Weekly Menu Planning

Another exciting menu plan for this week. Have you started noticing a pattern? Ha! The Texas Daily Harvest CSA starts this week. I'm not entirely sure what will be in it, but I do know it will be predominantly greens (spinach, chard, lettuce, etc.)  It gets delivered Tuesday, so I'm building that loosely into the menu plan.  I'm going to have to be flexible.

I'm also trying to use up some of the meat we have in the freezer.  I think we have too much in there, so I'm trying to remedy that situation.  Right now we've got 3 different kinds of fish (either 6 or 10 filets, I can't remember), 3 steaks, 2 pork chops, 1 ham hock, and some chicken breasts.

So, here we go:

• Taco night (requested by my son)
• Spaghetti (requested by the Hubs) with a salad (requested by my daughter) and garlic bread
• Fish, salad, rice or quinoa and a vegetable
• Steak, salad, frozen vegetable (likely corn since that is nearly the only vegetable my son will eat) 
• Quiche made with the CSA produce and fruit on the side

And my Pinterest Recipes of the Week are:

Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches and Homemade Ranch (the powdered variety).  I love Pinterest.

Also, as a side note, last week I bought the salmon and marinated it in olive oil, soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper.  I put it in a ziploc bag it in the refrigerator. Later that day I decided we needed to use other food first (before it went bad), so I took a chance and tossed the marinating salmon in the freezer.  I'm happy to say that after I thawed it out and baked it, it was delicious.  I will probably do that again since it was so easy.

Menu Planning

When I make a menu plan, it's a fluid sort of thing.  I put together a list of meals, but know that I ned to be  flexible.  We cook what we feel like eating from the list, instead of saying, "Well, it's Tuesday. We must have what's written on the list for Tuesday."

I try to mix things up a bit, but we stick to a pretty simple formula: protein, fruit or vegetable, side item.  The side item might be rice or a second vegetable.  Or sometimes, we'll go rogue and not have a side item.

I keep finding all of these amazing recipes on Pinterest, so I'm going to try to make at least one new one each week.  This week's new Pinterest recipe is for Quinoa Jambalaya courtesy of Oxygen Magazine.

This Looks Delicious

• Quinoa jambalaya with shrimp and sausage 
• Homemade pizza and fruit
• Nachos with beef, refried beans, avocado and homemade salsa compliments of my brother
• Baked chicken, rice, strawberries and garlic bread (yes, double carbs)
• Salmon (marinated in soy sauce, lemon juice, honey, salt and pepper then baked), corn, salad and fruit 
• Breakfast for dinner: bacon and eggs

Weekly Menu Planning

This is what I plan to make this week.* If this week goes like every other week, one of the meals I plan won't happen.

Breakfast during the week is oatmeal, cereal or scrambled eggs.  We get a little more adventurous on the weekends since we have more time.  Not sure what's going to happen this weekend -- could be bacon and eggs, pancakes or french toast.  We leave it to whatever we're in the mood for. Last weekend it was fried eggs on toasted baguettes with avocado and tomato.  It was delicious.

I try to pack the kids' lunches during the week.  I hate it when they eat in the cafeteria -- the food isn't the healthiest and it's expensive ($5.50 per kid).  The hubs and I eat leftovers from dinner. We go out with co-workers or friends about once a week. It used to be every day. We're making progress.

Dinners (in no particular order)

• Pasta with shrimp and jalapeno cilantro pesto (minus the pesto for my son)
• Tacos (a staple in our home) with fresh fruit
• Steamed fish, salad, corn and roasted potatoes/homemade baked french fries
• Grilled chicken breast, rice/quinoa and steamed carrots
• Bacon, eggs and fresh fruit
• A crockpot dish of some kind, usually cobbled together from a meat in the freezer and any leftover veggies/grain/pasta in the frig

I found a recipe on Pinterest I'm going to make this weekend for a no bake dessert treat. More on that later.

*I threw out my back about two weeks ago, so this all depends on how I'm feeling.  I'm on my second round of steroids and go in for an MRI today. Yes, it sucks. Suckety suck suck suck.

My parents are watching the kids while Stephen takes me for the MRI. The kids will get taken out to dinner at a restaurant. Stephen and I will eat whatever when we get home.

Snowed In Menu Planning and Weekly Budget Review

We are heading into our fourth snow day in a row. In Dallas this is unheard of. My kids are going stir crazy and, truth be told, so am I. I relish my time at home with my family, but I am one of those women that needs to work. Not just to contribute financially, but as in, I NEED to work.

Stephen and I have been taking turns going into our (closed) offices this week. We have to get stuff done. He goes in the morning, I go in the afternoon. I ran by the grocery store tonight on my way back home.

