69
mini marshmallows - $.89
big bag of shredded mild cheddar cheese - $2.89
brown & serve rolls - $.99
10 lb bag of russet potatoes - **look at this price** $1.99!!!
a reg bag of shredded sharp cheddar cheese - $2.29
2.05 lbs of red grapes - $2.64
two cans of whole berry cranberry sauce - $.89 each
2.18 lb of bananas - $.96

TOTAL: $48.92
I was excited because I haven't kept it under $50 in a long time!! But remember... I did go to Walmart and picked up a few more grocery items so really it wasn't under $50. With tax and all, it would have ran my grocery bill up to around $55. so I still consider this a win!

Walmart:
two (12 oz) bag of broccoli florets $1.00 each
great value brand of shake-n-bake seasonings - $1.42
regular quick cooking grits (16oz box) - $.88
and a pack of peanut butter sandwich crackers - $.50


I will definitely be back later today with a menu plan for the rest of Dec!

Last Day of School

Yep, today is the last day of school before Christmas break. I won't have to get up early again until Jan.7, 2019!!!  I will get to return to school for my Birthday! Fun!!

Well... I won't have to get up early and go to work. My body probable won't let me sleep past 6am.  It is good though! I like to get up early before the kids do so I can get a little housework done and honestly just have time for myself! I made a list of what I wanted to get done while on Christmas break and it isn't the shortest list. Easy stuff but still a long one.

Today when I get off (fingers-crossed.. early), I need to grab one last gift so I can get my wrapping finished while my girls are not home. I also have to run by the grocery store for a few things which I will share later this afternoon. It is supposed to be raining all day and then freezing cold tomorrow so I want to get everything done so I won't have to leave the house! I am ready to hunker down to enjoy my Christmas!

Wild and Crazy Week

Here is a run-down of this past week:

1. It has been rainy, sunny, cold, and warm. Extreme weather changes!

2. With those weather changes comes sickness and headaches. My family has suffered therefore the lack of posts. They have also suffered with me not cooking much of anything this week! 

3. Our lunchroom at school is ready for Christmas. Each club has decorated a tree with the theme of the individual clubs. These students are super creative because all the trees are great! Our Seniors even have a tree upon the stage area! The lunchroom manager even placed a Christmas wreath on our doors that was decorated with silverware. I don't know where she got the idea but it was pretty awesome!

4. Let me tell you that high schoolers are no different than elementary kids the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. You can't contain the joyful noise within the walls of the lunchroom. It was loud! Kids will be silly no matter what age they are! We had carols going just about every day!

Ok, I have to get going because today is a busy day. We are meeting with our church youth group for breakfast and then to do a little shopping. 

Lazy Saturday

This morning I got up with the guys to send them off to work and then I went back to bed. I couldn't go back to sleep but I didn't want to get up. So... I played on my phone until my youngest daughter got up. We started cooking breakfast at 10:36am!!! Yeah, we were lazy today.

We did eat a good breakfast!

Other than snacking, we didn't eat again until supper. When we went shopping Thursday night, I left the pack of chicken thighs in the fridge. I had to fix those because I didn't want the chicken to go bad. A one dish meal was in order for the night! 

First I sprayed a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Then I peeled and chunked up some russet potatoes into a bowl. I added brussel sprouts and baby carrots in with the potatoes. I sprinkled some off brand Mrs. Dash seasoning on the veggies. A friend's family didn't like it after she picked it up on sale at a Ollie's. She knew that we were a mostly salt free family so she gave it to me. I gave everything a quick toss in about 1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.

I dumped the veggies into the baking dish. The chicken thighs were added in with a pat of butter on top. Chicken is always seasoned with some salt and pepper. It is about the only thing besides eggs that we add salt to. The meal was baked in the oven until all the veggies were done and the chicken registered 160 degrees on a meat thermometer. Mine was actually 182 when I pulled it out. Oops!

I did have to take my chicken out to cook my veggies a little longer. All together it took about 1 hour or a little less to completely cook. I served this with some leftover Sara Lee dinner rolls. Dessert was half of an orange-pineapple pound cake.  Both were pulled out from the freezer. 

I don't have a recipe for the pound cake because I didn't make it. Me and my sister went halfway across the state a few months ago to visit our baby sister. There is a Mennonite Discount Bakery on the way to her house that we stopped at and got this little goody. It is delicious!

Here is our supper! Let me tell you... it was as yummy as it looks!