I didn't plan, but had some of my coupons with me. On the fly, I came up with this menu for the upcoming week, which I am sure will be tweaked. Part of it was the special deal Whole Foods was running which I will detail below:

Dinners

1. Beef Chili
2. Hamburgers, homemade french fries and sliced fruit
3. Vegetarian Sloppy Joes
4. Steak, fruit and vegetables
5. Tilapia, fruit/salad and vegetables
6. Quesadillas and Soup

Lunches

1. Turkey or salami sandwiches on homemade bread, organic potato chips, fruit
2. Wrap sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, hummus with carrot and celery sticks, fruit
3. Homemade pizza rolls, homemade apple chips
4. Spaghetti with butter and parmesan
5. Leftovers from dinner

I will be cooking slightly different meals for myself since I'm on Mellman, so I'll be eating more buffalo and fish.

We'll be getting a delivery from Texas Daily Harvest on Saturday. I spent $41.49 on a gallon of milk, 1 pint of cream, 8 oz of Colby, 8 oz of Mozzarella, one pound of pasture fed ground beef and one pound of pasture fed strip steak.

I spent $81.55 at Whole Foods. They were having a special: if you purchased their hamburger patties, you'd get hamburger buns, potato chips and smoked sausage for free. The free items were worth $10.98 and I had $6 in coupons. Here's what I got:

• Sloppy joe mix, $2.79
• 2 small containers of strawberry yogurt, $.79 each
• BBQ sauce, $2.50
• Rye crackers, $2.69
• Organic potato chips, $2.00
• Kashi cheddar crackers, $2.99
• 365 Peanut Butter cereal, $3.49
• 3 boxes of Arrowhead Mills Cereal, $4.39 each
• 2 boxes Kashi Cereal, $3.39 each
• 3 cans of organic beans (kidney, red and navy), $5.00
• Sweet german pork sausage, $5.99
• 365 Goat Cheese, $6.99
• Gourmet beef burgers, $14.14
• Tazo Chai Tea Concentrate, $4.49
• Applegate Farms Genoa Salami, $2.25
• Applegate Farms Oven Roasted Turkey, $4.18
• Hamburger Buns, $2.99
• WF Tortillas, $2.49
• Organic Cameo Apples (2.48 lb), $3.70
• Organic Lemon, $.79
• Clean Eating Magazine, $5.99 (technically not groceries, but included in the total)

We were out of cereal, so I used coupons and stocked up. I still need to get some more Soy milk and, likely, eggs. But I'm well within the budget this week.

I made a lemon cake treat that I'll be posting about later and I'll be whipping up some of my nut butter cookies. It's gonna be a great week.

Super Fast Update

I'm back from Miami and am getting my house back in order, literally and figuratively. I spent about $70 at Sprouts and $67 at Whole Foods and picked up my Urban Acres share ($50). I didn't go to the store at all last weekend, so this is two weeks worth.

I'll be headed back to Whole Foods tomorrow to pick up some buffalo, fish and cashews. I've got everything else I need for the week, though.

I've been playing in the kitchen this afternoon and a new post with my creations will follow.

This week we'll be having our standard menu: beef, chicken or fish, our fresh produce and I picked up some gluten free pasta we'll be testing out.

The share this week included apples, oranges and lemons (yay!), onions, potatoes, carrots, celery, lettuce, purple turnips, and lots of greens. Oh, and a butternut and acorn squash. Not sure how I'm going to prepare those and I've never seen a purple turnip before.

I am so glad to be home.

Menu Plan for the Week

This week's menu is going to be pretty simple:

1. Tacos using the leftover chicken and rice. I'll serve them with a salad and fresh fruit.

2. Grilled pasture fed new york strip steak, baked sweet potatoes, and another vegetable of some kind.

3. Eggplant parmesan and pasta with a side salad.

4. Baked fish, roasted potatoes and fruit salad.

Month 2, Week Three Budget Review

To stay on track for the month, my budget for this weekend's shopping was $56.40 minus the $9.94 I spent at Natural Grocer mid-week, for a total of $46.46. I came close.

I got out of Sprouts for $53.58, which means I am over by about $6. Not bad.

Sprouts was out of the frozen pizza dough, so I had to improvise. I got some small pizza crusts from the bakery. They were more expensive than the other, but I was stuck.

• Pizza Crust, $2.99
• Pearl barley from the bulk bin, $0.33
• Quick cooking oats from the bulk bin, $0.92
• Cage free eggs, $1.99 (rain check)
• Organic Valley milk, $5.99
• Soy Milk, $3.79
• Chicken breast deli meat, $3.19
• Salami, $3.99
• Grated parmesan, $2.70
• Monterey Jack, $2.34
• Shredded mozzarella, $2.31
• Raw Milk White Cheddar, $2.85
• Vanilla biscuits, $1.99
• Natural Cinnamon Square cereal, $2.50
• Organic peanut butter cereal, $2.99
• Puffed Cereal, $1.59
• Pork steak, $2.13
• Chicken breast tenders, $4.04
• Grape tomatoes, $0.99
• Navel oranges, $1.74
• Organic Jonagold apples, $2.22

Total: $53.58

My thoughts for meals this week:

• Tonight we had the personal pizzas (tomato sauce, parmesan and mozzarella cheese) and fresh juice (apple, pear, orange). I love our juicer!
• Eggplant parmesan with pasta.
• Crockpot stew made with the pearled barley, buffalo stew meat from last week, and whatever vegetables I have left fresh or pull out of the freezer.
• Baked pork steak, steamed vegetables and another side of some kind.

I need to find a recipe for something I can use the chicken in. We could also have breakfast for dinner one night. We've got tons of eggs. I'm pretty happy with how I did at the grocery store.

Have a great week!

Month 2, Week 2 Budget and Menu Planning

I learned three very important lessons this weekend:

1. Do not take your kids to Whole Foods with you to shop.

2. Do not shop without a specific list or plan.

3. Do not shop when you are starving and haven't eaten all day.


That being said, I spent $50 on my Urban Acres share. It included tons of yummy produce. I'm not yet sure how I'm going to prepare the napa cabbage or the bok choy, but everything is cleaned, prepped and put away.

Here are the totals (I'm already in bed and not in front of the scanner, so no picture of the receipt):

Whole Foods, $118.71

Organic salted popcorn, $1.99

365 Corn Flakes (Whole Foods Brand is 365), $2.69

365 organic chicken broth, $1.99

Organic vanilla soy milk, 1 gallon, $5.69

Muir Glen fire roasted tomatoes, $1.50

Canned tomatoes, $1.49

Chocolate strawberry yogurt pretzels from bulk bin, $2.66

365 organic pinto beans, $1.49

365 organic crushed tomatoes, $1.99

365 organic red kidney beans, $1.49

365 organic cage free eggs, 2 dozen, $7.98

365 raisin bran, $2.69

Cinnamon crunch cereal, $3.79

Bulk peanut butter, $2.11

Bulk long grain brown rice, $.67

Organic valley milk, 1 gallon, $5.99

Beef stew meat, $6.69

Buffalo stew meat, $4.47 and $4.63

Pork shoulder steak, $2.66

Buffalo London Broil, $7.10 and $6.92

Pork Chops, $3.79

Organic string cheese, $5.99 (See Learning Point Number One)

White American cheese, $1.10

Honey maple turkey, $4.44

Salami, $4.95

Slider buns, 8 pack, $1.99

Tortillas, $1.99

Tomato tortillas, $2.49

6 mini cupcakes, $3.96 (See Learning Point Number 1 Again)

5 granny smith organic apples, $2.99

avacado, $2.49 (Learning Point Number Three, I was jonesing for Mexican food)

Lemons, $1.91

Tomato, $1.72

I also picked up a box of Wheat Thins at CVS for $4.89. (Outrageous, I tell you.)

The total for this week was $163.60. This means that next week my budget will be $56.40. That shouldn't be a problem, though, because I got tons of meat this week and still have a lot of fish and chicken in the freezer, too.

Saturday night we had mini-buffalo burgers with fresh fruit. I used the ground buffalo from last week, the slider buns and cheese from this week, and sliced up some fruit from the share. It was delicious!

I made beef chili today, using the beef stew meat, crushed tomatoes, and canned beans I got this weekend. I added a can of tomato sauce, cannelini beans, garlic and chipotle chili seasoning we already had. We ate it for lunch, Stephen will take some to work this week and I put some in the freezer for later.

Dinner tomorrow night is going to be stir fry with brown rice and lean buffalo. I'll stir fry red bell pepper, carrot, celery, shitake mushrooms, broccoli and bok choy with garlic and soy sauce. If there are any leftovers, they will go in someone's lunch.

Have a great week everyone!

This Week's Menu

If I don't figure out what we're going to eat for the week before Sunday night, it's a week full of cereal and oatmeal for dinner. Especially if I'm working late.

So, here's the plan for this week:

1. Modified turkey tetrazzini. (I didn't have enough left over turkey, so I added some scallops and peas.) It's cooked, in the refrigerator and just needs to be heated up.

2. Baked chicken thighs with sauteed vegetables and brown rice. Everything but the rice is cooked and in the refrigerator.

3. Buffalo burgers with roasted sweet potatoes and butternut squash. I'll roast the vegetables (are they vegetables?) Tuesday night so they're ready for Wednesday night. The buffalo burgers will take about 10 minutes in the skillet. (We ran out of gas for the grill, so we'll have to cook in the kitchen until next weekend.)

4. Some sort of crockpot stew. This will cook while we sleep Wednesday night and will just need to be heated up Thursday night. It's cool in Dallas, so this will be nice. Depending on our moods and the contents of my pantry, this may end up being chili.

On the nights we're having food that I can't eat (numbers 1, 2, half of 3 and 4), I'll be eating fish, edamame and apples. Quick and easy prep on these, so no big deal.

I think it sounds pretty good! We should use the rest of our produce by the end of the week, just in time for our next Urban Acres share pick-up on Saturday.

Week 2 Menu Planning